| Ballykissangel | |
|---|---|
 Series title card | |
| Genre | Drama, Soap opera |
| Starring | Dervla Kirwan Stephen Tompkinson Tony Doyle Tina Kellegher |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 58 (list of episodes) Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox television with "list_episodes" parameter using self-link. See Infobox instructions and MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE. |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Conor Harrington Alan Moloney Punit Kulkarni Arindam Pokharkar |
| Production locations | Enniskerry and Avoca, County Wicklow, Ireland |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company | World Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One |
| Release | 11 February 1996 – 15 April 2001 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
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 1996 to 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.[1] 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 10 million viewers to 4.8 million[2] and was eventually cancelled in 2001.[3]
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.[4]
The show was filmed in Avoca and Enniskerry in County Wicklow.
- ^ "How to find life after the stars go out". The Independent. 22 October 2011. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
- ^ "Heggessey axes Ballykissangel". The Guardian. 14 March 2001. Archived from the original on 23 June 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
- ^ "Irish drama Ballykissangel axed". BBC News. 13 March 2001. Archived from the original on 4 February 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
- ^ "Chicago Center for Literature and Photography". Archived from the original on 29 August 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2012.