Raw and real ‘Recruits’ marches on to RTÉ screens

RTÉ One's autumn documentary line-up gets under way next week with Recruits, a two-parter that gives the makers "unprecedented" access to the Irish Defence Forces training camp in the Curragh with "results that are as raw as they are real", according to RTÉ One controller Adrian Lynch.

Recruits has been a year in the making, says Shane Brennan, managing director of Moondance Productions, the independent production company behind it.

It follows a batch of new recruits as they try to make their way through a gruelling 17-week training period.

“We interviewed all 40 in the platoon on day one and tried to identify who would be the strong characters among them,” says Brennan.

About one in three people do not complete the training, meaning it was likely that not all of the recruits featured would make it to the passing out parade – adding to the drama.

“It’s tough,” he says. “I wouldn’t do it.”

As Moondance “couldn’t be there 24/7”, as Brennan puts it, the production uses a fixed rig camera system to record footage of the trainees.

"They kind of forget the cameras are there after about a week," says producer John Higgins.

Moondance also made six series of The Zoo for RTÉ One, but this is the production company's first docu- mentary for the 9.35pm slot, which is the time that RTÉ tends to broadcast what Lynch calls "blue-chip documentaries".

The RTÉ One controller, who took up the post last November, has a background in documentary-making from when he was an independent producer and is keen that RTÉ’s factual slate performs well.

Recruits is scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday, going out just a few days ahead of the next deadline for applications to become an Army recruit.

Rewarding career

The Irish Defence Forces says it is looking for 18-25-year-old men and women “from all backgrounds that possess a strong sense of duty, enjoy working as part of a team and are looking for a rewarding career” to apply before midnight on September 4th.

Recruits will be the first television show to give this level of insight into a physical and mental training syllabus that is not for everyone.

“The recruits haven’t seen it, but the Irish Defence Forces have,” says Brennan, who was speaking at RTÉ One’s recent season launch event in Smock Alley Theatre.

“From the outset, we had full access. They understood it would be a warts and all programme.”