Love in a time of lockdown

Le Ceangal is the name of a new Covid-set web drama (or Zoomcom!) on TG4’s young people’s platform Bloc.

The first two of eight five-minute episodes will be available at 1 p.m. on June 26 and weekly thereafter.

Having met on Tinder, Galway-based Declan (24) and Dubliner Aoife (25) have gone on five tentative dates. Just as they are about to broach the tricky ‘Should we both come off Tinder now?’ question, they are locked up in lockdown. In two different cities. With two different WiFi speeds. And their blossomming relationship is now on life-support…

With Aoife’s dad suffering from MS, she has promised not to mix outside her family so a physical encounter is off the agenda. They try everything to keep their relationship from floundering, but WhatApp memes, Zoom quizes, even phone sex can’t substitute for real human contact – or can they?

From the producers of the IFTA winning Corp + Anam and EIPIC, Le Ceangal was shot this June in Galway under social distancing restrictions.

Producer Paddy Hayes said: “Throughout the Covid health emergency, I always wondered would it be easy for a young couple to maintain a relationship while being forcibly separated from their partners. And now I know it has its…challenges.”

This brand new comedy series is devised and directed by Oisín Mistéil and stars Eva-Jane Gaffney (Can't Cope, Won't Cope as Aoife and Eoin Ó Dubhghaill (Arracht) as Declan.

Sleepless in Seattle? How about Gormless in Galway and Hapless in Howth! Watch the series from Friday, June 26, at 1 p.m. on TG4's Bloc platform.

*Pictured above, Eoin Ó Dubhghaill as Declan on a Zoom call to Aoife, played by Eva-Jane Gaffney, in the Covid-set TG4 web drama entitled Le Ceangal.