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Child Item

Hungry? C4 to create comedy series...about the famine

Kermit.de.frog

"Hungry" is a new sitcom being developed by Channel 4. Bit bizarre subject matter for a comedy?

http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/niallodowd/British-TV-orders-up-a-comedy-series-about-the-Irish-famine.html

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Irish Guitarist

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Both versions are pretty much based on the same idea, no?

I'm not too familiar with either but I get the impression that the American version concentrates more on the family being 'Irish' than the UK version does.

Jawgap

Allyall wrote: »

I do believe that Freedom of speech should be more important, especially when it comes to Comedy.
What some people find offensive is ridiculous (to me, obviously not to them), so banning everything that somebody gets offended by would make for horrible viewing.
However, Freedom of Speech in the UK and Ireland, is the exact opposite of what it means in America. In the UK you are (to the letter of the law) not even allowed to think the Queen is an asshole/idiot/whatever.
I don't know if that applies to everyone, but you're certainly not allowed to say it. So for that reason alone, I doubt it will get the green light.

........

What? Week after week Spitting Image made the entire family out to be a bunch of inbred idiots.......

Timberrrrrrrr

buried wrote: »

Channel 4 should make a ridiculous 'sit-com' where each year the British people pay millions of their own taxed earned monies to a German dynasty lineage called 'The House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha', where in this sit-com the British allow this German dynasty to literally do nothing, let them own all of the land, subsidize them to live in palaces, go on free holidays. Give these foreign German's ridiculous fairy-tale title's such as 'Kings' and 'Queens', put their German faces on the actual currency of the nation, make this German family the apex of the nation's religion - to literally worship a foreign German dynasty. While at the same time, the current idiotic British Prime Minister b!tches and moans about 'foreigners' stealing British money and jobs because that's what the majority of British people want to hear. Now that's a comedy....... Oh wait....... that's Britain's actual REALITY isn't it? Ah well, still funny as f**k. Even more so because its actually true.

:rolleyes:

AudreyHepburn

I wish people would stop looking for reasons to be anti-British. What happened between our two countries is in the past, leave it there.

Ok it might seem it poor taste on first glance but then again the British have managed make successful comedies out of all sorts of horrible events....think Blackadder Goes Forth, set in the trenches of WWI.

If we were talking about a comedy on something like the Holocaust I could understand the outrage but this is completely different.

I think some posters here need to lighten up a little.

SaveOurLyric

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Someone in Channel 4 presumably.

I dunno.

Mr. Channel 4?

And I used to like C4. But now its just a blight on our TVs.

petrolcan

Doris300 wrote: »

People love nothing more than to get offended

How *dare* you!!!

BurnsCarpenter

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Satire is satire. Nothing should be off limits. Watch Chris Morris for details.

Er.. How exactly will this be satire?

um7y1h83ge06nx

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

If we were talking about a comedy on something like the Holocaust I could understand the outrage but this is completely different.

I think some posters here need to lighten up a little.

I don't understand why the Famine is so different to the Holocaust.

The British government's inactions and actions at the time to accelerate and deepen the crisis would probably today amount to crimes against humanity.

Just because the UN and The Hague didn't exist back then doesn't mean the Famine was no big deal.

And I wouldn't be anti British, modern British people shouldn't be blamed for the crimes of their ancestors, but we can't brush history completely under the carpet either.

Ghost Buster

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Big difference in a comedy about North Korea and what this is about.

Obviously not to you though.

It hasnt been made and yet you know what its about...

Jawgap

Esther Obedient Numeral wrote: »

I don't understand why the Famine is so different to the Holocaust.

Because there is a difference between neglect, recklessness and intent.....

Esther Obedient Numeral wrote: »

The British government's inactions and actions at the time to accelerate and deepen the crisis would probably today amount to crimes against humanity.

No, they wouldn't.

Esther Obedient Numeral wrote: »

Just because the UN and The Hague didn't exist back then doesn't mean the Famine was no big deal.

And I wouldn't be anti British, modern British people shouldn't be blamed for the crimes of their ancestors, but we can't brush history completely under the carpet either.

