### Upwardly Mobile ###

Upwardly Mobile

Willy, Barreller, Eddie and Toby in "The Full Toby"

Ireland's state broadcaster RTE has not had a great deal of success with situation comedy, but Upwardly Mobile ran for four seasons. The story is of a working class family, the Keoghs, who win the lotto and move from inner city Dublin to Belvedere Downs. The initial themes were of class tension between them and their neighbours, the Moriaritys. Toby and Pamela (34K)

As the series has developed, the cast grew, with some of the subsidiary characters proving very popular with the audience.

Toby and Pamela, played by Mark O'Regan and Hillary Fannin

The Cast

The Keoghs.
- Molly (Catherine Byrne) won the Lotto
- Eddie (Joe Savino) is her husband
- Dirk and Kurt (Carl & Damien O'Callaghan) are their twin sons
- Tara is their baby daughter
The Moriaritys.
- Anthony (Niall Buggy) is a sock manufacturer
- Pamela (Hillary Fannin) is his wife
Family.
- Willy Keogh (Robbie Doolin) is Eddie's brother
- Aileen (Jenny Maher) is Antony's niece and the Keogh's babysitter
Friends.
- Toby O'Driscoll (Mark Regan), architect and friend of Pamela
- Barreller (Enda Oates) is Molly's ex, the local wheeler-dealer
- Mick McGettigan (David Kelly) is the proprietor of Eddie's favourite pub
- Dolores (Bernie Downes) is Molly's best friend from the inner city
- Bernie (Ann Marie Horan) is another friend of Molly's

Directing Upwardly Mobile

I was asked to direct half of series two and the whole of series three and four, amounting to 38 episodes. The show was shot in two-week blocks, each producing two episodes, with the first week devoted to rehearsals and studio recording taking place on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week. Each episode was recorded before a live studio audience, in its entirety and in story order each evening. The show was then edited together on Thursday and Friday. RTE's largest studio, No. 4, was used, although the audience of 200 took up a lot space!

Cast and Crew (54K)
The Cast and Crew for Series 3

The End of the Show

A fifth series was never commissioned for finacial reasons. In addition, the sad death of Robbie Doolin threw a dark shadow over the series, and RTE will not rerun it. I notice that the IMDB entry for is very damning, but is from the perspective of one self-appointed critic and not the large audience that watched and enjoyed the programme.

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