Fair City
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| Fair City | |
|---|---|
 Current logo |
|
| Genre | Soap opera |
| Created by | Margaret Gleason |
| Starring | Present Cast |
| Country of origin | Ireland |
| Language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Brigie de Courcy |
| Location(s) | RTÉ Headquarters, Dublin |
| Camera setup | Multiple-camera setup |
| Running time | 25 mins. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | RTÉ One |
| Original run | September 18, 1989 – present |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Fair City is a popular and award-winning television soap opera, first broadcast in Ireland on September 18th 1989. Storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the residents of Carrigstown, a fictional suburb on the northside of Dublin.
The series was originally screened as two half-hour episodes per week, from September to May. Today four episodes are broadcast each week on RTÉ One all year round. It is the most popular Irish soap opera and one of the most popular soaps on Irish television,[1].
The series is produced by Radio Telefís Éireann. It is currently broadcast on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 20:00 on RTÉ One. Episodes are normally repeated at 12:30 the following weekday on the same channel. The programme is sponsored by FBD Insurance.
Contents |
[edit] Setting
Fair City is set in Carrigstown, a fictional suburb of Dublin's Northside, Ireland. Most of the scenes take place around the main street in Carrigstown, with notable landmarks on the main street including McCoy's Pub, The Bistro and Fusion Restaurant. Some scenes are set outside of the main street, in areas such as Carrigstown Community College or The Galley Public House.
[edit] Characters
The series was originally based around four families - the O'Hanlons, the Kellys, the Clarkes and the Corcorans. This was similar to the UK soap Eastenders, which also originally focused on a number of families and the community in which they lived. Over time the emphasis moved away from the four families and grew to include the wider community of Carrigstown. As of 2008, only one member of the O'Hanlon family and two members of the Kelly family remain on the show.
During the 1990's the Phelan, Doyle and Molloy families were introduced and dominated storylines for that decade. Bela and Rita Doyle, along with their brood of five children and Rita's mother Hannah, were involved in many storylines. The Phelan family originally consisted of Hughie and Natalie, but later a new branch of the family arrived including Hughie's mother and his brother Christy, along with Christy's wife Renee and their two children. The Molloy family were introduced in the mid 1990's and consisted of patriarch Harry, his wife Dolores and their two teenage children Wayne and Lorraine.
The Halpin family were gradually introduced in the early 2000's, but since then the show has shifted to individual characters more than family groupings. Notable characters introduced in the early 2000's include Carol Meehan, Tracey McGuigan, Ray O' Connell and Jo Fahey. Another change in recent years has been the introduction of ethnic minority characters such as Lana Dowling and the Udenze family.
The former Executive Producer Niall Matthews believes the soap's success is down to the large cast and the fact that no single character or group of characters dominates. "Difficulties are inherent if you are dealing with just one family," he says. "Look at Dallas and Dynasty; both did well at the beginning, but because all the action was centred on a single family, the writers ran out of things to say."[2]
The acting of Fair City has also met some criticism. Many actors have only done theatre work prior to appearing on Fair City. They are only trained as stage actors, so they give a wooden performance on television.[3]
[edit] Production
Each week rehearsals for the four episodes take place on Saturday and Monday. From Tuesday to Friday, the interior scenes are recorded on two RTÉ sound stages. The schedule runs from 08:00 to 18:30. The exterior scenes are filmed on Thursday and Friday either in the RTÉ Headquarters, or in various locations in Dublin. The series is planned in blocks of 12 episodes. The first stage is the development of story and plot. This work is done by a small team of storyline writers. Once the stories have been fleshed out and agreed, the scene breakdown writers decide how the stories should be translated into scenes for each episode. The episodes are then assigned to script writers, who create the dialogue and stage directions for the actors.[4]
Running in parallel with the writing process is the production process, which includes casting, wardrobe, make-up, design and construction of sets, purchase of props, finding locations, booking facilities, developing schedules and the myriad administrative tasks involved in managing a successful soap. All exterior shots were initially recorded in Drumcondra on Dublin's northside, where residents were politely asked to stay indoors during shooting. Two years later, Carrigstown moved south of the Liffey to RTÉ where set designers replicated the façades and interiors of the original houses. The writing and production comes together in the hands of the directors who marry the various inputs to produce the finished product of Fair City.[5]
The opening sequence and theme music has been changed three and two times, respectively. The opening sequence shows several scenes of contemporary Dublin, while the closing credits show a frozen image of the River Liffey.
