Hall's Pictorial Weekly is an Irish satirical television series broadcast on Raidió Teilifís Éireann from 1971 to 1980. Regarded as RTÉ's flagship comedy show, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories, politics and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy sketches, re-edited videos, cartoons and spoof television formats. The show was written, presented and edited by Frank Hall and featured a cast including Frank Kelly and Eamon Morrissey.

History

Development

Hall's Pictorial Weekly had its origins in the daily regional news magazine Newsbeat, which ran between 1964 and 1971. The programme was noted for concentrating on colourful characters and off-beat reportage, as well as occasional comedy sketches. According to Hall, it occurred to him one day that he would be much more the master of the situation if he simply sat at home and wrote sketches, instead of looking for stories around the country.

Beginnings The first episode of Hall's Pictorial Weekly aired on 29 September 1971. Set in the offices of a mythical provincial newspaper in the fictional town of Ballymagash, it initially continued to cover offbeat regional news in the manner of Newsbeat, but gradually gave over more time towards comedy sketches and parodies.

In testament to the show's popularity, the term "Ballymagash-style politics" quickly became common parlance as a shorthand way of describing the type of "parish-pump" politics which became one of its key satirical targets.The Irish Times, "How Ballymagash became part of folk culture", 4 December 2004

Every programme had a featured town or village at the start and the complete set of them will be online at RTÉ Archives in 2026.

Political satire Hall's Pictorial Weekly was at its strongest during the 1973–1977 term of the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition government. So sharp and constant was its satirical send up of the government ministers of the time, that it is generally accepted that the programme played an important part in bringing the coalition into disrepute and perhaps even contributed to bringing it down.The Irish Times, "RTE makes a show of itself for its 21st", 31 December 1982 Ireland at the time had a very volatile economic situation and the show spared no political expense in portraying the then Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, as the "Minister for Hardship," while the Minister for Finance, Richie Ryan, was portrayed as "Richie Ruin".

The show also portrayed the former Taoiseach Jack Lynch as a rather benign pipe-smoking figure, referred to as "the real Taoiseach". The political party he led, Fianna Fáil, was also lampooned as being called "Feel and Fall". Charles Haughey was parodied as "Charlie Hawkeye".

Title music

The title tune is called "Timothy" taken from the album "More Music From Peter Gunn", the soundtrack album for the American television series Peter Gunn, composed and conducted by Henry Mancini.

Ending In April 1980, RTÉ decided not to go ahead with the planned tenth series of Hall's Pictorial Weekly due for transmission in the following May and June. Effectively the show was axed, although no clear statement about the programme's demise was made by the broadcaster.The Irish Times, "RTE scraps Ballymagash", 9 April 1980

Commercial release In 2004, a DVD featuring highlights from the series was released under the title, The Very Best of Hall's Pictorial Weekly (Vol 1). A second volume The Very Best of Hall's Pictorial Weekly (Vol 2) was released a few years later.

Broadcast dates

Series SeriesYearDatesNo. episodesDayTimeSeries 11971–7229 September – 31 May24 episodesWednesday7:30pm–8:10pmSeries 21972–7330 September – 26 May25 episodesSaturday8:00pm–8:30pmSeries 31973–7427 September – 23 May30 episodesThursday8:00pm–8:30pmSeries 41974–7525 September – 7 May27 episodesWednesday8:30pm–9:00pmSeries 51975–7625 September – 3 June33 episodesThursday9:00pm–9:30pmSeries 61976–776 October – 25 May Wednesday9:00pm–9:30pmSeries 71977–7821 September – May Wednesday8:30pm–9:00pmSeries 81978–79 – 11 September July Wednesday8:30pm–9:00pmSeries 91979–8031 October – 19 March Wednesday8:30pm–9:00pm

See also List of satirical television news programs

References

External links RTÉ Archives – includes a link to a clip from Hall's Pictorial Weekly, in SMIL format