NORMAL FUNNY PEOPLE NAIL IT
Director of RTÉ Does Comic Relief’s hit crossover sketch reveals how he f ilmed stars of TV’s Fleabag and Normal People while under lockdown
DIRECTOR Lenny Abrahamson has revealed how he filmed the smash-hit Normal People-Fleabag crossover sketch for RTÉ Does Comic Relief on Friday.
Fans were gushing about the skit which mashed up the cast of the romantic drama with the ‘hot priest’ from breakout BBC comedy Fleabag.
In the sketch, Connell from
Normal People tries to give his stumbling confession to the
Fleabag priest, who himself is completely overcome with lustful memories of his own brush with temptation.
They are joined in the other compartment of the dark confessional by Connell’s co-star Marianne, played by English actress Daisy Edgar-Jones, who admits to stealing Connell’s iconic neck chain.
Paul Mescal, who plays Connell, and Andrew Scott, the notorious priest in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s comedy, are both Dubliners, and the sketch went down a storm with fans on Friday night.
It culminated with the trio giving a stirring rendition of Tracy Chapman’s Baby Can I Hold You, for which they won high praise for their fine singing.
Abrahamson, who was nominated for an Oscar for the film Room, revealed on Ray D’Arcy’s RTÉ radio show how he filmed the sketch – despite the lockdown restrictions.
‘It’s brilliantly written by Conor McPherson, so that’s where the great idea came from,’ Abrahamson said. ‘It was an odd thing to do because Paul and Daisy are in London, and I was in
Dublin. So I ended up directing it
over a combination of Zoom and this software that lets you see what the camera sees. It was highly odd and really strange and I wouldn’t recommend it.
‘But we managed because the guys are so brilliant and they know the characters so well.’
The charity first featured the likes of Saoirse Ronan, Hozier, Aisling Bea, Marty Morrissey as a member of Westlife, and Anne Doyle reading spoof reports for Waterford Whispers.
And it also brought back RTÉ’s The Den with D’Arcy and legendary alien puppets Zig and Zag, along with Eurovision entrant Dustin the Turkey. Niall Horan and Bob Geldof were among the celebs enlisted to make the show as special as possible, and it went down a treat with former fans.
Presented by creator Deirdre O’Kane, Nicky Byrne, Baz Ashmawy, Jennifer Zamparelli and
Eoghan McDermott it raised more than €5m for good causes. Meanwhile, Hozier’s rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water from Croke Park may have made the nation well up on the couch, but it was another of the Wicklow singer’s ditties that really grabbed attention.
There have even been calls for the Take Me To Church singer to release ‘Pints With The Lads’ after debuting it on Friday.
The tune looks like it could be a hit for the singer, who wasn’t afraid to poke some fun at himself for the sake of the charity event.
On a video call with comedian Aisling Bea, Hozier took part in a sketch during which she suggested some of his material was a little heavy and that perhaps he lacked personality. He responded with a mournful tune extolling his love of ‘pints with the lads’ and how much he missed them, and the audience loved it.
Eurovision fans had a treat with Brian O’Driscoll lipsyncing to Johnny Logan. The lipsync battle saw BOD and wife Amy Huberman go head to head with comedy couple Chris O’Dowd and Dawn O’Porter. While the latter put up a good fight with their rendition of John Prine’s In Spite of Ourselves, it was Amy and BOD’s night.
The pair performed Logan’s Hold Me Now and while Amy took the spotlight it’ll be a while before we forget the sight of
Brian twirling a pink guitar.
‘There are calls for Hozier to release Pints With The Lads’