The Famine, and all that followed it, was a tragedy for this country - but it doesn't bear comparison with the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide or the Stalinist Famine in Ukraine.

It was, maybe, comparable to the Bengal Famine (1943).

Ghost Buster

Ding Dong Denny O Reilly has been making good comedy out of The Troubles, 1916, The Civil War and the famine for years and none of the historians and revolutionaries here have imploded with anger.
Horrible Histories like wise doesnt seem to have offended the Italians, French, Germans, British, Russians or Spanish all of whom have had comedy (for children!) made concerning terrible events in their history.
open your minds for ****s sake.

Timberrrrrrrr

Ghost Buster wrote: »

Ding Dong Denny O Reilly has been making good comedy out of The Troubles, 1916, The Civil War and the famine for years and none of the historians and revolutionaries here have imploded with anger.
Horrible Histories like wise doesnt seem to have offended the Italians, French, Germans, British, Russians or Spanish all of whom have had comedy (for children!) made concerning terrible events in their history.
open your minds for ****s sake.

Ah but the BRITISH!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

AudreyHepburn

Esther Obedient Numeral wrote: »

I don't understand why the Famine is so different to the Holocaust.

The British government's inactions and actions at the time to accelerate and deepen the crisis would probably today amount to crimes against humanity.

Just because the UN and The Hague didn't exist back then doesn't mean the Famine was no big deal.

And I wouldn't be anti British, modern British people shouldn't be blamed for the crimes of their ancestors, but we can't brush history completely under the carpet either.

The famine was a combination of a natural disaster and reckless neglect by the British government. The Holocaust was planned mass murder, genocide. The two are not remotely comparable.

I'm not saying we brush the past under the carpet either, but we cannot and should not allowed to inform the way we view the British and the relationship we have with them now.

Grayson

buried wrote: »

Channel 4 should make a ridiculous 'sit-com' where each year the British people pay millions of their own taxed earned monies to a German dynasty lineage called 'The House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha', where in this sit-com the British allow this German dynasty to literally do nothing, let them own all of the land, subsidize them to live in palaces, go on free holidays. Give these foreign German's ridiculous fairy-tale title's such as 'Kings' and 'Queens', put their German faces on the actual currency of the nation, make this German family the apex of the nation's religion - to literally worship a foreign German dynasty. While at the same time, the current idiotic British Prime Minister b!tches and moans about 'foreigners' stealing British money and jobs because that's what the majority of British people want to hear. Now that's a comedy....... Oh wait....... that's Britain's actual REALITY isn't it? Ah well, still funny as f**k. Even more so because its actually true.

It was called Blackadder the Third

Donkey Oaty

Rhys Essien wrote: »

That didnt stop Johnny Rotten.;)

Mind you,one of the MP's at the time wanted him prosecuted under the traitors and treasons act which still carried the death penalty.

He likes to say that in interviews, and claims that it was openly discussed in parliament. However, Private Eye magazine has pointed out that

1) There is no such "Traitors and Treasons Act";

and:

2) A search of Hansard (House of Commons official record) shows that the Sex Pistols have only been mentioned once, which was in relation to crowd safety at pop gigs.

The actual thing Johnny Rotten is referring to might be a comment by Tory GLC councillor (not MP) Bernard Brook Partridge, saying most of these [punk rockers bands] would be improved by sudden death, and calling for them to be buried in a big hole. He did not try and introduce any legislation to bring this about.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058800/

Becoming a hero by accidentally leading a cavalry charge the wrong way, Captain Wilton Parmenter is given command of Fort Courage. The Fort's crafty Sgt. O'Rourke has a deal with the local Hekawi Indians to market their wares to the tourists. They must sometimes pretend to be enemies (and the Shugs really are enemies).

Given the genocidal attitude of the US towards the original inhabitants...

Kermit.de.frog

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

The famine was a combination of a natural disaster and reckless neglect by the British government. The Holocaust was planned mass murder, genocide. The two are not remotely comparable.

Of course the famine wasn't planned by the British government. It was just convenient.

