Network 2 will cease to exist tomorrow. Róisín Ingle looks at some of the flagship programmes that will launch its successor
The advertisements running in advance of the transformation of Network 2 into the imaginatively titled RTÉ 2 hint as to how those behind the scenes would like the nearly new channel to be perceived. Deliciously foul-minded puppets Podge and Rodge star in the ads, which inform us that over the coming months RTÉ 2 will mostly be bringing us "shorter skirts". Those sounds you hear are sighs of relief from viewers thrilled that the increased licence fee is being put to proper use.
After viewing the first episode of one of RTÉ 2's flagship programmes, The Dinner Party, it soon becomes clear that shorter skirts are only part of the story. Should Easily Offended of Termonfeckin happen to tune in accidentally to the newly made-over channel on Tuesday night at 10.25 p.m., he can expect to hear a group of twentysomething and thirtysomething Irish people clinking champagne glasses and discussing masturbation, "f . . k buddies", and the pros and cons of the latest sex toys. It's par for the course on channels such as Sky One, but for RTÉ The Dinner Party marks something of a departure.
A slickly produced reality television programme from the same team that brought us The Restaurant, The Dinner Party sees five strangers getting together for a meal, drinking quite a lot and talking about intimate details of their lives before breaking up to dish the dirt to presenter Amanda Brunker on what they really thought of their fellow diners. Dave, a desperate-to-shock advertising type from Dublin, is rather fond of himself and thinks Emily is "irritating". Wise Emily thought Dave was really attractive until he opened his mouth. Absolutely everyone thinks Georgina is a bit naïve and the blonde teetotaller would choose Dave to sleep with over everyone else, but only if she had to. These perceptive nuggets are fed to our contestants, who have to guess who said what about whom, and the person who gets most of the answers correct wins €1,000.
The question of why RTÉ 2 decided to choose televisual cream cake - you know it isn't really good for you, but sometimes it's hard to resist - to kick-start the new channel is a no-brainer. Despite critics predicting the premature death of the genre, reality TV is thriving and young Irish people are as willing as their counterparts across the world to take part, no matter what kind of humiliation ensues. The producers got 800 calls for The Dinner Party, and 50 people were chosen.
"When I was their age, there is no way I would have had the confidence to go on television and talk about my sex life as openly as our participants do," says producer Philip Kampf. "That is what is most intriguing about the programme. A lot of people thought that we wouldn't get enough people to take part, but being on a reality TV show is not a big deal for the current generation. They had no problem with being open about themselves on national television."
When Mary Curtis, RTÉ television's assistant director of programmes, was quizzed recently about what kind of material should be pitched to RTÉ 2, she talked about wanting the "best and bravest work" from independent producers.
"That quote is going to haunt me," she laughs, when asked whether she would consider The Dinner Party a typical example of that brief. "In terms of what RTÉ has done before, it is brave. It's a new format, a programme which features bright young Irish people talking intelligently and coherently about the issues that are important in their lives. In that way they would be reflective of the typical RTÉ 2 viewer."
Also on the new RTÉ 2 schedule is Stew, a vibrant sketch show starting tomorrow night. Written by Paul Tylak and Paul Woodfull, it is an enterprise to which the words "best and bravest" can definitely be applied. The show is character-driven, observational comedy featuring Irish - and one Indian - characters we all know, from the chirpily irritating breakfast radio DJ to the curtain-twitching neighbour from hell. For once, the programme-makers, who include its script editor, Arthur Mathews (of Father Ted fame), were given the space and the budget to come up with a show that could hold its own internationally and fit neatly into the new RTÉ 2 identity.
That identity, Curtis says, is characterised by words such as "edgy", "playful" and "self-deprecating", the very same words that were bandied about when Network 2 was born 18 years ago.
"Back then our market research showed that the concept of RTÉ didn't evoke positive responses, so that was why the name was changed. We lacked the confidence in our brand that we have now, and that confidence and the desire to create a wider identity across the channels has led us back to RTÉ 2," says director of programmes Clare Duignan.
Adding that competition is much fiercer now than when Network 2 was launched, she says the lack of recognition of the brand was becoming a problem.
"We were spending a lot of money on providing excellent sports coverage, for example, and finding that many people did not know what channel they were watching it on," she says. "That needed to be resolved. Network 2 had become a catch-all channel, whereas RTÉ 2 has a more specific identity that will grow the audience and focus the minds of programme-makers pitching to it."
At the moment, Network 2 comes third in the Irish TV ratings, with a share of just over 20 per cent, behind RTÉ 1 on just over 30 per cent and TV3 with a 22.5 per cent share. While aiming to increase this audience, Network 2's popular children's programming will remain largely unaffected. The biggest changes will come after 7 p.m., with a couple of hours aimed at what RTÉ TV's head of scheduling, Andrew Fitzpatrick, calls the "soap avoiders".
Those looking for alternatives to Coronation Street and Emmerdale during this part of the schedule will find history, science and nature programmes and more shows culled from the archives in a similar vein to Reeling In The Years.
"It will be a slow burn rather than a rapid transformation, but after 9.30 p.m. is when you will really see the programmes that say the most about the new RTÉ 2 identity," Fitzpatrick says.
These include The Dinner Party and Stew at the moment, but after the new year we can expect Desperately Seeking Surgery, which tracks Irish people looking for cosmetic enhancement; the Ex-Files, in which ex-partners get their come-uppance; and dramas such as Pure Mule and Love is the Drug, a series set in Drogheda of all places.
David Blake Knox, managing director of Blueprint Pictures and the man behind one of Network 2's biggest successes, Nighthawks - an irreverent late-night talk show that brought down a government - has just finished a tongue-in-cheek documentary about the history of Network 2, which officially ceases to exist tomorrow. While looking through the Network 2 archives, he was surprised to see so many memorable adult and young people's programmes lurking there. While the channel was responsible for a certain amount of dross, to its credit Network 2 brought us The Den, 2Phat, Blackboard Jungle, No Disco, Après Match, Exit File, At Last TV and, perhaps most memorably of all, Paths to Freedom.
"It's a light-hearted programme, but I think there is a serious subtext to the journey of Network 2," says Blake Knox of his doumentary. "The channel began at a time when the Celtic Tiger was just a cub and it charted, in a mixture of planned and unplanned ways, the profound changes that were taking place in social and sexual mores. Network 2 was much closer to those developments than RTÉ 1 ever was".
With sexual mores changing ever more rapidly, RTÉ 2 is expected to be even closer to the action and, of course, to those short skirts.
• Farewell To Network 2 is on RTÉ 2 at 9.10 p.m. tomorrow, followed by Stew at 9.45 p.m.
• The Dinner Party starts on RTÉ 2 on Tuesday at 10.25 p.m.
