The Takeover is the new six-part RTÉ TWO series featuring business expert Norah Casey as she mentors staff who face the challenge of running a business for two weeks while their boss agrees to step aside.
The Takeover is a brand new business makeover format from RTÉ Television which was piloted last September as part of the broadcaster’s new format development initiative called Format Farm. The objective of Format Farm is to support the production and broadcast of original Irish TV formats for both Irish audiences and for export. This format was created by Toto Productions and backed by RTÉ and Sony Pictures Television.
In every company across Ireland, bosses struggle to find ways to maintain a competitive edge and keep their companies profitable while workers fantasize about what they would do if they were in charge. The Takeover challenges both boss and staff to put their money where their mouth is! There are many times when workers wish they could be the boss but few get the chance. The Takeover allows them to do just that. The boss takes them by surprise and leaves the business in their hands for 10 working days!
Business expert Norah Casey mentors the staff and helps them to focus on areas where they can make the biggest impact on the business. The staff quickly learn how tough it is to be the boss, making decisions, managing budgets and enjoying the freedom to bring about sweeping change – sometimes with disastrous consequences!
TX 3 The Glyde Inn, Annagassan, Co Louth
Conor O’Neill, owner of The Glyde Inn in the picturesque Louth village of Annagassan, hands over his family’s bar and restaurant to his staff of teens and twentysomethings to run it any way they choose for two whole weeks.
Seizing the opportunity to make the changes he’s always dreamed of, Head Chef Richie ditches their traditional menu in favour of more expensive fish dishes – spending lots of cash-conscious Conor’s money in the meantime. After a dressing down from Norah over a burnt meal, Richie has to turn it all around and impress top food critic Tom Doorley who arrives to taste the new additions to the menu.
With the boss out of the picture, waitresses Jenny and Gillian resolve to capitalise on the area’s Viking heritage and try to turn the restaurant into a tourist hotspot. They pitch The Glyde Inn to the MD of one of the country’s biggest tour companies, Paddywagon Tours. They pull out all the stops to impress him in the hope that he will bring his tour groups to Annagassan, dressing the bar and restaurant with pigs’ heads and Viking decorations!
In their quest to make The Glyde Inn more accessible, barmen Hugh and Jamie put on a shuttle bus service to ferry locals from nearby towns to the bar and restaurant but they forget to tell anyone about it! In a final effort to redeem themselves, they put on a high risk “Pay As You Please” night.