In October 2012, Ireland switched off the old analogue television signal and went fully digital. In a small pub in South Galway, a camera crew is there to discuss this change with the patrons – and whatever else is on their minds.
I was quite interested in this film because I have a friend of my partner who was involved in the publicity and awareness raising work for the switchover in the UK, plus I have been inside a few pubs in my home country, so know the sort of characters you can get. So I approached it very much at face value and was really held by it as the film gradually had other subjects and surprises across its 14 minutes (a time that really flies past). At the start and throughout, we do have discussion over the change, the lack of choice to remain on analogue, some grumbling about it being a money- making scam, technological confusion about what it actually means for some older TV sets and whether or not you'll still get RTE1 in the kitchen or not. All of these discussions are entertaining, but the film is most delightful in where else it goes.
Since we have a load of blokes gently drinking and discussing themselves into the day, there is a certain relaxed spirit to the conversations and it is fun to see where they go to. There are discussions over changes in life generally, about how old ways seem to be being pushed away, about reincarnation and the nature of death, about how to retune a television and Einstein's Theory of Relativity (the conclusion is Einstein was a "fecking eejit" by the way). The key thing is that it never is just a load of drunk people spouting off but rather it has quite a poetic spirit to it – and indeed the film perfectly encapsulates this as one of the subjects bows out the film with a piece of prose apropos of nothing and off the top of his head!
It is a documentary which is not really about the subject of the television switchover, but rather about the culture, the people and the place – and as such it is wonderfully engaging and delightfully surprising.