Comic Eddie Izzard is hardly recognizable without make-up and high heels. Minnie Driver is lovely as ever. Whether their new television show The Riches will make it depends on the critics and the numbers, but whether or not the show will be picked up by RTE is another matter.
Izzard and Driver play Travellers in this particular program, and sadly they are playing up to a long-standing stereotype. I'm sure a lot of homeowners across America have heard of the Irish Travellers, a gang that travels from their isolated enclave in Kentucky like migrating birds heading north in the Spring. Some might lump them together with the gypsies, another group that is known for criminal activity and scams in general. The Irish Travellers are famous for cheating the elderly, charging for home repairs that are never done or done so poorly that a professional must be called in. They take the money and run, always a step ahead of the law.
In Ireland, Pavee Point has long been speaking on behalf of the Travellers, those who were once called tinkers. Besides having a reputation as a bunch of criminals, the Travellers are notorious for their feuds, which often spill out of their clutch of caravans into the newspapers. Many's the pub that's been fined for discriminating against a Traveller, refusing to serve them, and Pavee Point is there to fight the fight. You'll not hear much out of Pavee Point when the Travellers go after each other with knives or slash hooks, or when a family of Travellers is arrested for stealing or trading in stolen goods. They're after putting an end to the negative image, and they scream loud and long when all the pubs in town shut down rather than cater to a large gathering of the travelling folk.
Pavee Point is determined to maintain the mobile anachronism that is the Traveller lifestyle. They push for roadside halting sites where the nomadic clans can pull their caravan over for a month or two before moving on to another town. As in the new television program, Travellers are largely illiterate, owing to their constant movement and the fact that the children are never in school for very long before the family pulls up stakes. The problem is, there's not much work for those who once tinkered pots and pans, and the Travellers in Ireland are at the bottom of the economic ladder. Yet Pavee Point is there, insisting that this way of life be supported and maintained. With that kind of backing, the Travellers should remain destitute, illiterate, and completely isolated from the Celtic Tiger for generations to come.
No matter how good the television show proves to be, Pavee Point will be furious when they learn that the fictional characters are just like the worst of everyone's assumptions about Travellers. Not exactly a positive image, to follow the crazy misadventures of a bunch of thieves who are pulling off a grand scam. Show that on Irish television, and everyone can nod their heads and say how true to life the characters are, and that is exactly what Pavee Point is trying to stop.
Let it be known that not all Travellers are crooks, trying to play the fast game and get away with something illegal. It's just that some are, and they make for more entertaining viewing than the settled community. But the FX Channel will have a hard sell to get past the watch dogs of Pavee Point.
No comments:
Post a Comment