Coming from a guy who fundamentally isn't very funny, this is a lovely piece of TV which will bring a smile to the face of anyone who has been through the Irish education system.

Des Bishop moved from NY to Ireland when he was 14. His entire stand-up career has been a schtick about his personal culture clashes between Ireland and the USA. The first time I saw it, I laughed, but he has been a scratched record ever since with none of the surreal whimsey of a Dylan Moran or insight that Tommy Tiernan used to have.

This programme is on pretty much the same topic but he has made something quite special this time. Arriving at 14 meant he got a dispensation from learning Irish and he decided to address that by moving to the Connemara Gaeltacht to learn the language and absorb the culture.

I gotta hand it to him, he threw himself wholeheartedly into it and got people to speak Irish at him all the time. His rate of learning was pretty impressive and after a couple of months, he sat the foundation level Leaving Cert. I loved the fact that he was the first person (possibly ever) to sit the lower-level in that school! The clips of him interacting with the oral examiner were absolutely hilarious and his attempts to force the conversation in the direction he learned fell flat. "When were you born?" "Oh sea, I have two brothers" etc etc (Gaelgóirs can throw eyes to heaven over my lack of actual Irish quotes here but I did get a B in Honours in the Leaving!).

The contrast between the new (full multimedia facilities for learning Irish online) and the old (local shop selling bizarre collection of bric a brac) worked very well. The importance of GAA as a community binder in a small town was very clear too.

His stand-up in the local hall worked extremely well because his routine took the piss (gently) out of the local audience itself. They clearly loved it and they clearly liked him.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this series and remembering many years of the tuiseal ginideach.