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''Fáilte Towers'' is a

reality TV show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

broadcast that aired on RTÉ during August 2008 on RTÉ. The concept involved thirteen celebrities running a hotel for sixteen days and nights in order to win money for their designated charities. The show format was not repeated nor was it exported or resold. The name is a play on the

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sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

Fawlty Towers ''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Televisio ...

'' and the word ' meaning 'welcome' in

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

. The hotel used in the series is Bellingham Castle in

Castlebellingham Castlebellingham () is a village and townland in County Louth, Ireland. The village has become quieter since the construction of the new M1 motorway, which bypasses it. The population of Castlebellingham-Kilsaran (named for the two townlands whi ...

, County Louth. The show is presented by

Aidan Power Aidan Power (born 30 March 1979) is an Irish television and radio presenter. Career Born in Templeogue, Dublin, Power was educated at St. Mac Dara's community college and then Ballyfermot Senior College where he obtained a diploma in broadca ...

and

Baz Ashmawy Bazil Ashmawy, commonly known as Baz Ashmawy, is an Irish radio and television personality, whose TV show ''50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy'' won the International Emmy Award for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment award. In summer 2017, he hosted ''Th ...

and the judges are Bibi Baskin, Dublin restaurateur Derry Clarke and

Castle Leslie Castle Leslie, also known as Glaslough House is home to an Irish branch of Clan Leslie, is located on the 4 km² (1,000-acre) Castle Leslie Estate adjacent to the village of Glaslough, northeast of Monaghan town in County Monaghan, Irel ...

hotelier Sammy Leslie. Each night the public are invited to vote for the contestant they would like to stay in the show. At the end of the show one of the contestants must "check out". The presenters tell each of the contestants individually if they are "safe" and if so are ordered "back to work". The three remaining contestants are then marched into the Oliver Plunkett Suite to face the judges, one of whom sends one of the contestants back to work before all three cast their votes on which of the remaining two must leave the show. The evicted celebrity is then interviewed by the presenters, with best bits shown as well. Created by

Adare Productions Adare Productions is an Irish entertainment television production company. It has produced numerous television shows which have been broadcast in Ireland, including ''Delegation'', '' Livin' with Lucy'', ''Hanging with Hector'', ''The Fame Game'', ...

, it was available to watch online on the

RTÉ Player RTÉ Player is an on demand video service provided by Irish public media broadcaster RTÉ. The service provides live and recorded RTÉ television programmes, and content exclusive to the player as well as content from other international broad ...

for up to two weeks after being broadcast.

John Creedon John Creedon (born 1958), also known as "Creedo", is an Irish language enthusiast and veteran broadcaster with RTÉ Radio. Host of ''The John Creedon Show'', weekday evenings 8-10pm on RTÉ Radio 1, he has also filled in for Dave Fanning on '' ...

won on 17 August.

Contestants

There ar
thirteen contestants
in the show.

Donna and Joseph McCaul Donna and Joseph McCaul (born 30 May 1984 and 1989, respectively), also known as The McCauls, are a brother and sister musical duo who represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Ukraine. They were not pre-qualified for the final ...

were treated as one celebrity, completing the same chores and "checking out" together.

Voting

Guests

Members of the public were encouraged to apply online for an opportunity to stay in the hotel for the show's duration. Free rooms would be provided but food and drink was to be paid for by the guests. Guests were encouraged by the producers to wreak havoc in their rooms, a fact that was evidenced by some of the early scenes of broken furniture, soiled mattresses and flooded bathrooms which greeted the celebrities early in the morning.

