Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781568390857
Format: Collector's Edition
ISBN: 1568390858
Label: Janson Video
Manufacturer: Janson Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Janson Video
Release Date: 2001-08-01
Running Time: 61
Studio: Janson Video

A comprehensive documentary about the making of an international TV phenomenon, featuring on-set footage, a tour of Ballykissangel and interviews with the stars and fans. On the Ballykissangel Trail features all new, previously unseen material, behind-the-scenes footage, on-set secrets and interviews with your favorite characters including: Father Mac, Kathleen, Niamh, Siobhan, Liam and Donal, and the series’ creator, Kieran Prendiville. The cast and fans reminisce about the show and reflect on why it became such a worldwide success. Joe Savino (Liam) brings us on a tour of Avoca, the show’s location, to meet some of the fans and the locals – the real priest, publican and shopkeepers, who reveal the huge impact Ballykissangel has had on their small village. Avoca now attracts thousands of visitors who come from far and wide to pay homage to their favorite television show. A "must-have" collectors item for all Ballykissangel fans. Includes 15 minutes of bonus interviews.

Customer Rating:
Summary: 45 Minutes of Disappointingly Little Substance
Comment: This 45-minute behind-the-scenes video features brief anecdotes from Kieran Prendiville, the creator and main writer of Ballykissangel, and from the actors who portrayed Niamh, Siobhan, Kathleen, Liam, Donal, Father MacAnally, and Oonagh and Paul Dooley. The actors talk briefly about what it was like doing the series, its success, why they thought it was cancelled, and so on.

The focus, however, is very much on the impact the series has had on Avoca (ie. Ballykissangel), what with busloads of tourists and bumper-to-bumper traffic flowing through the town on a daily basis. There is the odd brief comment by a few of the local residents--like the local priest, for example--about the filming of the series and its impact. Equally, the video focuses to a large extent on the success of the series internationally, with the actors expressing both pleasure and amazement, as well as the odd attempt to reason why. Interspersed were a good many brief responses from visitors in the streets (mostly foreigners) expressing their love for the show.

Usually in a programme such as this, 45 minutes would fly by. I did not find that to be the case here. Unfortunately, there was substantively actually very little. Oh, there were a few interesting anecdotes--like the real Hendley's store carrying on business even while filming was going on (the real customers just used a back entrance), or Dierdre Donnelly (Siobhan) jabbing herself with a needle whilst learning how to handle the animals. There was also a very brief tribute to the late Tony Doyle (Brian Quigley), who died of a heart attack. However, with the actors each expressing similar views regarding the success of the series or its impact on Avoca, and with the many interspersions of visitors praising the series, there was quite a bit of repetition content-wise.

Most disappointing of all, however, was the "tour" (if one can call it that) Joe Savino (Liam) takes us on of Avoca. This had the potential to be quite interesting, but it was extremely poorly filmed. As Savino walked through the town and told us what was what, the camera was focused almost entirely on his face, with the occasional arm thrown in as he pointed out a particular landmark. If lucky, the viewer would get a brief glimpse at the landmark to which he pointed, but it was usually filmed too closely to get any real sense of the object's perspective with respect to its location within the town.

The final thing worth mentioning are the "15 minutes of bonus interviews" touted on the back cover. With five minutes per actor (and that includes a brief opening and closing segment for each), what one actually gets is a repetition of all the little anecdotes that were interspersed throughout the 45-minute programme by Aine Ni Mhuiri (Kathleen), Deirdre Donnelly (Siobhan), and Joe Savino (Liam). Unbelievably, Savino's segment included that same painful "tour" of Avoca!

Though I started off rather enjoying this little video, my level of enjoyment tapered off quite rapidly for the reasons mentioned. While it was nice to see a few of the actors chatting about the show, the video itself was not well produced and quite amateurishly filmed. The really disappointing thing is that it didn't have to be like this. Ballykissangel was such a sweet series, and with all the participation from Prendiville and so many of the actors, this video had the potential to be really good.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time nor money
Comment: As this was given to me as a gift, I can't complain about the price, but however much it costs, it's too much for this piece of fluff. As a BallyK fan you're much better off just watching re-runs of the show than watching a handful of the actors gush what it was like to film this in the town of Avoca. It's hackneyed and without merit. The 'interviews' sound as though they were filmed in the food court of a mall. And the 'bonus' interviews at the end of the piece actually define the words deja vu as they're just regurgitations of what you just got through watching! Everyone involved in making this piece of effluvium should be ashamed of themselves!

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