There's some good news at last: RTE has announced that a new series of Reeling in the Years is coming this Spring, with a focus on the 2010s. Remember them? What a time to be alive they were. There was Kesha and Love Island and you could still go to pubs. Ah, memories.
RTE have slated the new series to be released in April, with topics that are might be featured early on including the EMF bailout of the Irish economy in 2010, the Icelandic volcano that grounded flights across Europe and the debut of Love/Hate on Irish telly. If only there was a lazy metaphor we could make about things that crashed the economy, stopped travel and kept us entertained at home, eh.
Advert
The show is one of the most popular in Ireland and takes a power of work to create, with RTE estimating that every series is about 8 months in production. Since first hitting screens back in 1999, there have been episodes that cover every aspect of Irish life going back to 1962.
"We'd start on paper, with newspaper reviews, TV and online reviews of a year, looking at different areas - news and sport, TV shows, commercials, maybe pop promos, music performances, other bits and pieces," explained producer John O'Regan.
"As we prepare the programme, there are two researchers and me in pre-production. We'd isolate about 60 to 70 items or stories, of which about 30 to 35 will probably make the cut. We search up the footage, and work out how much international footage we can afford within the budget."
The music always forms a key part of the series, and can be one of the hardest aspects for RTE to deal with. They have to clear use of hundreds of songs - something which has made making DVDs of the show difficult over the years - and then work out how to use them best to tie the story together.
"We've made 48 programmes in the series, and every time we come to the end of an edit, there are stories, footage, songs that I look at and think 'that should be in' - but they can't all fit," said O'Regan.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Ireland