The show

The celebrities have entertained numerous functions including a hen party and a wedding, a bus of Japanese tourists and a group of

nudist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...

s. The stripper providing entertainment for the hen party upset some of the other guests. An elderly woman accosted Jennifer Maguire, the acting manager and said: "We came here for a quiet lunch. This is disgusting! They should be in another room." Jennifer gently guided her out of the room but she glided back in again roaring: "It's absolutely revolting. It might be a young person's thing, but you should take it somewhere else." The nudists arrived at the hotel in normal enough dress and requested their rooms only to later emerge for their meal downstairs without clothes, sparking gasps of astonishment as Patricia McKenna and Joseph McCaul tried to work their way around the cramped room. Brian Dowling was seen wagging his finger at one man in an embarrassed gesture of exasperation. Don Baker, as acting manager, was involved in a heated argument with judge Derry Clarke over the serving of lunch to a group of guests from Kerry. Liz O'Kane insisted that the celebrities had come to an agreement with the producers that lunch was not to be served that day but Clarke though otherwise and, in an attempt to further confuse the hoteliers, argued with both Baker and O'Kane. Consequentially the two were called before the judges in the Oliver Plunkett Suite that same night with O'Kane told to "check out". With tensions rising by the following day, the programme's producers offered manager, Brian Dowling the chance to nominate three of his co-workers to enjoy a day and night of pampering at Castle Leslie in

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County C ...

. He was allowed to pick himself but chose not to, instead selecting Baker, Evelyn Cusack and Jennifer Maguire, who had been before the judges in the Oliver Plunkett Suite for three consecutive nights. The remaining celebrities were given the day off and embarked on a trail of antics. The "wedding" descended into chaos when the groom was spotted in an embrace with his new wife's best friend and the bride's mother stormed out of the dining room in disgust. However it emerged that the wedding was staged and the guests were simply actors exaggerating a scenario to put further strain on the celebrities. This upset Joseph McCaul who had accidentally spilt wine on the bride's dress and upset her mother. When one of Michelle Heaton's dresses was offered as a replacement there were accusations that it would be too revealing, which upset the manager, Brian Dowling. When the set-up was discovered the celebrities reacted angrily with Evelyn Cusack sarcastically serving coffee at breakfast the next morning. On Michelle Heaton's day as manager, Don Baker was barman. When a Dubliner named Don arrived at the hotel and offered to fix the broken kegs in the cellar, Baker led him downstairs oblivious to his intention to steal the kegs. When Baker returned upstairs and attempted to serve the customers it was discovered that the

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 Feb ...

, Guinness and

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrela ...

was gone. Heaton had to phone a local bar and borrow three kegs to feed the thirsty guests. This was also the day that a bus of Japanese tourists turned up at Fáilte Towers. The celebrities were upset as this meant having to change their menu and adapt new recipes to suit their tastes. Joseph McCaul spent his time entertaining the guests with his

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

skills and was surprised to learn that one female was even voting for him. When the food didn't go down well, McCaul came up with his own concoction of sushi involving tomatoes and other food items which Michelle Heaton promptly ordered back into the kitchen before it could be served. Later

Dickie Rock Richard "Dickie" Rock (born 10 October 1936) is an Irish singer. He experienced much success on the Irish charts during the 1960s, but has continued on as a popular live act as well as occasionally hitting the charts ever since. Early fame Rock ...

arrived to entertain the guests but, already fifteen minutes late, Heaton embarked on a journey to his room in search of an explanation. It emerged that he refused to leave his room until he had been fed his favoured chicken vindaloo dish. Joseph McCaul had to make a trip to the local Chinese for "a chicken curry for Dickie Rock" while his sister and Don Baker entertained the unsettled crowd. At the end of the night Michelle Heaton broke down in the kitchen and John Creedon chased the cameraman outside. However, there was a CCTV camera trained on the kitchen allowing all to be seen. She was seen to be sobbing to herself, although this time her boyfriend was not present to cheer her up. He had turned up to dine at the hotel only a few days previously and upset her when he sent his dinner back to the kitchen with a request to see the chef before she realised what was really happening. Among the more light-hearted moments were Brian Dowling dunking Joseph McCaul's head into a lobster tank with his sister's permission and Dowling later playing a game of "kiss the gay" with Sean Ó Domhnaill in the kitchen. Ó Domhnaill eventually relented off camera. Among the celebrities to break down and cry have been Michelle Heaton, Donna and Joseph McCaul, Evelyn Cusack and Liz O'Kane.

