Meet Fred Bass

Fred Bass (Eddie Brennan)

The long overdue character profile for monosyllabic, surly old sea dog Fred Bass has just gone online over on the Vultures Pilot page.

You can discover all you ever wanted to know about this most enigmatic of rum swilling fishermen cum store Santas.

Fred Bass was one of the very first characters we conceived. Mostly because of the fact that we had a Tintin-esque character in Niall Tennyson and it made sense to have a Captain Haddock character to compliment him. Although we have refrained from having Fred yelp 'Blisterin' barnacles!' just yet. But give it time...

This photo, courtesy of Ross Costigan, places Fred right outside one of his favourite haunts, The Fish Centre. It's one of my favourite Vultures character promos so far. Put Fred next to anything with fish and I'm happy out.

The Playboy Of The Western World

Went to see Dreamstuff Youth Theatre's production of JM Synge's The Playboy Of The Western World last night. It was a fantastic performance of a play that's not easy to pull off by any means.

This is the smallest Dreamstuff cast that's ever been in any of their plays and I have to say, it made it all the better. All the characters were played by very good performers with a great grasp of the text and they all had plenty of room to shine. Mike Kelly, the director, made a great choice by playing up the black comedy in the text which is something that professional companies can scarcely manage at times (Druid not withstanding of course). Peter O'Connor and Aoibhin Murphy were brilliant in the iconic roles of Christy Mahon and Pegeen Mike and I'm sure they're only going to get better as the run continues.

Dreamstuff Youth Theatre's production of JM Synge's The Playboy Of The Western World plays until Saturday May 2nd in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Tickets can be booked at 056 - 7761674.

Meet Pat Cairo

Pat Cairo (Paddy Dunne)

The character promo for the affable, guitar strumming Corkonian has just gone online on the Episode 4 section of the Vultures website.

Played by Paddy Dunne, Pat Cairo is possibly the nicest new boyfriend a girl could have. He also wears remarkably well knitted jumpers. All the more reason for Jim Vultour to hate him so.

Find out more about Pat Cairo and look at his smiling face right here. And if you just can't get enough at this stage, then check out the Making Of Pat Cairo entry in the Development section of the website.

It's got the background of how we came up with the character, why we came up with him and why he looks so much like Liam Clancy.

Pat Cairo was one of the most fun characters to write and I know Paddy had a blast playing him. He was mad for that little smig of his. Any excuse to grow it. There'll be more Pat Cairo to come in the new Vultures episodes, most likely smiling and all. More on these new episodes I speak of very soon indeed.

Meet Isabelle Vultour

Isabelle Vultour (Liadain Kaminska)


The newest in our Vultures character profiles is the extremely long overdue entry for the lovely Isabelle Vultour, played by Liadain Kaminska. The profile for the affable, softly spoken, ballerina sister of Jim Vultour and love interest of Dan McGrain can now be found on the page for the Vultures pilot.

Isabelle is a character that I really like, probably because she's so nice, like any good love interest is. But I always liked the twist that she's so nice that she attracts nice men who instead of flattering her, make her think she's going to get perved on or raped. Like Dan McGrain. Who's not like that but nowadays it's not a good idea to send anonymous gifts and letters to a lady you like. For 8 years.

She's spent the first 4 episodes being really nice but she's finally going to have some material to get her teeth into in the next few episodes. Which is good because otherwise Liadain probably would have quit by now.

Episode 4's Bonus Leftovers

No, not deleted footage or extended footage or extra scenes. Bonus is the word we're using. Hell of a word, really. So fun and bouncy. As opposed to anything that might sound like we're really stuck for stuff to show people.

We have amassed quite a few Vultures scenes that were cut from episodes but generally they tend to not be much cop. This however, is something we liked. And it's a whole cohesive sequence.

It got cut out of Episode 4 'The Case Of The Poisoned Dates' due to time constraints. But we kind of wish we'd left it in. Mainly because the episode was long enough anyway. What's another 4 minutes when you've already given us 40? Amen.

Here is the full sequence of the V.P.I. detectives getting ready for the night out scenes that culminated the fourth episode: