He was excellent in that mini series Smalltown also. Now it was a seriously depressing and hard watch but it really captured the horribleness of cancer. I say that as someone who lost a parent myself from it. That show really portrayed it and he was unreal as the rural Irish husband and father trying to cope and function with a dying wife
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After giving birth to our first child Mrs Barnes endured a difficult few months. Nothing terribly bad but it was a tough time all the same. Anyway the child was 6 months old and we decided to head out for an evening leaving the baby with my sister. She didn’t feel like a restaurant or pub so requested a night to the cinema and I was given the task of picking the film along with a simple instruction “None of that depressing aul shite”.
I perused the listings and came across Garage starring Pat Shortt. That’s the cunt from d’Unbelievables I thought to myself. Culchies love that sort of stuff and Mrs Barnes is a culchie. I admit to feeling a little smug with myself as I booked it.
Mrs Barnes cried for the whole film and for quite a while afterwards too. To this day I am regularly reminded of it and am still not allowed pick a film without supervision.
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Sad film actually. Very true portrait of life in rural Ireland.
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You definitely need to recommend Smalltown to her then 
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There are lots of characters like Josie in Ireland. Donal Ryan wrote beautifully about a similar character (Johnsey I Think) in The Thing about December. A great book
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I’ll keep it in mind if I’m ever looking for a divorce
Pat Shortt is a very good actor. I just don’t think he’s a particularly funny writer. I think Kenny or maybe the partnership with him brought about the better stuff he did.
The D’Unbelievables was and still is funny. I’ll fight any man that says otherwise. Killinaskully was just awful. It’s a wonder shortt and Kenny haven’t gotten the old team back together for a few shows. They’d surely make a nice few quid
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I agree with that. They were tremendous. I may have suggested otherwise to embellish the story a bit.
Aye Shortt has been excellent in a few comic roles he’s had.
Didn’t Killinascully get unreal viewing figures during its first run?
The original d’unbelievables videos were ICONIC. Some of the best Irish comedy ever. Preferred shortt in it I thought Kenny was slightly over the top. The teacher and the civil defence lad were 
Killinascully was geared at Sunday night tv audience of middle aged and plus types . It wasn’t my cup of tea And I thought it poor in the main but it was hugely popular with that demographic . Each to their own . That said it was probably better that some of the “edgier” stuff on RTE2 on midweek nights .
It was watchable to begin with for the first six episodes or so. Fairly slap stick innoffensive comedy with a few cheap laughs in it. Problem was that they continued to just repackage the same jokes over and over again and it became tired very quickly
I went to see Pat Shortt a few years ago. The bits in character are grand, similar enough to what he’s always done but jesus the stand up stuff itself was painful
The Field episode was iconic. It was grand for what it was for a season or so.
I always thought a tv sketch show or comedy series with some of those characters would have been gold. Never liked anything after D’Mother. Even parts of that were shite, and One Hell of a Do was patchy too, parish hall type stuff. (even though it was filmed in a glorified parish hall). D’Telly and D’Video are classics. Pat Shortt’s show on music on RTE isn’t bad, and he seems like an alright sort, but hard to know where he fits in these days with those characters he has.
They did a few years back for a tour didn’t they? Not sure now, if it would or could work. Maybe it was of its time…
What about the 2 builders whistling at the girl in the graveyard on D’Mother? Maybe rural humour isn’t on the radar of the folk up in trendy Dublin…
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That wasn’t killinascully iirc
A city that produced Brendan O Carroll is capable of committing unspeakable crimes against comedy.
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Fair play to him. It’s awful dirge and he knows it but it’s made him and his family wealthy.
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