Who gets fan mail from Julia Roberts? Irish civil servant Rónán Hession certainly didn’t anticipate it in response to his debut novel. But that’s what happened after Leonard & Hungry Paul was published in 2019. Six years later, the Oscar-winning American actor agreed within hours to the invitation to narrate the six-part TV adaptation.Roberts’ warm, whimsical tone is perfect for this delightful comedy-drama which had its Australian premiere earlier this year and is now streaming on ABC iview. But this utterly original charmer still hasn’t attracted the attention it deserves.Sweet, quiet and gentle are not typical descriptions applied admiringly to shows designed for adults. For kids, maybe. But recommended viewing for an older audience tends to attract more vigorous types of endorsement: gripping, ground-breaking, propulsive, addictive.One of the many delights of this poignant yet potent production is its carefully calculated restraint, a lightness of touch that director Andrew Chaplin and the beautifully cast actors bring to the tale of ostensibly ordinary people going about their lives. Although, as Alex Lawther, who plays Leonard, has observed, “There’s something quite bold about its gentleness.” In the best possible way, the series is deliberately out of tune with its times.Adapted by Richie Conroy and Mark Hodkinson, the series follows the outwardly unexceptional lives of the two men of the title: mild-mannered friends in their early 30s living in suburban Dublin. Leonard happily shares a home with his widowed mother, Elizabeth (Amelia Crowley), and has an office job ghost-writing children’s encyclopedias. Hungry Paul (Laurie Kynaston) – whose name remains unexplained – lives with his parents (Helen Behan and Lorcan Cranitch) and sister, Grace (Niamh Branigan), and has a Monday morning job as a postie. Grace’s impending wedding provides a frame for the story.The show focuses on the rhythms and rituals of the title characters’ daily lives: neat and precise Leonard waking and heading to work, dealing with his arrogant boss (Paul Reid); Hungry Paul happily eating his customary breakfast and visiting an ageing hospital patient, meetings where the pair sit comfortably in silence.The men are content with their routines and a friendship that revolves around a mutual passion for board games. However, for different reasons, each begins to ponder life’s possibilities and to wonder if the universe might have more to offer them.Laurie Kynaston (left) and Alex Lawther in Leonard & Hungry Paul.ABCAs their world comes to vivid, lovingly evoked life, it also emerges that both have supportive and protective mothers. In an early flashback, Elizabeth is called into a school meeting to face concerns that teachers seem unable to get through to her impassive young son. As the bespectacled boy stares dreamily into the middle distance, Elizabeth, unperturbed, simply explains, “Leonard, like his father, simply lacks a eureka face.”While visiting an aquarium, Hungry Paul’s mother, Helen, has an epiphany that her boy resembles a sunfish, possessing “an idiosyncratic charm, drifting contentedly through the waters of life at his own pace”. She resolves to “never ask more of him than to move at just the pace that nature has intended”.An irresistible, uplifting current of empathy and tolerance bubbles through the series as it details the changes that motivate the men to reconsider their circumstances and encourage them to alter their established patterns. For Hungry Paul, one of these is Grace’s wedding, which will mark a significant shift for his family. For Leonard, there’s the arrival of a vivacious new colleague, office fire-warden Shelley (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell).Lawther and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell.ABCRónán Hession, who’s also known as blues musician Mumblin’ Deaf Ro, said during the BBC’s promotion of the series that he “never really had an ambition to be a writer”. But, he explained that, after his kids were born, “I began to notice quiet people. The world seemed like a very intense place, and it was going in the wrong direction. I started thinking about all the gentle people and how much kindness is expressed in private.“We know what confident people think because they never stop telling us, and they speak with such certainty. It’s the people who may be standing back and reflecting on life. I just wanted to write about that and celebrate it.”Julia Roberts has called the book “magical”, and this TV adaptation generates a comparable feeling of joy and wonder.FIVE UNDERRATED IRISH AND NORTHERN IRISH SHOWSThe Emerald Isle has been punching above its weight in producing inventive TV in recent years. Some Irish series, such as Normal People, Derry Girls and Bad Sisters, have drawn global attention. But others, like this one, have passed under the radar. Here are a few more you might have missed.Seamus (Johnny Flynn) is a self-important journalist who meets his match in The Lovers.Binge/FoxtelThe Lovers (Binge)Romcoms don’t come spikier than this celebrity-commoner union, with an odd couple that meets in the midst of a brawl and a suicide attempt. Seamus (Johnny Flynn) is a smooth and successful British TV journalist working in Belfast; Janet (Roisin Gallagher) is a volatile supermarket worker. Theirs is a rocky road, loaded with surprises, delights and discomforting detours.In The Dry, Roisin Gallagher plays 35-year-old Shiv, a recovering alcoholic who returns to her less-than-helpful family in Dublin.SBSThe Dry (SBS On Demand)It’s hard for a recovering alcoholic in a community that lubricates every occasion with a drink. That’s the challenge facing Shiv Sheridan (Roisin Gallagher) when she heads home to Dublin after years of living in London. Written by playwright Nancy Harris and hailed as “an Irish Fleabag”, the black comedy seamlessly switches gears, juxtaposing the characters’ vulnerability, grief or despair with brisk, unsentimental humour.Nathan Braniff (left), Sian Brooke, Martin McCann and Katherine Devlin in Blue Lights.SBSBlue Lights (SBS On Demand)Created by former journalists Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson and set at a fictional Belfast police station, this skilfully plotted cop drama has its “peelers” dealing with everything from domestic disturbances and teen homelessness to organised crime. Creating a vibrant community of rookies and veterans, it vividly portrays a city scarred by sectarian violence. A shock shooting in the first season reverberates through the two compelling seasons that have followed so far, and a fourth is on its way.Lola Petticrew as Dolours Price in the television adaptation of Say Nothing.FXSay Nothing (Disney+) Based on the non-fiction book by Patrick Radden Keefe, this deeply unsettling nine-part dramatisation spans three decades as it explores the Troubles and the history of the IRA. Focusing on the Price sisters, Dolours (played in different periods by Lola Petticrew and Maxine Peake) and Marian (Hazel Doupe and Helen Behan), it also takes in the disappearance of Jean McConville (Judith Roddy) and the rise of Sinn Fein politician Gerry Adams (Josh Finan). Powerfully evoking the brutality of life in Belfast, it’s confronting, profoundly moving and steeped in sorrow.Aisling Bea (left), the creator-star of This Way Up, with Sorcha Cusack and Sharon Horgan.This Way Up (BritBox)Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan star as sisters Aine and Shona, as Aine shakily recovers from a nervous breakdown and takes a job as a tutor to the young son of a recent widower (Tobias Menzies). As in many Irish comedies, there’s darkness around the edges of this tale of recovery, and things don’t tend to run smoothly. Alongside the characters’ fragility, there’s ferocity, with the London-set series propelled by a welcome unpredictability.Want more TV? We’ve got you.Newsletter: Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.July streaming guide: All the most exciting new shows to watch this month.Little House on the Prairie: A new version of this beloved series is coming to Netflix this week. We speak to the Australian lead.Louis CK returns: Nine years after his big scandal, the popular comedian is back on streaming. Is his new special any good? Best (and worst) TV finales: We ranked some of the most iconic final episodes – and no, Breaking Bad didn’t top the list.Video: Deputy TV editor Meg Watson on the shows she recommends watching right now (below).