Hardy Bucks

Hardy Bucks is an Irish mockumentary television programme. It started out as a series of largely improvised online. A six-part webisode series went on to win the 2009 Storyland competition held by Irish national broadcaster RTÉ Television. Hardy Bucks is set in the fictional town of Castletown (Swinford) in West Ireland, following the misadventures of five hapless men down on their luck, trying to leave their backwards rural home town and attempt to reach America and sample modern civilization.

Webisode

Hardy Bucks was entered into the RTÉ Storyland competition and from a total of 122 applications to participate in the competition, nine projects were commissioned to make one episode each. These episodes were released in March 2009. With all nine projects on the website, the public could vote for their favourite and at the end of every month the shows with the lowest amount of votes would be voted off, leaving the remaining teams to make the next episode with the same €8,000 budget per episode, ultimately the team with the largest amount of votes between the two finalists wins the competition. The programme has been compared to the Trailer Park Boys, a Canadian mockumentary, with Tordoff citing the show as an influence.^[1]

Television programme

Irish Comedy series Created by Tordoff and Maloney, now featuring Cockayne as a head writer, was commissioned and broadcast by RTÉ from 12 October 2010 until 26 October 2010.^[2] Following the success of their debut television series, the Hardy Bucks were commissioned by RTÉ to produce a half-hour Christmas special which aired on 26 December 2010.

Starring Martin Maloney as Eddie Durkan, Chris Tordoff as 'The Viper'. It is written by and produced by Mike Cockayne, Hardy Bucks features Peter Cassidy, Owen Colgan and Tom Kilgallon, plus a cast of extras from Swinford and beyond. The series was directed by Liz Gill.^[3]

The three-episode television series, written by the writing trio Tordoff, Maloney and Cockayne, was commissioned and broadcast by RTÉ from 12 October 2010 until 26 October 2010.[3] Following the success of their debut television series, the Hardy Bucks were commissioned by RTÉ to produce a half-hour Christmas special which aired on 26 December 2010. The Hardy Bucks' second series, a six-episode run, was broadcast by RTÉ during 2011.

YouTube episodes

September 2007, with a full cast of actors Martin Maloney, Chris Tordoff, Owen Colgan, Tom Kilgallon, Peter Cassidy, formed the core group of Hardy Bucks. After borrowing camera from equipment from BCFE and help from friends and family, they shot Hardy Bucks Episodes 1-3. After sitting on the rushes (Unedited footage; film material as recorded to tape etc.) for a year, Tordoff uploaded the shorts to YouTube.

StoryLand

In January 2009, Hardy Bucks was shortlisted into the top ten of RTÉ's Storyland Project.^[4] A total of 122 applications participated in the new competition. After a Successful pitching round, Hardy Bucks was one of nine projects that were commissioned to make one episode. According to Poll Daddy, (Irish internet Poll server) votes poured in from across the globe. In September 2009 it was announced that Hardy Bucks had won Storyland. ^[5]

In May 2010 director Mike Cockayne joined as a writer and producer. The Hardy Bucks have filmed a Christmas special and second series with director Liz Gill.

Live shows

The Hardy Bucks have performed live shows across Ireland and the UK, at venues including The Academy, Dublin and Three Sisters, Edinburgh, The Garage (music venue) London, Electric picnic festival 2011, Roisín Dubh (Galway).

Film

On 28 November 2012, a trailer was released to promote the Hardy Bucks Movie, scheduled for cinematic release on 21 February 2013. The film follows the Hardy Bucks as they travel to Poland to support the Irish football team during the UEFA Euro 2012 football tournament. 'Hardy Bucks: The Movie' was partly funded by the Irish Film Board, which granted the project a €175,000 production loan and produced by Universal Studios. The film had a budget of €300,000 and was an Irish box office success. It grossed €176,887 on its opening weekend from 57 locations. This means that The Hardy Bucks Movie is now the highest grossing new release in Ireland. To date, The Hardy Bucks Movie has taken over €400,000 at the Irish box office.

Due to the success of the film, Universal Pictures are responding to demand by expanding the film's release into Northern Ireland on 5 April, where they plan to show it on 20 more screens.

DVD

Series 1 released 12 December 2010. Series 2 released 12 December 2011.

References

External links

• Hardy Bucks Channel at YouTube