[edit] Social realism
The show has featured a number of gritty storylines reflecting major issues in Irish society, particularly from the mid 1990's onwards. Rape was shown in 1998, with the rape of Lorriane Molloy by Dr Jack Shanahan, who later committed suicide. The characters of Eoghan and Liam portrayed a homosexual relationship, with Fair City showing Ireland's first gay kiss. Abortion was portrayed in the early 2000's as Kay McCoy decided to abort her pregnancy despite her husband's wishes, for fear the child would be born severely disabled. Drug addiction has also been portrayed a number of times. Prostitution was shown in 2001 when Tracey turned to prostitution in order to pay for drugs. Domestic abuse was highlighted with the Halpin family, when Tess was murdered by her husband Marty following years of domestic abuse.
[edit] History
The title derives from the opening line of the traditional song "Molly Malone": "In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty..." and is the only soap opera produced in the English language in Ireland. The show was launched in September 1989 and at the time was described as "the most ambitious production of its kind ever undertaken by RTÉ" [6].
The show was broadcast twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7pm between September and May, taking a summer break, from 1989 until 1997 - when the show started being broadcast all year around. In 1998 an extra episode was added and a fourth was added in 2001.[7]Up until 2003, the soap only aired two episodes over the summer months however the four episodes were aired all year round from summer of that year. [8] [9] In 2004, Friday's 8.30pm episode was moved to Sunday nights at 8p.m.
On 17 January 2002, Fair City reached its 1,000th episode.[10]In 2004, the soap opera celebrated its fifteenth year by broadcasting an hour-long compilation episode entitled Fair City: The Ten Commandments.[11] This episode showed old clips of characters breaking the Ten Commandments. It also featured interviews from the cast and fans. On 30 November 2006, Fair City reached its 2,000th episode.[12]
[edit] International screenings
Viewers in Northern Ireland can watch Fair City on RTÉ One, because the domestic population of Northern Ireland have access to view the Irish Channels (RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, TV3 and TG4).
In Great Britain, episodes of Fair City will be aired on RTÉ International when the channel begins transmission in March 2009. There are also plans to launch the channel in Europe and North America, giving those continients access to Fair City as well.[14]
Fair City was shown on the Tara Television network in the United Kingdom via cable and Sky Digital from 1997 until the closure of the station in 2002.[15] Classic episodes were shown in the daytime and repeated in the early evenings on weekdays, and current episodes were simulcast with RTÉ One.
[edit] Popularity and viewership
Despite the above criticisms of Fair City, it has consistently high official viewing statistics. 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 series.
On 21 November 2001, Fair City attracted 800,000 viewers who tuned in to see Billy Meehan being killed by Lorcan Foley. This remains the highest rated episode of an Irish soap in Irish television history.[16]
[edit] Criticism
Critics believe that the other Irish soap opera, the Irish language Ros na Rún on TG4, is of higher quality, although Fair City has 10 times the viewer ship. They argue that the acting on Ros na Rún is much better, there is a reasonable number of characters on the show, and its story lines are not dropped for months. However due to the difficulty of following a plot that is in a language that is not widely spoken, and the fact that RTÉ can outspend TG4 on promoting its product, means that Ros na Rún has a very difficult task to build viewer ship. The deeper emotional complexity of the characters in Ros na Rún also make them more realistic, and a poorer fit for the simpler, often inconsistent story lines, in Fair City. Most of the viewers of Fair City are more far concerned with the current story than with any of the criticisms of the product.[13]
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.[14]
The acting of Fair City has also met some criticism. Many actors have only done theatre work prior to appearing on Fair City. They are only trained as stage actors, so they give a wooden performance on television.[15]When the actors leave the show, they have high hopes of breaking into the UK acting world, and landing their ideal job. They soon find themselves struggling to continue their careers when they audition for the role of characters, as their wooden performances become apparent at auditions. As a result, the actors end up doing theatre work or reprising their roles on Fair City after 'career breaks'. For example, George McMahon, who plays Mondo (Mongo) O'Connell, is concentrating on theatre work, but he has reprised his role for the time being.[16]
Fair City has been criticised for encouraging teenage drinking.[17] Whenever a character has an achievement, friends celebrate with alcohol. All discussion and many meetings, even during work hours take place while consuming alcohol. TJ Mathews, the study author of The Food Magazine, said: "Soap shows are awash with scenes showing alcohol being consumed as part of a seemingly healthy lifestyle and appearing as a normal part of everyday life." A spokesperson for Alcohol Concern claimed that drinking and getting drunk is portrayed as being risk-free. This contradicts the campaign against binge drinking and drink driving in real life, as teenagers could be desensitised to the dangers of alcohol.[17]This is supported by the fact that Ireland has the highest rates of binge-drinking in the European Union and half of pupils aged 15 - 17 drink alcohol regularly.[18][19]For a long time, all social interaction in Fair City occurred inside a pub, and all of the characters consumed alcohol when involved in social interaction. Eventually a restaurant was added, though this is more often the site of work politics. Again the producers could reasonably claimed that this is an accurate depiction of Irish life.
