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.

Footnotes

• {{Note|liberal}} 'Soap Opera and Social Order: Glenroe, Fair City and Contemporary Ireland' by Dr. Dr Helena Sheehan. A paper given at IMAGINING IRELAND conference, Irish Film Centre, Dublin, 31 October 1993
• {{Note|Kennedy}} Finola Kennedy, Cottage to Crèche: Family Change in Ireland (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 2001) pp. 302. Price: ?30.47
• {{Note|dail}} Dáil Éireann - Volume 220 - 01 February, 1966 Private Members' Business. - Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) Bill, 1965: Second Stage (Resumed) Dáil Éireann - Volume 257 - 24 November, 1971
• {{Note|crit}} Irish Independent report on release of state papers containing file on civil service criticism of The Riordans
• {{Note|Enright}} Dáil Éireann - Volume 324 - 18 November, 1980