Charlie (RTE1 Charlie Haughey Drama)

Laurel_Patente

I predict as the weeks go on we'll see Mario Rosenstock appear as Bertie for no reason other that he's under contract, ditto Bernard O' Shea appearing as Enda Kenny or something

Sugar Free

Pdoghue wrote: »

Good guess.. could be.. but someone who was at a DFA gathering in London after the first Thatcher meeting? Would Desmond have had that access back then?

I would have guessed Bertie or McCreevey, but the actor seems to be too slick and well-spoken for either of them.

I'm interested to know who this character is too. Most of these events were before my time but I can't see them casting that actor as Ahern or McCreeevey - too dark and handsome.

Lumbarda

Pdoghue wrote: »

Good guess.. could be.. but someone who was at a DFA gathering in London after the first Thatcher meeting? Would Desmond have had that access back then?

I would have guessed Bertie or McCreevey, but the actor seems to be too slick and well-spoken for either of them.

I'm pretty sure it's a property developer, one of his cronies who carved up Dublin between them at the time but not sure which one.

Pdoghue

Lumbarda wrote: »

I'm pretty sure it's a property developer, one of his cronies who carved up Dublin between them at the time but not sure which one.

Ah.. could be Ray Burke..

The Black Oil

Initial thoughts. Perhaps too many characters, unavoidable given the story, setting and man, but...maybe pulls you out of the story as a viewer. Borgen though entirely fictional usually focused on a handful of ministers more so than the cabinet, yet at the same time gave enough insight into the headaches (personal, policy, political) experienced by a PM.

Back to Charlie, sloppy writing is not helping. It feels as little like some scenes are not meticulously executed. They run into each other and don't feel very integrated. I don't entirely fault the writer here, there is simply too much ground to cover.

blackwave

Sugar Free wrote: »

I'm interested to know who this character is too. Most of these events were before my time but I can't see them casting that actor as Ahern or McCreeevey - too dark and handsome.

Pretty sure it ain't McCreevey as shown him at the start whilst they were looking for votes in the leadership race. It more than likely a businessman involved in the Ansbacher but my knowledge of that aint the best as its before my time.

Strazdas

BabysCoffee wrote: »

It's jumping all over the place and assuming that the viewer knows exactly who everyone is.....

I'm getting lost, then catching up, then getting lost again

Yes, I'm very familiar with the main characters but I was really confused for the opening 30 minutes.....they introduced way too many characters at once.

Boom__Boom

Full Cast List Here

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3176254/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

kam3qnwvebf4jh

Soundtrack in trailer and throughout most of what I heard in first episode is very similar to Tron Legacy soundtrack, particularily the Outlands track

valoren

It certainly has aroused an interest for me in the politics and people of the time. Plenty reading ahead. For that I applaud it.

kstand

Some of ye are taking it far too seriously - this isn't some huge budget movie trilogy that is being tipped to win Oscars. It's a massive under taking and they've have to work with what they could and ty and get a script that fitted. I think so far it's been good and Gillen has done a fine job as Charlie Haughey.
This is not a Love/Hate spin off nor is it based on fiction. It's important to remember that when some of ye are watching it.

Lumbarda

Pdoghue wrote: »

Ah.. could be Ray Burke..

Could be actually tho' Des Traynor invited this guy to make an "offering" to the Cayman Island Account which I took to mean that he was more of a funder than a facilitator!

blackwave

Overall I liked it, but my main criticism of it is that the pacing of it is waay too fast. This story needs more than 3 episodes to do it justice in my opinion and I have feeling it's going to be way too rushed. If what was given proper pacing ie more episodes, I do think we would have a geniune top class show. As it is an extremely interesting story but this is just going to skim through to quickly for those who don't know the ins and outs of that time.

derb12

blackwave wrote: »

Pretty sure it ain't McCreevey as shown him at the start whilst they were looking for votes in the leadership race. It more than likely a businessman involved in the Ansbacher but my knowledge of that aint the best as its before my time.

Ye, he wouldn't have needed an introduction.
Just replayed the credits and it looks like an actor called Sean t o'meallaigh - who is bizarrely playing a character called john mcmeely who I've never heard of .. But this sounds like just a translation of the actors name.
Or is that too weird?
Maybe he is merely an "every-developer" device made up by the show to avoid litigation?