Jawgap

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Of course the famine wasn't planned by the British government. It was just convenient.

How was it 'convenient'? Given the resources it both pulled in and deprived the British of?

Badly Drunk Boy

BurnsCarpenter wrote: »

Er.. How exactly will this be satire?

We don't know because it hasn't been written. Flann O'Brien's book, The Poor Mouth (An Béal Bocht), might be a good example of what they could do, the story being set in a time of great poverty in Ireland where is never stopped raining, and it's hilarious. It's a parody/satire on books like Peig.

Badly Drunk Boy

Jawgap wrote: »

How was it 'convenient'? Given the resources it both pulled in and deprived the British of?

There were loads of food exports going to the UK during the Famine.

Here's a little quote from Wikipedia (yeah, I know):

"In History Ireland magazine (1997, issue 5, pp. 32–36), Christine Kinealy, a Great Hunger scholar, lecturer, and Drew University professor, relates her findings: Almost 4,000 vessels carried food from Ireland to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London during 1847, when 400,000 Irish men, women and children died of starvation and related diseases. She also writes that Irish exports of calves, livestock (except pigs), bacon and ham actually increased during the Famine. This food was shipped under British military guard from the most famine-stricken parts of Ireland; Ballina, Ballyshannon, Bantry, Dingle, Killala, Kilrush, Limerick, Sligo, Tralee and Westport."

AnonoBoy

Ghost Buster wrote: »

Ding Dong Denny O Reilly has been making good comedy out of The Troubles, 1916, The Civil War and the famine for years and none of the historians and revolutionaries here have imploded with anger.
Horrible Histories like wise doesnt seem to have offended the Italians, French, Germans, British, Russians or Spanish all of whom have had comedy (for children!) made concerning terrible events in their history.
open your minds for ****s sake.

A comedy song about the famine.

Gentlemen set your phasers to offended.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVlb1i0x0ew

Jawgap

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

There were loads of food exports going to the UK during the Famine.

Here's a little quote from Wikipedia (yeah, I know):

"In History Ireland magazine (1997, issue 5, pp. 32–36), Christine Kinealy, a Great Hunger scholar, lecturer, and Drew University professor, relates her findings: Almost 4,000 vessels carried food from Ireland to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London during 1847, when 400,000 Irish men, women and children died of starvation and related diseases. She also writes that Irish exports of calves, livestock (except pigs), bacon and ham actually increased during the Famine. This food was shipped under British military guard from the most famine-stricken parts of Ireland; Ballina, Ballyshannon, Bantry, Dingle, Killala, Kilrush, Limerick, Sligo, Tralee and Westport."

Yes and more food was imported into the country than exported during the period 1846 to 1850 - a switch from previous years when agricultural surpluses made the country one of Empire's breadbaskets (ref: Ireland’s Great Famine: An Overview Cormac Ó Gráda, University College Dublin)

Likewise, in 1830, 42.2% of all non-comms and men throughout the British Army were Irish (way out of proportion to the population size) but by 1868 the percentage of Irishmen in the British Army had dropped to 30.4% (still out of proportion to Ireland's population). Also, in 1868, the proportion of
Roman Catholics in the British Army stood at 28.4%, suggesting that most of the Irish soldiers were Catholics (Ref:- Peter Karsten "Irish Soldiers in the British Army, 1792-1922: Suborned or Subordinate?" in the Journal of Social History)

If you have an Empire to run why would you destroy a source of food and eat into your manpower reserve? If the objective was genocide, then it was a strange administration that first sets out to commit such an act and then goes to some length to bring into the country an amount of food equivalent to almost 50% of domestic production, while all the while continuing to allow the 'targeted' population to bear arms in significant numbers?

Rhys Essien

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

The famine was a combination of a natural disaster and reckless neglect by the British government. The Holocaust was planned mass murder, genocide. The two are not remotely comparable.

I'm not saying we brush the past under the carpet either, but we cannot and should not allowed to inform the way we view the British and the relationship we have with them now.

