The Riordans

The Riordans was the second Irish soap opera made by Radio Telifís Éireann (then called Telifís Éireann). It ran from 1965 to 1979 and was set in the fictional townland of Leestown in County Kilkenny. Its use of Outside Broadcast Units and its filming of its episodes on location rather than in studio, broke the mould of broadcasting in the soap opera genre, and inspired the creation of its British equivalent, Emmerdale Farm (now called Emmerdale) by Yorkshire Television in 1972.

Characters

The show, which was created by James Douglas was to be called The Riordans after the name of the family, and to feature two middle-aged parents, Tom Riordan and his wife Mary Riordan, with their oldest son, Benjy and other siblings, including brother Michael and sister Jude, all of whom except Benjy had left farming for other careers and had more adverturous personal lives. Other leading characters included the family doctor, his Protestant gentry wife, the (radical Vatican II-oriented) Catholic priest, the conservative Church of Ireland rector, the local pub owner, some nomadic Irish Travellers and others.

Related Topics:
James Douglas - Protestant - Vatican II - Catholic - Conservative - Church of Ireland - Nomadic - Irish Traveller

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Part of the success of the series was due to the fact that many of the leading actors were themselves from the background they represented. John Cowley, who played the patriarch of the family, Tom Riordan was from real farming stock in Ardbraccan in County Meath and many of the issues his character had to deal with reflected his own life experiences in rural Ireland. Actor Tom Hickey, who played Benjy was from County Laois in the midlands and so had personal experience of life in the part of the country the programme was set in.

Related Topics:
John Cowley - Ardbraccan - County Meath - Tom Hickey - County Laois

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~