The Spike (TV series)
The Spike is a controversial Irish drama television series, broadcast by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) in 1978. The ten-part series was set in a secondary school. The script was written by Patrick Gilligan who was a vocational school teacher.
Reviews
The series was negatively reviewed by critics who took issue with the poor script, bad acting and the clumsy thematic treatment. A review in The Irish Times stated that " this much publicized drama series has turned out to be so bad it must now be taken seriously". Dr Helena Sheehan, a lecturer in social history, wrote in 2002 that
Controversy
In episode five, "the briefest glimpse of naked flesh" caused outrage and angry phonecalls to newspapers. The show's producer defended the nude streak as an intent "to examine the attitude of pupils and staff to nudity". The ensuing fuss led to one of the actors requiring medical treatment after he was, as the Evening Press elegantly phrased it, "thumped by a fat elderly lady". The episode sparked debate in Dáil Éireann and was condemned by the Taoiseach, despite him having never seen the programme. On the day that the sixth episode was due to air with a story of a schoolboy bomber, it was axed. The remaining episodes remain locked away and have neither never been broadcast on RTÉ nor viewed by members of the general public. The Spike was later featured on RTÉ's scandal series, Scannal, with the Irish Independent naming it as one of their "Top 10 Worst Irish TV Programmes".
The Spike
The Spike may refer to:
The Spike (1997)
The Spike is a 1997 book by Damien Broderick exploring the future of technology, and in particular the concept of the technological singularity.
A revised and updated edition was published in 2001 as The Spike: How Our Lives Are Being Transformed by Rapidly Advancing Technologies, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2001, ISBN 0-312-87781-1 he ISBN 0-312-87782-X pbk. Library of Congress T14.B75 2001.
External links
The Spike (essay)
"The Spike" is a 1931 essay by George Orwell in which he details his experience staying overnight in the casual ward of a workhouse (colloquially known as a "spike") near London. This episode in Orwell's life took place while he was intentionally living as a vagrant in and around London as part of the social experiment that would form the basis of his first book Down and Out in Paris and London. The events of this essay are also found in that book, though the essay is not reprinted verbatim in the book.
Orwell was in Paris in August 1929 when he first sent a copy of "The Spike" to the New Adelphi magazine. The New Adelphi was a London periodical which was owned by John Middleton Murry. Murry had released editorial control to Sir Richard Rees and Max Plowman, and it was Plowman who accepted the work for publication. However, various revisions were required, and the work did not appear in print until April 1931.
See also
References
External links
Podcasts:
