Coleraine’s Alan back on screen

St Mungo’s, a comedy drama written by Conor Grimes and Alan, has been filmed in Glenavy by the makers of ‘Hope Street’.

The half hour programme is on BBC One Northern Ireland, Friday, February 25 at 10.35pm, and also on BBC iPlayer.

Barry McGurk is returning to the rural Northern Ireland village where he grew up, with his English wife Madeleine and their young children Caoimhe and Oisin in tow. They intend to build their dream house and establish a wind energy business, selling turbines to local farmers.

Their estate car is laden with all their worldly belongings as they drive to the fictional village of Luganulk, along the way encountering; a fitness boot camp, led by Martina the slightly scary instructor; an enormous tractor driven by a distracted farmer who nearly drives into them, and a cyclist whom they nearly drive into. They eventually arrive at their building site where, to Madeline and the kids’ horror, there is a caravan for them to live in.

In the meantime, well-meaning, but inept Chairman (Alan McKee) and Vice Chairman (Conor Grimes) of the local GAA club, St Mungo’s, discuss the problems with the club. They are regularly unable to field a full team, and the sporting authorities are not happy. The club is also in financial difficulties, compounded by a bill presented to them by local plumber, Davy the Drip.

The McGurks settle into their new life. Madeleine takes the kids to a local history night and Barry goes to the pub, where it’s the St Mungo’s weekly club rattle. He signs the kids up for the Mini Mungos football team, after meeting the Chairman and Vice Chairman. They are delighted that Barry, a former star player, agrees to help out coaching the kids.

Local married historians, Proinsias (Conleth Hill) and Shauna Stevenson, are delivering a very dry lecture in the parish hall and Madeleine and the kids struggle to stay awake. Meanwhile, Barry is having a much better time at the pub where he meets his boyhood friend Fintan, who is now the parish priest and as it turns out, the cyclist Barry nearly knocked down earlier. His old schoolteacher Miss Leonard buys him a pint and it is not the last pint of the evening.

When a hungover Barry awakes late next morning, he finds Madeleine forging ahead with the new build. He admits he has agreed to assist with coaching the kids. Madeleine reminds Barry that they have a house and a business to build, stressing there is no time for him to get obsessive about Gaelic football, as he has in the past. He promises her that isn’t going to happen, despite his memory being fuzzy about what he agreed to the night before.

The comedy also stars Shaun Blaney, Roísín Gallagher, Gerard Jordan, Julia Dearden, Abigail McGibbon, Mary Moulds, Declan Rogers, Chris Robinson, Brendan Quinn, Patrick McBrearty, Jo Donnelly, Gavin Peden, Hannah-Rose Magill and Daniel Lamont.