Great characters and social insight ensure ‘Titanic’ will entertain

The first thing we should ask about major series Titanic (tomorrow, TV3/UTV, 9pm) is why the schedulers didn’t get that sinking feeling when they put it in a slot immediately after a show entitled Dancing On Ice — The Final.

The first thing we should ask about major series Titanic (tomorrow, TV3/UTV, 9pm) is why the schedulers didn’t get that sinking feeling when they put it in a slot immediately after a show entitled Dancing On Ice — The Final.

That hiccup aside, Julian Fellowes’s new four-parter makes for impressive viewing.

Just like he did with previous creations Downton Abbey and Gosford Park, the talented Tory peer has constructed a drama that places some excellent characters in the context of their times. James Cameron he ain’t. Instead of an epic love story, Fellowes has opted for a more ensemble approach, where the same situations are explored in each episode from the viewpoint of several different characters. As the show explores the tensions of the times, the “unsinkable” ship becomes the perfect metaphor for an age where the old order is straining at the seams. It’s 1912 so the First World War, votes for women, socialist agitations, the end of empire, etc, are all just around the corner.

Among the most interesting of the numerous characters in the series is Muriel Batley, played by Irish actress Maria Doyle Kennedy (The Tudors, Downton Abbey). A fictional figure, she’s a lower middle-class woman frustrated by the constraints that both her gender and social position have placed on her.

Feisty and intelligent, you’ll probably be able to hear the roars of approval coming from households around the country tomorrow as she gets stuck into the Anglo-Irish snob who’s been looking down her nose at everyone on board.

Filmed in Budapest, the Irish presence in the cast is further boosted by the likes of Ruth Bradley (Love/Hate) and recent Oscar nominee Peter McDonald. TV3 is also officially listed as a producer on the series as the Irish channel has coughed up €300,000 of a total budget of about €13.5m.

So even if you’re not interested in the Titanic overkill that the 100th anniversary of the sinking is about to unleash, this show’s combination of Irish angles, great characters and social insight ensure it will still entertain.

nWhile the rest of us will have to wait for Sunday night to see it, lucky Cobh residents are being treated to a special viewing of the series tonight as part of a series of events in the harbour town to mark the 100-year anniversary of the sinking.

About 200 guests from Cobh, who are involved in the commemoration events, have been invited to the premiere tonight in the Commodore Hotel.

Commenting on the screening, project director of Titanic100 Cobh 2012, Marc Anderson, said: “The Commodore Hotel in Cobh was the perfect location to host this prestigious event given that this very building was used for passengers coming to and from the Titanic in 1912.”

Des O’Driscoll

Titanic

Sunday, TV3/UTV, 9pm