A wry look at the atmosphere in Ireland ahead of the elections for the European Parliament.
‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ newsreader (Frank Kelly) reports that excitement is running high as the date for the European Parliament approaches.
All over the country people are congregating at street corners and elsewhere, eagerly discussing the issues, the candidates and in particular the big salaries.
He introduces Reports Reporter (Eamon Morrissey) who gives a studio report on Eurovision Elections ’79. The question being asked all over the country is,
Where the hell is Brussels?
Many voters have taken a keen interest in the working of the European Parliament and feel they are lacking hard information.
It’s hard enough to keep an eye on them in the Dáil God knows, but when they get over there we won’t know what the hell they’re doing.
The European Elections are a talking point throughout the European Economic Community (EEC). Eurovision Correspondent John McAlherring reports from Brussels on the feeling amongst Europeans about the Irish Members of the European Parliament. Throughout the EEC, one question is being asked,
Mon Dieu, where the hell is this Irlande?
Political Correspondent Donal Jelly (Frank Kelly) reports on how his workload has increased since Ireland became a member of the EEC.
This episode of ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ was broadcast on 14 March 1979.
Frank Hall’s amusing and satirical series began on 29 September 1971 with the full title ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly Incorporating the Provincial Vindicator’ which became known as ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’.
The series allowed Frank Hall to follow his own interest in the lives of viewers throughout the country. Regarded as RTÉ’s flagship comedy show, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy sketches, re-edited videos, cartoons and spoof television formats.
The programme ran for 9 series until 1980. In the RTÉ Guide on the week of it’s first transmission, Frank Hall wrote
“the form and content of Hall’s Pictorial Weekly should be impossible to forecast until the last moment. It should be as varied and absorbing as life itself…I have an inexhaustible interest in the lives and times of the people who live in our country towns and villages; no event is too small to capture my attention, no community too out of the way… This programme is intended to be about you, your town, your friends, your local interests.”
(RTÉ Guide, September 24, 1971, Vol 8, No 9, p 2).