Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Ireland's most watched TV programme is....

According to Roger Childs at RTÉ, Ireland's large state-owned broadcaster, Ireland's most-watched TV programmer is the Angelus. This short programme, unique to Ireland, consists of soothing vaguely-religious images and the sound of church bells bonging in the background. When I was growing up, a religious image would be shown (e.g. an Eastern Orthodox style icon of Jesus and Mary) and I remember yelling to my mother when the image changed, each week, as if this was a big televisual event.

People who live outside of Ireland, you are missing nothing. It is probably only the most-watched programme on Irish TV because it is on at 6pm immediately before the news.

Here is a recent Angelus on YouTube - as a commenter says, it is "beyond parody":

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