Like all of us, comedy duo Grimes and McKee are hoping for brighter days ahead in 2022 with the full return of live entertainment.
Coleraine man Alan and Conor from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone, first met at Queen's University Belfast's Drama Society and have happy memories of "great craic and bad plays".
Since then, the pair have built on their onstage comic success to form a career on the small screen.
Their latest venture sees their hugely successful GAA-themed comedy hit St Mungo’s coming to a TV screen near you next weekend.
Yes it is about Gaelic football but the good news is that you don’t have know anything about GAA to really enjoy this production.
It was penned by the pair and filmed in Glenavy just last month by the makers of Hope Street, BBC NI's local police drama series which hit our screens recently.
Fans of the stage show will already know that this is a comedy about a community so newcomers will certainly be able to relate to its numerous quirky characters.
"This is a pilot episode to introduce everyone to the characters and location - the GAA club and the little village," Conor told Belfast Live.
"It's very exciting for us and it was filmed over a week in January. We had good craic making it so now we just have to wait to see what happens."
Alan added: "If you've seen the stage show then you'll recognise the characters and scenarios. But if you haven't seen it, and that's the vast majority of people, then you'll not lose out.
"We're fortunate to have a great cast of people that we've worked with in the past and others who are brand new to us but who really impressed everybody in the production side with their audition tapes.
"It was great to work with the likes of Conleth Hill and Abigail McGibbon because we know how funny they are having been in comedies together in the past.
"It's great to see them now taking on roles that we played on stage and doing them well as opposed to the limited acting abilities of Conor and myself!"
In St Mungo’s, Barry McGurk (Shaun Blaney) is returning to the rural Northern Ireland village where he grew up with his English wife Madeleine (Roisin Gallagher) and their young children Caoimhe and Oisin in tow.
They intend to build their dream house and establish a wind energy business, selling turbines to local farmers.
Their estate car is laden with all their worldly belongings as they drive to the fictional village of Luganulk, along the way encountering; a fitness boot camp, led by Martina (Jo Donnelly) the slightly scary instructor; an enormous tractor driven by a distracted farmer who nearly drives into them, and a cyclist whom they nearly drive into.
They eventually arrive at their building site where, to Madeline and the kids’ horror, there is a caravan for them to live in.
In the meantime, well-meaning, but inept Chairman (McKee) and Vice Chairman (Grimes) of the local GAA club, St Mungo’s, discuss the problems with the club.
They are regularly unable to field a full team, and the sporting authorities are not happy. The club is also in financial difficulties, compounded by a bill presented to them by local plumber, Davy the Drip (Brendan Quinn).
The McGurks settle into their new life - Madeleine takes the kids to a local history night and Barry goes to the pub, where it’s the St Mungo’s weekly club rattle.
He signs the kids up for the Mini Mungos football team after meeting the Chairman and Vice Chairman, who are delighted that Barry, a former star player, agrees to help out coaching the kids.
Local married historians, Proinsias (Conleth Hill) and Shauna (Abigail McGibbon) Stevenson, are delivering a very dry lecture in the parish hall and Madeleine and the kids struggle to stay awake.
Meanwhile, Barry is having a much better time at the pub where he meets his boyhood friend Fintan (Declan Rogers), who is now the parish priest and as it turns out, the cyclist Barry nearly knocked down earlier.
His old schoolteacher Miss Leonard (Julia Dearden) buys him a pint and it is not the last pint of the evening.
When a hungover Barry awakes late next morning, he finds Madeleine forging ahead with the new build. He admits he has agreed to assist with coaching the kids.
Madeleine reminds Barry that they have a house and a business to build, stressing there is no time for him to get obsessive about Gaelic football, as he has in the past.
He promises her that isn’t going to happen, despite his memory being fuzzy about what he agreed to the night before.
The comedy also stars Gerard Jordan, Mary Moulds, Chris Robinson, Patrick McBrearty, Gavin Peden, Hannah-Rose Magill and Daniel Lamont.
For Grimes and McKee, taking St Mungo’s to TV marks their first major venture of 2022, having finally returned to the stage last Christmas with their new festive comedy - Grimes & McKee's Christmas Album - at Belfast's Lyric Theatre.
The comic pair were delighted to be back on stage together, as the last time they appeared in front of a live audience was Friday, March 13 2020, the opening night of their new show The Real Rules of Gaelic, at St Peter's GAA club in Lurgan.
"That was its one and only performance so it's waiting to go back out onto the road again," Conor said.
The pair also now hope that with all remaining Covid-19 restrictions formally lifted, it will encourage more people back into theatres again.
"I think people are ready to come back to live entertainment. It was weird at Christmas and you could see some people more confident than others about being out and in a social setting again," Alan said.
"People know that live entertainment is different from anything else so hopefully that appetite returns and the industry can start to wind back up again."
St Mungo’s airs on BBC One Northern Ireland, Friday 25 February at 10.35pm, and also on BBC iPlayer.
