British TV commissions new "sitcom" about the Irish Potato famine

[Son_of_Niall]

Channel 4 has caused outrage by commissioning a ‘Shameless-style’ comedy series based on the Irish potato famine - a tragedy in which more than a million people died.
The sitcom, called Hungry, was recently revealed by Dublin-based screenwriter Hugh Travers but has been met with strong opposition - with thousands signing a petition to prevent the show being aired.
Some say the show’s comical stance is an insult to those who died and that the Irish potato famine is ‘no laughing matter’ and should only be shown in an historical context.

Read more: dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2895252/Is-tasteless-idea-sitcom-Channel-4-commissions-new-Shameless-set-Irish-POTATO-FAMINE.html#ixzz3NlUNHixP

 

[Mintaka]

I hate to point out the obvious here, but the article doesn’t…

There was a potato famine all over Europe for two years, and Our Lady even seems to have warned everyone about it beforehand, as part of the La Salette apparition. However, people didn’t die in such great numbers all over Europe, because it was also two years of fairly good crops other than potatoes.

Ireland was the breadbasket of England at the time, however, and all the perfectly good crops other than potatoes continued to be shipped out of Ireland by the folks who owned the big crop farmland. The normal Irish tenant farmworker lived off his tiny personal plot of potatoes, and suddenly there weren’t any.

So basically you had people dying of hunger while everything but potatoes was growing like gangbusters, and while the mostly-English landowners continued to make lots of money off selling their crops to England. People from all over the world (including England, to be fair) shipped food to Ireland for famine relief, while the landowners kept right on shipping food out.

On top of the Famine, there were also cholera epidemics which were even more deadly than usual, since starving people don’t have resistance. A million people died and a million people emigrated to get away, so the population of Ireland dropped by 1/4.

So even if this show were being proposed for Ireland, or Canada or the US, there would probably be a valid complaint about it being tasteless. But proposing it for a channel in the UK is really, really tasteless.

 

[Maxirad]

The show isn’t supposed to be a satire, is it?

 

[hazcompat]

thegreathunger.org/

Peace

 

[Son_of_Niall]

There is a petition one can sign to prevent this travesty.
change.org/p/channel-4-petition-not-to-make-a-comedy-series-about-the-irish-famine?recruiter=204779381&utm_source=share_petition&utm

 

[7_Sorrows]

Tasteless is a good word. How could anyone find that type of sitcom funny?

 

[agnes_therese]

Every time you think the media can’t go any lower . . .

 

[Son_of_Niall]

If enough people go to the link and sign the petition, this trash will never see the light of day.
What’s next? An uproarious farce set in an abortion clinic? Or a Nazi death camp?

 

[JustaServant]

Every time you think the media can’t go any lower . . .

At this point we are digging into the pit of Hell.

 

[Hobbes42]

It doesn’t surprise me, coming from Britain.

Remember we’re talking about the nation, the people who have a history of doing horrible things like starving 1 million Irishmen to death, all over the world.

Britain doesn’t regret its murderous colonial legacy. This isn’t any different.

 

[pnewton]

If enough people go to the link and sign the petition, this trash will never see the light of day.
What’s next? An uproarious farce set in an abortion clinic? Or a Nazi death camp?

Or slavery. Couldn’t you see a sitcom set in the antebellum South and all the hijinks surrounding the fun in a slave camp?

 

[Son_of_Niall]

It doesn’t surprise me, coming from Britain.

Not quite fair. Britain has had some of the finest comedies ever put on television at one time, shaming the American networks. Shows like Yes Minister, Only Fools and Horses, Last of the Summer Wine.
But that generation is long gone.

 

[Son_of_Niall]

Or slavery. Couldn’t you see a sitcom set in the antebellum South and all the hijinks surrounding the fun in a slave camp?

We came close with Hogan’s Heroes.

 

[tomarin]

Kind of reminds me of the controversy generated in some quarters by Roberto Benigni’s “Life is Beautiful.” Of course that won an academy award.

 

[NeedsMercy]

:nope:

 

[Son_of_Niall]

Kind of reminds me of the controversy generated in some quarters by Roberto Benigni’s “Life is Beautiful.” Of course that won an academy award.

Apples and oranges.
The didn’t do a comedy movie about the holocaust entitled Ashes.

 

[Mark1970]

Tasteless is a good word. How could anyone find that type of sitcom funny?

Wouldn’t be surprised…we did have a long-running sitcom in the 1980’s about the French Resistance in World War II.

 

[Pat_Payne]

We came close with Hogan’s Heroes.

In fairness – the show was about a camp for Western Allied POWs, who at least were treated in some fashion according to the Geneva Conventions – it wasn’t a show about a concentration camp or a camp for Soviet POWs (pretty much the same thing, really), and a number of the stars of the show were either refugees from Hitler’s Germany (such as Werner Klemperer and John Banner) or actual Holocaust survivors (like Robert Clary, who had been condemned to Buchenwald – he always wore long sleeves in the show to cover up his real-life prisoner tattoo). Had the show been tasteless to them, I’m pretty sure they would have walked and gone on to other roles. In fact, it’s been said that both Klemperer (as Klink) and Banner (as Schultz) played their characters in such a way that you couldn’t be sure that they wouldn’t have been actually on Hogan’s side if not for Nazi retribution.

 

[Dpoc41]

It doesn’t surprise me, coming from Britain.

Remember we’re talking about the nation, the people who have a history of doing horrible things like starving 1 million Irishmen to death, all over the world.

Britain doesn’t regret its murderous colonial legacy. This isn’t any different.

Its a bit harsh saying the ‘people’ who have a history, perhaps the ruling classes is more true.

 

[Son_of_Niall]

Welcome back Jharek.