Secrets from the Showroom is the real deal, packed with showbiz, sales and egos

RTÉ’s inside look at car showrooms is a rare beast — an entertaining and informative Irish documentary — but a tribute to playwright Teresa Deevy falls short

'Look what I have going against me. Woman. Mixed race': Nadia Adan of Ashford Motors

Richard M Watts, played by Ciarán Hinds, in The English. Photo by Diego López Calvín

thumbnail: 'Look what I have going against me. Woman. Mixed race': Nadia Adan of Ashford Motors
thumbnail: Richard M Watts, played by Ciarán Hinds, in The English. Photo by Diego López Calvín
Ann Marie Hourihane

The drama is always in sales. Sales is where the legends, the egos and modern masculinity live. David Mamet knew as much when he wrote Glengarry Glen Ross, which was as much about the American dream as it was about shifting real estate.

And so we come to Secrets from the Showroom (RTÉ One), a documentary that managed to be both entertaining and informative, as Irish documentaries so rarely do. All the elements of Mamet’s play and later film were here, and he himself could not have bettered the line from car salesman Justin when he explained his selling technique: “You use your own showbusiness.”

In Sligo, Kevin was looking at his empty yard, remembering how “one time it held 165 units”. Now he looks at the empty yard and finds himself “wondering will you play five-a-side football in it”.

There were women here — two — and Nadia of Ashford Motors was proud of what she has achieved: “Look what I have going against me. Woman. Mixed race.”

There was a brief discussion about the commission system. You need commission. Here was Justin again. When commission is down, they feel it in his household: “That’s why I don’t take leave that often.” His bosses put pressure on him to take his holidays.

Everyone agreed that customers were becoming increasingly reluctant to spend. “We didn’t know how good we had it,” said Kevin, whose supply lines seem to have collapsed since Brexit. He spent the programme literally waiting for his boat to come in, so that he could deliver an electric car for which he actually had buyers.

In Kerry, Rachel — whose dad, Tom Murphy, is a mechanic who runs his own garage and rapidly emerged as the star of the programme — was also dying to buy. “I’d really like to have one before I go back to school,” she said.

Tom went to view cars with his daughter. “I like these but they’re giving me ‘mom vibes’,” said Rachel. “God help you,” said Tom.

Meanwhile, Denis had come to CarMaxx in Fermoy, Co Cork to make a fancy-dress video — much of the selling now takes place online. It did not go well. Eoin, the manager, would not take part: “It’s for young guys doing it.” The salesmen were also reluctant, perhaps fearing ridicule. It is hard to believe that salesmen in the US, Australia or even the UK would be so frightened.

“I definitely think the costumes spooked them a little,” said Denis. “If I was doing it again, I wouldn’t show the costumes.”

Salesman Mark ended up running between the cars dressed as Sonic the Hedgehog, and didn’t seem any the worse for the experience. Denis, completely unbowed, shared another of his creative plans. “Mark was going to be Forrest Gump, running through Fermoy.” This might have been a joke.

Then there was the competition at Kylemore Motors in Dublin for staff to win a free holiday in Dubai. The announcement of the result finished the programme. “I’m proud of yiz,” said the sales manager. It was an emotional climax. Outside, young James and young Greg patrolled the yard, gently slagging off salespeople, although you could see that one of them, at least, longed to be one of them.

Tribute to Teresa Deevy (RTÉ One) was not as good, or even as sensitive, as Secrets from the Showroom. It had a cracking story: young provincial woman who becomes profoundly deaf in her teens and goes on to be a successful playwright at the Abbey, and is then dumped by the theatre for ideological reasons.

How good was Teresa Deevy? There were no extracts or readings from any of her work. Not one. The programme was built around the efforts of Amanda Coogan to perform a ballet, Possession, which was written by Deevy. We were well into Part Three before we were told that this script for Possession was only three pages long; is this the normal length for a ballet treatment?

We learned nothing of how the valiant Deevy spent her old age, except that she took to writing radio plays. We learned nothing of her private life as an adult woman — the family does not appear to have spoken about it — and nothing about how she survived financially.

What made her such a liberal? Why did she take the side of outsiders, coming as she did from a conservative Irish family in the early part of the 20th century? You were left wondering about all the things that the programme failed to address. It was late into the show before we were told that Deevy’s reputation had been revived, it seemed single-handedly, by a man called Jonathan Bank of Mint Theatre in New York. It was Bank who went hunting for her plays and staged America, the first production of the play that the Abbey had rejected.

Richard M Watts, played by Ciarán Hinds, in The English. Photo by Diego López Calvín

The English (BBC One) is a western, and the first episode had it all: mysterious strangers, ravishing landscapes and unremitting savagery. There is quite a lot of spitting. It stars Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer, easily the most attractive man on television. The English has a wonderful cast — Toby Jones and Ciarán Hinds this week, Rafe Spall giving fantastic villain later on.

And it kills them off with impressive speed. However, it is heavy-handed and the heroine’s automatic respect for Native Americans must have been pretty... rare. I suppose we have to respect people using their own showbusiness.