Missing You, Episode 3 of 6, RTÉ One, Wednesday June 21st at 8.30pm
Two years ago, at the age of 57, Vicky Andrew left Ireland to live in Vancouver. During the recession, she was forced to close her shop in Cork. Unable to find work in Ireland, she emigrated in search of a livelihood, leaving her baby granddaughter, Aria, behind. Aria is now four, and lives with her mother Anna in Blanchardstown. Vicky watches her grow through weekly video calls. It’s not always easy talking to a four year old through a screen.
Joanna Golden has just arrived home to spend a summer in Dublin. While now closer to her children, she still is not with her husband of two years, Fazel with numerous plans to be together not materialising. For now, it seems Joanna can’t go to Fazel, so he decides to go to her, and books a flight to Ireland. Finally, two years after their first meeting and marriage, Fazel and Joanna are to be united – albeit it for fleeting visit!
We catch up with everyday family life with the Floods in Dublin and Sydney. Before baby Lucas goes to bed in Sydney, granddad John Joe Flood introduces him to his beloved pigeons. And later Gemma offers tips to niece Chloé, who is putting her home economics skills to the test in the kitchen in Pearse Street, assisted by granny Ann.
Holly Bourassa married American Keith in the States after her J1 summer. She is now planning a more extravagant Irish version. Finding it difficult to plan her wedding from a distance, her mother, Regina in Cork, is on hand to help in any way she can.
Emma Doyle (26) left Kilkenny and her parents Joe and Johanne, to move to Perth, Australia in 2014. That year she met partner, Paul and soon after, came the happy news that they were expecting a baby. But just before their son, Klay, was born, Paul was diagnosed with stage four skin cancer which had spread to his brain. Emma is a rock of support to Paul, but when times get difficult she calls home to her parents in Kilkenny, for a shoulder to cry on.
Although nearly 40 years have passed since Adrienne Moran left Ireland for Australia, her relationship with Suzanne has not been strained by the 9,000 miles that separate them. As they were as school children in the 70’s, they are still closer than ever.
Series Overview
Missing You is a six part series about the lengths the Irish Diaspora will go to maintain and nurture relationships with their loved ones in spite of vast geographical distance.
A six-part observational documentary, Missing You captures their stories and witnesses their relationships all through the confines of video calls. Viewers see firsthand the intimacy, the honesty, the highs of everyday life, the lows, as well as the complexities of missing home.
Missing You is unique – it is the first series in the world to be created exclusively from video calls, user generated stills and videos. The programme gives the audience unfiltered and unprecedented access to the participant’s lives and shows that, though they may be far apart physically, their emotional ties remain as strong as ever.
Over the course of six episodes, viewers will follow a number of Irish people, far from home, as they keep in touch with their loved ones. Missing You records the patterns of everyday life from Libya to Laois, Boston to Cork, and Pearse Street to Sydney, and places in between including Holland, France, Cyprus, London, New Zealand, Arizona, Abu Dhabi, and South Korea.
By recording the video conversations of our group, as they call home to their friends and family, we experience everything with them, from big announcements to unexpected moments of everyday magic – a wife far from her husband’s side; a brother and sister experiencing the cycle of life; and a daughter introducing her new son to her family back home.