Charleen and Ellie Go All In is an RTÉ Player Original that will follow two of Ireland's top influencers, Charleen Murphy and Ellie Kelly, as they tackle the big question: What are Irish women thinking about?
This four-part series will challenge the duo to go 'all in' on topics close to their (and their followers') hearts ranging from friendships and relationships, to chasing dreams and understanding social media etiquette.
After five years of friendship, and having established the successful Hold My Drink podcast together, the duo told RTÉ Lifestyle that they were excited to tackle new challenges and embark on new experiences together.
"I love that it's such a natural conversation between me and Charleen," says Ellie. "It never feels like any of the topics we talk about or anything on the podcast is ever forced. It's just two best friends sitting on a couch, so it's an easy conversation to listen to."
"I think it's always surprised me, how people reacted to certain things," adds Charleen. "People want to feel seen and feel like they're not the only ones going through something, so the breakup episodes have done really well.
"There's things like that where people want to hear the real-life stuff, but they also want to hear the in-between episodes that are about lighter topics and having a laugh. I think having the mix of both is good because that's what life is like."
With the RTÉ Player series, the duo wanted to feature a broad range topics that audiences could relate to, such as the struggle to make real life friends in an online world.
Outside of school and sports, how easy is it to make a new friend as an adult? Well, the duo challenge each other to do just that in the first episode.
While Charleen joins Galz Gone Wild on a hike, Ellie partakes in a Timeleft dinner – where she joins a table of strangers for a meal. Will either of them strike a chord with a stranger?
"It was mad," insists Charleen. "I thought doing the activity was really nice because you had something to talk about; talking about the club or the hike that you're about to go on - there's starting topics like that which is nice.
"It's also a bit less daunting than sitting face to face with someone, so I ended up talking about things that I wouldn't usually say to someone; walking beside them was so much easier."
"I think I took the short end of the stick," laughs Ellie. "I was so nervous for mine. I'm glad I had Charleen as my hype woman - she's my hype woman for everything - and she talked me through it. Dinners can be more daunting, sitting face to face, so I think I was more nervous for mine, but I am glad I did it.
"I came away learning a lot from it, but it was a daunting experience, I'm not going to lie."
The following three episodes follow the two friends as they ponder the concept of marriage, the importance of getting out of your comfort zone in order to follow your dreams, and the ever-evolving rules of social media and online behaviour.
"We talk about some serious topics, and talk about things that we would never usually touch on," Ellie explains.
"I hope people get to see a different side of us. We have the podcast and our own Instagrams, but this is another avenue and a different way of seeing us. I also hope people have a laugh along the way because it was very funny."
"It's a different side to us," agrees Charleen. "We're doing a bit of investigating and a lot of it is really educational; we learned so much ourselves, so I hope people learn a lot as well."
Stream All Episodes of Charleen and Ellie Go All in, on RTÉ Player.
