Emperor
Wonderful to see Waterford band O Emperor on the Late Late Show recently to launch their exciting new CD. Could this be the big Waterford breakthrough that rock and roll Waterford has been a long time waiting for. Great sound and lots to like about this band who are going places quickly.
Vanessa
Great to see Co Waterford actress Vanessa Hyde in a meaty talking role on pat Shortt’s Mattie. To be fair it is getting better and the gags seem to work as the character settles in on viewers who perhaps expected the successful formula that was Killinaskully.
Afternoons
What possessed RTE 1 to split their afternoon show into two? For years column like this have been asking why they had three women doing the job of one and now we get the gorgeous and brilliant Maura Derrane on 4 Live doing just that – a snappy magazine programme that is a camera short for cooking programmes, where recently smiling chef Dundon prepared a dish behind a plant or herb rack. Derrane makes it look easy. Then we get the Daily Show with a touch of the Seoige and O’Shea. I’m not saying Daithí O’Sé is dull but he needs someone to bounce off and the topics are dullsville. Claire Byrne behaves as if she is on radio and the trio, at times when guests are on, are poor substitutes for entertainment.
It’s worth noting that Derrane came from the TV3 Ireland AM show and they consistently entertain and educate morning after morning, highs and lows, but it works and works well, as well as being live with no doubt inserts.
Brophy
The TG4 programme Cogar, showed a significant social study of the importance of the Annie Brophy collection of glass negatives that number 65,000, now in the possession of Waterford City Council. Catherine Foley made the programme that featured this paper’s John O’Connor talking knowledgeably in Irish about important aspects of this famous photographer who covered sixty years of Waterford history.
Other contributors to the programme, were Donal Moore the City Archivist, Geraldine Kennedy, editor of the Irish Times (she once worked this paper’s Kilkenny office), Ríonach Ní Hogain, the respected historian also featured and the hand-tinted photographs were a joy to see.
Gangsters
RTE1 has a sharp and thuggish hit on its place with the Sunday four-parter Love/Hate with a great looking cast headed up by Aidan Gillen as the enigmatic John Boy Power. Robert Sheehan has that boyish gangster look and Ruth Negga is deadly. Don’t mind the promo stuff about this being about human conflicts behind the clichés of thugs, muppets and posers. It’s straight out of the Sunday World without Bertie in a fridge or cupboard. Written by Stuart Carolan, it is edgy and well made, with just the right touch of arrogance and bravado as the muppets’ video themselves with their weapons of choice – a Glock.
Ocean
David Attenborough paints a dismal picture in BBC2’s Horizon -The Death of the Oceans? Some experts say the effects are almost irreversible and we are losing species too quickly as the oceanic eco-system is too fragile. There is a Census of Marine Life that in Australia discovers at least one new marine species a day. There was a lot of information to take in like the comparison of fish catches in Massachusetts. Where in 1871, 70,000 metric tonnes of fish were caught on nets and lines while today, with all the modern methods only 4,000 metric tonnes are caught. Scary stuff.
Sky 1
Just as you got used to no more Lost, we get a return of the clones of Lost, Stargate Universe Season 2 and Fringe Season 3 or could that be Alternative Fringe. With both on the same Tuesday back to back. Stargate is definitely lost and the characters say coy things like – we are lost – nobody will understand – rations are critical – how will we survive? Then where sis the team of doctors come from? Apparently Rush (Robert Carlyle) is still lying about some bridge and TJ has had a baby. Sure beats the heck outa me, so it does.
Fringe is equally as bad or as good and Olivia turns up in a New York taxi but apparently she is alternative Olivia trapped in a parallel universe where Walter is now called Walternate. Leonard Nimoy is still there as William Bell and is now a founder of massive Dynamic, or maybe he is not. How they manage to keep this hype going is a puzzle but Lost survived so why not Fringe. Perhaps we are back in the Twilight Zone. Do not adjust your sets.
