New dark comedy 'Obituary' shot in Donegal to air on RTÉ later this month

Obituary, the black comedy which was filmed in Ballyshannon and Bundoran earlier this year is the highly anticipated new drama series about the hit screens of RTÉ this Autumn season. 

The first episode of the six-part series is set to be aired at 10.15pm on Tuesday, September 26.

In the dark-comedy drama, Siobhán Cullen takes the lead as Elvira Clancy, a bored and unappreciated obituary writer who takes matters into her own hands, when redundancy beckons. 24-year-old Elvira is feeling unfulfilled, although she adores her job writing obituaries. 

When her newspaper falls on hard times, her boss tells her he is unable to keep her on the payroll and she finds herself being paid per obituary overnight.

The Rory Gallagher statue mysteriously disappeared and became a unspecified plinth during filming (Photo: Thomas Gallagher)

 
Supported by the Donegal Film Office, the dark comedy series is set around a small-town fictional newspaper, which was shot between Market Street, Lawne Park and St Anne’s Cemetery in Ballyshannon and Rougey and Bundoran’s West End earlier this year. 

The popular Dicey Reilly's pub in Ballyshannon was baptised ‘The Mariner’ bar during the various shoots.

The series also stars Michael Smiley and Danielle Galligan. 

For the drama shoot, the Erne town of Ballyshannon was transformed into the fictional town of Kilraven, with a population of 5,007, while Ballyshannon itself  underwent a bit of a facelift for the various scenes being shot on the streets between January and March.

Dicey's pub in Ballyshannon was transformed in 'The Mariner' (Photo: Thomas Gallagher)

Elvira, the small town obituarist then resorts to murder when work dries up locally, with 'Obituary' having already been commissioned by HULU in the US as well as RTÉ.

After Elvira ‘accidentally’ kills a nasty piece of work in Kilraven, she discovers she might have an untapped bloodlust. 

She relishes using ever more crafty methods to kill off the town’s unpleasant residents while making them look like accidents. 

Unfortunately, a wrench lands in the works, when the paper hires a suspicious new crime correspondent with a penchant for conspiracy theories - and Elvira has an eye for him. 

It sounds like it will be compulsive viewing . . . and a laugh!