Anonymous (TV series)

infobox television
show_name = Anonymous
image
caption =
format = Hidden camera / comedy
runtime = 26 minutes
rating =
creator =
| starring = Jason Byrne
country = IRL
network = RTÉ Two
first_aired =
last_aired = present
num_episodes =
imdb_id = |

"Anonymous" is an Irish television series broadcast on RTÉ Two. Its concept is to disguise well-known personalities, with the use of prosthetic masks, bestow upon them a fake identity and set them up in what are intended to be humorous situations for the sake of entertainment. "Anonymous" is presented by Jason Byrne, who also uses a hidden microphone to communicate mischievous ideas via whispering to the disguised personality. It has run for three series. The next series will be broadcast in 2009. [cite web|url=http://tvsales.rte.ie/autumn/content/entertainment/anonymous.html|title=Television Sales: Anonymous|accessdate=2008-09-21|publisher=RTÉ]

The series is best-known for showing the then Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine in a humorous light in an episode filmed before his death in January 2007. Ervine was one of three political representatives from Northern Ireland who agreed to partake in the programme; the others were Paul Maskey of Sinn Féin and John Dallat of the SDLP. They were interviewed by Belfast comedian Patrick Kielty, who was in the guise of New York TV reporter, "Betty Silverman". Ervine's family consented for the episode to be broadcast in the aftermath of his death. [cite web|url=http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/ervinersquos-family-see-funny-side-of-rte-comedy-on-the-late-loyalist-686462.html|title=Ervine’s family see funny side of RTE comedy on the late loyalist|date=2007-05-29|accessdate=2008-09-21|publisher="Irish Independent"]

In the opening episode of the third series, Westlife member Nicky Byrne, was dressed up as Mick Byrne, "an evangelistic Garda from Kiltimagh on a mission to clean up the mean streets of Swords." For the role he had to put on a Longford accent and, as Garda Byrne, he took the names of foreign nationals, asking them for their licence to be in Ireland; asked locals for cigarettes, and chastised people for walking too fast and speaking too loudly in the betting shop. He then drove around the local shopping centre in a motorised trolley making his own siren sound and asking people where they were going. He called to his own parents' house to ask for Westlife autographs and tickets for Croke Park and makes a fool of his friends, former Leeds United footballer Gary Kelly and rugby international Brian O'Driscoll. Also featuring in the series were model Glenda Gilson as a tree-hugging eco-warrior, and TV presenter Craig Doyle as Argentine sports reporter "Rodrigo Depassa". [cite web|url=http://www.rteguide.ie/2008/0303/1.html|title=Jason and the Are You Nots?|date=2008-03-03|accessdate=2008-09-21|publisher=RTÉ]

Episodes

This is an incomplete and comprehensive list of episodes of "Anonymous". [ [http://www.rte.ie/tv/anonymous/archive.html "Anonymous" archive] ]

Series 2 (2007)

References

External links

* [http://www.rte.ie/tv/anonymous/ Official site]