Fair City

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Fair City
Genre	Soap opera
Creator(s)	Margaret Gleason
Starring	List of Fair City Characters
Country of origin	Ireland
Language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Radio Telefís Éireann
Running time	25 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	RTÉ One
Original run	September 13, 1989 – Present

Fair City is an Irish television soap opera, set in the fictional suburb of Carrigstown in Dublin's Northside, Ireland. It is the third highest-rating soap opera on Irish television^[1], behind Coronation Street and Emmerdale. The show was created by Margaret Gleeson and its current Executive Producer is Niall Mathews. The series is produced by Radio Telefís Éireann. It is broadcast on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8:00pm on RTÉ One. Episodes are repeated at 12:30pm the following weekday on the same channel. The programme is sponsored by FBD Insurance.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Criticisms 2.1 Storyline 2.2 Characters 3 Continuity errors 4 Awards 5 Trivia 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Fair City focuses on the ups and downs of the residents of the fictional north Dublin suburb of Carrigstown, although sometimes one-off specials are aired instead regarding characters outside the fictional suburb. Examples of these specials include the suicide of a girl being bullied in school, abuse within the Catholic Church, and an insight into the activities of Dublin's crime bosses. Storylines have covered many diverse topics, including abortion, rape, domestic violence, racism, prostitution, theft, arson, drugs, infedelity, divorce, murder, cancer, bullying, pregnancy, homosexuality, bisexuality, suicide, alcoholism, depression, and death.

For 18 years, Fair City has remained at the centre of RTÉ One's primetime schedule. The programme is currently shown in four episodes, on four evenings a week on RTÉ One. From 1989 until 2001, it was broadcast 4 days a week between September and May, and 2 days a week between June and August. In 2001, the third and fourth weekly summer episodes were introduced. In 2004, Friday's episode was moved to the Sunday schedule. The series is now airing 4 days a week for the whole year, with an hour-long "special" episode roughly once a quarter.

In 2004, the soap opera celebrated its 1,500th episode by broadcasting Fair City: The Ten Commandments. This compilation episode showed old clips of characters breaking the Ten Commandments. On 30 November 2006, Fair City reached its 2,000th episode^[2], but no "special" episode was aired to celebrate this.

Actors and directors do rehearsals on Saturday and Monday. From Tuesday to Friday, filming in the interior scenes happens between 8.00am and 6.30 pm. In addition to these scenes, on Thursday and Friday exterior scenes are filmed on purpose-built sets or in various locations of the city of Dublin.

Storylines are written in blocks of 12 episodes. The storyline writers outline the continuation of a story or the start of a new one. The scene breakdown writers develop these storylines into scenes for each episode. The script writers create the dialogue and stage instructions for the actors. The directors accept these scripts, thus producing the storylines of Fair City. RTE has employed hundreds of unemployed people and/or drug addicts as the cast since the show's conception.

[edit] Criticisms

[edit] Storyline

The storylines of Fair City deal excessively with crime and infedelity. For example, Bob, William and Pierce had affairs with their respective women in 2006. In that same year, drug-dealing was common in "Carol's Club". The antagonist, Lorcan, allowed drug dealers to sell drugs in the nightclub in exchange for half the profits. Lorcan was subsequently killed by an undercover Garda. Fareed murdered two women when they refused to inform him of his son Hanni's whereabouts. Female residents feared for their lives when the Carrigstown rapist was on the loose.^{[3] [4][5]}

Some critics have pointed out the overuse of gloomy storylines. Although the show is not without its lighthearted stories (examples include Eunice's insistent mothering of her 40+ son, Christy, and the sparky relationship between Dermot and Jo), these are often overshadowed by the gloomy ones.^[6]

The dialogue and writing of Fair City is unrealistic. Characters often have boring and predictable lines. Many storylines of the show have been the target of ridicule. Lorraine being killed by a freak hurricane on her honeymoon in Florida, William's relationships with three women at the same time, Malachy's uncharacteristic gambling addiction, Rita's emigration to Australia, and Sergei's constant travel between Russia and Ireland are examples of ridiculous stories. ^[7]

Some critics have pointed out the overuse of "manipulation" storylines. Rory's manipulation of Carol into giving him information, Bob's manipulation of Renee into getting money from Christy, Tim manipulating Declan into accompanying Olga on every occasion, and Dominic manipulating Kylie into believing that he has changed are examples of these stories.^[8]

Fair City has grown complacent and is now abusing its position as the only English language Irish soap opera. Old storylines are recycled and new topics are rarely covered due to budget constraints. The soap opera presents an unrealistic view of life in Ireland and its characters are seen as being old fashioned, thanks to primetime competition from British soaps.^[9]

[edit] Characters

Critics claim that the characters lack depth. Some female characters are portrayed as lacking in intelligence. For example, Sarah never dumped Rory when he was ignoring her, even after she saw him enter Carol's house at night. In contrast, some male characters are shown to have no conscience. William two-timed his girlfriend Lauren without a second thought and Brendan has never told his wife Heather that he had a one-night stand with Deirdre Burke, who is now the mother of his child.^[10]

Characters who leave the show are often killed off or forced to flee Carrigstown. Mondo emigrating to England to avoid getting killed by a hit man, William fleeing to Naas to avoid McAleer's wrath, Yvoone leaving the country to avoid getting arrested for a hit and run, and Danny being assassinated outside a hospital are examples.^[11]

