The English Class, RTE

Kudos to Liam Fay in The Sunday Times for his insightful review of the latest ‘comedy’ offering from RTE – The English Class. Fay encapsulated what everyone else was already thinking – that the series was, and is, a pile of smelly fresh dung. After the first episode of the series was aired at the beginning of October, messageboards ( http://www.anfearrua.com/db.asp?a=topicdisplay&tid=389564 ) came alive with instant rebukes for what was clearly a waste of taxpayers’ money. Not only that, but the clips of future episodes were quickly removed from You Tube as lively criticism mounted.

As one poster pointed out, rightly or wrongly, this pièce de résistance cost €80,000 per episode – a whopping €480,000 for the series. Could this be true? Probably. Why RTE fails so miserably every time with its efforts at comedy should be a mystery, but isn’t.

As Fay points out, one of its writers is Declan Jones, RTE’s chief light entertainment scriptwriter, “the brains behind the brainless clichés uttered by presenters on shows such as You’re a Star”.

Surely the English Class, produced by www.visionindependentproductions.com will not succumb to a second series. If it does, I’ll gladly lead the lynch mob to Donnybrook, for a, well, donnybrook, as the yanks would say.

Here’s a few quotes from Fay’s review:

“The silences, however, are by no means the programme’s most wince-inducing feature. That honour is hotly contested by its dialogue, its story lines, its leaden performances, its would-be jokes and virtually every other aspect of this truly ghastly production.”

“A study in embarrassment that never manages to be anything but embarrassing.”

“To most comedy fans, a penchant for [Alan] Partridge impressions seems pitifully outdated. To RTE’s comedy cognoscenti, however, it’s evidently all you need to get a sitcom of your own.”