Courtney McGrailCoverage of Pope Francis’ historic trip to the USA was “drawn to the peripheral’, writes Brendan O’Regan
Most worthy of note among the new programmes this season is RTÉ Radio 1’s Friday night series Leap of Faith presented by Michael Comyn. It’s a welcome development, though the 30-minute slot means things aren’t teased out as thoroughly as on Comyn’s Sunday Spirit on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra.
The first episode featured the religious news of the week, especially a review of Pope Francis’ visit to the USA. For this, only Patsy McGarry of The Irish Times was interviewed. He said that the visit was a “tremendous success” at least in the short term and suggested that Pope Francis had something for the liberals, e.g. his criticism of the death penalty, and for the conservatives, e.g. his support for the right to life, but are these not the same issue?
The media is unerringly drawn to the peripheral and so that meeting with Kim Davis was brought up again. She’s a public official in difficulties over her stance on licensing same-sex marriages, but did the Pope know who she was when he met her? In a rather peculiar observation McGarry wondered if she was an “ideal candidate for such representation” as she wasn’t Catholic anymore and had been married a few times… can you imagine the outrage if he had refused to meet anyone but orthodox Catholics?
The show also featured an interview with former RTÉ presenter Bibi Baskin. She had been brought up in a Protestant family in Donegal, but faith didn’t seem to be important to her as she was an atheist for much of her life. In recent times she had returned to the Christian faith but this wasn’t teased out enough. It wasn’t a Damascus Road conversion but seemed more to do with feeling the need to fit in when she lived in India, where everybody had some sort of religious affiliation.
Meanwhile, RTÉ One launched a new Sunday night crime drama, Clean Break, and after two episodes I’m underwhelmed.
At times like a Crimecall reconstruction, it made uneasy viewing in the light of media accounts of that harrowing burglary in Tipperary. On the plus side, the cinematography (by Peter Robertson and Anna Valdez-Hanks) was outstanding as the Wexford locations, urban and rural, were used to excellent advantage in a moody, broody kind of way. It’s just a pity the plot didn’t serve it better. It all seemed stilted, stodgy, clichéd and at times overacted.
The first episode, repeated last Saturday night, held the attention to some extent but watching Sunday night’s second episode I found myself getting irritated and impatient.
Simon McArdle is deliberately restrained as bank manager Desmond whose family is kidnapped (a cynical Garda calls him ‘Rigor Mortis Junior’), but it strains credibility to see him browsing through his stamp collection when his family is held hostage, and when they are saved (too early and too easily to maintain tension) he virtually ignores his traumatised young daughter.
Adam Fergus shows promise as Frank, a car dealer who overstretched himself during the Celtic Tiger years. The character of Desmond’s wife (Simone Kirby) is particularly underdrawn. It’s a show full of unappealing characters, so it’s hard to care about any of them. And of course there’s the predictable inclusion of gratuitous foul language and profanity.
Nevertheless, I reckon that the show will figure at next year’s IFTA awards. This year’s awards were discussed on Morning Ireland last Friday, and I was surprised to hear that TV3’s marriage referendum results coverage, Live from the George, was among those programmes nominated. You might remember that bizarre show – more celebration than coverage of the referendum results mixed with dodgy cabaret in a gay bar, one of the more blatant examples of just how biased the media were on that issue.
Finally, back on radio, I heard an interesting discussion on Newstalk’s TED Radio Hour last Sunday evening. The topic was trust, described as the ‘gel’ of human relationships.
A conductor spoke of the trust needed in his relationship with an orchestra, while other speakers dealt with the importance of trust in the workplace.
One contributor spoke of the human search for trust after the events in the Garden of Eden, and went into detail about trust in the marriage relationship and how adultery has a devastating impact on that trust.
She finished on the hopeful note that trust could be recovered.
Pick of the Week
Documentary on One: A Matter of International Secrecy
RTĖ Radio 1, Saturday, Oct 10, 2pm
Preparations for the papal visit to Ireland in 1979.
Joe Duffy’s Spirit Level
RTĖ 1, Sunday, Oct 11, 1:10pm
What does marriage really mean to Irish people today? With Senator David Norris, Wendy Grace and Shiva and Lina Gautam. Music from Zoe Conway and John McIntyre.
EWTN news presents: the Synod on the Family
EWTN, Monday, Oct 12, 6pm
Updates from the EWTN News team’s coverage of the Bishop’s Synod on the Family in Rome.