The Last Furlong

The Last Furlong is a short-lived Irish comedy-drama television series which was aired on RTÉ from 14 November – 19 December 2005. Originally created by Simon Delaney and co-written with director Kieran Carney, the series dealt with Diogo Bernardo Furlong (Simon Delaney), a Portuguese cabaret singer and songwriter, who travels to Ireland to scatter his mother's ashes over the grave of his Irish father.

This article is about the TV series. For the film that had the working title The Last Furlong, see Hideaways.

The Last Furlong
Created bySimon Delaney
Written bySimon Delaney & Kieran Carney
Directed byKieran Carney
Tom Hall
Starring(listed in closing credits)
Simon Delaney
Orla Fitzgerald
Domhnall Gleeson
Christianne Oliveira
Country of originIreland
No. of episodes6
Production
Producer(s)Niamh Fagan
Running time75 minutes per episode
Release
Original networkRTÉ
Original release14 November –
19 December 2005

Plot

The show centered on a Portuguese man seeking clues regarding his parent.[1] After the death of his mother, Diogo Bernardo Furlong visits Ireland to scatter his mother's ashes on the grave of his father. His father had died some years before in a boating accident on Lough Allen, and he was raised by his mother in Alentejo, Portugal. His only clue to his father's grave is a postcard that his mother gave to him with a picture of a church.

Leaving behind his fiancée Claudia, he arrives in Dublin and is met by an acquaintance and music promoter David Daly (Garrett Keogh). Promising to help Diogo find his father's grave, Daly persuades Diogo to take a musical tour of Ireland with him and his daughter Margaret (Orla Fitzgerald), an aspiring filmmaker who reluctantly agrees to manage Diogo. A backup band is hired and, joined by Margaret's boyfriend John Ford (Simon Keogh) and his friend Sean Flanagan (Domhnall Gleeson), Diogo and The Fandango's begin a tour of Ireland's graveyards and other lesser-known legendary venues, including Ballymore Eustace, Roscommon, Strokestown, Ballaghaderreen, Ballagh and Westport.

Reception

Although Delaney had come off a successful run on the sitcom Bachelors Walk, the series received poor reviews from critics. Delaney's general acting and musical performance were particularly criticized. His portrayal of Diogo, a character he used to perform between takes during Bachelors Walk "just to keep the crew amused",[2] was seen by critics as too similar to his character on Bachelors Walk and in other film and television appearances.[3]

gollark: According to statisticoids™, a lot (I think 70%ish?) of graduate jobs do not actually care what degree you had.
gollark: And the majority of the point of the whole thing is prestige.
gollark: But that is insufficiently prestigious, see.
gollark: Most universities seem to vaguely advertise their sports, but I don't think they run big professional teams.
gollark: Which is an unreasonably vast amount, but doesn't account for the 600% increase there probably. And Alabama is apparently one of the worst ones for this.

References
  1. "RTÉ promises home-grown shows for autumn". The Irish Times. 11 August 2005. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  2. Donald, Niall (5 November 2005). "TV Must see: I seeng for you".
  3. "Reviews: The Last Furlong (RTÉ2, Monday)". TViscrying.com. 5 November 2005. Archived from the original on 23 February 2006.
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