“Any suggestion that RTÉ or Kevin Bakhurst has given up on comedy is simply incorrect,” is one of those perfect statements to the media that seems self-evidently true, if only because it is, in itself, quite funny.
Reading it – and this might be a niche response – I immediately pictured the population of Montrose, from the director general to the mouse spotted sauntering across the RTÉ canteen last March, collectively flagging under the pressure to rustle up some comedy and deciding it’s easier to just reject the very concept of laughter instead.
This probably hasn’t happened. I find it hard to believe, in any case, that the debacle-prone broadcaster isn’t a bastion of black humour and survivalist in-jokes, if only off-air, safely away from hot mics or any forums that might trigger complaints to Coimisiún na Meán.
Sure, getting comedy on screen is a different kettle of extremely stinky fish. But I do think it’s inaccurate to say RTÉ has given up on comedy. I’m afraid the situation is far more serious. It’s still trying to make it.
READ MORE
The official denial of comedy abandonment was prompted by an appearance by Mario Rosenstock on – where else? – Newstalk. The comedian said, among other things, that he was “disgusted” by remarks the director general had previously made about comedy being “hit and miss”, which Rosenstock characterised as “an admission of total defeat”.
It’s possible that Bakhurst said similar things elsewhere, but that line was familiar to me from an interview I did with the RTÉ boss in August 2024, shortly after RTÉ secured guaranteed levels of public funding for 2025-2027.
“Comedy is a very tricky genre, not just for us,” he said then. “Most commercial broadcasters have pulled out of it, because it’s too hit and miss, and it’s expensive as well. But this should be part of our offering to audiences, and having the guaranteed level of funding over the next number of years helps us take these risks.”
This was in the context of the launch of Good Boy, a short-form, low-budget RTÉ Player sitcom starring Tony Cantwell, and the first RTÉ-developed sitcom in several years. The quote from Bakhurst followed a point I’d made, while warming up to something resembling a question, about sitcoms being “perceived as a tricky genre sometimes and maybe even particularly so for RTÉ”.
To be unfunnily clear, his position was that, now RTÉ had secured its multiannual funding agreement, it would be able to invest in comedy. Licence-fee payers and the promises of the previous coalition would combine to finance RTÉ-disseminated laughs. Intentional ones.
This summer I caught up with Steve Carson, RTÉ’s director of video, about his commissioning plans, and he outlined his ambitions for comedy upfront.
Sadly, my obligation to file somewhere in the region of my designated word count meant none of this made the published interview, but the gist was that RTÉ is keen to develop a comedy slate because the genre “can really punch through” on linear television “with a relatively low volume of hours” while also enjoying a long on-demand life.
The late Republic of Telly was fondly remembered as “a way of trying out new writers”, just as the more recent sketch show No Worries If Not! was a vehicle for comedians who had broken through online. Carson expressed a desire to develop a new show that would serve as a pipeline for emerging talent. A scheme for comedy pilot episodes was also mooted.
But he hinted that the big task ahead for Mark Bignell, RTÉ’s commissioning editor of comedy as of September, involves developing a slate of “full-fat, laugh-out-loud half-hour sitcoms”.
Bignell, who is from Co Down, overlapped with Carson at BBC Scotland, and his producer credits include Mrs Brown’s Boys – which originated at BBC Scotland – and the upcoming Christmas special of the Glasgow-set Two Doors Down.
In its new comedy commissioning brief, RTÉ sets out its stall, seeking proposals for half-hour sitcoms “that will appeal to a broad post-watershed RTÉ One audience”. The tonal reference points that pitching production companies should consider are Killinaskully (Pat Shortt’s Noughties comedy for RTÉ), The Young Offenders (originally a BBC Three commission), Derry Girls (Channel 4) and, of course, Mrs Brown’s Boys.
The proposals should have “a confident warm tone” and “a clearly Irish view on the world” – I never know what that means – and they should be “accessible, inclusive, mainstream and, most importantly, funny”. What could go wrong?
Incidentally, this doesn’t sound a million miles away from the one Irish sitcom that is on air at the moment: Baz Ashmawy’s warm and charming Faithless. The Virgin Media Television series was, at one point, in development at RTÉ.
Still, this missed opportunity aside, RTÉ hasn’t given up on comedy. It’s looking for the next Mrs Brown’s Boys, and that’s obviously not the same thing at all.
