Entertainment
Sloane Ranger and Queen Park Ranger ride again
TV Watch with Dave O’Connell
If you met Jeremy Sloane in your local pub, you’d suddenly remember that you had to go home and wash what’s left of your hair – because he’s the sort of hapless, hopeless character who could suck out of you all of your will to live.
And yet this anti-hero of sorts is understandably a big hit with satellite viewers, who are tuning into Mr Sloane on Sky Atlantic in their droves.
The creation of Shaun of the Dead star Nick Frost, this comedy is set in a suburb of Watford at the end of the swinging sixties – a swing which Sloane appears to have missed in its entirety, given that he looks more like a relic from the war years.
He’s full of figure, wears heavy black spectacles and a mac; he could be mistaken for a boring civil servant every day of the week, but it reality his life is falling apart at the seams.
His wife Janet (played by the wonderful Olivia Coleman, star of just about everything these days – from Broadchurch to Rev to Twenty Twelve – has left him and he’s just just lost his job.
His social life revolves around the pub every night with his three best mates from childhood, Ross (Peter Serafinowicz), Reggie (Brendan Patricks) and Beans (Lawry Lewin), who have as much sympathy for his plight as Manchester City fans had for David Moyes.
Sloane is also a dreamer and he truly wants to make his life better, even if it keeps dragging him back into the mire.
He subscribes to ‘self-help’ cassettes – the big old eight-track things that arrive in brown paper from the US – and he even imagines the start of a new life with a flirty American he meets in the hardware store, who has a problem with her u-bend under the sink.
Sloane’s happier days are depicted in flashback – his first encounter with Janet on the Tube, their wedding day, happier times in the office with his old buddy Beans who is still living at home with his mother.
Nick Frost brings a wonderful quiet quality to the role – Sloane is clearly a man who’s down on his luck and caught in a negative spiral, but he’s sympathetically played by an actor whose television appearances have been massively reduced by his big screen successes.
One man who television appearances would normally be nil at this time of the year managed to create a whole lot of headlines of his own last week with a debut appearance on BBC’s Question Time.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.
Folk duo Niall Teague and Pádraic Joyce are launching their new album What Will We Be, a blend of folk, Americana and acoustic music, this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in An Taibhdhearc.
The success of their well-received 2020 release Taobh le Taobh, as well as recent successes at the Pan Celtic and Oireachtas Song Contests, spurred the duo on to record this new album which represents many years of collaboration and musical development.
It features Niall and Pádraic on vocals, harmonies, and acoustic guitars, Maidhc Ó hÉanaigh on double bass and Neil Fitzgibbon on fiddle. The catchy title track, What Will We Be, features contributions from percussionist Jim Higgins (The Stunning, Christy Moore, Paul Brady) and haunting, driving melodies on vocals, guitar, and fiddle.
Themes of love and hope are woven through Come Away with Me which features interplay between piano and fiddle as well as rich vocal harmonies.
People, places, and broken dreams are celebrated and lamented on Martin and Tom, Guitar Gold, Memories of You and Achill Island. The influence of David Henry Thoreau’s novel Walden features on the tracks Simple and Wise and Walden, with the beauty of nature, escape and simple pleasures at their core.
The album moves from minimalistic folk ballads such as Galway Ghost to swirling, string-laden arrangements on the song Neptune, both of which are influenced by maritime tales from Galway. Much of the work on this album was supported by the Arts Council, including work with musical arranger Eoin Corcoran and the string ensemble Treo.
The album will be launched this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in an Taibhdhearc. Tickets €22, plus booking fee at Eventbrite.ie.
Dunmore is the place to be this weekend for lovers of traditional music, as the Galway County Fleadh will take place there from this Friday, May 19, to Sunday, May 23.
It is 10 years since Dunmore last hosted a fleadh and the local Comhaltas branch, which has re-formed since Covid, is looking forward to facilitating this gathering of music, song, dance and craic.
The official Opening Concert will take place in Dunmore Town Hall this Friday at 8pm with the acclaimed Mulcahy family from Limerick. Mick, Louise and Michelle are well known throughout the country, thanks to their live performances, television appearances and numerous CDs. They were the winners of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Grúpa Ceoil Award for 2023. Tickets for their concert can be purchased on the door and a great night of music is promised.
Two days of competitions will kick off this Saturday at the town’s Community School, with more than 1,500 competitors taking part. Participants will be hoping to qualify for the Connacht Fleadh 2023, which will be held in Ballina, County Mayo, from June 23 to July 2.
Competitions for those aged Under 10, Under 12 and Under 15 will be held in a large variety of instruments on Saturday, as well as in singing and Comhrá Gaeilge. Sunday’s competitions will be for the Under 18 and Over 18 ages groups, as well as in dancing.
On both days a large entry is expected for Grúpaí Cheoil and Céilí Band competitions across all age groups.
Seventeen Comhaltas branches from across Galway will have participants in this weekend’s competitions, which will result in a large number of visitors to the Dunmore area.
Members of the public are welcome to attend the competitions, which offer a great opportunity to hear and see the talent on display. There will be sessions in local pubs over the weekend as well and everybody is welcome to attend these.
For more information on the County Fleadh, go to www.galwaycomhaltas.ie.
Music for Galway’s concert with renowned Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia which had been due to take place on April 27 but which had to be deferred, will now take place next Tuesday, May 23, at 8pm, in the Emily Anderson Concert Hall at the University of Galway.
This concert of German classics with Bach at its core, will brings the Bach element of Music for Galway’s 41st season to an end.
This world-class pianist who won the famous Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, has a repertoire that spans many eras from baroque to contemporary and he is widely known for his elaborate programmes. Cédric Pescia describes music as ‘language and movement at the same time’.
Audiences will have a chance to experience his soft, clear touch as he performs a programme for solo piano that will include classics such as Schumann’s popular Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), a suite of nine short pieces, and the penultimate of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, No. 31. These pieces will be interspersed with French Suites by Bach.
■ Ticket for Cédric Pescia’s concert are available at www.musicforgalway.ie, or by phone 091 705962 and on the door on the night. They cost €20/€18. The price for fulltime students of all ages is €6 while MfG Friends can avail of the friends’ rate of €16.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
