John Byrne offers 20 of the best in the current crop of Irish and Irish-related TV shows.
From 'The Rose of Tralee' to 'Raw', Irish or Irish-related TV has never offered as broad a sweep as it does in 2011. Apart from home-produced gems like the hard-hitting drama 'Love/Hate', to the lip-glossed celeb-fest that is 'Xposé', Irish talent is also contributing internationally – and on both sides of the Atlantic. Could we leave out Orla Brady’s role in 'Mistresses'? Of course not!
Love/Hate
Aidan Gillen, Robert Sheehan and a very strong Irish cast made a huge impression with the first season of Stuart Carolan’s sharp drama based among Dublin criminals. Gillen is particularly (if unsurprisingly) impressive as gangland boss John Boy, and the good news is that the cast has been reunited and a second season of 'Love/Hate' is currently being filmed and will be back on our screens in the autumn.
The Rose of Tralee
Despite its loud-mouthed detractors, the 'Rose of Tralee' continues to bloom as an event and draws a huge TV audience as well entrants from all around the globe. Last year, there was a new host in the Dome and Dáithí Ó Sé has already made the event his own. Is it his natural Kerry charm? Well, they do say that local knowledge is always a benefit. We say Dáithí’s a perfect fit.
Raw
Three seasons in and the drama about restaurant life in Dublin has really captured the viewing public’s imagination and the recently completed third run saw the show attract its highest audiences yet. It helps to have the electric Charlene McKenna in the middle of things as Jojo Harte, the restaurant’s kitchen firebrand, but the whole cast hit the spot in this realistic look at how things are cooking for 20- and 30-somethings in modern Ireland.
Reeling in the Years
It just shows that most of the best ideas are usually the simplest. Pick a year, show footage of news events that occurred, add a backdrop of the popular songs of the day and before you can say ‘Where’s Nelson’s Pillar gone?’ or ‘Spit on me, Dickie!’ you’ve got the most successful show in Irish TV history. Even the repeats generate amazing viewing figures, which only goes to show that we Irish love looking at ourselves.
Tonight with Vincent Browne
The former Sunday Tribune, Magill and Village editor has really found his groove in this nightly political programme in which he rarely takes prisoners and often creates headlines of his own. Browne isn’t just a probing interviewer, he’s also like the proverbial dog with a bone who won’t let go. New Taoiseach Enda Kenny famously refused to join in a pre-election debate on TV3 if Browne was in the chair, but the pair are certain to meet again in the future.
Corp + Anam
Since its earliest days, back when it was known as TnaG, TG4 has had a history of importing some of the coolest and edgiest US TV shows, from 'The Wire' to 'Oz' and 'Gossip Girl' to 'True Blood'. But with 'Corp + Anam', the edge came as Gaeilge as Diarmuid de Faoite and Maria Doyle Kennedy starred in a gritty, dark drama about a TV crime correspondent who is prepared to do almost anything to get to the truth behind a story.
The Graham Norton Show
OK, the chat show that replaced 'Friday Night with Jonathan Ross' on BBC One is 100% British-produced, but host Graham Norton is Bandon’s greatest export since, oh, Cornelius O’Sullivan, the ‘founder of the science of biochemistry’. Indeed, Norton has also taken on that very Irish role of being the BBC’s voice for the annual 'Eurovision Song Contest', a task that, for decades, was the sole preserve of fellow Munster man, Terry Wogan.
Fair City
We’ve been following the lives of the people in the fictional Dublin suburb of Carrigstown for a quarter of a century now, so 'Fair City' is very much a staple of Irish telly-viewing. Over the decades, we’ve seen weddings, births, deaths, divorces and an awful lot of skulduggery, but the moment most fans recall instantly is the night when Lorcan Foley killed super villain, Billy Meehan. More recently, last November saw huge numbers tuning in to see battered husband Damien Halpin. Ouch!
In Treatment
This may be a US drama based on an Israeli TV show, but Dubliner Gabriel Byrne is fantastic as 50-something psychotherapist Paul Weston, a shrink just as screwed-up as his patients. The show’s format, script and opening theme are based on, and are often word-for-word translations of, Hagai Levi's award-winning Israeli series BeTipul. 'In Treatment' has also picked up many plaudits, but it is heavy going and extremely intense, as it’s basically a two-hander between Weston and a patient. Tough for the actors, but hugely rewarding as viewing experience.
Mrs Brown’s Boys
Brendan O’Carroll doesn’t do cool but he’s become an expert on popular entertainment and comedy in a career that’s lasted more than two decades and spread itself across stand up, theatre, books, TV and film. His most famous creation, nosey Dublin mammy Agnes Brown (played by himself), took a long time to hit the small screen, but the recently screened first season of this RTÉ/BBC co-production has been a huge success and a second run is sure to follow.
