RT continues to put Irish drama centre stage with over 63 hours of original Irish content scheduled.
2023 is shaping up to be a busy year, for original Irish drama on RT with over 63 hours of original Irish drama airing across RT One, RT 2, RT Player and RT Radio 1. Smother and The Dry have just aired on RT One and remain on RT Player, and proved extremely popular with Irish viewers, while KIN and SisterS are currently debuting their new seasons. Clean Sweep, The Gone, Obituary, Hidden Assets 2 and Storyland, all original Irish content are currently in production and will be on our screens later this year. RT Radio: Drama On One on RT Radio 1 will broadcast the winning plays from the PJ O'Connor Awards, and a Samuel Beckett season, while offering new online collections such as Drama Gaeilge and the John Boorman collection.
This is part of RT 's ongoing strategy to increase its development in drama output, by investing in the Irish creative industry and showcasing the best of Ireland by filming right across the country. This strategy also supports the employment of hundreds of people across the industry, in order to bring more Irish drama series to television, and importantly to RT Player where scripted series dominate viewing. Partnerships both in Ireland and internationally continue to enable the production of these great original Irish dramas.
RT Director of Content Jim Jennings said: All our research has shown that Irish viewers want to view Irish home-grown drama, set in Ireland, written by Irish writers. And they want to watch it both live on television, or on-demand on RT Player. The expansion of our drama slate, developed and supported by RT , with the help of our domestic and international partners, is fulfilling this need and also bringing the best of Irish drama to the international stage.
ORIGINAL IRISH DRAMA FROM RT NOW AVAILABLE, AND COMING SOON
Smother
On Sunday 5th February of this year, the first of many dramas to air on RT was the final series of Smother. Directed by Datha Keane and written by Kate O'Riordan, Ursula Rani Sarma, Tom Farrelly and Sonya Kelly, it centred once again around the Ahern family. Filmed in Lahinch in Co Clare and produced by Treasure Entertainment, Smother was as popular as ever with linear audiences with a series three average of 400,000 on RT One (+1) and 29% share and a total of 587,000 streams on RT Player across the three series. The series has already been sold to Peacock in the US and to Alibi in the UK.
The Dry
The highly anticipated BAFTA-nominated dramedy, The Dry premiered on RT One on March 1st, just as all episodes simultaneously dropped on RT Player. This unprecedented move proved successful as RT Player had 538,000 views in just four weeks. Writer Nancy Harris tells the story of Shiv Sheridan, who returns to Dublin after years of partying in London and tries to navigate a new phase of her life. But trying to stay sober and being back with her family is not at all easy.
KIN
After the huge success of the season premiere, the second series of Peter McKenna's KIN was shot in Ireland and Spain during the summer and autumn of last year. Returning to RT on March 19th, KIN stars Clare Dunne, Charlie Cox, Emmett J Scanlan, Aidan Gillen, Mary Doyle Kennedy and Sam Keeley were confronted by compelling new antagonists, both from within the characters' own family and community and from abroad. Directors new to KIN include Felix Thompson, Kate Dolan, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor. After the first episode of series two, an average of 524,000 watched on RT 1 (+1) with an impressive 305,000 streams across both series on RT Player.
SisterS
SisterS is an Irish-Canadian co-production produced by Peer Pressure and Shaftesbury in Association with Mermade and Gaze Pictures and directed by BAFTA winner, Declan Lowney (Fr Ted and Ted Lasso). Airing on RT One and RT Player from tonight, March 30th, this dark comedy-drama is about two women born continents apart, in Canada and Ireland, who discover they are half-sisters and so embark on a road trip to find their alcoholic father. Real-life best friends Sarah Goldberg and Susan Stanley make their writing debut and starring roles.
Clean Sweep
Produced by ShinAwiL, and shot in Wicklow and Dublin, Clean Sweep is a six-part thriller about a stay-at-home mum who juggles the complex schedules of three kids, whilst hiding her murky past. This past life is completely unbeknown to her husband, who happens to work as a detective for the Gard i. But for how long can you keep that from him? Starring Charlene McKenna, Rhys Mannion and Barry Ward. Clean Sweep will air this summer on RT .
Hidden Assets 2
After the success of the first series, the international crime thriller Hidden Assets was further developed for a second series. Shot on location in Limerick and Antwerp, Hidden Assets is produced by Siobh n Bourke and Kathryn Lennon from Saffron Moon with investment partners from Acorn, Screen Ireland, Screen Flanders, Streamz and Mediafonds in Belgium and Facet 4 in Canada with DCD Rights as the international distribution partner. Coming to RT this autumn, series 2 is written by Peter McKenna, Sinead Collopy, Susan Connolly, Marty Fox and Mary Thornton and the series is being directed once again by Thaddeus O Sullivan and Kadir Balci. Nora-Jane Noone joins the cast with Simone Kirby, Wouter Hendricks, Cathy Belton, Aaron Monaghan all returning.
The Gone
Currently in post-production for airing this autumn is The Gone, a new six-part thriller set in New Zealand written by Anne McPartlin and Michael Bennett. In the series, two twenty-somethings from Ireland go missing, with a potential Irish crime family involved in their disappearance, leading to a joint New Zealand and Irish crime investigation. The lead Irish detective is played by Richard Flood, most
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RT continues to put Irish drama centre stage with over 63 hours of original Irish content scheduled.
