TG4’s 'Wrecking the Rising' takes time to make Rising a riot

WHEN you’re a scriptwriter whose latest TV series is an irreverent take on the 1916 Rising, it throws you a little when you meet your director for the first time and realise he’s a descendant of one of the most celebrated fighters to die at the GPO.

TG4’s Wrecking the Rising (Eirí amach Amú), penned by James Phelan, is a three-part comedy drama starring Peter Coonan (Fran in Love/Hate), Owen McDonnell and Seán T Ó Meallaigh, as a trio of modern-day re-enactment enthusiasts. They find themselves transported back to Easter 1916 and rapidly become embroiled in the action in the GPO when they cause the accidental death of Pádraig Pearse. A Michael Collins character was inspired by Roy Keane.

Borrowing from the Back to the Future movies, the bilingual series isn’t afraid to send up the pomp and circumstance of the centenary year’s celebrations, or indeed people’s perceptions of figures like Collins, Pearse and Connolly.