Good-time Charlie makes for bad TV

HOW do you solve a problem like Charlie? Not easily, if the dramatisation of Charlie Haughey’s life that has been showing for the last two Sundays is anything to go by.

Tomorrow, the final instalment will be screened. The audience figures are reportedly very good, in Late, Late Toy Show territory. But what are we watching?

One incident in last Sunday’s episode summed up much that ails the series. Haughey was in conference with Ray McSharry. The scene suggested that McSharry was all common sense, Haughey nothing but political sense.