The Hanging Gale - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Based on an original idea by two of the McGann quartet (Stephen and Joe) The Hanging Gale is a brilliant evocation of the Irish potato famine of the 1840's and how it affects the fortunes of the Phelan family.

Like one of those doorstep novels by Maeve Binchy or even Catherine Cookson this is a proper saga. It's 1846 in Donegal (mostly filmed in the gorgeous old town of Ramelton) and the Great famine is in full swing, the Phelan family's trouble start when local landowner Lord Hawksborough appoints a new English land agent, Townsend (played with delicious menace by Michael Kitrchen), who, despite having his life saved by the Phelan's, is very quick to show his displeasure with the way things are being run.
Soon matters are at breaking point, with crops full of blight and starvation at the doorstep the Phelan's are on the verge of organising a bloody revolt.
It's heart wrenching stuff, the hardships the Irish families faced back then was incredible and The Hanging Gale pulls no punches in its portrayal of the privations faced by the Phelans.

The four McGann brothers work brilliantly, together on film for the first time, but the real kudos have to go Michael Kitchen, one of those rare actors who can be incredibly menacing but you are still charmed by him.

The title comes from the system wherby tenants were allowed to delay payment of their rent for upto 6 months, this of course ensured they were permanantly in debt with no real sense of security., the landlords also craftily allowed the tenants to pay part of their rent in crops but of course this had disastrous consequences in the 1840's.

The Hanging Gale was first broadcast on the BBC in 1995 and this two disc set from Acorn Media UK is definitely up there as must see TV.

ANY SPECIAL FEATURES?

Extras include cast filmographies, extensive production notes and a picture gallery.