Over the last three decades, Ireland’s longest-running soap, Fair City, has been doing its job entertaining viewers with bombshell storylines.
Set on the RTÉ campus, Carrigstown is almost a real town, with Brewzers café, Molly Ban dry cleaners, McCoy's pub, and even its own Spar shop. But what happens behind the scenes on RTÉ's Fair City?
Here, the Irish Mirror reveals all the secrets behind Fair City thanks to executive producer Brigie de Courcy.
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The fictional town is home to so much, from The Beauty Spot salon and Carol's Cabs taxi service to Vino's restaurant and the Mags Kelly community centre. Everything takes place here, births, weddings and funerals.
De Courcy explained all of the secrets behind the show, such as how all the food on the set is fake, but the playground is real.
All those scenes with booze in McCoy’s do not contain any alcohol, however, bosses do allow real alcohol when the cast and crew host Christmas parties there.
De Courcy also opened up about the difficulty faced during the pandemic, but that the cameras stayed rolling throughout.
The executive producer said: "Covid was a huge challenge when we filmed scenes.
"Only two actors could do any kissing scenes - and that was because they were a couple in real life. Bryan Murray and Una Crawford O'Brien were the only actors allowed to be romantic. It made filming very challenging.
"The actors couldn't stand side by side. The floor manager was standing by with a two-metre stick."
Even though life in Carrigstown is long back to normal, when Covid-19 restrictions were initially lifted, not all actors were comfortable returning to the set.
De Courcy added: "Now filming is back to 12 hours a day. We air four times a week - the days are long. We film all year round except for the Christmas holidays.
"Actors often come and go. They sometimes go off and do a film or a play and then come back. Some say it's like coming back to the family.
"We have extras that have been with us since the start. They know how it works and aren't looking around for the camera."
De Courcy also explained that the cast all have a great deal of fun together and get along quite well.
She added: "Usually we have our staff Christmas party in McCoy's pub - with real beer and wine - as we don't have real alcohol on set. We'll have a big Christmas tree in the pub.
"We write our Christmas scenes in the summer when it's hot outside - we work 26 weeks in advance.
"The drinks that you see on set are often not real. You can't have the actors walking around with a full coffee on set as accidents could happen. The food is all fake too."
"We ordered the fake food from a company in America and it looks so real. They made fake doughnuts and cakes in the cafe, and also bread and fruit that are in the Spar shop.
"Years ago, we had real food on set but it cost so much and there was a lot of waste. It's more practical now. Obviously, when the actors are eating, they're eating real food, but we just order the minimum.
"Sometimes the unpredictable Irish weather makes filming outdoors a bit tricky. We try our best. We do all our filming here on the RTE campus. But sometimes a helicopter flies overhead during a scene and we must start over. That can't be helped.
"The playground is a real playground with rubber flooring to make it safe for the child actors. There are strict laws about how long children can be on set. So often when you see a pram, there won't be a baby in it at all".
Ireland’s most popular soap is a very busy production, requiring a strong team of writers putting in dedicated work, but life is always getting in the way.
She added: "We have about 36-40 writers. We have a broad range of story writers. Our episode writers do the dialogue in the voice of the characters. Life constantly interrupts us though.
"Sometimes a key character becomes unwell and scenes need to be rewritten quickly. But there's nobody running around, waving sheets, going, 'Oh my God'.
“It's important that we include stories that are relevant. People love the fact that Fair City is a village in a city. But most importantly it's a community and they relate to that."
Fair City airs on RTE One on Fridays at 7.30pm, Sunday and Tuesday at 8pm and Thursday at 8.30pm.
