Politixia
“Sadness, madness and badness” is how Chris Addison describes his latest TV project, the new RTÉ comedy drama ‘Tall Tales & Murder’.
Addison, who is best known for playing Ollie Reader in the cult TV series ‘The Thick of It’, spoke to hosts Paul Cunningham and Evelyn O’Rourke on Behind the Story.
He explained that it was a friend of his who had read the ‘Dublin Trilogy’ by Caoimh McDonnell on which the TV series is based.
Later, Addison was introduced to Stuart Carolan – the creator of ‘Love/Hate’ – and they agreed to work on developing it for television.
Addison told Behind the Story it is hard to box the series in.
“It’s a little bit Bonnie and Clyde, it’s a little bit treasure hunt, it’s a little bit gangsters, it’s a little bit Vikings and monks – there’s all sorts of bananas stuff going on,” he said.
“It’s not really like anything else that I’ve seen, I’m glad to say.”
‘For an Irish audience’
Addison said he was conscious of making the show directed at an Irish audience.
“We’re not going to see something that is designed to appeal to Americans,” he said.
“Sometimes it feels like things that are international-facing, Irish-set stories feel like they are presenting a version of Ireland that is designed to appease the preconceptions of a non-Irish audience.
“We wanted this to be about Ireland for an Irish audience first.”
‘Political satire’
Addison is not sure you could make a show like ‘The Thick of It’ today.
“At the engine of all satire about governments is that the governments project a sense of competence,” he explained.
“Behind that façade is the manic panic and in the gap between those two things is where satire sits.
“But in 2016, the façade just fell over (with) Trump, Brexit.
“You can’t do something quite like ‘The Thick of It; now because it’s not a surprise to anybody.”
You can listen to Behind the Story on the RTÉ Listen app.
You can also find episodes on Apple here, or on Spotify here.
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