Ar ais arís with a new body of arts features

Imeall on TG4 kicks off its new season with a revealing interview with playwright Tom Murphy, says Richard Fitzpatrick

IMEALL, TG4’s arts and culture show, kicks off with its fifth season tomorrow. Producer Maggie Breathnach and her team at Red Shoe Productions bagged a joint interview with playwright Tom Murphy and Druid’s artistic director Garry Hynes for the first episode. The pair, of course, has collaborated on an acclaimed DruidMurphy cycle of plays which finishes a two-week run at Cork’s Everyman Palace Theatre on Friday.

“I’m afraid they affect me emotionally very much,” says Murphy of the impact of his works on him personally. “There are no happy bunnies in my plays. They’re neglected and abused people, and I think there’s some switch in me that goes back to the original arrival at the feeling of a particular character. They become real for me.”