TV highlights

'St Patrick's Day Festival' (RTE 1, Thursday, 12.30pm) - The much-anticipated annual St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin will see Ireland's literary heritage celebrated as, for the first time ever, a short story will be the inspiration behind the festival parade. 'Brilliant' by Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle is a fun and uplifting short story about banishing the black dog of depression over Dublin and getting the city's funny bone back. The short story was used as the inspiration for the parade to honour Dublin's designation as UNESCO City of Literature. Ireland's leading pageant companies will interpret different chapters of the story using their own inimitable style, with World Boxing Champion Katie Taylor leading the way as grand marshal of this year's St Patrick's Festival parade. __________________________________________________________ 'Night Of Comic Relief' (BBC 1, Friday, 7.30pm) - Red Nose Day is back with a bang as stars come together for a whole night of comic delight. The nation is gearing up for a night of rip-roaring laughter and top telly treats with the big names that viewers have come to expect from Comic Relief. The night is presented by TV favourites Fearne Cotton, Lenny Henry, Davina McCall, Michael McIntyre, Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross, James Corden and Claudia Winkleman, and there's a whole host of comedy gold to look forward to. Highlights throughout the night will include a feast of sketches from the likes of James Corden, the cast of 'Outnumbered', Miranda Hart, Harry Hill, Steve Coogan and Armstrong & Miller, among others. There are also Comic Relief specials of 'Masterchef' and 'The Choir' to look forward to, unforgettable music performances from some of the biggest names in the industry, as well as a plenty of reminders of why it's all happening with celebrity reports from Africa and the UK. __________________________________________________________ 'Skyfest' (RTE 1, Saturday, 7.30pm) - Wexford has been chosen as the location for what promises to be the most spectacular National Lottery Skyfest the country has ever seen with a dazzling display, stretching 1km from Ferry Bank South across the river to the foot of the town. The theme for this year's event is 'Making Magic Happen' and firework specialists Pains Fireworks Ltd are hoping to do just that, using a whopping 1.6 tonnes of fireworks, five tonnes of firing equipment, 6,000 pyrotechnic effects and the largest pyrotechnic waterfall ever fired in Ireland. __________________________________________________________ 'Christopher & His Kind' (BBC 2, Saturday, 9.30pm) - Written by playwright Kevin Elyot, this one-off drama chronicling the formative years of novelist Christopher Isherwood stars Lindsay Duncan, Toby Jones and Douglas Booth and Matt Smith. Isherwood escapes repressive English society and his suffocating relationship with his mother, Kathleen, for the decadent - and politically unstable - world of '30s Berlin. The hedonistic Berlin cabaret scene is in full swing when a young and wide-eyed Isherwood arrives in the city, unable to speak a word of German. To his reserved English sensibility, the city's thriving gay sub-culture is thrilling and intoxicating. But Christopher soon finds himself heartbroken after the failure of a hopeless love affair and so sets out on a process of self-discovery. __________________________________________________________ 'Duran Duran: For One Night Only' (ITV, Sunday, 8.30pm) - Duran Duran is celebrating a unique milestone - 30 years in the music industry. This one-off special will provide an insight into one of the world's favourite 1980s acts, who have dominated the charts since they first formed in the early 1980s and who have sold more than 80 million records. Having exploded onto the charts in 1981, Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor were quick to make history with the first-ever extended music video that they made to accompany 'Girls On Film'. Their second album, Rio', kept the band at the top of the charts with hits such as 'Hungry Like The Wolf' and 'Save A Prayer', while the band broke new ground with the spectacular videos they were creating on location around the world. With exclusive archive footage and in-depth interviews with each of the band members, this programme promises a unique perspective on the band and their music - from the early years, when their photographs graced teenagers' bedroom walls around the world, and the hysteria and mayhem followed them day and night, to the present day. __________________________________________________________ Film Of The Week: 'Our Man In Havana' (RTE 1, Saturday, 12 midnight) - Dating all the way back to 1959, this inspired comedy starring Alec Guinness and Burl Ives, who are directed by Carol Reed, concerns the strange episode of Jim Wormed, an Englishman selling vacuum cleaners in Cuba on the cusp of the revolution. Hawthorne, a British intelligence agent, is looking for information on Cuban affairs and recruits Jim to act as a spy. The salesman quickly finds out that the secret agent game is a lot like the vacuum business - a lot of hot air. An eccentric English comedy that's become a classic.