Ros na Rún just got interesting

Channel Hopping
This really is quite interesting! It seems one of my favourite television stars and host of QI is to star on one of my favourite soaps.

Oh yes, Mr Stephen Fry of the great wit and intellect will make a cameo in Ros na Rún. The actor of considerable note and skill will be in Spiddal next month to shoot his scenes and it seems he will be spouting the cúpla focail as well. Brilliant! Oh I wonder will he be Seamus’ illegitimate son, or Tadhg’s ruthless business partner from across the sea? He really could be anyone.
The man of Blackadder fame was asked by the Irish language soap to guest star in the show as he is currently filming a show about minority languages and had been scheduled to be in the Connemara Gaeltacht at that time. This will, no doubt, increase viewership figures for that particular episode tenfold. Of course this is not the first international success known to Ros na Rún.
A few years ago the show sold episodes to a television station in Philadelphia in the United States of America. It has also won numerous awards and in terms of story and humour, it definitely gives the most popular English language soaps on our screens a run for their money. Stay tuned for more updates.
I have been mentioning Misfits as a one to watch for quite some time now. It returned last week for its second season and wow, what an opening episode.
The show centres around a group of young people who find themselves caught up in an electrical storm while working together on community service due to a little problem with ASBOs.
The result is that the group, a thoroughly dysfunctional shower, have superpowers that range from mind reading to immortality. They quickly find themselves in some hairy situations and by the end of the first season, they had two murders on their hands and a police detective hot on their trail.
The first episode saw the orange jump-suited youngsters reunited after one of them had been killed only to find out that Nathan, played by Portlaoise’s Robert Sheehan, was immortal. However, things begin to go awry when an old flame of the very disturbed kid shows up and shape shifts in to the other members. They are also being followed by a man in a black motorcycling suit who seems to want to save their lives but whose trustworthiness remains in question.
The show is told using multi-platform media and a variety of special effects. The casting is wonderful and includes Sheehan, who most recently starred in Love/Hate which has been nominated for a some prestigious awards since airing.
The show, as I have described previously, is like Skins meets Heroes only more interesting than both.
The first episode of the second season was fast-paced action-packed rollercoaster ride. It assumed everything, which was great. It assumed you were familiar with the characters’ basic points and their powers and it wove the old ghosts of their past seamlessly with the new plot.
The holes of the last season were filled in very naturally and the relationships of the cast moved onwards in a funny and humorous way. I particularly like the way in which the cast members interact with one another. It is as friends would, especially teenagers. They are cocky, crude and crass. They talk about inappropriate stuff and they are made vulnerable by their age and situation.
The adults in the series are mainly clueless to what they are up to and they have very little time for them, seeing the young lads as an annoyance.
There is a lot of violence in Misfits but I feel it doesn’t distract from the show in anyway. If anything, it heightens the reality and enjoyment of it. Although these kids have powers, they don’t, or can’t, rely on them totally and they often find themselves fighting their corner or for their lives in the old fashioned way.
The next episode is on E4 on Thursday night at 10pm.
Another great show on the Beeb at the moment is Wallace and Grommit’s World of Invention. This six-part series looks at a range of inventions and their evolution throughout history.
Narrated by the stars of such greats as The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, each episode deals with a particular theme.
This week’s theme is Home Sweet Home and the pair look at inventions for home use, tracing back the origins of some ordinary household items and some bizarre inventions that never quite got off the ground.
Other themes have included man’s fascination with flight with a look at some homemade rockets and machines capable of flight. The other episode that has already aired is Nature Knows Best, which examines the inventions that have been inspired by Mother Nature and, most notably, water. The show continues for a few more weeks on BBC One at 6.30pm on Sunday evenings.
Now, of course I cannot let this week go by without mention of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. The show started again this week and so far it’s been the annoying Scotswoman with a fetish for humus that has been baring the brunt of the public vote in the bushtucker trials.
Hmmm, really, I am not sure how I feel about this show at all. In some ways I enjoy the challenges but I do not see the need for rats. I hate them and I think it’s beyond cruel to inflict them on anyone. However, I have very little sympathy for Gillian McKeith. She knew what she was getting into and if she stopped moaning, she would probably realise that people would stop voting for her.
Anyway, it continues this week and no doubt it will continue to get the enormous ratings it is currently enjoying.