RTÉ HAS ANNOUNCED the details of its autumn season of programming, with director-general Dee Forbes declaring the line-up as a “statement of intent” by the broadcaster.

Included in its already confirmed schedule are a number of new drama series, factual programming and some old and new comedy programming.

RTÉ is to provide greater details on the programmes at a launch later this afternoon, but this is what we know so far about what’s in store over the coming months.

Drama

The broadcaster has singled out a new drama from the team behind Love/Hate as something to watch out for. Taken Down said to be a detective drama in which the central character “investigates the death of a young Nigerian immigrant found abandoned close to a Direct Provision Centre”.

Love/Hate director Stephen Carolan is among those behind the show with Brian Gleeson starring alongside Senegalese-born French actress Aissa Maiga.

After the successful Easter Rising drama Rebellion, RTÉ returns to the nation’s birth with War of Independence drama Resistance, Gleeson is again a cast member.

Northern Ireland is also portrayed in on RTÉ screens with a number of programmes, one called Death and Nightingales set in the 1880s and a Troubles drama set in the aftermath of the IRA’s Warrington bombing called Mother’s Day.

Comedy and entertainment

RTÉ has revealed that a number of comedy programmes are making a return, with Podge and Rodge back on our screens and Bridget & Eamon also getting another run.

Amy Huberman is set to front a new comedy series called Finding Joy which also features Aisling Bea and Laura Whitmore.

The ever-popular Dancing with the Stars is also back for third season but there is no indication yet who’ll be taking to the dance floor.

Who we are

RTÉ says that it will be celebrating Irish identity as part of the programming with a number of shows focusing on our relationship with Britain.

Popular genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? has a diverse line-up of people tracing their roots. Bertie Ahern, Laura Whitmore, Damien Dempsey, Adrian Dunbar, Pat Shortt and Samantha Power will be doing just that.

After his years portraying Mrs. Brown in one of Ireland and the UK’s most popular sitcoms, Brendan O’Carroll is to present a show “exploring the historic, sometimes turbulent bonds between Ireland and Britain”.

Other eye-catching shows include Street Art, about the burgeoning urban culture in Irish towns and Shooting the Darkness about amatuer war photographers during The Troubles.

Documentary

There’s a whole raft of documentaries, among them is Dublin footballer Philly McMahon exploring illicit drug use in The Hardest Hit and journalist Dearbhail McDonald looking Ireland’s slowing birth rate in Fertility Shock.

This year marks 100 year since the momentous 1918 election and Prime Time’s David McCullough will present a show that reenacts “how it would have been covered by modern television” in a “special event” called Election 1918.

Viewers are to get a look at Ireland’s groundbreaking boxing champion Katie Taylor in a documentary film that follows her training now as a professional.

The film, Katie, is by documentary-maker Ross Whitaker and promises to show the path she’s taken to rebuild her career after defeat in the 2016 Olympics.

RTÉ will attempt to crown Ireland’s Greatest Sportsperson among contenders from the 1960s to the 2000s, following a similar format that sought to find Ireland’s Greatest Sporting Moment last year.