John Boland's week in TV: Skilful adaptation of modern classic has powerful chemistry at its heart

John Boland reviews Normal People, Ryan: A Legacy, The Songs of Leonard Cohen with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Cheap Irish Houses, Slí na mBeaglaoich, and Run

Outstanding: Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal) in Normal People, based on Sally Rooney's second novel

John Boland

May 02 2020 02:30 AM

At not much more than 250 pages and with little by way of plot or overt action, Sally Rooney's second novel was an unlikely candidate for a 12-episode television drama.

Indeed, her equally brilliant 2017 debut, Conversations with Friends, seemed a better fit for adaptation, not least because it features four main characters and quite a bit happens in the course of the story. And yet, to judge from the first two episodes of Normal People (RTÉ1/BBC1), this more enclosed and introspective novel has been marvellously reimagined for the small screen.

Readers of the book will know that it concerns the on-off love affair between west of Ireland teenagers Marianne and Connell, first clandestinely in school and then in Trinity College, where spiky, insecure loner Marianne will come into her own and popular local hero Connell will struggle to fit in socially.

That's for future episodes, but the attraction they feel for each other was powerfully conveyed from the outset in the extraordinary playing of Daisy Edgar-Jones and Kildare newcomer Paul Mescal. Here was that elusive thing, real screen chemistry, and rendered in silent moments as much as in the script devised by Rooney and co-screenwriter Alice Birch.

It was furthered, too, by the nuanced touch of director Lenny Abrahamson, so that the sexual couplings of Marianne and Connell caught the awkwardness as well as the giddy thrill of adolescent passion.

The story will have its dark moments - not least concerning Marianne's distressing home life and her abusive brother, whose ghastliness is suggested rather than explored in the book - but so far in this screen version, you feel you're in such safe hands that this already outstanding drama will adroitly negotiate what's to come.

Ryan: A Legacy (RTÉ1) was screened two nights earlier and it was sobering to realise that Sally Rooney's characters were too young to recall the antics of Gerry Ryan - they'd have been 10 or under when the Radio 2 presenter died suddenly a decade ago.

His demise was marked at the time by outpourings of grief from his RTÉ colleagues and they were still mythologising him in this new tribute show.

"Funnier than anyone I've ever met in my life," declared Dave Fanning. "The brightest, the boldest, the bravest," said Joe Duffy. "He was like Ronaldo in a radio studio," opined Philip Kampff. "The most naturally gifted broadcaster of my generation," said Mark Cagney.

But amid all the gushing encomiums, the viewer was left in no doubt that "Ireland's first shock jock" (as Fanning deemed him) had a supersized ego with a monstrous appetite for money, drink and cocaine - the latter confirmed by an inquest into his death.

It all seems so long ago now, and as for his legacy, his long-time producer Willie O'Reilly offered: "He opened up discussion on everything from sexuality to domestic abuse." Hmmm, hadn't Gay Byrne done all that a few decades earlier?

His brother Mano was content with "his legacy is his family", and perhaps that was why there was no input from other family members, leaving the way clear for all those old broadcasting cronies to outdo each other in their urge to assure us of his greatness.

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Recorded a while back in the National Concert Hall, The Songs of Leonard Cohen with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra (RTÉ1) managed to mangle 10 of the great Canadian's songs. "Some of the best songs ever written by anyone ever," announced Lisa Hannigan from the stage. Well, not as performed here in renditions that missed entirely the spirit, poetry and wit of Cohen's own versions, and not helped by clunky orchestral arrangements, smothering strings and overbearing choirs.

Presented by Maggie Molloy, Cheap Irish Houses (RTÉ1) has the novel idea of focusing on out-of-the-way properties people can actually afford to buy - that's if anyone is even thinking of doing so during these uncertain times.

She's an amiable host and is greatly assisted by building engineer Kieran McCarthy, who's so personable and camera-friendly that Dermot Bannon must be keeping a nervous eye on him.

This week, Limerick-based Aisling, who works in pharmaceuticals, wanted somewhere in the Limerick or Clare area reachable by car, and Maggie showed her four options ranging in price from €62,000 to €89,000. She plumped for the one that needed the most money for repair work, but she loved it.

Slí na mBeaglaoich (TG4) is a six-part travel series that has Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich and son Cormac setting off from their native Kerry in a camper van and making their way up the west coast, eventually arriving in Donegal.

They're also traditional musicians and so they keep calling on other musicians along the way. So there was lots of music in this week's opening hour, like a travelling Céilí House, but not much by way of interesting chat.

Indeed, I found their conversations stilted and a bit uneasy, and I didn't much warm to them, though maybe when I get to know them better...

Neither have I much warmed to Run (Sky Comedy) in which two former lovers from college days get to meet up 15 years later when they impulsively abandon their normal lives and flee together on a train.

Unlike Normal People, there's no chemistry between Domhnall Gleeson and Merritt Wever, and I'm finding it all very implausible.