Some characters are forced to change their personalities in order to develop new story lines. Kylie forgiving her father Dominic for beating her up and intimidating her, Nicola befriending Niamh after their mutual spite was used as the basis of conflict on the show for all previous years of the show, Rita emigrating to Australia to accompany her daughter Louise (she dislikes going abroad, and rarely travelled outside Dublin previously), Malachy having a gambling addiction which vanished weeks later, and TJ following his grandparent's orders after disobeying them a year before, are some examples of this tendency towards inconsistency.[20]
The parenting of children in Fair City has attracted a lot of criticism. The mothers and fathers can seemingly spend hours in buildings drinking alcohol or coffee. No mention is made of babysitters minding the children, so the viewers assume that they are at home alone. Critics believe that the show presents an unrealistic view of parenting and sets a bad example for real-life parents.[21]
[edit] Awards
The programme was nominated for an IFTA as 'Best Television Drama' in the years 2000 and 2003. Stuart Dunne, who portrayed Billy Meehan, was nominated for an IFTA as 'Best Actor in a Television Drama' in 2003.[22]
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.[23]The series has also been nominated for a TVNow Award as 'Favourite Soap' in 2006, 2007 and2008.[24]Fair City won 'Best Soap in the International Entertainment' category, at the Mediamixx festival in Bulgaria in July 2007.[25] they also received an award off the american government for helping them to torture preisoners by making then watch the fair city omnibus!
[edit] Controversy
RTÉ is paying some of the actors in Fair City only €432 a day, although it earns the station in the region of €7m each year. But despite its earnings, Fair City costs nearly twice that amount to produce.[26]School managers fear that students are starting their own 'copycat' fight clubs in post primary schools around the country as a result of one of Fair City's storylines.[27]RTÉ has launched an investigation into how a convicted paedophile appeared as an extra in the soap..[28] Fair City was criticised by Down's Syndrome Ireland for using the term "mongo" in the January 20, 2006 episode.[18]
[edit] Further reading
One of Fair City's former scriptwriters, Brian Gallagher, has written a book entitled 'Inside Fair City'. It gives fans an "access all areas" backstage pass to the Dublin soap, glimpsing the hidden stories behind the Carrigstown murders, love affairs, funerals and weddings. The book is an RTÉ/Rooney Media paperback, priced €17.95. [19]
[edit] References
- ^ "RTÉ/TV3 Top 20 Programmes" Medialive. URL last accessed 2007-03-16
- ^ "[1]" Irish Independent. URL last accessed 2007-03-16
- ^ "[2]" boards.ie. URL last accessed 2007-08-12
- ^ "[3]" Fair City website. URL last accessed 2007-06-16
- ^ "[4]" Irish Playwrights & Screenwriters Guild. URL last accessed 2007-06-16
- ^ The Irish Emigrant - June 25, 1989 [5]
- ^ "A tale of two soaps" Irish Independent. URL last accessed 2007-06-16
- ^ "[6]" Sunday Business Post. URL last accessed 2007-06-16
- ^ "[7]" Sunday Business Post. URL last accessed 2007-06-16
- ^ "[8]" Irish Examiner. URL last accessed 2007-06-16
- ^ "[9]" Irish Examiner. URL last accessed 2007-06-16
- ^ "[10]" Irish Examiner. URL last accessed 2007-06-16