There are too many characters on the show and the series would benefit from concentrating to a greater extent on the core cast. The quality of stories can be inconsistent with some stories dragging on too long while others come to a conclusion when there still seems much to play for. While there are progressive sub-plots, there is no continuous storyline linking them all together. As a result, characters often drop out of the series for months and suddenly reappear with no explanation as to where they were. Sometimes new characters are not properly introduced to the viewers, as they seemingly appear out of nowhere.^[12]

The acting of Fair City has also met some criticism. Most actors have only done theatre work prior to appearing on Fair City. Critics claim that most of them have terrible acting skills and new characters should replace the old ones. ^[13]

The main characters spend too much time in nightclubs or pubs. Whenever a person has an achievement, friends celebrate with alcohol. Buildings are portrayed as places where people get drunk and then drive off. This contradicts the campaign against drink driving in real life, as the viewers are convinced that it is alright to have a few drinks before driving.^[14]

Some characters are forced to change their personalities in order to develop new storylines. Kylie forgiving her father Dominic for beating her up and intimidating her, Nicola befriending Niamh after they despised each other for years, Rita emigrating to Australia to accompany her daughter Louise (she dislikes going abroad), Malachy having a gambling addiction which vanished weeks later, and TJ following his grandparent's orders after disobeying them a year before are examples of these stories.^[15]

Despite the above criticisms of Fair City, it has consistently high ratings. The viewing figures for each episode are around 500,000 - 600,000 and rising as high as 700,000 for specials. It has proven particularly popular with viewers outside of Dublin and continues to draw significant audiences into its 18th. season.

[edit] Continuity errors

The various storylines written by the thirty writers are all somewhat at odds with one another over many details about the characters of Fair City. This is evidenced by the following points:

• Malachy Costello had a gambling addiction, but it seemingly vanished weeks later.
• Rita Doyle emigrated to Australia to accompany her daughter Louise, despite the fact that she dislikes going abroad.
• Kylie Kavanagh reconciled with her father, despite the fact that he beat her up and intimidated her.
• Brendan Daly berated his wife Heather for her novel entitled The Good Sister a secret, yet he had a secret onenight stand with Deirdre Burke, who is now the mother of his child.
• Renee and Christy finalised their divorce settlement, dividing the shares of the shop in the process, yet Mike Gleeson owned half of the shares and was not consulted about this.
• Niamh and Orla took drugs in a nightclub once, but their actions were never mentioned again in later storylines.
• Nicola and Niamh despised each other for years, but they became best friends in 2005 and Niamh was saddened to see Nicola leave Carrigstown a year later.
• Nicola's son Oisin despised summer camp in 2005, but he liked it a year later.
• Lorcan and Ali were intended to be the show's counterpart to Bonnie and Cylde, but they were traumatised in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Sylvester Garrigan. Lorcan was subsequently killed by an undercover agent named Rory, ending the couple's time on the soap opera.
• Sergei returned to Russia to comfort a sick relative, but on his return to Ireland, he never mentioned this.
• TJ used to disobey his grandparents' orders, but he now obeys them.
• Niamh had a relationship with Derek, despite the fact that he kidnapped her years ago.
• Lauren berated William for having an affair with Orla, but she didn't tell her father that she had an abortion.
• Some characters share the same first names. Seamus McAleer & Seamus Mannion and Anthony Farrell & Anthony Brady are examples. Consequently, this can confuse viewers whenever their first names are mentioned, as they are wondering which person the characters are referring to.
• Darren Doyle had poor literacy skills, but he seemingly graduated from school and is now in college.
• Stephen Costello seemingly disappeared into obcurity.
• Kay Costello left her husband Malachy in charge of McCoys, despite the fact that she owns the pub.

[edit] Awards

Pat Nolan, who plays Barry O'Hanlon, won a Golden Rose Award, in the 'Best Soap Actor' category, at the international Rose d'Or Festival in Switzerland on 7 May 2005.^[16]

[edit] Trivia

• In 2005, Marty Whelan made his acting debut in Fair City playing himself. He did the grand opening of the re-constructed McCoy's pub, which was destroyed in the Christmas of 2004.
• Every year, RTÉ announce the Fair City competitions. The winners are allowed to visit the set of Fair City and play the roles of non-speaking background characters on the soap opera.
• The opening sequence and theme music has been changed three and two times, respectively.
• Fair City is the only soap opera in Ireland which is produced in the English language.
• With the exception of Sunday's episode, each episode ends with a trailer for the next one.
• The programme makes use of Northern Dublin dialect. Examples include "I'm only messin' with ya" and "me ma".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Fair City RTÉ site
• Fair City at the Internet Movie Database
• Digiguide entry
• Fair City at TV.com

Radio Telefís Éireann original programmes
Comedy & Drama shows: The Blizzard of Odd | Bull Island | Hall's Pictorial Weekly | The Irish R.M. | The Panel | The Podge and Rodge Show | A Scare at Bedtime | Strumpet City
News & Current Affairs: Discovery | Nine O'Clock News | One O'Clock News | Prime Time | Questions and Answers | Reeling In The Years | 7 Days | Six One News
Chat shows: Kenny Live | The Late Late Show | The Live Mike | Tubridy Tonight
Soap operas: Bracken | Fair City | Glenroe | The Riordans | Tolka Row
Talent Contests: Celebrity Jigs 'n' Reels | Charity You're A Star | You're A Star
Irish language: Buntús Cainte | Trom agus Éadrom
Children's: Bosco | The Den | The Morbegs | Wanderly Wagon
Music: The Last Broadcast
See also: List of programmes broadcast by RTÉ