Charlie (RTE1 Charlie Haughey Drama)

fryup

the actor playing des o'malley is a bit too tall & thin for the part don't you think ??

the real des was much shorter

fryup

fryup wrote: »

the actor playing des o'malley is a bit too tall & thin for the part don't you think ??

the real des was much shorter

Peter O'meara didnt really look too much like Lenihan either to be honest. They could have used an actor with a similar build.

fryup

^^^^^^^^^

nah, i think they got lenihan pretty well spot on, lenihan was stocky and o'meara is stocky

i mean you knew it was him..whereas it took me nearly me an hour before i copped that it was des o'malley the other guy was portraying

fryup

fryup wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^

nah, i think they got lenihan pretty well spot on, lenihan was stocky and o'meara is stocky

i mean you knew it was him..whereas it took me nearly me an hour before i copped that it was des o'malley the other guy was portraying

I always thought Lenihan was thin although to be fair he was probably only thin in his later years when he fell ill. The white streak in the hair sort of gave him away.

fryup

he was stocky in his prime

fryup

fryup wrote: »

he was stocky in his prime

Yeah true enough. Wow, my memory of him was as a thin fella but thats probably in his latter years.

JaseBelleVie

Sure Charlie Haughey himself was only like 5' 6" or something!

Dermot Morgan (RIP) does this brilliantly. Poor Albert Reynolds gets an awful time of it!

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

mrsdewinter

Watched last Sun's episode for the first time this evening and I gotta say I enjoyed it. From everything I'd read, I thought it would be dreadful but I thought they captured Haughey's great appeal to the grass roots, that he was just a humble northsider who was kicking against the pr1cks of the Establishment, very well.
Loved the 'chicken and chips' muddle with the waiter - made me want to dig up that classic Scrap Saturday sketch with Gay Byrne interviewing Charlie...

icdg

Some of the script was extremely quotable, but I've not seen so much chewing of scenery in a production not starring Brian Blessed in a long time. Put together it made it seem completely (if unintentionally) hillarious.

As a drama it suffers of course from a severe case of foregone conclusion, not to mention the fact that Aidan Gillen's Charlie has about 95% of the lines (I think he was in every single scene, a rarity for even a central character these days) makes it sometimes seem like a monologue.

The soundtrack didn't help...

icdg

ivytwine wrote: »

The Thatcher thing was where they lost me. I daresay they thought casting her would have been too difficult.

That struck me as well, her spectre looms large over the second half of the episode but yet she never appears in person. Entire meetings are re-enacted in "post mortem" scenes by Haughey and the other characters while a phone conversation is heard only from Haughey's point of view.

I imagine they decided that Thatcher was such a larger than life person herself that to include her would detract from the larger than life version of Charlie they were trying to project.

katydid

icdg wrote: »

That struck me as well, her spectre looms large over the second half of the episode but yet she never appears in person. Entire meetings are re-enacted in "post mortem" scenes by Haughey and the other characters while a phone conversation is heard only from Haughey's point of view.

I imagine they decided that Thatcher was such a larger than life person herself that to include her would detract from the larger than life version of Charlie they were trying to project.

I agree with you. It's hard enough to cast the people they can't avoid casting, like Haughey himself, Lenihan, Colley and so on. But Margaret Thatcher's been done to death, and there would inevitably be criticism of how it was done. I thought the telephone calls and talking about the meetings afterwards was a great way to get around it. Likewise I thought that in the scene where he was being elected Taoiseach, having the voices of Garret Fitzgerald and others, without seeing them, worked very well, especially as they were voiceovers as he was going into the chamber. It was a clever way out of having to depict those people.

If only the rest of the programme worked as well as those devices...

CountyHurler

I just posted a new thread about it, but for all you political heads "The Guarantee" is on TV3 tonight at 9PM.

CountyHurler

I was surprised when I saw Bertie looking so dischevelled in the advert for next week's show.. But it seems like it is politically accurate..



The first thing I thought when I saw this was how much he looked like that other famous socialist and profound thinker...

BabysCoffee

CountyHurler wrote: »

I just posted a new thread about it, but for all you political heads "The Guarantee" is on TV3 tonight at 9PM.