The Late Late Show
The world’s longest-running chat show got to be so for one reason: it works. Sure, it’s changed over the decades, but the basic concept of chat, debate, comedy and music remains. Originally a summer schedule-filler, host Gay Byrne built up the audience and the Late Late’s legendary status by introducing topics that many commentators felt brought Ireland into the late 20th-Century, and caused huge scandals at the time. Byrne’s successors, Pat Kenny and Ryan Tubridy, have more than kept the flagship afloat, and the show remains as hugely popular as ever.
Hearts and Minds
While Northern Ireland politics may have been a major turn-off for many in the south, there can be no denying that award-winning host Noel Thompson is a master craftsman at getting answers from politicians and personalities in a still hugely divided Six Counties. Back before the peace process came to pass, Thompson wasn’t afraid to ask the hard questions when faced with interviewees central to, and often on both sides of, the conflict. Even in these more peaceful times, Thompson still has an impressive edge.
Mistresses
This BBC drama was unmissable TV during its three-season run as it followed the lives and loves of a group of 30-something girlfriends – Sarah Parish, Sharon Small, Shelley Conn and Dubliner Orla Brady as Katie, Trudi, Jessica and Siobhan – who had met at university and remained good friends, even as their lives took very different turns. It had no production input from Ireland, but Orla Brady gave Mistresses a certain Emerald elegance.
Xposé
Here’s the show that probably best sums up the recent Irish obsession with celebrity and stuff, as presenters – Aisling O'Loughlin, Glenda Gilson, Lisa Cannon and Karen Koster – offer viewers the latest celebrity gossip, fashion news, red carpet footage in an E! style format that just screams: Oh. My. God.
The All Ireland Talent Show
Another one of those Irish shows that embarrass some but are lapped up by most, 'The All Ireland Talent Show' is basically an Irish version of 'Britain’s Got Talent'. Breaking the contest up into the provinces and Dublin means most of the country has a regional interest all the way to the final. And don’t tell us that isn’t an advantage for both viewers and contestants in an unashamedly parochial land such as ours.
The Apprentice
While it may be an Irish version of a very successful international franchise, there can be no denying that the TV3 take on 'The Apprentice' is not just hugely successful, but also enormously entertaining, while remaining unerringly Irish. From the no-nonsense approach of host Bill Cullen and his other half, Jackie Lavin, to the quite scary cluelessness (and hard necks) of some contestants, viewers can enjoy seeing others getting lashed out of it and being complete failures on TV. So we love it.
Ros na Rún
They may be running low on natural Gaelgeoirs to play parts on the show, but this Connemara-based soap is as good as anything similar produced elsewhere in Ireland, the UK, Australia or the USA. In fact, it’s one of the raciest of the soaps. Irish language enthusiasts definitely need more of the same because this is one show that makes the cúpla focail cool.
The Tudors
This show practically invented a new television genre, factional historical drama. A joint venture involving BBC Two, CBC Television, Showtime and TV3, The Tudors merrily mucked around with historical facts but majored in steamy entertainment. With Jonathan Rhys Meyers leading the charge in a sexy romp through the life of Britain’s King Henry VIII, it kept viewers fascinated and historians horrified in equal measure right up to its recent finale.
The Savage Eye
Anger has often been a huge motivating factor in comedy, and it’s quite apparent that David McSavage isn’t one of Ireland’s happiest campers. Two seasons in, 'The Savage Eye' has done exactly what that title suggests, taking a metaphorical lump hammer to Ireland, its myths and foibles. No stone is left unshattered as the Emerald Isle is exposed through the words and actions of a cast of characters including The Politicians, The President for Life, The Bull Mick, the child-snatching Priest, and the lonely farmers.
Fade Street
Whether filed under 'Guilty Pleasures' or 'Seriously?', this has been Ireland’s ultimate car crash TV show of modern times and shows how utterly vacuous, self-important and downright unbearable some of the Celtic Tiger’s progeny became. Boasting a cast of real people with surreal names straight out of glossy car mags (Volvo! Megane! Honda Civic! – the opportunities are endless) and vowel-mangling accents, 'Fade Street' makes 'Sex and the City' seem as weighty as 'Waiting for Godot'. Now that’s impressive.
Camelot
Coming soon to a TV screen near you, Camelot is the latest factional drama from the people (including recent IFTA winner, Morgan O’Sullivan) who brought you 'The Tudors'. Only this time they can do what they like given that the story’s largely mythical in the first place. Starring Joseph Fiennes, Jamie Campbell Bower, Tamsin Egerton and Eva Green, it promises ten episodes that will ‘redefine the classic medieval tale of King Arthur’. So that means following The Tudors’ template of sex, intrigue and whatever drives the plot along. We’re loving it already.
