The killing of Michael Collins: RTÉ takes a long time to reach a conventional conclusion

If Hollywood has taught us anything about Irish history, it’s that Jonathan Rhys Meyers shot Michael Collins in 1996 under orders from Alan Rickman (Michael Collins went on to star in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace opposite Ewan McGregor and Jar Jar Binks). But assuming just for a moment that Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins was less than 100 per cent accurate, then viewers may have tuned into Cold Case Collins hoping that the mystery of Collins’s killing 100 years ago this month could be cracked.

As the title spells out, Cold Case Collins (RTÉ One, Wednesday) is a shameless attempt to bring procedural TV pizazz to the Decade of Centenaries. It’s a clumsy name, though at least they didn’t go for CSI: Béal na mBláth or True Dev-tective (personally, I would pay my licence fee twice over for a show in which Collins and DeValera drive around the bayou solving crimes).

Alas, Cold Case Collins’ problems don’t end with its name. This 90-minute broadcast — and goodness does it start to drag — tries to marry two contrasting formats. We are first introduced to former State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy, en route Béal na mBláth hoping to unravel the biggest blank space in Irish forensics. Who pulled the trigger and shot dead the Big Fella?

But this is intercut with a historical re-enactment of the 1924 police investigation into the circumstances around Collins’s death. Buckle up: there will be period-appropriate muttonchops and flat-caps.

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[ Who shot Michael Collins? One hundred years on, the question remains unanswered ]

Cassidy is a natural on TV, with wry humour and the sort of unflappability that probably comes in handy when your day job involves visiting murder scenes. And the historical recreations are well done. I can’t claim any expertise in the matter, but the facial hair and the hats feel “1920s” — which is half the battle won. And yet these two components do not gel successfully. Factor in that gargantuan running time and, by the end, this is strictly for Béal na mBláth buffs.

Cold Case Collins is at its most watchable when it stops trying to be Important Telly. The most revealing segments feature Cassidy and various experts gathered around a table spitballing theories. They examine the hat Collins wore on his last day — with its gaping bullet hole at the back — while his iconic greatcoat is sent for laboratory analysis.

Sadly, there isn’t much of a pay-off. In the end, Cassidy shares an astonishing theory ... that Collins was shot in a Civil War ambush. “In my opinion, he died from a gunshot wound to the head somewhere around the left ear, “she says.

There are gasps of astonishment and several people faint. Actually, they don’t because this is more-or-less the version of history we’ve all had in our heads anyway. Hollywood’s take on the killing may have been more fanciful. But at least it kept you glued to your seat.