Oh great I want to see this

Declan A Walsh

mzungu wrote: »

I enjoyed that a lot, but from reading the posts here it seems I am in the minority. Had its faults definitely, but I was entertained for the 75 minutes it was on.

The Brian Lenin portrayal does not sit quite right with me though. Its almost cartoonish.

Looking forward to this Sundays episode.

I would agree with that. As someone who did follow the events when they happened, I found the whole thing entertaining. My main quibble was the portrayal of Brian Lenihan (Lenin - some kind of Freudian slip??!). He came across as a bit of a clown. The real Lenihan could be very entertaining, but he was a shrewd politician and certainly no fool.

I suppose Aidan Gillen's portrayal of Charlie Haughey is a bit distant and lacking in emotion, but maybe that is how he in fact came across. I certainly think some of the criticism leveled at Gillen is not warranted. I thought he did a reasonable job.

Again, I suppose it would have been helpful to see the names of the characters up on the screen to help jog our memories, or to help give context to those who were too young to remember.

I was laughing at earlier posts from the night in question, where some thought that Des Traynor was Dessie O'Malley. The latter is referred to as Desmond and is always near George Colley in Episode 1. I hope his character is fleshed out a bit as he becomes a central player in the '80s.

Looking forward to Episode 2 and the introduction of Tony Gregory, or Elmo as we know him from Love/Hate! I presume Bertie Ahern will also be a central figure.

mzungu

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

I would agree with that. As someone who did follow the events when they happened, I found the whole thing entertaining. My main quibble was the portrayal of Brian Lenihan (Lenin - some kind of Freudian slip??!). He came across as a bit of a clown. The real Lenihan could be very entertaining, but he was a shrewd politician and certainly no fool.

Ooops, most definately a Freudian slip But the real Lenihan was certainly no village eejit, like he is being portrayed.

I suppose Aidan Gillen's portrayal of Charlie Haughey is a bit distant and lacking in emotion, but maybe that is how he in fact came across. I certainly think some of the criticism leveled at Gillen is not warranted. I thought he did a reasonable job.

Agreed, I think in general Gillen comes in for a hell of a lot of stick (on the GOT, Wire forums and L/H thread), a lot of which is indeed unwarranted. So far I am enjoying his portrayal of Haughey. The impression I always had of Haughey was that he would be an individual who would be rather distant.

Again, I suppose it would have been helpful to see the names of the characters up on the screen to help jog our memories, or to help give context to those who were too young to remember.

Along with the names, maybe a quick mention of how much they swindled and what Tribunal found them to be dodgy...that'll jog a fair few memories;)

_Kaiser_

Ok so first off, I've never seen Love/Hate so no baggage for me there around how such and such sounded like so and so, or how much better (or not) that show is!

The introduction was very confusing if you didn't know the players.. too many faces with no names and it was a bit of a struggle alright trying to make sense of who's who, but by the mid-point it had settled down and was much better

Production values seemed very high (sets, props etc) and the whole thing is very fast-paced which is a negative considering they only have 3 episodes to fit everything in. A 6 part show would have worked better I think if this pace continues

All in all though, a good (if somewhat over-hyped) effort I thought, and far better than the usual nonsense that is RTE home-grown stuff. What struck me most is how things probably haven't changed that much in the corridors of power, but Enda is certainly no Charlie in terms of charisma or leadership ability (whatever else you think of CJH, I can't imagine him playing the EU's poster boy for Austerity and general "yes man" the way Kenny has!)

The timing of this show struck me though.. a show that exposes the corruption that FF is infamous for at a time when they've been staging a recovery in the polls and the current government are talking about early elections.... or maybe that's just my cynical mind!

mickdw

CountyHurler wrote: »

I was surprised when I saw Bertie looking so dischevelled in the advert for next week's show..

Bertie was famous for wearing an old duffle coat all through his earlier years in politics so he did tend to be very scruffy.

ArmaniJeanss

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

The timing of this show struck me though.. a show that exposes the corruption that FF is infamous for at a time when they've been staging a recovery in the polls and the current government are talking about early elections.... or maybe that's just my cynical mind!