The semi-final

The semi-final took place on Saturday 16 August 2008. Five celebrities remained that night; Don Baker,

, Brian Dowling,

Michelle Heaton Michelle Christine Heaton (born 19 July 1979) is an English pop singer, actress and television personality. She was a member of the pop group Liberty X from 2001 until they announced their split in 2007; they reformed one year later for a smal ...

and

Jennifer Maguire Jennifer Zamparelli (née Maguire) (born 9 April 1980) is an Irish comedian and television presenter. She is known for her role on the TV show ''Republic of Telly'', where she was a primary writer, and as co-host of the 2FM morning show ''Break ...

. Don, Jennifer and Michelle faced the judges. Michelle checked out.

The final

The final took place on Sunday 17 August 2008. Four celebrities remained on the final night; they were Don Baker,

, Brian Dowling and

. For the first time the public had exclusive say on who checked out. Jennifer was the first to check out. The remaining three were taken into the Oliver Plunkett Suite. Don finished third and exited to be interviewed by presenter Baz. Brian finished second. The winner was John.

Broadcasting schedule

* Episode 01: Saturday 2 August, 9.40pm, RTÉ One * Episode 02: Sunday 3 August, 9.40pm, RTÉ One * Episode 03: Tuesday 5 August, 9.40pm, RTÉ One * Episode 04: Wednesday 6 August, 9.35pm, RTÉ One * Episode 05: Saturday 9 August, 9.40pm, RTÉ One * Episode 06: Sunday 10 August, 9.30pm, RTÉ One * Episode 07: Tuesday 12 August, 9.35pm, RTÉ One * Episode 08: Wednesday 13 August, 9.35pm, RTÉ One * Episode 09: Saturday 16 August, 9.35pm, RTÉ One * Final Show: Sunday 17 August, 9.35pm, RTÉ One

Controversy

Claire Tully was refused by two breast cancer charities who rebuffed her offer to raise money on their behalf. This was linked to her debut as Ireland's first ''

Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishi ...

'' model in 2008. After being turned down by the Marie Keating Foundation and Breast Cancer Ireland, Tully's donation was eventually accepted by the National Breast Cancer Research Institute at

NUI Galway The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...

and she was said to bear "no hard feelings" towards the other charities. Jill Clark, head of fundraising, said: "The society is delighted that Claire has kindly chosen to donate all the proceeds raised throughout the duration of her appearance on the show to Action Breast Cancer, a programme of the

Irish Cancer Society The Irish Cancer Society (formerly known as the Conquer Cancer Campaign) is the national charity in the Republic of Ireland dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem, and improving the lives of those who have cancer. History Fo ...

." Presenter Baz Ashmawy has evoked much criticism for his style, "bellowing" in a manner that suggests he "seems to be addressing a completely different audience in a completely different programme on a completely different planet, somewhere inside the universe of his own head". Then reminding viewers of the voting numbers, Baz thrust his crotch so forcefully at the camera that "it nearly broke the lens - "These are the numbers you're gonna (thrust!) need (thrust!)."

Reception

Fáilte Towers has been praised in the Irish media as being different from other reality television shows where the contestants don't do any work. The insight into how the celebrities would cope in a hard-working environment has also been praised, although the constant moaning of celebrities such as

and

has been criticised as being akin to "pathetic child-like blubbering". Comparisons were made with the state of the economy as it was noted that "z-list celebrities, failed Eurovision acts, reality-tv refugees and somebody called Patricia McKenna are forced to seek work in the catering trade." Evelyn Cusack was deemed to have been included "as a punishment for all the crap weather she has been correctly predicting". The format for the show attracted interest from overseas buyers. RTÉ said several foreign programme distributors had expressed interest in buying the format but "no agreements will be reached until the current series has finished". "We have had enquiries from a few distribution companies in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

," said Brian Graham, one of the series producers. "We are too busy at the moment to deal with them so we are waiting until the series is over to decide what to do. This is a format that could definitely travel. The plan is this could be done in any country." The final received nearly a million viewers and the entire series regularly received between 350,000 and 450,000 viewers. Nevertheless, the '' Irish Independent'' named ''Fáilte Towers'' as one of the six worst television programmes of 2008, describing it as "car crash television".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Failte Towers 2008 Irish television series debuts 2008 Irish television series endings Irish reality television series RTÉ original programming