Who’s to Blame… for axing two of our favourite TV treasures?

When I was younger, I really did go through a phase of thinking Tim McGarry was Gerry Adams.

It was a Friday night in January 1998, and I was nine. Hours earlier, I’d been to see Titanic in Omagh cinema with my parents (the iconic ‘Studios 1-to-6’ on the Gillygooley Road was packed that evening). Being overly sentimental then, and now, I’d nearly drowned in tears of grief over Jack’s Dawson’s freezing death, watching distraught as he slipped under the water. Now, adrift in our living room and still crying, my parents frantically scanned the television channels in a bid to soothe me. Soon, tears of a different kind flowed, as a golden age of the Northern Irish sitcom began: Give My Head Peace was on, the weekend was here, and things were gonna be all right. Uproarious, rebellious and so, so sharp, it became the must-watch staple in our house each week after that.

The news that the show has now been ditched by the BBC, some 31 years after its first iteration in 1995, has prompted a mix of fond nostalgia and disappointment. That the quiet death of our once-sharpest piece of political satire should come amid the feral rebirth of the Drumcree dispute is at best ironic, and at worst bad-timing. (What chance a Garvaghy Road inspired Give My Head Peace Christmas Special, BBC?)

The American broadcaster John Hein (close associate of shock jock Howard Stern) is credited with coining the phrase, ‘Jump the Shark’ – the pejorative term used to describe the fatal moment when a TV series is deemed to have overstayed its welcome. For Give My Head Peace, its ceasefire seemed to arrive in December 2007, before a renewal nine years later. But now Ma, Da, Cal, Emer, Dympna, Billy, Uncle Andy, Red Hand Luke and Pastor Begbie will finally all march off to the great big show in the sky. (These weapons have finally been decommissioned!)

A special mention of fondness must go to my favourite character of them all, Big Mervyn, played by the late BJ Hogg. The warmth and softness that Hogg brought to Mervyn’s character really gave the series its heart. A wonderful tribute to him be found on the Lyric Theatre’s website, here.

Of course, the long-running panel show The Blame Game has also been axed. My first thought was always, “Fair play to that wee man from the South, travelling all that way up to Belfast to do the TV.” Indeed – and this is a bit cuckoo but hear me out – Neil Delamere’s brogue-ish presence in the show really seemed to add a real sprinkle of exoticism for me (read carefully!). Colin Murphy, too, was the wild and manic jester – a pinch of Paul Merton, and a big tablespoon of Chris Farley. The very mention of Murphy’s name transports me back, like Proust, to the wee TV in our kitchen in 2002, where’d I’d stay up late watching The Blizzard of Odd on RTÉ. Jake O’Kane, arguably, made his name on The Blame Game, and the old dads on Facebook have never been the same since he left. Diona Doherty’s acerbic, sharp arrival brought new life, and it’s a shame for it to go when she’s been riding high.

And, of course, Tim McGarry. Always the slinky maverick, with natural timing, and a pure, bould twinkle in his eye.

But the poor crayter’s not dead yet!

McGarry, Michael McDowell and Damon Quinn have fronted the very popular Give My Head Podcast for over two years now. Their interview a while back with Liam Beckett was profoundly moving, educational and utterly marvellous. And a recent episode with John Burrows revealed that it is possible to get blood from a stone after all!

So, farewell, then, Tim and co.

Somewhere, distant, a telephone is ringing, and The Saw Doctors are playing.

“Ah, Gerr-rry… how are ya?”

There was nothing like it.

Jason Conlon

Jason is a proud native of Tyrone, living and working in County Down. A teacher by trade, he has been writing for the past 15 years on all things Brexit, Pets, Irish Politics, Family Life, and anything that’ll jump out and burrow deep inside.