Taking the pulse from our Fair City for 25 years

TV Watch with Dave O’Connell

Perhaps the biggest shocker of all for Fair City’s 25th anniversary celebrations was that Paul Brennan once had a full head of hair – but then again anyone who has worked his way through more women than Georgie Best since then is bound to have lost more than sleep.

It’s easy to slag off Fair City, but a quarter of a century is some tribute to its longevity and the soap has been rightly making headlines of its own to mark its silver jubilee.

The Nationwide special was revealing in that it showed soap fans what actually happens behind the scenes – from the sets that don’t look so real once you roll the cameras back a little, to the early morning starts and long days for the so-called stars.

The Late Late tribute was an effort to get two pints into a one pint pot and half the cast who’d turned out in their finery didn’t even get a cutaway shot on the night, let alone a chance to actually say something.

It wasn’t quite the celebration that Christy Phelan was hoping for as he checked out for the last time on the floor of his sitting room after a big row with son-in-law Max – but Carol and Dan certainly had an anniversary to remember on the floor of the white Hiace.

Psychologists would have drawn many sexual analogies from the sight of Dan’s car going up in flames alongside them, as they got hot and heavy in the back of the van. And incidentally, it has to be said that rarely has a car burned so comprehensively to a cinder.

But the focus was on Paul (Tony Tormey), one of only two of the originals still anchored in Carrigstown – alongside Charlie Kelly – and he’s bang in the middle of the anniversary storyline after he finds out Niamh has been cheating on him with her toy boy.

Still, Paul has had more women in Carrigstown than a stray dog has lampposts, so it has to be seen as the wheel turning full circle.

The producers spent months building this to an anniversary crescendo – but it’s really when you see the clips from the early years that you realise how far this staple part of the RTE weekly diet has come.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.