Chrissie Harris
This four-part made-for-TV drama focuses up close on a Dublin couple with four children. Charlo is a hustler, a head-first footballer, a thief, abusive. Paula drinks, objects to Charlie's thievery and adultery without the will to chuck him out. John Paul worships his father who's initiating him into the world of beer and football but recoils at Charlo's treatment of mum; asthma and misbehavior at school follow. Daughter Nicola is a young woman, starting work in a garment factory. When Charlo begins to stare at her, she's frightened and Paula's furious.
Dierdre
Saxophonist Danny witnesses the murder of his band manager and a deaf-mute girl after a gig. Questioned by the police, he remembers only the orthopedic shoes of the killers' leader. So begins his quest to avenge her. He seeks an answer to the simple question 'Why?' but finds only more, and deeper, questions which resonate with the wider context of 'the Troubles', the inter-communal strife gripping the modern-day Northern Ireland which is the film's setting.