Comedy dramas Faithless and Obituary receive highest single sums in BAI funding round

Television drama Faithless has received the highest sum in the latest round of programme funding distributed by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) under its Sound & Vision scheme. Production company Grand Pictures was awarded €500,000 for the six-part Virgin Media One comedy drama, which follows an Irish-Egyptian father as he raises his three young mixed-race daughters alone.

Magamedia Teo received €450,000, the second-highest sum, to make Obituary, a six-part drama that “takes a sharply comedic contemporary look at the rural west of Ireland”. The series, which revolves around the story of Elvira Clancy, an underpaid obituarist working for a small-town newspaper, will be shown on RTÉ2.

A total of €6 million will be shared between the makers of 22 television and 36 radio projects following a competitive assessment process. The round, funded by a portion of licence fee receipts, attracted 124 applications seeking funding of about €15.5 million, the BAI said.

“We were very pleased with the very high quality of projects submitted and believe that the funded projects will further the BAI’s aims to promote plurality and diversity in programming, and to enhance innovation and sectoral sustainability,” said the broadcasting regulator’s chief executive, Celene Craig.