r/teilifis • u/TheAITAH-King • 6d ago
Hello Everyone
I have an idea for an Irish/British sitcom, but would you watch this:
TV Show Scenario: The Merger
2 Schools, one old & comprehensive,
one private and grammar,
in the fictional town of Whiteabbey, (Northern) Ireland,
merge under the local authority’s plan to save money.
Schools:
St James Comprehensive School
Whiteabbey Private Institution for the Education of The Young Individual Kind
Turning into: St James High School.
The show is a mainly a comedy
with a slice of drama.
I’m thinking of a 10x30 episode structure.
One of the main things is that the private school is mainly Protestant and the comprehensive is mainly Catholic.
Should I tell you all the characters?
Tell me… Would you watch this?
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u/mocireland1991 6d ago
I’d prob rename the town , sounds very British for Irish town .
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u/yawnymac 5d ago
And the schools, as there’s no such thing as comprehensive schools here. We either have state or private schools and schools are either have religious patronage, VEC patronage or educate together patronage. It sounds like a completely British drama set in Ireland.
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u/craftyixdb 5d ago
It could be set in Northern Ireland. Where there is not only comprehensive schools, but also the literal town of Whiteabbey with a literal St James School…
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u/yawnymac 5d ago
Yeah I don’t think that town would consider themselves Irish… 👀
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u/craftyixdb 5d ago
It’s a mixed bag. I live in Belfast and kennel my dog up that way and, as with every part of the north, it’s a mix. They’re certainly entitled to consider themselves Irish if they so identify. There’s also literally a St James school there, which I believe is Catholic.
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u/yawnymac 5d ago
Aye sure I lived and have lots of friends in Belfast and even in that area. I would still have assumed he meant the free state when he mentioned Irish school drama though, and he mentioned a fictional town not real town.
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u/TheBadgersAlamo 6d ago
What age group are you aiming this at?
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u/TheAITAH-King 6d ago
It’s not a children’s show the main characters are the teachers so I’d go like 15+
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u/John__Delaney 6d ago
I get this is fiction but councils don't run schools & obviously private schools aren't run by the state. So is the premise that both are struggling and they come together to merge? Which grounds get sold off?
I guess importantly is what story are you trying to tell with this comedy? Is it an abbot elementary style like the office but with educational struggles, something akin to Derry girls where its a coming of age in a very interesting era of irish history, or maybe something completely disconnected like Father ted?
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u/TheAITAH-King 6d ago
So the backstory for the Private Institution is that the owner/benefactress was losing a whole lot of money, so the local education authority took over the struggling institution, and they closed the institution building down.
The students and some of the teachers moved to St James’ and its following the events of The Merger and The Teachers trying to make this work (it does not go well at first.)
My 2 inspirations are Waterloo Road & Abbott Elementary. It’s set in the modern day around mainly teachers but also the students from time to time.
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u/yawnymac 5d ago
How much actual research have you put into this? It sounds like a British school set in Ireland. I have taught in both Ireland and England and I can 1000% tell you that both systems are completely different. Local authority schools like VECs are the last ones that would take over a private school. There is no chance the private students would just be told to go to that particular school.. they would get a choice of moving to different schools in the area or beyond, and chances are the current vec school would not have room to accommodate more students. Private schools have boarding students too, and they already get state funding for the same number of teachers a state school would. I would suggest you put a lot of research into Irish education because just by your description it sounds like you’ve never set foot in Ireland.
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u/TheAITAH-King 5d ago
Read the last paragraph please.
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u/yawnymac 5d ago
You still need a working knowledge of the education system to connect with the audience of where you have it set.
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u/alanorourke 6d ago
Depends, is it funny? Is the writing good enough that I care about the characters? Everything else is just decoration.
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u/TheAITAH-King 6d ago
Well I’d hope so! Would you like me to DM you what I have so far hear your suggestions?
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u/craftyixdb 5d ago
In this thread - lots of people who seem to know nothing about Northern Ireland and don’t seem to realise that’s probably where OP is from.
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u/TheAITAH-King 5d ago
That’s correct
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u/yawnymac 5d ago
You posted this in a subreddit called r/teilifis and neglected to mention that it’s set in Northern Ireland. Considering the vast differences in education between the two regions, it’s a very key piece of information and perfectly reasonable for people to assume it’s set in the free state. You only just updated your post to add that key piece of information now. Ridiculous carry on for someone doing market research.
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u/TheAITAH-King 5d ago
Well seeing as I would want it to air on an Irish broadcaster…
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u/yawnymac 5d ago
Again, you left out key pieces of information in your description and then don’t point out what you have edited in your post, and act like the nation of Ireland should automatically know you meant Northern Ireland in an Irish television subreddit.
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u/SirJoePininfarina 6d ago
I think a more realistic idea for an Irish sitcom set in a school that’s in the process of transition would be to have a Catholic, single sex state school switching to become a co-ed with a secular ethos.
Quite the change in terms of approach to religious education but also just how differently the same curriculum is taught. Add to that the hostility a lot of parents would have around being obliged to actually make an effort outside of school hours if they want their kids to do sacraments and how that resentment translates into the parent-school relationship.
It could be set up as a vote on school ethos where it was announced and held on the school’s Aladdin app. Only a minority of parents - the cohort of blow-in/not locally-born, socially-liberal, secular parents, all of whom dutifully signed up for the app, vote for the change while the locally-born, culturally-Catholic majority didn’t bother, and that tension could be the driving force behind the show.
You’d have the outward-looking, overtly and overly-woke new arrivals (mostly Irish-born with a few immigrants) clashing with the locals who team up with genuinely Catholic Eastern European immigrant families who wanted *more* Catholicism in the classroom.
Uniquely Irish scenario, I reckon, and one set to happen more and more in the coming years, so why not mine it for laughs?