qweerty wrote: » @josephryan, I don't mean to patronise you, as you are obviously well read in Irish history. But you seem oblivious to the fact that historical analysis is interpretation of events rather than the uncovering of some objective truth. As such, I feel you really ought to be less didactic with what are, no-doubt educated, opinions.
jack presley wrote: » His understanding of the GAA is pretty poor though ("weak outside the big counties" for example)
TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: » Maybe it is. I don't know. But in terms of getting your product to as big an audience as possible it seems a silly thing to do. I wonder if BBC are planning on showing this at some point? No other reason I can see to block it. Unless everything on the RTE player is blocked in NI?
weadick wrote: » 619,000 viewers for the first episode,http://m.rte.ie/ten/news/2016/0104/757741-rebellion/ That sounds like a pretty average amount of viewers for a flagship TV production? Considering the amount of advertising it got over the last few months, interviews with the cast, etc I would have thought it would have got much bigger numbers watching.
Strazdas wrote: » Ratings are down across the board though across Ireland and the UK (the Christmas Day ratings on BBC1 were shockingly bad). I'd say 600k+ was very healthy in the current climate.
TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: » Mrs. Brown's Boys was the top show on the BBC over Christmas. Over 9 million. Pretty scary :eek:
MarinersBlues wrote: » There was a lot of advertising about it being on in January, but it wasn't clear that it would be so soon after Christmas. My gf and I were looking forward to watching it but were caught off guard with it starting on Sunday.
Strazdas wrote: » I think that's the 2014 figures you're looking at : MBB was down to 6.4m this year.
weadick wrote: » Personally I would have thought having it on over Easter Week like they did with Insurrection in 66 would have been the ideal time. Think most people are sick of TV after the last few weeks!
TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: » Nope. Consolidated figures for Christmas viewing... http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/downton-abbey/news/a778689/what-were-the-top-10-shows-on-uk-television-this-christmas/ 6.something sat down on Christmas Day to watch it "live". 9.49 with +1 and catch up. Granted the 600k for Rebellion is the "live" figures. Not sure RTE do consolidated figures.
qweerty wrote: » Your link says Downtown Abbey was top. Edit: sorry, doesn't affect your initial point. Wow, it seems the extent of time-shifting is unprecedented: DA and MBB each increasing audience by 50% in week after airing.
weadick wrote: » I'm surprised one of the UK channels isn't showing it. I'm starting to get the opinion that we actually have a far more balanced view of the relationship between Britain and Ireland than they do. In the Sunday Times this week there was a scathing mention of the Easter Rising in one of the supplements. The term 'stab in the back' was used and the 'Ireland creation myth' whatever that means. There was an equally dismissive mention of DeValera in the same paper a few weeks back. I think this is rather typical of the British view of, not just 1916, but the entire Irish struggle for independence. That is, the few English people these days who are even aware that there was such a thing, most of them think Dublin is just as British as Dudley. Then again, I suppose it says a lot that these uppity English papers are actually far more popular in Ireland than any Irish ones are!
qweerty wrote: » Why would the UK channels show it?! You're just as likely to see Ruth Dudley Edwards in the Sunday Independent dismissing de Velera. Truth is, most Brits don't care. Some are ashamed of it, but most just ignore it like they ignore the rest of the Empire's misdeeds. As for popularity of UK broadsheets, the dailies have a combined circulation of about 10k (versus about 220k) and the Sunday Times has a Dublin editor and staff and just uses Londkm content to pad it out.
TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: » British people learn their history from their point of view. As we all do. What we learned in primary school about Irish/English relations was pretty one sided. Most countries whitewash their history. It's annoying, to a degree, but it's not surprising. In regard to 1916 it probably didn't even register for most people in Britain at the time because they were in the middle of WW1 and that's what's occupied that period of time in their history books ever since.
crushproof wrote: » However, some the most slamming (some may say anti Brit) productions have been funded by British sources, let's not forget that the Wind That Shakes the Barley was directed by a Brit and the two Bloody Sunday movies were aired on UK TV.
weadick wrote: » Well Bloody Sunday was made by Channel 4 and was shown there before here. Likewise Rebel Heart and the BBC. When you consider that Channel 5 bought Love Hate (massively overrated) and Channel 4 used to show Glenroe and the Late Late then you would think that a lavishly produced drama set in the UK in the early 20th century would have some appeal even to one of the smaller stations. What I was referring to with regard the papers is the irony that red top rags that used to be renknowned for having an anti-Irish bias in the 80's and 90's are now massively popular here. Given that many of those involved in the Rising were prominent cultural nationalists it just goes to show what an absolute utter failure the 'revolution' was.
Martypants1 wrote: » I am fascinated. Absolutely fascinated. I am living in Dublin being from the west. I used to look around Dublin and find it mad that it was ruled by the British only 100 years a go.
qweerty wrote: » Reading the transcript of the first episode, I realise the script is very dense, particularly during the scene when Harry and someone else meets Elizabeth's (seeming) husband-to-be on his return. Also, didn't realise that the three singers at the beginning become the three protagonists. I see now that an attempt was made to show that they are close friends, but I think that could have been emphasised more.
The Rape of Lucretia wrote: » Thats a curious and interesting perspective on it. Yet one that does seem to have pervaded much of the national consiousness (both those from the west, and those from Dublin. Ruled by the British ? The Irish were part of the ruling of the United Kingdom including the 32 counties of Ireland. This feeling of being ruled by an external, other, 'British', was a distinctly minority and misguided one, latched on to by all manner of misfits and oddballs as the cause of any grievance or gripe under the sun, Yet promoted ever since in a 100 years of spin that sought to justify the rebellion, fracture of the country...
TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: » How did you not realise it was them? It shows them without the stage makeup imidiately after upstairs in the theatre and everyone is toasting their performance.
qweerty wrote: » Reading the transcript Also, didn't realise that the three singers at the beginning become the three protagonists. I see now that an attempt was made to show that they are close friends, but I think that could have been emphasised more.
qweerty wrote: » I'm not sure! Partly because we were bombarded with characters, I guess. But also because it would have been unusual, I think, for upper class young ladies (ie not children) to perform like that, so that sort of threw me: I thought they were merely "the entertainment."
TCDStudent1 wrote: » It seemed obvious to me that they were close friends. We see them perform together at the start. We see Mary and May argue about May's affair. We see May visit Elizabeth and Elizabeth hugging her and being delighted to see her. And they share an intimate conversation that would usually only occur between good friends. This is one thing that Rebellion does well. It shows that people from different backgrounds co-existed and their paths in life sometimes crossed.
TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: » There were a lot of characters alright. Not sure who all the male ones were myself. The women were performing in the theatre at the start, not just at home for giggles. I guess establishing a preexisting friendship in a few scenes before skipping 2 years wasn't the easiest task.
qweerty wrote: » I agree. It's so deeply ingrained that even those who have misgivings about the Rising don't recognise the distinction. However, I thought the programme did well in presenting that. There were the upper-class Home Rule-ers and the working class soldier ("I was fighting for King and Country") who oppose anti-British sentiment.
qweerty wrote: » Yeah, maybe it was a bad miss on my part. I did just about manage to keep track of the guys, as it happens! @TCDStudent, I presume you mean Frances, not Mary. I mistook her for being May's sister
TCDStudent1 wrote: » Yeah, my mistake - Frances. I think it mentioned she was from Galway. Definitely said may was from Cork.
