There are few things in life more predictable than the rhythms of Irish broadcasting.
You know summer is almost over when the Roses show up in Tralee and the people at RTÉ unveil what they have in store for us in the autumn.
The 2016 edition of this ritual was enacted at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin yesterday with the usual combination of razzmatazz (balloons, dancers, Ryan Tubridy gurning for photographers) and stern assertions of public service broadcasting values. The MC, Claire Byrne, jokily claimed to be sucking up to new director general Dee Forbes, who chose not to make a speech.
Restrained
In the past, these launches have featured rather too much self-congratulation. This year’s was relatively restrained, perhaps because the two senior executives fronting it were both filling in for colleagues who have recently decamped to the competition.
Former managing director of television Glen Killane and former controller of RTÉ2 Bill Malone are now directing content at Eir and TV3 respectively.
With deputy director general and head of news Kevin Bakhurst also announcing his departure, Forbes (the first outsider appointed to the job in a half-century) has quite a bit of hiring to do. In the interim, head of acquisitions Dermot Horan is acting as managing director of television, with RTÉ1 controller Adrian Lynch also covering RTÉ2, and they did the presentations on the day.
RTÉ recorded a small financial loss last year and is anticipating a larger shortfall in 2016 due to the demands of the 1916 centenary, the general election, the Olympics and Euro 2016. It remains to be seen how Forbes and her senior management team approach the challenge, but it’s heartening to see the new schedule showing plenty of ambition and promise.
Horan made a point of emphasising the importance of international collaborations, in what RTÉ describes as "Irish-based drama produced by the BBC in association with RTÉ", which includes the EastEnders spin-off, Redwater, and the third series of The Fall, starring Jamie Dornan and Gillian Anderson.
More interesting are the likes of Can't Cope, Won't Cope, a dark comic drama written by up-and-coming talent Stefanie Preissner. And it will be interesting to see what viewers make of Striking Out, a drama about "love, family and friendship in the world of Ireland's legal system".
Production is also starting soon on Resistance, the sequel to the 1916-set but ultimately disappointing Rebellion, and on Acceptable Risk, a six-part thriller. All of this means, apparently, that RTÉ is spending more on drama than it has done in several years, which is welcome. It's also good to see a particular focus in factual programming on the lives of people who've become adults in this century.
There is the usual sprinkling of high-profile documentaries, including a two-parter on Enda Kenny, while Pauline McLynn will seek to do for amateur painters what Mary Berry did for bakers.
Ratings winner
There’s plenty of comfort food too, including
Daniel and Majella’s B&B Road Trip
, a surefire ratings winner which has been ripped from the grasp of the ailing UTV
Ireland
. And there’s no shortage of observational series about everything from househunting to emigration.
Strangely enough, in a globalised media culture, RTÉ’s dual mandate of justifying its licence fee and securing a big enough audience to stay commercially afloat becomes easier to rationalise.
There's hardly a reference to imported programming in the new schedule; telling Irish stories about Irish people's lives is the only game in town, both commercially and politically. The best expression of that may come in the ambitious Keeping Ireland Alive: The health service in a day.
Overall, while some programmes will inevitably fall short or disappoint, it’s a strong-looking, confident schedule that probably owes a lot, ironically, to the cohort of senior managers who have just left the organisation.
