| 'Insurrection'
was an eight-part drama that depicted the events of
Easter Week 1916 as they might have been covered if
television had existed at that time. Ray McAnally
acted as the studio anchor of a programme that presented
daily reports on the Rising as they unfolded.
Telefis Éireann reporters interviewed the
leaders of the Rising, British officers, politicians
and eye witnesses to the action of the week. On the
spot reports were broadcast from the fighting at Mount
Street Bridge and from inside the GPO.
Over eight nights, each half-hour programme brought
studio interviews and breaking stories, with Ray McAnally
using models and street maps to help explain to viewers
what was happening.
This was Telefis Éireann's biggest drama production
since the station had begun broadcasting at the end
of 1961. The series was produced by Louis Lentin who
directed the studio and outside broadcast sequences,
while Michael Garvey directed the filmed inserts.
Hugh Leonard was commissioned to write the script.
Among a large cast from the ranks of the Radio Éireann
Players and the Abbey Theatre was Eoin Ó Suilleabháin
who played Patrick Pearse and Ronnie Walsh who played
James Connolly. Many members of the Armed Forces also
took part.
The GPO interior was the largest set built by Telefis
Éireann; it was burned as part of a dramatic
scene when the rebels left the building.
Sequences were filmed in late 1965 at Banna Strand
and Ashbourne, and O'Connell Street was filmed for
scenes showing the rebels seizing the GPO and the
lancers charge through Sackville Street.
The series was well received by the public and critics.
'Insurrection' was also shown on BBC 2 in Britain
and ABC in Australia while a shortened version was
also shown in Norway, Sweden, Belgium and Canada.
The series was repeated only once on RTÉ on
Sunday, 1 May 1966 when it was shown in its entirety.
'Insurrection' was produced over a period of almost
a year - a lengthy production schedule for television,
but even at that time, short by comparison with feature
films of a very much shorter duration.
When the playwright, Hugh Leonard, had been invited
to write the script, he recalled:
"It was an invitation which no writer in his senses could turn down: an
opportunity to write a definitive television history of the most improbable insurrection of
this or any other century. ... To write this programme was to become involved in the Rising
oneself. It was at times an emotional task; and, at close range, one became bewildered by
the constant mixture of recklessness and caution, failure and success - both equally
unexpected when they happened - high tragedy and farce, heroism and atrocity."
For Director Louis Lentin, "... the style was going
to be one of actual reportage; we decided to take
you, the viewer, back to 1916 and present the specific
day's programme as an involved news reportage of the
events of that day".
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