Television drama is something that helps us all get through those long winter evenings. Week after week, we snuggle down in our armchairs with a cup of tea and follow the intimate lives of fictional characters we have come to care about. The January low this year will be greatly relieved by a new four-part television drama starring, among others, Brenda Fricker and Adrian Dunbar. Relative Strangers is the latest in the increasing number of small-screen Irish dramas that are now, thankfully, being presented to Irish audiences.
The story centres on two women, played by Lena Stolze and Fricker. Maureen (Fricker) is an Irish woman working as a nurse in Germany, where she is married with two teenage children. Liza Becker (Stolze) is an Austrian woman who has settled and had a child in Ireland. Both women are ignorant of each other until the death of Maureen's husband uncovers his unfaithfulness with Liza.
Liza's son's leukaemia adds a complication to the plot that forces an ethical dilemma for Maureen. This is the human story of two women grappling with a new reality and being forced to face up to the painful new circumstances of their lives.
As part of the story is based on the real-life illness of writer Eric Deacon's son, the emotional truth of having a seriously ill child is faithfully realised.
One of the pleasant surprises of the series is young actor Ben Butler. At only seven, Butler makes an impressive debut as Jamie Becker, the boy battling against leukaemia. From Killiney, Ben studies drama at the Betty Ann Norton Theatre School and was selected for the coveted part from a host of six-year-old contenders.
In the opinion of the director, Giles Foster, known in Ireland for his direction of The Lilac Bus, Ben has huge focus, something unusual for a child of his age. Foster says Ben is a natural and we should expect to see much more of him in the future. Ben himself hopes Foster is right, saying he enjoyed the filming process and that his ambition is to some day play Anakin Skywalker in one of the Star Wars movies.
While the budget for Relative Strangers may not have been of Star Wars proportions, it was, nevertheless, quite an expensive drama to make - the final cost was around £3 million. According to the executive producer, James Mitchell of Little Bird, this is just about top of the range in terms of budget. In television, production quality is directly related to finance and in Relative Strangers the money shows.
Filmed in Cologne and Dusseldorf, in Germany, and around Bray, Co Wicklow, the series is an example of the European partnerships that are behind much of the new work being made for television. While initially commissioned by the Independent Production Unit of , RTE, the series was produced by a number of companies, including Dublin-based Little Bird and Tatfilm of Dusseldorf. The bulk of the finance was German - from Filmstiftung NRW and the German broadcaster WDR - and, in addition, there was help from the Media Programme of the European Union.
Such collaboration results not only in a high quality product, but also one that is marketable in a number of different territories. With the cast including German television stars such as Dieter Pfaff (a household name there), the series is guaranteed a German market. Advance sales have also been made in English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The fact that the series focuses on an essentially human story, rather than a specifically Irish one, seems to have widened its appeal. If IRA men and priest-ridden misty isles sell in America, maybe simple human dramas with universal themes will help to broaden the market for Irish films.
This is also a welcome homecoming for the earthy acting talents of Brenda Fricker. Not only is it good to see an actor of such calibre return to our screens, it is refreshing to see a mature woman in a decent lead role, something all too rare in film or television. If the previews are anything to go by, Relative Strangers might just make the cut where others have not.
Relative Strangers will be shown on RTE 1 over four consecutive Monday evenings from January 10th, at 9.30 p.m.