TG4's newsroom drama loses nothing in translation

TELEPRINTER:From reporters having to beg for their salaries to the canny deployment of question marks in headlines to see off libel accusations, Scúp, TG4's new drama about a Belfast Irish-language weekly paper, hits some amusingly accurate notes in its depiction of a local newsroom.

Given most television portrayals of journalists fall several broadsheets-in-a-row wide of the mark, it’s no surprise that Scúp is the creation of a former journalist.

Scriptwriter Colin Bateman started his career at the age of 17 at the County Down Spectator, as “a very young punk rocker” and had risen to deputy editor status by the time he left to become a full-time novelist in 1999.

“A lot of what I write goes back to my days as a reporter,” he says – several of his novels feature Belfast investigative reporter Dan Starkey.

Scúp, made by Stirling Film and TV Productions for TG4 and BBC Northern Ireland, centres on the return of Rob Cullan (Don Wycherley), a journalist sacked from the Guardian after he engaged in some tabloid phone-hacking on the side.

Second series

An Nuacht’s proprietor is Diarmuid Black (Denis Conway), a failed property developer who ran the paper as a “50 per cent tax dodge, 50 per cent vanity” project but now has to earn his crust from it. He hires Cullan in an effort to save it from its fate as “a mouthpiece for crackpots”.

Over the course of the eight self-contained episodes, Cullan sets about turning it into “a proper newspaper” – complete with “rolling news on Twitter, Facebook, a decent website” – and starts a dalliance with “tenacious reporter” Alix (Kelly Gough) while he’s at it.

Bateman, a “north Down Protestant” as he describes himself, wrote the series in English and it was translated into Irish by Peadar Cox.

“TG4 is there to promote the Irish language and Irish culture, but for me, I can’t think about that. I have to write a drama and I’ve always been interested in writing a newspaper series,” says Bateman.

“It could be in Irish or it could be in Icelandic.”

Scúp received funding from both Northern Ireland Screen and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, but it is made in “a bit of a hand-to-mouth way” compared to a typical RTÉ or BBC drama, Bateman adds.

“The great thing was the freedom. They would trust me to go away and write eight episodes.”

Bateman has written two scripts for a second series, which “looks like it might be happening”.

The first series of Scúp is now airing on TG4 on Wednesdays at 10pm and BBC Northern Ireland on Sundays at 10pm. The first two episodes are available "ar éileamh" (on demand) on the TG4 Player at tg4.ieor if you "brúigh dearg" (press red) on UPC.