Hall's Pictorial Weekly in Ballyduff, Co. Waterford, Ireland 1979

The people of Ballyduff in Waterford are the stars in the opening sequence from 'Hall's Pictorial Weekly'. Located near the river Blackwater, sometimes called the Munster Blackwater (in Irish ‘An Abhainn Mhór’), Ballyduff and its inhabitants are the stars of ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ opening sequence. Age is clearly no boundary for one lady, who demonstrates her football skills while on route through the village. People emerge from the post office to see what is going on, and a bread delivery is being made to Higgins’ shop. Overall reactions to the arrival of the RTÉ camera crew in Ballyduff are mixed, ranging from avoidance to salutation. Once a week, from June to September, the ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ film crew would arrive at a town or village in any county in Ireland. They would film the people and the place and return to RTÉ where the footage was edited and put to music. This short film of around one minute’s duration formed part of the opening sequence for that week’s episode. But no-one knew which location had been chosen, and it was not advertised as part of the programme billings in the RTÉ Guide or newspapers. So with this in mind, people the length and breadth of the country tuned in religiously, in case it was the turn of their town or village to have its few minutes of fame. This episode of ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ was broadcast on 7 March 1979.