OLIVER CALLAN’S ZOOM COMEDY
OLIVER Callan says making a first-of-a-kind sitcom during the pandemic required a phone, a tripod and more than a little ingenuity.
Socially Distant is a pandemicset comedy focused on the nation’s reaction to recent times, with the first episode airing tonight on RTÉ One.
Starring comedians Dermot Whelan and Callan, and actress Mary McEvoy, among others, it is scripted by Callan collaborator James Cotter and tells the story of a dysfunctional family attempting to arrange a surprise birthday party in coronavirus times. Callan, who plays an oddball conspiracy theory addict, said: ‘This is the first of its kind, certainly in Ireland anyway.
‘I initially thought there was no way this could work, logistically wise; James has to contact each of us, he has to direct the set-up of each shot. So basically you have to set up your camera which is actually your phone taped to a tripod, the lighting has to be bright, he gives you the technical setting because there are specific takes per second and then we would WhatsApp him the clips and he would come back and say “no do this, or move it this way”.’
Callan makes light of his recording conditions. ‘I was filming in a garage which is halfway through a painting job.
‘There was no posh shed like the posh-shed people Claire Byrne and Marty [Morrissey]. I was using newspaper to cover a wall. I don’t know how he [James Cotter] got it all together, but he did.’
Socially Distant is a send-up of some of the more outrageous and memorable moments of the past few months. And while it aims to raise a laugh, he stresses it in no way makes a laughing matter out of the crisis.
Made in April, the programme is a step-back to the onset of the pandemic back in March.
‘I think it landed in a really good place, we can be nostalgic about the last few months.
We’re in this kind of floating period now, some people think it’s over and some people are still scared witless, but we can still kind of laugh at our overreactions to it back in
March. It’s just about right now to do that now.’ Socially Distant starts tonight (RTÉ One, 10.35pm)