It really pi$$es me off that this thing is still being called a Famine.When 30 to 50 boat loads of food were being shipped out of Ireland daily while people were left to starve is fairly comparable to me.Why did Tony Blair feel the need to apologise a few years back.They know that if it was today they would all be heading to the Hague.

A quote from renowned British historian AJP Taylor declared "All Ireland was a Belsen".

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/was-the-famine-genocide-by-the-british-28954929.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_%28Ireland%29

Jawgap

Rhys Essien wrote: »

It really pi$$es me off that this thing is still being called a Famine.When 30 to 50 boat loads of food were being shipped out of Ireland daily while people were left to starve is fairly comparable to me.Why did Tony Blair feel the need to apologise a few years back.They know that if it was today they would all be heading to the Hague.

A quote from renowned British historian AJP Taylor declared "All Ireland was a Belsen".

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/was-the-famine-genocide-by-the-british-28954929.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_%28Ireland%29

Love it!! British Historian (Woodham-smith) writes a book about the Famine (actually the first serious histrocial study of it) and gets hammered, to the point of being included in derisory terms on a UCD exam paper.......

......second British historian, (Taylor) makes a comment that is consistent with the folkloric memory and is lauded.......presumably by people who've not read his work in respect of WW2 and the Brits and Commonwealth role in it!!!

The whole thing about shiploads of grain leaving the country is described as one of the great half-truths of the Famine - by another historian, only he was Irish

......Cormac Ó Gráda in UCD, in case you were wondering.

He also says that no academic historian takes the claim of 'genocide' seriously any more.......

Bog Standard User

fryup wrote: »

i hear its going to called...............mash

*gets coat

will rotten tomatoes be reviewing it or will they rename it to rottenspuds.com

Rhys Essien

Jawgap wrote: »

The whole thing about shiploads of grain leaving the country is described as one of the great half-truths of the Famine - by another historian, only he was Irish

half-truths,what are you on about?.

There are documented invoice records of what was being exported out of Ireland at the time.What is your agenda here.To deny this???

Also explain to me what Tony Blair was actually apologising for.???They were as guilty as hell and they know it.

What happened was the failure of one crop.The definition of Famine is 'extreme scarcity of food'.This was not the case in Ireland in 1845.

Jawgap

Rhys Essien wrote: »

half-truths,what are you on about?.

There are documented invoice records of what was being exported out of Ireland at the time.What is your agenda here.To deny this???

Also explain to me what Tony Blair was actually apologising for.???They were as guilty as hell and they know it.

What happened was the failure of one crop.The definition of Famine is 'extreme scarcity of food'.This was not the case in Ireland in 1845.

Well I was just quoting from O'Grada's book - he used the words 'half truths' in relation to the grain shipments. Perhaps you should take it up with the good professor?

Blair was apologising for the neglect - of which there was plenty.

The failure of the potato crop was the proximate cause, but it wasn't the only factor - changes in the variety of spud being grown, the changes in the size and structure of smallholdigs, demographic changes, labour and economic changes all played their part too, as did the weather over successive growing seasons.

Ghost Buster

There's something particularly school yard juvenile about the assumption that any comedy made concerning Irish matters will be "poking fun at us". Does every native American get his knickers in a twist when a comedy western is produced as it isn't reverential enough to their plight?
After all. Most westerns are set at the time when they were dieing in droves.

Grayson

Rhys Essien wrote: »

half-truths,what are you on about?.

There are documented invoice records of what was being exported out of Ireland at the time.What is your agenda here.To deny this???

Also explain to me what Tony Blair was actually apologising for.???They were as guilty as hell and they know it.

What happened was the failure of one crop.The definition of Famine is 'extreme scarcity of food'.This was not the case in Ireland in 1845.

half truth probably means that yes there were exports but that it didn't have the effect people said it did.

The famine is one of the more emotive episodes of Irish history. Questioning any aspect of it is akin to questioning Stalingrad with Russians or the US War of independence with Americans.

Allyall

Jawgap wrote: »

What? Week after week Spitting Image made the entire family out to be a bunch of inbred idiots.......

True, but they never acted upon it. I think it may be different if there was a load of people declaring their outrage at it.