Rebellion, RTE 1, Sunday at 9.35pm
There was no mistaking what the writer of RTE’s contribution to the 1916 commemoration intends to be the main source of tension in his drama.
Colin Teevan takes four fictional characters - eschewing the temptation to base events around Pearse, Connolly and De Valera - and gives them conflicts between their Irishness and Britishness during the 1916 rebellion.
There was little subtlety, every character had essentially the same problem.
Elizabeth Butler (Charlie Murphy) is from a well-heeled Anglo-Irish family who is set to marry a British army officer. However, Elizabeth is a socialist who has joined Countess Markievicz’s battalion and is storing guns in the family’s big house.
Jimmy Mahon (Brian Gleeson), who has an eye for Elizabeth, is from the Dublin tenements and is also a revolutionary but gets kicked out of home when his brother returns from fighting in the trenches and finds out Jimmy has joined the Irish Citizen Army.
May Lacey (Sarah Greene) works as a secretary at Dublin Castle, the seat of British rule in Ireland, where she is having an affair with her English boss, but is persuaded by her republican friend to steal an intelligence document for the cause.
This is typical of the often clunky dialogue:
“If I get caught I’ll lose my job … or go to prison,” says May.
“We all have to make sacrifices for our country,” replies Frances.
“But which country is that?” asks May.
We get glimpses of Constance Markievicz, Padraig Pearse and James Connolly but the action is driven through the fictional characters, three of whom we meet as they perform light opera in the opening scenes.
It’s a relaxed, pre-war Dublin in 1914, but we quickly progress to “Holy Week” 1916 and the city is in turmoil. Sedition is in the air and the streets are filled with Irish men in British uniform, home on leave from the front.
The street furniture, cars, clothes and hair seem authentic but the brilliant white teeth of the modern actor betrays them.
Other things are not quite right. Men greeting each other with hugs seems unlikely for the times and some of the language is entirely modern.
Still, it’s hard to be overly critical of Rebellion.
No doubt RTE chiefs were terrified of insulting republicans, unionists and revisionists and not surprisingly the writer and director have produced a watchable but safe dramatisation of the events which led to the partition of this island.
It falls into the category of watch it if there’s nothing else on, but not worth setting a date.
***
Celebrity Big Brother, Channel 5, Tuesday at 9pm
I’m not sure what word correctly captures the opposite of life-affirming, but whatever it is, Celebrity Big Brother epitomises it.
The last thing you need in the most depressing week of the year, with the worst weather since the big freeze of 2010, is this misery-fest.
Still, for some reason I forced myself through it on Tuesday night, probably in some kind of fear of putting my post-Christmas sober head on the pillow.
And the most exciting news was that Kim Kardashian was in the house … well Kim Kardashian’s best friend, a 40-year-old who looks like he’s been used for botox training classes.
The rest were the traditional collection of soap actors, reality TV people from other shows and enough good looking young people to keep the audience figures up for the hot tub scenes.
And my New Year’s resolution - watch less television in 2016.
