Mother issues, religious hokum, secrets, grudges, stunning seascapes and occasionally wooden dialogue returned to Irish TV screens last night for the EastEnders spin-off Redwater, that is less Albert Square, and more Ballykissangel reimagined by David Lynch, starring the cast of The Commitments.
“But she’s not pure though. No mother is as pure as the Virgin. People let you down always, time and time again,” killer priest and hater of orange juice, Father Dermott Dolan (Oisin Stack), tells a terrified seven-year-old Tommy of their mother, Kat (Jessie Wallace), in the chilling closing scenes of this week’s episode.
To briefly recap: last week, after departing Walford in 2016, EastEnders' Kat and Alfie (Shane Richie) reappeared in Redwater, played by the show-stealing Co Waterford village of Dunmore East, in search of the son Kat gave up for adoption.
Because happiness and the people of Albert Square tend not to be well acquainted, the son has grown up to be a hoodie-wearing, Father Trendy with murder on his mind.
In last night’s episode, there was another long-lost offspring twist: the late Lance’s daughter Eileen (Angeline Ball) returned from the US after more than 20 years, to indulge in a bit of returned emigrant superiority, in a plunging red silk blouse.
“Beautiful, isn’t it? Gets me every time,” says Eileen’s brother-in-law Padraig Kelly (Stephen Hogan), standing with her on the ferry transporting them towards Redwater.
“Looks can be deceptive,” mutters Eileen in return.
Few could argue with that in the circumstances: they’re not actually looking at Dunmore East, fictional home of Redwater, but nearby Passage East. There are several such geographical clangers in the show that perhaps only a local would notice – characters keep taking a horse for a ride on the beach at Dunmore East, and somehow ending up dismounting in Passage.
But otherwise, locals have little to complain about.
In "Walford-on-Sea" as the Radio Times has dubbed Dunmore East, reaction was divided between those banking on a tourism boost from the series, and those simultaneously proud and slightly annoyed that the secret is out – something that now seems inevitable, after the first episode garnered an average audience of 495,000 viewers and a 38 per cent share on RTE, and 4.19 million viewers when it went out on Thursday on BBC.
I have to declare an interest here: having happily set up home in Dunmore East since we returned to Ireland from the USA a year ago, I'm in the "simultaneously proud and slightly annoyed" camp.
On Monday, the first post-Redwater tour bus from the UK was spotted dismounting at the Strand Inn, followed by two more buses by Tuesday, says proprietor Clifden Foyle, whose hotel and restaurant will serve as at least five different locations during the series, including Peter Dolan’s pub, an ice-cream shop, a tourist office and a sushi bar.
“There has been an immediate kick. We’re already seeing a lot more UK bookings coming in for over the summer,” says Foyle, who is this week taking delivery of some bespoke “glamping” cabins to cater for the anticipated additional demand from holidaymakers.
“The programme has brought a bit of extra buzz to the village. We were booked out over the weekend in the hotel and the restaurant, and some of the other hotels were too. And it’s all anyone is talking about.”
Foyle believes the Redwater effect can only be good for a village, in which roughly 500 hundred of the 1,500 inhabitants are employed in tourism.
Even so, not everyone is overjoyed. “People are generally very positive towards it – although the first episode did seem to leave a few people confused. But they’re all really impressed with how Dunmore is portrayed. I’ve only had one lady come up to me to say she wasn’t going to watch and she hoped they never came back.”
"I thought it was going to be EastEnders, and it wasn't, thank God," said one local woman, who had met up with two friends to watch it in the Strand Inn.
In last night’s episode, the drama – and the already sprawling Byrne family – expanded at an exponential rate, to the extent that the RTE press office had to put out a family tree on Twitter to help the confused along.
The paddywhackery that had annoyed some viewers last week was dialled back, in favour of a darker take on the rural Irish family drama, by Borgen director Jesper Nielsen. Dermott Dolan seems to have worked out his orange juice angst, and he's back with the maddest stare in television, and some disturbing mother issues.
Creepy as he is, I’d be more concerned about coming across his adoptive aunt Agnes, Fionnula Flanagan’s steely matriarch and queen of the killer Irish mammyisms, in a dark alleyway. “If he wasn’t already dead, I’d strangle himself myself,” she says of her late husband, when she discovers he has stuck it to her from beyond the grave, by leaving the farm to their children.
"Kieran here is apparently one of those gays," she hisses at another point, before throwing Kat out of her husband's wake in a classic EastEnders moment.
Redwater has a lot going for it: an unrivalled location, strong acting, at least by the Irish contingent, and plenty of intrigue. But its main problem is encapsulated by the fact that it doesn't even seem to know what to called itself. Some listings describe it as "Kat and Alfie: Redwater", while others have it as simply Redwater.
That seems appropriate because, two episodes in, it remains an uneasy hybrid of a show, careening wildly between the “forced, innit?” interludes featuring Kat and Alfie, and the more nuanced Irish family scenes.
As a tourism initiative for Dunmore East, it is a roaring success. As a drama, though, there’s a sense of a series still struggling with its own parentage issues. If it goes into a second series, the best thing for it might be to lose the Kat and Alfie storyline altogether, and go it alone.
Eighty-eight-year-old Michael, out for a walk over the weekend, had no strong views either way. “Sure, it’s a harmless bit of fun,” he said. “But I’d rather watch a history programme.”
