Back in the early to mid 90's I was madly in love with Dervla Kirwan. My love first germinated whilst she was playing 1940's pub landlady Pheobe Bamford in the Nicholas Lyndhurst time travel sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart and when she left that show at the end of series 3 she disappeared from my TV Screen and my life. I was distraught and broken hearted and promised myself I would never love again.
A few months later when I found out that my lost love was returning in a new show filmed and based entirely in her native Ireland to be called Ballykissangel I was literally turning cartwheels in the living room.
This new show not only transported Dervla into the present day, but gave us all a chance to hear her amazingly sexy natural Irish brogue and you can take it from me it is heart-meltingly wonderful.
Another big attraction for me to watch this show is that her costar was to be Stephen Tompkinson who was coming hotfoot from his hilarious portrayal of the unethical and immoral news reporter Damian Day in Channel 4's award winning comedy Drop the Dead Donkey, another one of my favourite sitcoms ever (review coming up)
The premise was simple, a Roman Catholic priest from England is appointed as the new curate for a small rural Irish church and its parishioners.
His adjustment to rural irish life and the friends he makes there serve as the backbone of the series as we see the fish out of water finally become accepted as part of his adoptive community.
The villagers themselves are a hodgepodge of loveable and likeable characters who are all well portrayed by the supporting cast although the writers seemed to have pandered to every known stereotypical Irish cliche in the book,
The two slightly thick and inept LOCAL handy men Liam and Donal, who work for the LOCAL tweed clad and slightly dodgy businessman Brian Quigley who's next money making scheme always sets him up against the rest of the villagers. The LOCAL village Doctor Michael Ryan, the LOCAL school teacher Brendan Kearney, The LOCAL vet Siobhan Mehigan, the LOCAL mechanic Padraig O'Kelly, the goodhearted but overly officious LOCAL Garda Ambrose Egan and his wife Niamh, the LOCAL devout busybody Kathleen Hendley and finally the elderly and extremely dishevelled LOCAL pig farmer Eamon Byrne who reinforces the thick Irishman cliche to the max.
Dervla plays Assumpta Fitzgerald, a pub landlady (again) and self proclaimed atheist, who hates the Catholic Church and all that it represents, a hatred made all the worse by the fact that over the next three series she slowly starts to fall in love with the new priest..it becomes clear that he is the only man she can ever love yet he is the only man she knows she cannot have.
In turn Father Peter Clifford, fights his own inner torments and a full on crisis of faith as he too is irresistibly drawn to the woman who seems to hate everything he stands for.
It's the will they?/won't they? Love story aspect that really reels you in. One 'yes they almost did' episode just leaves you hungry for the next instalment and one 'they've fallen out again' episode leaves you desperate to watch the next episode because you just can't leave them like that and you HAVE to see them make up again.
Sadly, once again Dervla (as with Goodnight Sweetheart) decided to quit a hit show after just three series (an act I have since christened as "doing a Dervla") and as a result the essential characters of Assumpta and Father Peter were written out at the end of the season.
At that point I'm afraid Ballykissangel lost its heartbeat and it's magic..all you were left with were the stereotypes and the cliches and boring and bland storylines. The programme limped on through three more disappointing seasons and each was met with ever dwindling viewing figures until at last the BBC finally put it out of its misery at the end of season 6.
I hadn't seen this gem of a show for over 20yrs until this week when BritBox added the first four seasons to its streaming service, and I binge watched the first three again in as many days, a feat I could only dream of back in 1996 when it first came out.
I remember having to wait a whole seven agonising days until the following Sunday night to find out what was going to happen. Thank god those days are all but over.
I heartily recommend seasons 1-3 but at that point, put it down and walk away!
A few months later when I found out that my lost love was returning in a new show filmed and based entirely in her native Ireland to be called Ballykissangel I was literally turning cartwheels in the living room.
This new show not only transported Dervla into the present day, but gave us all a chance to hear her amazingly sexy natural Irish brogue and you can take it from me it is heart-meltingly wonderful.
Another big attraction for me to watch this show is that her costar was to be Stephen Tompkinson who was coming hotfoot from his hilarious portrayal of the unethical and immoral news reporter Damian Day in Channel 4's award winning comedy Drop the Dead Donkey, another one of my favourite sitcoms ever (review coming up)
The premise was simple, a Roman Catholic priest from England is appointed as the new curate for a small rural Irish church and its parishioners.
His adjustment to rural irish life and the friends he makes there serve as the backbone of the series as we see the fish out of water finally become accepted as part of his adoptive community.
The villagers themselves are a hodgepodge of loveable and likeable characters who are all well portrayed by the supporting cast although the writers seemed to have pandered to every known stereotypical Irish cliche in the book,
The two slightly thick and inept LOCAL handy men Liam and Donal, who work for the LOCAL tweed clad and slightly dodgy businessman Brian Quigley who's next money making scheme always sets him up against the rest of the villagers. The LOCAL village Doctor Michael Ryan, the LOCAL school teacher Brendan Kearney, The LOCAL vet Siobhan Mehigan, the LOCAL mechanic Padraig O'Kelly, the goodhearted but overly officious LOCAL Garda Ambrose Egan and his wife Niamh, the LOCAL devout busybody Kathleen Hendley and finally the elderly and extremely dishevelled LOCAL pig farmer Eamon Byrne who reinforces the thick Irishman cliche to the max.
Dervla plays Assumpta Fitzgerald, a pub landlady (again) and self proclaimed atheist, who hates the Catholic Church and all that it represents, a hatred made all the worse by the fact that over the next three series she slowly starts to fall in love with the new priest..it becomes clear that he is the only man she can ever love yet he is the only man she knows she cannot have.
In turn Father Peter Clifford, fights his own inner torments and a full on crisis of faith as he too is irresistibly drawn to the woman who seems to hate everything he stands for.
It's the will they?/won't they? Love story aspect that really reels you in. One 'yes they almost did' episode just leaves you hungry for the next instalment and one 'they've fallen out again' episode leaves you desperate to watch the next episode because you just can't leave them like that and you HAVE to see them make up again.
Sadly, once again Dervla (as with Goodnight Sweetheart) decided to quit a hit show after just three series (an act I have since christened as "doing a Dervla") and as a result the essential characters of Assumpta and Father Peter were written out at the end of the season.
At that point I'm afraid Ballykissangel lost its heartbeat and it's magic..all you were left with were the stereotypes and the cliches and boring and bland storylines. The programme limped on through three more disappointing seasons and each was met with ever dwindling viewing figures until at last the BBC finally put it out of its misery at the end of season 6.
I hadn't seen this gem of a show for over 20yrs until this week when BritBox added the first four seasons to its streaming service, and I binge watched the first three again in as many days, a feat I could only dream of back in 1996 when it first came out.
I remember having to wait a whole seven agonising days until the following Sunday night to find out what was going to happen. Thank god those days are all but over.
I heartily recommend seasons 1-3 but at that point, put it down and walk away!