The TV50 strand continues tonight (Monday) with 50 Years in the Glow, a warm-hearted documentary about the cultural and social impact of TV in Ireland.
This is a ‘People’s history’ of RTÉ television presented by the hugely popular Pat Shortt. Viewers of all ages and from all over Ireland recount from their sofas their experience of television output, from falling in love with presenters to dressing up ‘in case Charles Mitchell can see us’.
“It wasn't enough that RTE could show you the Wild West, or the jungle, or Southfork, or the moon,” says Pat Shortt. “For the first time, we could see ourselves, up close . . . whether we wanted to or not.”
Tales include the Dublin couple who ended their dates early on a Tuesday so they could get home for Dallas; a woman on the Aran Islands who stayed at home on Sunday evenings minding the children while the men went to the lighthouse to watch The Riordans; to the Kerryman who invented Ireland’s first remote control.
Key moments include the assassination of JFK; Annie Murphy on The Late Late Show; Miley’s affair in Glenroe; and from the Civil Rights marches in Derry to the Queen's visit, Telefís Feirme to The Virginian.
50 Years in the Glow is on RTÉ One at 9.30pm