Slightly problematical to find a completely 'fair' slot though.
As I understand it Charlie was completed in 2013 and has been held over since then, so presumably they didn't want it to go out before Local and European elections, and the various scheduled by-elections.
And if they held it back much longer this year they'd definitely be running into the next general election. And putting it further on the backburner until say Autumn 2016 was probably unpalatable from a financial point of view.

So now is probably as neutral a time as any to show it.

Blanchguy

Hardly exposes! Most of the stuff about Haughey was either blatantly obvious or in a book called "The Boss" which was written in 1984.

AnonoBoy

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

I was laughing at earlier posts from the night in question, where some thought that Des Traynor was Dessie O'Malley.

It was hard to mix up the Traynor character - they showed a close up on the nameplate on his desk, didn't they?

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Slightly problematical to find a completely 'fair' slot though.
As I understand it Charlie was completed in 2013 and has been held over since then, so presumably they didn't want it to go out before Local and European elections, and the various scheduled by-elections.

It was shot in late 2013 and would have taken months to edit so it wouldn't have been completed until early-mid 2014.

mzungu

mickdw wrote: »

Bertie was famous for wearing an old duffle coat all through his earlier years in politics so he did tend to be very scruffy.

Perhaps those dig outs were for a new wardrobe!

Roanmore

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Ok so first off, I've never seen Love/Hate so no baggage for me there around how such and such sounded like so and so, or how much better (or not) that show is!

The introduction was very confusing if you didn't know the players.. too many faces with no names and it was a bit of a struggle alright trying to make sense of who's who, but by the mid-point it had settled down and was much better

Production values seemed very high (sets, props etc) and the whole thing is very fast-paced which is a negative considering they only have 3 episodes to fit everything in. A 6 part show would have worked better I think if this pace continues

All in all though, a good (if somewhat over-hyped) effort I thought, and far better than the usual nonsense that is RTE home-grown stuff. What struck me most is how things probably haven't changed that much in the corridors of power, but Enda is certainly no Charlie in terms of charisma or leadership ability (whatever else you think of CJH, I can't imagine him playing the EU's poster boy for Austerity and general "yes man" the way Kenny has!)

The timing of this show struck me though.. a show that exposes the corruption that FF is infamous for at a time when they've been staging a recovery in the polls and the current government are talking about early elections.... or maybe that's just my cynical mind!

Are you for real, Charlie gave up nearly every principle and everybody to hold on to power, he'd have sold his mother for an overall majority.
If he thought he'd have a few more years as Leader he'd have given every thing away.

Don't have the exact figures but at the last GE they got about 18%, think the last poll had them at 18 or 19%, not exactly making a recovery.

bazermc

Useful summary of different folk in the show here.

http://www.rte.ie/drama/tv/featured/charlie/abouttheshow.html

BuilderPlumber

mickdw wrote: »

Bertie was famous for wearing an old duffle coat all through his earlier years in politics so he did tend to be very scruffy.

He did not get the name Anorakman for nothing! Then he changed his ID to Bananaman!

AnonoBoy

bazermc wrote: »

Useful summary of different folk in the show here.

http://www.rte.ie/drama/tv/featured/charlie/abouttheshow.html

Elmo is playing Tony Gregory!

And the lad that plays Bertie was in Love/Hate too as a customs guy.

LynnGrace

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

He did not get the name Anorakman for nothing! Then he changed his ID to Bananaman!

I was just thinking the same.

bazermc

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Elmo is playing Tony Gregory!

And the lad that plays Bertie was in Love/Hate too as a customs guy.

And the guy playing George Colley was also in Love/Hate, he played John Boys solicitor

I watched Charlie the other night and for most of it I thought it was Love/Hate, the actors and the criminality were the same

BuilderPlumber

bazermc wrote: »

And the guy playing George Colley was also in Love/Hate, he played John Boys solicitor

I watched Charlie the other night and for most of it I thought it was Love/Hate, the actors and the criminality were the same

True. We have Nidge, John Boy, Elmo. And criminality, corruption, IRA relations, etc. All we need is Fran the man!

Fred Swanson

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