I do not come back to Northern Ireland very often what with work, relationships and the constant demand of the film industry (why can't they just stop making new films for a week or two and give me a chance to catch up?). However when I do I like it to be for more than a minute and, being in the countryside, I will end up watching television in the evenings. To those not aware, the BBC in the UK is pretty much the same across all areas but there will be variations for local programming and, unlike my new home in the Midlands, Northern Ireland always seems to make good use of them with "normal" programming regularly being an hour later than the mainland due to local programming. I remember this used to frustrate me as a kid because films and shows that were on at a "OK you can stay up" time in England would start an hour later over in NI.
What I never really did was watch many of the shows made by BBC Northern Ireland but recently I have been giving them a try. Over the last few visits I caught things like Give My Head Peace and also this show which has been kicking around for a few years now. Folks on the Hill is essentially a political satire show that is more or less the baby of Sean Crummery (the Hill in question being Stormont). The episodes are quite short but each week they are entirely computer animated with the characters of Gerry Kelly, Ian Paisley, Martin McGuiness and many other of your "favourites" all the characters in the sketches. It has plenty of great ideas and at times is really quite funny as it benefits from the satirical edge on gallows humour that many people living in Northern Ireland in the last 30-40 years naturally have. However it is never as funny or at least as consistently funny as I would like and some of it is a bit broad. That said I do enjoy seeing it because it is nice to have regular satire because sometimes with Governments you do have the choice of (a) laugh or (b) cry, and you can't ALWAYS do (b) without it getting to you.
The focus on Northern Ireland will limit its appeal severely. Speaking as an England-dweller now, there is almost no coverage of Northern Ireland (politics, violence, whatever) in the mainstream media you have to go looking for as I do, on the BBC news website and such. Even to me though I still find it hard to always know who the characters are and do regular turn to others to be reminded who such and such is. So in terms of it ever coming to the mainland I think you can safely forget it! The means of delivery is what weakens the show because it does feel rather cheap I'm afraid. The computer animation is good for what it is but it does mean everyone moves slowly and everything feels old simply because the technology has dated this look. On top of this, Crummery isn't that great an impressionist and, while he can do the job when also given the CGI characters to help us out, mostly his voices are "close" rather than being really good impressions. What it always feels like to me is a really good first attempt to get noticed and that what everyone involved should have done after a year of this was to move on to writing a live-action satire, with impressionists and a few more writers to make sure it stays killer sharp.
As it is nobody has moved and it continues to have that air that brings one to see it as "good for what it is" rather than just calling it good. So yes, this is what it is, a humorous and enjoyable dig at Northern Irish politicians, all of whom deserve a bit of fun made of them but limited by the delivery in terms of voices and animation. It has enough about it though to justify those involved being given the chance to take it up a notch though.
What I never really did was watch many of the shows made by BBC Northern Ireland but recently I have been giving them a try. Over the last few visits I caught things like Give My Head Peace and also this show which has been kicking around for a few years now. Folks on the Hill is essentially a political satire show that is more or less the baby of Sean Crummery (the Hill in question being Stormont). The episodes are quite short but each week they are entirely computer animated with the characters of Gerry Kelly, Ian Paisley, Martin McGuiness and many other of your "favourites" all the characters in the sketches. It has plenty of great ideas and at times is really quite funny as it benefits from the satirical edge on gallows humour that many people living in Northern Ireland in the last 30-40 years naturally have. However it is never as funny or at least as consistently funny as I would like and some of it is a bit broad. That said I do enjoy seeing it because it is nice to have regular satire because sometimes with Governments you do have the choice of (a) laugh or (b) cry, and you can't ALWAYS do (b) without it getting to you.
The focus on Northern Ireland will limit its appeal severely. Speaking as an England-dweller now, there is almost no coverage of Northern Ireland (politics, violence, whatever) in the mainstream media you have to go looking for as I do, on the BBC news website and such. Even to me though I still find it hard to always know who the characters are and do regular turn to others to be reminded who such and such is. So in terms of it ever coming to the mainland I think you can safely forget it! The means of delivery is what weakens the show because it does feel rather cheap I'm afraid. The computer animation is good for what it is but it does mean everyone moves slowly and everything feels old simply because the technology has dated this look. On top of this, Crummery isn't that great an impressionist and, while he can do the job when also given the CGI characters to help us out, mostly his voices are "close" rather than being really good impressions. What it always feels like to me is a really good first attempt to get noticed and that what everyone involved should have done after a year of this was to move on to writing a live-action satire, with impressionists and a few more writers to make sure it stays killer sharp.
As it is nobody has moved and it continues to have that air that brings one to see it as "good for what it is" rather than just calling it good. So yes, this is what it is, a humorous and enjoyable dig at Northern Irish politicians, all of whom deserve a bit of fun made of them but limited by the delivery in terms of voices and animation. It has enough about it though to justify those involved being given the chance to take it up a notch though.