ART / Right of reply: Andrew Eaton, the producer of Roddy Doyle's new series, Family
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Roddy Doyle's four-part series Family (BBC 1) has caused uproar in Ireland. Its portrayal of life on a high-rise estate has been deplored as negative and stereotypical . . .
'I thought there would be a big reaction in Ireland, but I'm surprised by the scale of it. Roddy was pretty shell-shocked for the first few days; a lot of the criticism was personal.
'The people portrayed are not stereotypically Irish; families like this exist all over the world. I do think the people of Ballymun are underestimating the audience. I'm sure people didn't decide not to go to Liverpool after Boys from the Black Stuff in 1982.
'I don't really believe that the people on the Ballymun estate who have protested about it represent the majority of opinion on that estate; there are more than 20,000 people living on there. I don't think that we would have been able to go in there and film for such a long period and experience such good will if people had really felt that. It wasn't as if we went in there clandestinely.
'Maybe people are more easily shocked now. I think Family is fantastically real, but some people have the amazing attitude where they say, 'Let's just pretend people don't really live like this.' They'd probably advocate having Middlemarch on all year round.
'Maybe there's a slight use of artistic licence where quite a lot of problems are squashed into one family. Though apparently there were women phoning into radio stations in Ireland saying they would happily swap their husbands for Charlo. That's the other side of the story in Ireland; after every episode RTE having been putting out a helpline telephone number - first a women's helpline and then a childline - and they've been inundated.'
(Photograph omitted)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments