Irish Pictorial Weekly already running out of steam

Date Published: 10-Dec-2012

The first one was quite humorous and generated a considerable amount of laughs along the way. That said, there were some sketches that were not that funny but the programme certainly had prospects. The second installment, however, was like watching the first and contained very few funny moments.

It is not that Irish Pictorial Weekly on RTE 1 is a poor concept. Quite the opposite, in fact, but the programme makers should really have included a variety of sketches rather than each seeming to be a repeat of what went on the previous week.

There is huge talent involved here as they tried to recreate the golden era of Hall’s Pictorial Weekly from the ’70s and while a lot of it is political satire, it is obvious that the writers are struggling for material though the show is just two weeks in.

There are familiar faces from the Après Match team including Barry Murphy and Gary Cooke along with a whole host of other talented actors but unfortunately the content of the scripts is not as contemporary as was the case with the old Frank Hall series which, even at the time, was incredibly up to date.

In the first episode we saw a sketch involving Peter Darragh Quinn walking along the border with him on one side and two Gardaí on the other. While it was initially quite funny, the same was not true in the second episode in which the sketch was more or less similar to what went before.

Even the sketch involving the 1916 leaders discussing how much they will receive in their respective roles while sipping a glass of red as the place is under siege outside was funny the first time but then it just became more of the same.

For political satire to be effective, it has to reflect the events of the day and unfortunately this doesn’t do so. Okay, so there are references to our catastrophic financial predicament and sketches involving Angela Merkel and while they are quite witty, they have become something of a rare commodity on this show.

They do voice-overs on Labour leader Eamon Gilmore and while they were funny to begin with, they have now become quite tedious . . . and that is after just two episodes. There is no doubt that there is a good product here and one that would have potential on a weekly basis but those involved have yet to find the right formula.

According to the programme notes, this is a four-part sketch show which one would assume has been pre-recorded fairly well in advance and involves issues which are currently out of the spotlight for the moment. That is where this series is falling down.

For more, see this week’s Connacht Sentinel.