When Fair City was launched in 1989 it had a planned life of eight years. Here we are a whopping 29 years later and it's still entertaining viewers four nights a week. We caught up with two of the show's longest-running stars, Maclean Burke and Victor Burke, as they reflect on their time on the soap.
The RTÉ soap is marking its 29th anniversary today (September 18) and Maclean Burke, who has played Damien Halpin since 1998, says he had no idea it would be so long-running.
"Not only did I not believe that it would be going so many years later, I certainly didn’t think I would be around doing it!", he told RTÉ Entertainment.
It's a sentiment shared by his co-star Victor Burke, who plays Wayne Molloy. "To be honest - no... I was 18 when I came into it!
"I left at 24 and emigrated for almost a decade before returning! As an actor you usually go from gig to gig and hope that along the journey you get luck on your side more often than not."
A lot has changed since they started on the show in the late nineties.
"It’s completely different, I’m a lot older obviously," Maclean said with a laugh. "It’s a far quicker, tougher format now.
"When I first joined I we were on two episodes a week and then we doubled up very shortly after that, I think around 2000. Now it’s like a fine art. You’re shooting two hours of TV every week."
The sheer volume of scenes the actors shoot is huge compared to other TV shows, Maclean explained. "It’s funny I have a buddy of mine who’s on Vikings and I said to him ‘Were you busy today’ and he said ‘yeah, you?’. I said ‘Yeah I did 19 scenes today.’ And I asked him what he did today and he said ‘We did four and a half pages.’ 19 scenes would be the equivalent of 60 pages and they did four and a half.
"So that’s the kind of things you’re working under, you’re working under extreme time constraints. It keeps the blades sharp, that’s the one benefit of it!"
His character Damien Halpin has been involved in many significant storylines over the years.
"I’ve been blessed with loads of them. The most memorable one for good or for bad is the spousal abuse storyline where we turned it on its head in the public’s eye", Maclean recalled.
"That was a real litmus test for where people were at at the time. A lot of people just went ‘Ah that’s ridiculous’. I was meeting guys at rugby matches coming up to me offside and saying thanks very much.
"I met one guy who was a former guard and he said he was sitting watching the show with his wife and he turned around and said ‘That’s me isn’t it?’ and they went and got help from that point forward."
"You take soap as chewing gum TV sometimes it hits on stuff that really does resonate with people", he added.
"It’s been very rewarding over the years and I’ve worked with some great guys and girls."
His soap colleague Victor said that the audience "grows with the characters - they love them and hate them and experience all the drama with us."
"So many great actors/friends have come through the show and it’s been a huge part of my life."
Maclean said there's been great excitement on the set as the cast gear up for the 29th anniversary week which will be full of drama.
"There’s a particularly good storyline happening at the moment and we’re building towards the Christmas storylines so it’s exciting", he added.
"Please god I’ll be having this conversation at the age of 60, going '40 years, I can’t believe it'".
Fair City is on RTÉ One on Sundays and Tuesdays to Thursdays.
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