Ballykissangel

File:Fitzgeralds Avoca CtyWicklow IRE.jpg

Fitzgerald's, a pub in Avoca that was used as a primary exterior set in the series.

Ballykissangel is a BBC television drama created by Kieran Prendiville and set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural community. It ran for six series, which were first broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 11 February 1996 to 15 April 2001. It aired in Ireland on RTÉ One and in Australia on ABC TV from 1996 to 2001. Repeats have been shown on Drama in the United Kingdom and the series also has been shown in the United States on some PBS affiliates.

The series was made and set during the Celtic Tiger economic period in Ireland and this features mainly through Tony Doyle’s character, Brian Quigley. The show is also set amid the backdrop of the Catholic Church scandal and explores controversial themes of the time such as divorce (which had only been legalised a year before the series began), and pre-marital sex. Dervla Kirwan’s and Niall Toibin’s characters are often at odds, symbolising the social conflict between traditional Ireland and social liberalisation.

Significant changes in the cast occurred at the end of series 3, following the departure of central characters Peter Clifford and Assumpta Fitzgerald. A band of new characters were brought in and characters that previously had little story were expanded, such as Kathleen, Niamh, Frank and Brian.

The show faced a decline in ratings from a peak level of ten million viewers to 4.8 million and was eventually cancelled in 2001.

The name of the fictional village in which the show was set is derived from Ballykissane, a townland near Killorglin in County Kerry, where the show's creator, Kieran Prendiville, holidayed with his family as a child. The village's name in Irish is shown as "Baile Coisc Aingeal", which means "The town of the fallen angel", on the sign outside the post office.

The show was filmed in Avoca and Enniskerry in County Wicklow.

Main cast

• Tina Kellegher as Niamh Quigley
• Niall Tóibín as Fr. Frank MacAnally
• Frankie McCafferty as Donal Doherty
• Joe Savino as Liam Coughlan
• Áine Ní Mhuirí as Kathleen Hendley
• Dierdre Donnelly as Siobhan Mehigan
• Gary Whelan as Brendan Kearney
• Stephen Tompkinson as Fr. Peter Clifford (Series 1–3)
• Dervla Kirwan as Assumpta Fitzgerald (Series 1–3)
• Tony Doyle as Brian Quigley (Series 1–5)
• Birdy Sweeney as Eammon Byrne (Series 1–5)
• Peter Hanly as Ambrose Egan (Series 1–5)
• Bosco Hogan as Dr. Michael Ryan (Series 1–5)
• Peter Caffery as Padraig O'Kelly (Series 1–4)
• Don Wycherley as Aidan O'Connell (Series 4–5)
• Lorcan Cranitch as Sean Dillon (Series 4–5)
• Colin Farrell as Danny Byrne (Series 4–5)
• Kate McEnery as Emma Dillon (Series 4–5)
• Victoria Smurfit as Orla O'Connell (Series 4–5)

Episodes

The programme ran for six series, from 11 February 1996 to 15 April 2001. Almost all episodes were 50 minutes in duration.

Awards and nominations

Award	Year	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref.
BAFTA Television Awards	1997	Best Drama Series	Ballykissangel	Nominated
		Craft Award for Best Original Television Music	Shaun Davey	Nominated
BPG TV & Radio Awards	2000	Best Actor	Tony Doyle	Won
IFTA Awards	1999	Best Leading Performance - Television	Tony Doyle	Nominated
		Best Television Drama	Ballykissangel	Nominated
	2000	Best Craft Achievement - Television	David Wilson	Nominated
		Best Leading Performance - Television	Tony Doyle	Nominated
		Best Leading Performance - Television	Tina Kellegher	Nominated
		Best Television Drama	Ballykissangel	Nominated
National Television Awards	1996	Most Popular Actress	Dervla Kirwan	Won
	1998	Most Popular Actress	Dervla Kirwan	Nominated
		Most Popular Actor	Stephen Tompkinson	Nominated
		Most Popular Drama Series	Ballykissangel	Nominated
RTS Awards	1996	Best Tape or Film Editing - Drama	Robin Graham Scott	Nominated
	1997	Best Drama Series	Ballykissangel	Won
San Francisco International Film Festival (Silver Spire Award)	2000	Television - Drama-60 Minutes or Less	Chris Clough, Mike Cocker (episode: "He Healeth the Sick")	Nominated

Home media

All six series have been released in Region 1, 2, and 4. In 2010, four years after the release of series 5, series 6 was released on Region 2, along with a box set of series 1–6.

The ninth episode of series 3, "The Waiting Game", was omitted from early Region 2 series 3 DVDs and all the Region 4 (Australian) DVD releases. This is not the case with the 2010 box set or any Region 1 (North America) sets, all of which contain this episode.

Series	Release date
	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Series 1	20 January 2004	15 August 2005	2 February 2006
Series 2	20 January 2004	10 October 2005	7 February 2007
Series 3	15 February 2005	20 February 2006	3 October 2007
Series 4	14 February 2006	10 April 2006	3 April 2008
Series 5	13 February 2007	12 June 2006	4 September 2008
Series 6	18 September 2007	7 June 2010	2 April 2009
Additional sets
Series 1–3	—	12 June 2006	—
Series 1–6	18 September 2007	7 June 2010	7 July 2011
Series 1–6 (re-issue)	—	—	9 August 2017

International broadcasts

Repeats of the show were formerly aired every weekday on Virgin Media Three in Ireland. In the Netherlands and Flanders, ONS started broadcasting Ballykissangel in 2020.

In other media

Father Peter Clifford and Assumpta Fitzgerald make a guest appearance in the 1996 Father Ted Christmas special "A Christmassy Ted", where they appear in a dream Father Ted Crilly has.

In 1997, both Father Clifford and Assumpta Fitzgerald made guest appearances in a Comic Relief edition of The Vicar of Dibley entitled "Ballykissdibley", where the lead characters from both shows participated.

External links

• Ballykissangel at the British Film Institute
• Template:Trim/ Template:Trim at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck
• Template:PAGENAMEBASE at epguides.comTemplate:EditAtWikidata