A typical scene from a Latvian soap opera, perhaps
??????????(TG4, Monday to Sunday)
The Thomas Davis Lectures (N2/Eurosport, Tuesday)
One of the benefits of cable television is that one can occasionally find unusual or unique programmes that one would rarely find on terrestrial TV. The French channel, TV 5, can be accessed in many Irish homes, and hopefully, it helps students of the French language to improve their grasp of the language, as well as giving an insight into aspects of French life. Another foreign channel, available to Irish viewers, which I have recently come across is something called TG4. I have only discovered it in the last few weeks, but apparently this station has been on the air for some time, and, as one would expect from such an an obscure channel, receives only a tiny proportion of the viewership. In fact, if the TAM ratings were the Richter scale, TG4 would register the effect of a kitten stepping on a manhole cover. I am not at all sure where this channel originates from, but I would guess at one of the Baltic countries; perhaps Latvia. I came across a programme which seems to be their version of a Fair City or Coronation Street-type soap last week, featuring the miserable lives of peasants in what is presumably one of the most backward parts of the country. It is interesting to note that even in a far-away nation like Latvia, the increasing impact of globalisation means that the lives of these simple folk does not seem so different from our own. (The locals even seem to drink in what looks like an Irish theme bar - with Guinness on tap.)
Even more bizzarely, on Monday night, I saw a programme from the 1960s featuring Christy Ring giving a display of hurling, while the Latvian commentator explained the mesmerising skills of the famous Corkman in the native guttural tongue. Why a country like Latvia would be interested in buying such a programme is anybody's guess, but it must be good news for RTE's sales department. (What next? Quicksilver in Lithuanian?) On a more serious note, it is only when we see the kind of dismal television that the poor Latvians have to put up with that we can begin to appreciate TV in this part of the world. Judging by TG4, Latvia seems a grim country where little happens and the weather appears to be every bit as bleak as our own. Sadly, they also seem to be afflicted with annoyingly over-effervescent youth TV presenters and self-important news reporters.
It has become a trend in recent years for programmes that have been successful on radio to make the leap on to television. One need only think of programmes such as The League of Gentlemen and The News. With the success of The Thomas Davis Lectures over many years, it is not surprising that this perennial ratings topper should finally make it to national TV. The initiative came from producer Duncan Fuddy, who has been a regular listener to the Lectures for over four decades. "You could definitely say I was a fan. One of my earliest memories is staying in to hear Professor Colm O'Toole from UCC giving a lecture on trapping mice in Connacht in the early 17th century while all the other boys in my class were out playing football. In my own mind, I was in no doubt who was having the most fun. They were. But I was gaining valuable information about trapping mice long ago."
The budget of £12 million for a series of six lectures might seem excessive, but Fuddy feels the money is well spent. "We wanted enormous sets. We wanted the costumes to be as extravagant as possible." (John Rocha, who worked on the radio series, has been retained for the TV version.) "Over two-thirds of the budget is being spent on special effects. There is no reason why The Thomas Davis Lectures on television cannot be as big as The X Files." What a shame then, that Tuesday's first show in the series was something of a disappointment. Prof Donnchadha MacBriannoinn's lecture on sheep farming in Offaly in the 1940s was rather a dull subject with which to start, and when the prosthetic giant sheep's head suspended above him exploded prematurely, the unfortunate Prof was left dazed and bleeding with 45 minutes of the lecture still to go. Maybe some programmes are just better suited to radio.
Arthur Mathews is co-writer of Father Ted
The real TV review is on Weekend 10