Bachelors Walk (2001–2003)

Stars:

Don Wycherley, Simon Delaney, Keith McErlean

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Don Wycherley	...	Raymond (15 episodes, 2001-2003)
Simon Delaney	...	Michael (15 episodes, 2001-2003)
Keith McErlean	...	Barry (15 episodes, 2001-2003)
Marcella Plunkett	...	Alison (13 episodes, 2001-2003)
Kelly Campbell	...	Jane (8 episodes, 2003)

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

dublin ireland | thirty something

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

Ireland

Language:

English

Release Date:

October 2001 (Ireland)

Filming Locations:

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Accomplice Productions, Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), Samson Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Though the title refers to Bachelor's Walk, the real-life Dublin street, where the series is set, the apostrophe is omitted to add a different meaning to the words. This is in homage to James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake, which does the same.

User Reviews

At Last!

It's about time the Irish public had some successful home-grown comedy to call their own, and Bachelor's Walk is it. Okay, so it's not perfect. It's certainly not the insightful study of boom time Ireland that some people claimed it was. What it is though, is charming, witty, light-hearted and deeply Irish, and in the context of other Irish sit-coms like the Cassidys and Upwardly Mobile that hopelessly ape foreign styles and get it all so terribly wrong, I don't blame Ireland for falling head-over-heels in love with this little gem.

It's got its flaws, of course. The three affable, jobless wasters that the programme centres on didn't, for the longest time, seem to have any discernable means of paying for their easy-going, coffee-bar lifestyle in Dublin city centre. It doesn't quite manage to dodge the veneer of smugness that characterised much of nineties Ireland, and if I'd encountered some of the representations of rural Ireland that this programme made in a foreign sit-com, I'd have been pretty offended.

Despite all that, the writing is witty, and the direction superb. This programme, as I've said, is deeply Irish, but more specifically still, it's clearly in love with Dublin. It makes the city come to life around the characters - makes it a character in itself. More than any other single feature though, the performances carry the piece. The characters are all wonderfully written as likable bums, but the actors bring them to life with a wonderful chemistry and a magnificent shared charisma.

To outside eyes, there's probably nothing too groundbreaking about this admittedly charming but fairly unassuming little comedy/drama, but to anybody from Ireland who's seen the many missed opportunities that have characterised the recent history of our comedy output, this is something to see. I hope it's just the beginning. Here's to opening the floodgates!

(Okay, okay, so with RTE running the show, that mightn't seem likely, but a guy can hope, can't he?)