Covid meant a lot more time in front of the television screen

This week’s INM/Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

Covid isolation meant that I sat in front of the television far longer than I usually do. The Boris Johnson lies and shenanigans did add a large dollop of top class entertainment to my television viewing.

By accident I came across a film on RTE One, ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood’. The name didn’t catch me but the blurb did and within two or three minutes into the film I decided it could be interesting and so it was, indeed, fascinating and much to learn from it. It’s based on a true story.

Journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) working for Esquire magazine was asked to write 400 words on children’s television presenter, Fred Rogers, (Tom Hanks) who was a famous American television personality, who hosted ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighbour’. The programme ran from 1968 to 2001. Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian minister and the programme was a feel-good show with innocence written all over it. A lovely simple show for young children and their parents.

When Lloyd Rhys is asked by his editor to write the piece on Rogers he feels it is below him as he considers himself a top-class investigative journalist. But he has no choice but to do what Ellen his editor tells him to do. There’s bad blood between the two of them and he feels this assignment is a clear demotion for him.

 

He heads off to Pittsburgh to interview Fred, convinced he would uncover him as a chancer and charlatan. Nothing of the sort happens. Slowly but surely he realises Fred is a genuinely good man.

Eventually the two of them become close friends and Fred is the catalyst for Lloyd rebuilding his relationship with his estranged father, Jerry.

Earlier in the film Lloyd had a fistfight with his father at his sister’s wedding. Lloyd’s mother had died when he was young and he hadn’t been impressed with his father’s philandering.

At face value Fred’s television programmes were simple stories appealing to children but the stories they told were universal truths and it was that same truth component of the shows that filtered down to Lloyd, which eventually made him come to terms with the long-hidden anger he had towards his father.

The originally commissioned 400-word article on Rogers ends up as a 10,000-word cover story and proves a best seller for Esquire magazine.

Of course the world has its fair share of tricksters and con artists. And maybe there are times when I can be a tad suspicious of what might seem too good to be true.

‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood’ is a reminder that there are genuinely good people out there doing great work. It’s better to see the glass half full than half empty. It is the job of the journalist to uncover wrong doing but it’s also our job to tell the good news stories as well.

Fred had a great way with children. Don’t we often underestimate the wisdom of children? Very often they are far more tuned in than we might realise.

The film had its world premier in 2019 and critics praised Hanks and Rhys for their performances. Time magazine named it as one of the best films of 2019.