Jennifer Zamparelli has said she hopes her RTÉ comedy series Bridget & Eamon will be well received when it premieres in the UK this weekend, saying she hopes it will become "a bit of a cult classic."
The hit Irish comedy began life as a series of sketches on Republic of Telly and stars Zamparelli and Bernard O'Shea as a bickering couple living in recession-hit 1980s Ireland.
The series was acquired by UK television station Gold in August and will premiere on the channel on Saturday night. Zamparelli said she's delighted as she wasn't expecting the series to be seen by anyone outside of Ireland.
"We were delighted, we weren't really expecting it," Zamparelli told RTÉ Entertainment. "I mean, we made a very Irish programme for an Irish audience and the fact that it's going to travel now to the UK, we're really happy."
Following the original sketches massive popularity both on television and social media, RTÉ commissioned a full series of Bridget & Eamon last year.
After strong ratings, it was renewed for a second series which filmed over the summer and tomorrow night the show will compete in four categories at the IFTA TV Awards including Best Comedy and Best Female Performance for Zamparelli.
While she will try not to look at Twitter on Saturday night when the show airs, Jennifer reckons she will give in to temptation.
"I suppose I will, I try not to, but I know it'll get the better of me and I'll be wondering how it went and how it did," she said.
"Hopefully it's one of those programmes – you know, it's on at 11pm – so hopefully it'll be one of those programmes people will stumble upon and it'll become a bit of a cult classic, you just don't know – maybe people will hate it."
"You don't know how people are going to react, but the people in Gold love it and they think good things are going to happen, so fingers crossed! I've all my friends and family in the UK watching it anyway so they'll be positive, even if they think its s**** and that's good for me; lies, I don’t mind them lying to my face, I really don’t, I don’t care," she laughed.
Bridget & Eamon is on Gold on Saturday October 8 at 11pm.
