Will RTE ever commission comedy of this quality again?

Yes, the Centre. Gary Cooke was playing a trans woman, and the character did seem to be quite a cruel pisstake of trans women, though nowadays, ironically, it'd be considered pro-feminist, cos of the weird flip that has happened post-JKR where anything that's actively mocking trans women is seen as pro-women.

Mrs Brown is supposed to be a 'cis' (a word I only use because it's easier to say than biological woman) woman. That's the difference. She's not supposed to be trans. She's a panto dame.

It's context.

TBH I believe in free speech, so I don't really care anymore.

And I have written a lengthy article why I do believe that non-trans actors can play trans roles. http://blueprintreview.co.uk/2025/02/non-trans-actors-playing-trans-roles-a-gender-nonconforming-persons-perspective/

Yeah, and as a trans person ,even I'm sick of such things constantly springing up.

Agreed on the constant replaying of Killinaskully. It should have been on extended sketch not a series spanning several seasons. I always found it cringe, and I do like Pat Shorts comedy in general. I just found Killinaskully sub par for him.

Something that seems to have been completely forgotten was My Bad Self. Domhnal Gleeson was in it. Some of the clips are weird, there is no denying that but there's a few that make me chuckle everytime.

This one you have to turn up the volume on your PC because he's just whispering to himself.

Another cringey but funny sketch. You can just imagine the uncultured shall we say farmer who is suddenly cash rich and wants a new experience.

Domhnall Gleeson.

"Can you SCUBA dive?"

"Er yeah, of course!"

You'll have to go back a bit further as the wayback machine shows no mention of "charter" on that page up to the last few months, that is a new publication. Also the DG is English and a former BBC man, so charter suits.

http://web.archive.org/web/20250601213219/https%3A//about.rte.ie/reports-and-policies/policies-and-guidelines/

There are some problems with Sit Down and Be Count, though it is a good history of the first 7 years of the broadcaster, one issue I have is that it continually defends RTÉ and even at times I found was excusing RTÉ Management it was being critical off.

There is a point where one of them argues that the audience just don't understand, and mentions that you'd go out get a great storyteller down the country and then you'd role the camera and they die, wouldn't say a word. (So you cast badly).

Helena Sheehan can't understand why people watch TV for entertainment, she was obsessed with Fair City. She had one issue with it that it didn't quite depict Dublin of the late 1980s and early 1990s correctly due to the community Centre. I argued with her that there were plenty of Dublin community centres in the 1980s and 1990s in most Dublin towns, particularly working class areas. Northside Partnership, Dolebusters, but she didn't see it so it didn't happen. You'd bring up TG4 drama's and she'd be dismissive of them, I think she was annoyed when I said that Ros Na Run is better written and acted.

In actual fact having move the down to the country, most parishes had a sports hall or community centre.

She also was annoyed that Steven Bochco was involved with Columbo, the great man of Hill Street Blues, he cut his teeth on Columbo. She loved David Chase and Northern Exposer, not sure if she knew he wrote for The Rockford Files.

While Helena does point out that in the first 7 years on the air Ireland per head of capita had more drama produced than any other country. Its been a while since I read that book. We didn't see eye to eye.

And to be honest with you I'd need to re-read both books along with RTÉ and the Globalisation of Irish Television by Farrell Corcoran.

While I think Drama co-production is important, there is also local drama that can be produced without a co-producer. RTÉ did many, and many good ones. But has since decided everything is a co-pro doesn't help unless you have a similar PSB beside you The Irish RM (Channel 4) and The Family (BBC), but what happens when you don't sign up for a production or they don't need you Fr Ted (Channel 4) and Ballykissangle (BBC). After all both of those PSB cover Ireland and in their charters are both required to do local programming. Do you end up with a high end international co-pro like Kin, that ends up being bankrupt or a NZ drama like The Gone or the scandi co-pro the South Westerlies? Where do you have time to produce Path To Freedom, oh yeah you spent the money on flip-flops.

RTÉ and many argue it has no money, but it has money when it wants it.

Glad Graham got to speak on Joe Rogan. Not a "sob story" just letting people know about how the cult operates on this side of the pond. You can hear the damage it's done to him in his voice. Someday, maybe sometime in the future we will have the privilege of watching some new material from a great Irish comedy talent.

Lineihan is the Enoch Burke of comedy. He has no one to blame but himself for the fact that his ex-wife and kids want nothing to do with him and his "career" is now reduced to working with Rob Schneider, the most unfunny man alive.

Linehan doesn't even have the excuse of growing up in a mad insular cult like Enoch did.

I'm not 100% sure on the timeline but I think the backlash to that IT Crowd episode came a good few years after it aired in 2008.

So don't quote me, but I agree with you I hate personal antidotes at talks from supposed questions and have suffered through similar, if you want to say something or ask a question be prepared and try to keep it under 2 minutes if you must.

Your link does and I ack'd that but that is new to the page, I don't remember any one ever mention a charter in relation to RTÉ in the past, this is the first time I have seen one and it appears following the fall out of the RTÉ scandal under a DG who is from the BBC and OfCom. So he would have used the word in the UK often, so I can see why it is being used now.

I am happy to be wrong on this and it seems like they are using this word now. But generally I have never heard or seen a charter before in relation to RTÉ. *Having done a quick search I see a charter from 2004 but that is about all.

As for the rest, that's my view on those publications and having interacted with one of the writers of those publications over the course of a few months in college.

You want to say Dee Forbes did a great job her only issue was the commercial end of RTÉ but outside of that she and her predecessors did a great job … I disagree and I think that is a pure excues.

I'll leave you at it, RTÉ are great all the same. Peace out.

Exactly. Barry Humphries later in life said some anti-trans shite, but that doesn't stop me from thinking he may be the greatest comic mind of the 20th century, and a lot of the stuff that's made me really laugh is certainly un-PC (OH, Barry Mckenzie).

Ballykissangel did have RTE involvement in the development process, but they instead chose to develop the Signal Box, a Sean Hughes/David Kelly sitcom about a rural railway station that got to a pilot and nowhere else.

It was a remake of a 1960s version where David Kelly had played the younger character alongside Jimmy O Dea (think this version was long since wiped).

Nail on head -Soupy for the win!

mrs browns boys anyone? - killinaskully anyone? woeful stuff

So I'm pretty sure he did get hung up on criticism of that episode. However at the time, he actually had a pretty normal interaction on Twitter in relation to it and he was accepting of the feedback. Honestly half wonder if it's some kind of a nervous breakdown that he never really got out of.

They have to make enough episodes to repeat into infinity.