- ^ "[11]" boards.ie. URL last accessed 2007-08-12
- ^ "There's no real continuity" IMDb. URL last accessed 2007-03-16
- ^ "[12]" boards.ie. URL last accessed 2007-08-12
- ^ Issue 355, TVnow, published March 27, 2007
- ^ "Teenagers may be encouraged to drink more because television soap operas are "awash with alcohol"" BBC. URL last accessed 2007-03-16
- ^ "Ireland has the highest rates of binge-drinking in the European Union" BBC. URL last accessed 2007-03-31
- ^ "half of pupils drink alcohol regularly" RTÉ. URL last accessed 2007-08-25
- ^ "Sorcha Byrne's uncharacteristic affair with a student - Ross" IMDb. URL last accessed 2007-03-23
- ^ Issue 355, TVnow, published March 27, 2007
- ^ "List of IFTA Awards" RTÉ. URL last accessed 2007-03-30
- ^ "[13]" RTÉ. URL last accessed 2007-03-23
- ^ "List of Nominated Soaps" TVNow. URL last accessed 2008-04-05
- ^ Issue 370, TVnow, published July 10, 2007
- ^ Star actors in top-earning soap on €432 a day - News & Gossip, Entertainment - Independent.ie
- ^ http://www.independent.ie/education/latest-news/schoolboy-fight-clubs-copying-fair-city-story-line-48371.html
- ^ Family feels 'betrayed' after son's sex abuser appears on Fair City - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie
Also on YouTube you can watch Funny Fair City Voice Overs it's Fair City but 2 Brothers from Dublin voice over it and make it comical viewing you can see them by going to www.youtube.com/2FMradioInIreland where they do regular funny voice overs.
[edit] External links
- Official Fair City RTÉ site
- Fair City at the Internet Movie Database
- Fair City at TV.com
- Fair City Fan Page
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| Current characters |
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Ali Foley | Angela O'Connell | Anthony Brady | Anthony Farrell | Barry O'Hanlon | Bela Doyle | Brendan Daly | Carol Meehan | Charlie Kelly | Christy Phelan | Cleo Cullen | Damien Halpin | Deirdre Burke | Dermot Fahey | Dolores Molloy | Dominic Kavanagh | Fiona Pigott | Frances McGuigan | Geraldine Fahey | Gina Cassidy | Heather Daly | James Pigott | Jimmy Doyle | Jo Fahey | Joshua Udenze | June Pearson | Keith McGrath | Ken Fahey | Kylie Kavanagh | Lana Dowling | Leo Dowling | Mags Kelly | Malachy Costello | Mark Halpin | Mike Gleeson | Mick O'Shea | Mondo O'Connell | Miles Byrne | Niamh Cassidy | Nina Udenze | Orla Kirwan | Olga Carney | Paul Brennan | Ray O'Connell | Renee Phelan | Rita Doyle | Robin Doyle | Sarah O'Leary | Sholeh Tenniz | Sean Cassidy | Sean McNab | Seamus Mannion | Seamus McAleer | Sergei Borodin | Suzanne Halpin | Sylvester Garrigan | Terry Kelly | Tim Carney | TJ Kelly | Tracy Kavanagh | Una Norris | Ursula Cruise |
| Past characters |
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Billy Meehan | Chris Aherne | Dan Force | Darren Doyle | Donal Maher | Eunice Phelan | Farrah Phelan | Floyd Phelan | Frank Monaghan | Gabriel Udenze | Hannah Finnegan | Harry Molloy | Helen Doyle | Jenny Byrne | Kay Costello | Kira Cassidy | Laura Halpin | Lorcan Foley | Lorraine Doyle | Louise Doyle | Marty Halpin | Morgan Dalton | Nicola Prendergast | Pascal Mulvey | Pauline Fitzpatrick]] | Pete Flannagan | Philippa Prendergast | Richard Ashton | Ross O'Rourke | Shay Hourlihan | Shelly O'Connor | Sorcha Byrne | Stephen McCoy | Tess Halpin | William Russell | Yvoone Gleeson |
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