The process of television programme-making is an arcane mystery to most viewers, but a new series starting next month on RTE1 aims to offer a peek behind the scenes. RTE Unwrapped, produced by the independent company, Graph Films, kicks off with a portrait of Gerry Ryan's morning radio show, and over the following six weeks provides a sometimes intriguing behind-the-scenes look at how some of the station's most popular shows are put together. Later programmes follow the coverage of an international rugby match at Lansdowne Road between Ireland and Italy earlier this year, along with episodes of Winning Streak, the Six-One News, Crimeline and Later on Two with Clare McKeon. But no Prime Time, no Fair City, no Kenny Live . . . many of the big guns are unaccountably absent.
When the series went into production last spring, there were rumours that the most popular and powerful programmes on RTE were flexing their muscles and refusing to let themselves be Unwrapped. "We were surprised, but we respected everyone's right not to be included," says series producer Adrian Lynch. "We did understand Prime Time's position, that they were dealing with heavyweight issues and that having us in could have been disruptive, and we didn't get Fair City because they were on a very heavy schedule at that point." Kenny Live could hardly make the same claim, though? "Well, they felt that we would be intrusive, and that the programme would disturb the mystique of the show," says Lynch, choosing his words carefully. So now we know - and the "mystique" of Kenny Live will remain forever intact - surely a missed opportunity for those of us who wondered how it achieved that special mix of blandness, tackiness and sheer boredom, week in and week out.
It's hard to avoid the impression of "the biter bit" when it comes to RTE Unwrapped. After all, for the last few years broadcasters have been plundering people's lives and lifestyles with glee for cheap fly-on-the-wall and docu-soap programmes, so you could argue that it's time they had the cameras turned on themselves. Fly-on-the-wall shows have never quite taken off here to the extent they have in the UK; showing an admirable sense of self-preservation, Irish people seem much cagier about what they'll reveal to the cameras. It's hardly surprising, then, that those who actually work in broadcasting should be most wary of all in letting themselves be exposed on camera (and to be fair, the print media would hardly be much more open).
"Obviously, that sort of self-consciousness was a concern for us," says Lynch. "If you go into a meat factory, say, to make a programme, there's going to be a certain level of paranoia. Going into RTE, that paranoia is going to be doubled. But pretty well everyone was keen on the idea of an honest appraisal of the work they're doing." He does admit that there were some tricky moments. "We found sometimes that we'd be negotiating with one set of people in the run-up to the programme, then going in with the camera to deal with an entirely different group of people. There was a sense at times among those working on the programmes that management weren't consulting with them enough."
You can see why the authorities in Montrose found the idea of RTE Unwrapped attractive - the series presents an overwhelmingly positive portrait of programme-makers working hard to get their shows out, usually on tight budgets. Some of the more amusing high points underline the decidedly unglamorous nature of working in telly: Tom McGurk and his rugby pundits nervously ensconced in a swaying, leaky Portakabin perched precariously over Lansdowne Road; Gerry Ryan lost, Spinal Tap-style, in the bowels of Liffey Valley Shopping Centre as he arrives to perform an opening ceremony at which even Alan Partridge might have balked.
It would probably have been asking the impossible for Graph to attempt an overall portrait of the powerful institution that is RTE, with its labyrinthine internal politics and tensions - Irish documentary series have always tended to be rather too cosy with their subjects, particularly when it comes to State and semi-state organisations. RTE Un- wrapped doesn't attempt any such grand project, but nor is it just a snow job, and it has plenty of small pleasures. In putting the series in one of the most popular peak-time slots of the week the channel clearly believes that Irish audiences are dying for a peek behind the facade, and it's almost certainly correct. There's a behind-the-scenes frisson about finding out how that weird potatoes-in-space sequence in Winning Streak actually works, for example, which for mystique-busting beats anything Kenny Live has to offer. But Pat, are you really that insecure?
