Ballykissangel

by Pa Rock
TV Connoisseur

I first became acquainted with British television and the wonderful programs of the British Broadcasting Company through watching Public Television in America where British programs were often aired late and night and on weekends to fill-in the schedule of American programming.  It was on PBS stations where I first became aware of comedy classics (Britcoms) like "Are You Being Served," "Keeping Up Appearances," and "Absolutely Fabulous."   I also became an ardent fan of British mysteries and particularly their police dramas, programs such as "Inspector Lynley," "Daziel and Pascoe," "Inspector Morris," and "Foyle's War."  

I eagerly consumed all of the British television which I was fortunate enough to come across.

When I was living on Okinawa (2010-2012) my television provider was a Japanese cable company that offered American and British television series in about equal measure.  After returning to the states, I was soon rid of the cable/satellite dependency, and began using streaming devices for television viewing.   Initially I used Netflix and Prime as my primary streaming providers, but then the BBC also started its own streaming service - Britbox - and I was able to acquire that as well - through Prime - and today Britbox is my primary source of home entertainment.

Britbox, as its name implies, offers more than just television shows from England.   The service also has programming from other areas of Great Britain.  Through it I have enjoyed police procedurals from Scotland (Shetland, Rebus, and Taggart) to name but a few, Torchwood, set in Wales, and a police drama or two from Ireland.

Recently I began watching a very popular program about a fictional small town in Ireland called "Ballykissangel" (Bally-kiss-angel).  The program dealt with daily life in the small community, and its two primary focal points were the community's large Catholic Church and the town pub, a place called "Fitzgerald's."   The series ran from 1996 through 2001 and produced a total of fifty-eight episodes.  The program, like the town, was called "Ballykissangel."

The cast of the show referred to it in the press as a "soap," but actually each episode had a complete storyline that stood basically independent of other episodes.  The characters in the stories came and went, with only two (Donal and Liam, the town handymen) managing to appear in every episode.  By the time the program ended, the church had had three different priests, and the pub three different owners - with the third owner of the pub also being the third priest at the church!

The show's creator and primary writer, Kieran Prendiville, said that he was looking to create an Irish experience that everyone would recognize, and in that he was wildly successful.  The television program was an international hit, and before it's run was over filming became difficult because of all of the tourist buses that were clogging the streets where the show was being filmed.

Balluykissangel was filmed in several locations, but the town exteriors were all from a small Irish community called Avoca in County Wicklow, less than a hundred miles from Dublin.  Avoca began pulling in tourists early on during the shows' run - and the streets were often so packed with gawkers and tour buses that residents had trouble getting from place to place in their once remote village.

Most of the actors in the series were from the Irish stage and well known in that country.   Two experienced prominent careers in international film after the show had run its course.  Colin Farrell, who played a young drifter who showed up in Ballykissangel to help his aging uncle run his very rustic farm, has gone on to star in other television productions as well as many movies.  And Australian actor, Robert Taylor, who played the final priest in the series - a charming alcoholic named Father Vincent "Vinnie" Shehan - later found fame as Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire in the Netflix series Longmire.

Ballykissangel was a simple place, one where every resident reminded viewers of someone they knew in real life.  It was peopled with good, honest Irish folk who could evoke laughter or tears by just being themselves as they plodded along in their daily lives.  And it was - and is - a treat to experience!