Move over, Ms Wax. The west of Ireland's answer to the television presenter with lips to die for is back on screen again from tomorrow night. In fact, some have compared her to Oprah Winfrey since she held a weekly live TG4 studio audience under her spell in Galway's Black Box last year. Bernie Beo proved to be a highly successful chat show "as Gaeilge" for TG4, but this year journalist Bernie Ni Fhlatharta is working to a different format.
Thar an Tairseach, as the new series is called, is literally that - going over the threshold and spending a day or two at home with various people. Working with Magma Films of Galway, Ni Fhlatharta takes plane, train, car and the odd camel to track down a leading Northern politician, a self-made millionaire (from Cork, of course) and a vet and crime writer hired by the Sultan of Oman. Her sister, Kate, who was also involved with Bernie Beo is executive producer.
Mind you, the keyhole approach for the first of the subjects proved to be a challenge. For security reasons, the home of Dan Scannell, Corkman and governor of Castlerea prison in Co Roscommon, could not be filmed. However, he does give a guided tour of his "office", which houses some 200 offenders, and chats away freely about his passion for Manchester United, angling, amateur drama and verse.
SDLP politician Brid Rodgers speaks of her Gaoth Dobhair roots in Donegal and how she and her husband decided to move to Lurgan, Co Armagh, almost four decades ago - with no regrets. Other gaeilgeoiri profiled include Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, who talks about marrying a family with writing - she doesn't describe herself as a poet as she prefers to see it as a gift; Iarla O Lionaird, sean nos singer and member of the Afro-Celt sound system, with whom the crew visits Peter Gabriel's Real World studios in Bristol; Connacht-Ulster MEP Pat `the Cope' Gallagher; Paris-based journalist John Maguire; and vet and crime writer Maurice Scanlon, who is responsible for the welfare of steeds in the stables of the Sultan of Oman.
The eldest of nine from Cois Fharraige in Connemara, Bernie N Fhlatharta has been a provincial journalist for 20 years, mainly with the Connacht Tribune. She has considerable broadcasting experience as an occasional commentator for RTE and Raidio na Gaeltachta. She played a leading role in Bob Quinn's film, Caoineadh Art O Laoghaire, in the 1970s, and has worked with TG4 from the outset. In 1996 and 1997, she was the host for Siar's Aniar, three programmes on Irish emigrants in the US.
JUST why RTE did not try and snap her up years ago is something of a mystery, given her irrepressible and often bawdy sense of humour, infectious enthusiasm and her ability to put her subjects at ease. Thus, Tim Mahony, multimillionaire chairman of Toyota and owner of Mount Juliet, admits that he prefers steak and chips at home to any class of a meal in an expensive restaurant.
In Seamus Begley, Kerry musician and farmer, she almost meets her match. The button man cannot resist rising to the occasion when he takes her out to count his sheep in Baile na nGall. It may not appear on film, but listen to her exchanges with him when he shows his knowledge of sheep biology, and hands her the horns of his ram.
Thar an Tairseach begins tomorrow at 9.50 p.m., and is repeated every Wednesday with subtitles at 8.30 p.m.