Mr Frog

Well that was a steaming pile of aul shoite. Pair it off with Amber and you see why homegrown programming is by and large rubbish

NIMAN

I don't know the PJ Mara guy, but if he spoke and had Nidges mannerisms, then TVL has got him down to a tee.

grey_so_what

grey_so_what wrote: »

I remember that night well...........

It was a night us Northsiders will never forget......

A truly horrific night indeed. RIP to the deceased and Condolences to the families. I hope some sort of proper justice is delivered.

OU812

Pdoghue wrote: »

Des Traynor. His accountant.

I worked in the same office as his son. His network password was "Cayman". True story.

mickdw

Gillen doesn't cut it here. Wooden, poorly delivered and with no sparkle.

If any actor can master the machievelian character its Aidan Gillen and there was no man more machievelian then CJ.

DrumSteve

Well I enjoyed it.

madmaggie

I couldn't believe when it was 10.50 p.m., surely a sign of a good programme when the time goes so quickly.

Tinker13

derb12 wrote: »

Maybe he is merely an "every-developer" device made up by the show to avoid litigation?

The mention of "Financial Deregulation" when he picked up the bill would seem to suggest Dermot Desmond imho - RTE probably don't want to be sued so they pick an alias instead.

Heraldoffreeent

Pdoghue wrote: »

Good guess.. could be.. but someone who was at a DFA gathering in London after the first Thatcher meeting? Would Desmond have had that access back then?

I would have guessed Bertie or McCreevey, but the actor seems to be too slick and well-spoken for either of them.

The character wasn't a politician though, he was giving traynor cash, I thought Desmond at first too, but he didn't come on the scene till at least the mid eighties.
I'd imagine he's an everyman character to fit the business types thatd give CJ cash, a similar kind of plot device to using numbers to designate who was with them or against them without having to have identifiable TD's.

dirtyden

Deleted User wrote: »

If any actor can master the machievelian character its Aidan Gillen and there was no man more machievelian then CJ.

He does it quite well in the wire and on game of thrones, but I thought he was badly cast as CJH. No effort appears to have been made to sound anything like Haughey and I thought even his mannerisms were all wrong. Playing such a larger than life character was never going to be easy though.

TheArtOfNoise

I thought it picked up a bit in the last half hour once all the cabinet characters were introduced. Next week and the final weeks downfall may be more exciting.

There was no mention of Haughey's wife (or kids) just a quick reference in one scene to getting back to his "family". To any casual or young viewer of the programme, it came across that he was a bachelor with a girlfriend or he was even married to Terry Keane.

Also the female voice-over on the TV News item on the Stardust fire seemed wrong to me for 1981. I imagine Charles Mitchell or some other man would have presented the TV news. Why didn't they use the original news recording from the RTE archive?

P_1

Crikey the Love/Hate reunion is something else they even have

Elmo

cropping up as

Tony Gregory

according to the cast list on INMD

Here is Bertie by the way :pac:

TheArtOfNoise

TheArtOfNoise wrote: »

I thought it picked up a bit in the last half hour once all the cabinet characters were introduced. Next week and the final weeks downfall may be more exciting.

There was no mention of Haughey's wife (or kids) just a quick reference in one scene to getting back to his "family". To any casual or young viewer of the programme, it came across that he was a bachelor with a girlfriend or he was even married to Terry Keane.

Also the female voice-over on the TV News item on the Stardust fire seemed wrong to me for 1981. I imagine Charles Mitchell or some other man would have presented the TV news. Why didn't they use the original news recording from the RTE archive?

Fairly minor detail to be getting hung up on now really. There is never going to be 100% accuracy in the reconstruction.

Heraldoffreeent

TheArtOfNoise wrote: »

I thought it picked up a bit in the last half hour once all the cabinet characters were introduced. Next week and the final weeks downfall may be more exciting.

There was no mention of Haughey's wife (or kids) just a quick reference in one scene to getting back to his "family". To any casual or young viewer of the programme, it came across that he was a bachelor with a girlfriend or he was even married to Terry Keane.

Also the female voice-over on the TV News item on the Stardust fire seemed wrong to me for 1981. I imagine Charles Mitchell or some other man would have presented the TV news. Why didn't they use the original news recording from the RTE archive?

Yeah, for some reason I've a memory of Maurice O'Doherty doing a news the day of Stardust, although Deirdre Purcell and some other woman who sounded like Edna O'Brien also read the news in the 80's.