Lights, Camera…

Down through the years I’ve been lucky enough to have quite a number of my plays produced for Radio and Theatre and that, I can tell, you is an enormously satisfying thing.

But the overriding dream, ever since I was a nipper, has been the Movies.

Oh yes, the Movies.

Failing getting to play James Bond (I know... I know...), my dream has always been to be able to write movies and then get to see them flicker up on the big screen. In pursuit of this dream, I’ve studied the subject quite attentively and written quite a few screenplays to date. But, also to date, that screen has not flickered for me.

Until now, that is.


Because now, I am proud-as-punch to type, my short film script ‘Channel 31’ goes into production in Galway in very early July. I suppose I have been happier about some other things in the past… but not too many.

'Channel 31' will be directed by Dermot Tynan for his own company Claddagh Films. It will star Conor Irwin, Cora Fenton, Pat Collins and Owen Mulhall. I will fill in more details of cast and crew later. Hopefully I’ll be able to do a post from the set and show you some of the stuff that will be going on there.

The film started its life as a radio script in London back in the Eighties. It was then produced by IRDP and directed by Tim Crook and I have always been extremely happy with the resultant radio play. The story is a weird cross between Edgar Allan Poe and Smokey and the Bandit and I cannot wait to see how it all pans out on screen.

So thanks to Dermot and Lara for taking this homeless puppy in (the screenplay, that is, not me) and here’s wishing you a fun and rewarding shoot. I’ll get to do all the things the writer is required to do on set (Milk? Sugar?) and I predict I will be a wide-eyed youth again in the face of all this cinematic excitement.

Dermot and I have worked together on some full length screenplays too – ‘An Autumn Affair’ and ‘Packy’s Cousin’ are two I particularly like – and the treatment we are currently beating each other up over is, literally, a blast.

So maybe there’s more movie-making down the road?

Let’s do this one first… and then see.