Ruby and the Duke,

[Bernie Burgess]

Hello Friends,

Michael Beattie told me two or three days ago that he was putting the final preview copy in the post to me and despite the thought that the Christmas post might cause a long delay. . . . I HAVE THE FINAL PREVIEW COPY RIGHT HERE IN MY HAND. I have booked the front row of the Dress Circle for a special viewing in front of my television - RIGHT NOW.

Adios Amigo.

[Bernie Burgess]

Hello Friends

I have viewed the programme just once and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I will be viewing it many more times to make quite sure that I do not miss anything whatsoever. For someone from a totally different generation, Duke handles the task of relating Ruby's life story and her career with the utmost sensativity and care. Michael Beattie has done a great job as Director and I telephoned him straight after seeing his work to tell him that he has done Ruby proud.

During the programme there is a brief clip of Ruby singing on television, perhaps regional, where she sings Lena Martell's hit song 'One Day At a Time' i have no idea which television station she was appearing in. She wore a very attractive red dress and she sings the song very well. It was entirely new to me and I felt very proud of her

I feel confident that Ruby's friends/fans will enjoy the programme as much as I did and I am sure they will be looking for ways to get friends who can view it to record it for them. It would be great if other television companies take up the programme and transmit it themselves.

For now, Adios Amigos. Bernie.

[MrFizzy]

We don't have Sky and have asked friends of ours who have if they can get RTE one.

It seems that Sky 161 works for RTE if you have an Irish or European Sky card but not a general UK subscription
Even if you can "see" the RTE channel, the signal is encrypted.

You can buy an Irish Sky card in the UK but unlikely for a one-off program! http://storesatellite.com/irishsky.php

The best bet then seems to be the RTE internet player which came up as "international version" when I tried it and it played fine
http://www.rte.ie/player/#
I dont know if it will carry the full TV schedule but fingers crossed that you an see this show!

[Teddy O'Neil]

'Ruby and the Duke' is to be broadcast tonight , 10.15 RTE 1 - looking forward to it.
Last night's Belfast Telegraph carried a full page article on the programme by Michael Beatty (Director) and included some nice pictures of Ruby.

Duke Special is also to issue a charity album which includes 3 tracks of Ruby's songs as a tribute - that should be interesting.

Cheers, Ted.

[MrFizzy]

Caught a little of the show on the internet and have to give full credit to Bernie who interviewed extremely well.
We were captivated - thanks Bernie

This is the first review I've seen of "Ruby and the Duke" so far in the Herald.ie
http://tinyurl.com/RubyHerald

[comet]

Hi Folks,

I'm new here, Saw the documentary last night, brought tears to my eyes several times,

RTE have a REPLAY SERVICE,

some of you may be able to watch the programme again at http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1089312

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1089312

hope you guys can figure out the link, not quite sure how it works here on your site,

Great source of information here, You Just can't beat FANPOWER for good information

[MrFizzy]

For those that cannot make the Ruby tribute show with the RTE orchestra in Dublin on Wed 2nd Feb the show is also been performed at the lovely Cork Opera house on Sunday 6th Feb
http://www.corkoperahouse.ie/concerts.php#duke

There is also a Cork thread on Duke's website that may be useful
http://www.dukespecial.com/forums/showt ... #post62166

We were excited enough about Dublin and just couldn't resist booking for both!

[Gerald Lawrence]

Well it seems to have been a success! Thank you for the links - the Herald one works fine and is a very nice write-up, with some nice words about Ruby and Bernie, as well as Duke. Unfortunately the RTE link returns the information which I have already established - that the RTE player excludes the mainland UK from watching certain programmes, and this is one of them.

However, a relative of Rosemary's living in Bangor has recorded the programme for me, so I will get to see it one day.

[MrFizzy]

I'm not sure if this is naughty, but if you are IT savvie and can't bear to wait, you can use a "http proxy" setting in your web browser that allows you to watch the show on the RTE "watch again" site

One of the Duke boardies posted this:
"I've found an Irish proxy server that seems to work. I tried it on an Ireland only programme 25 minutes ago.
In your browser settings go to network / proxy settings and change the http proxy to 89.28.178.40 port 8080"
(instructions for internet explorer http://support.microsoft.com/kb/135982)

Once you have done this go to RTE "watch again" http://www.rte.ie/player/# for Jan 18th

Afterwards you can return your browser settings to "Automatic proxy"
I did this for the web browser on my Mac (Safari) and it worked fine

Naturally we are hoping for a DVD release from RTE in time.

[spudmurph]

I just wanted to put a very short notice on to say that I am lucky enough to be able to get RTE and to be able to watch the programme "Ruby and the Duke" this week. I though that the programme was very good, very professional and Duke Special (aka Peter Wilson) was an excellent presenter. He obviously had done his research and I thought that he spoke with great respect of Ruby (whom I loved very much). The programme was a good mix of Ruby both personally and professionally and a good insight from Paul Gambaccini of the music world in the mid 50s and it highlighted very well what a huge star she was. I do however think that there was a surplus of people speaking about Ruby who didn't actually know her. Of course from a personal point of view I was very disappointed that Mum's name (Marie Cunningham) wasn't even mentioned as she and Ruby were so very close for such a long time and I know how important they were in each other's lives.

Anyway, I will bore you no longer with my personal critique. I hope that at least BBC NI will pick the programme up. I think it is a terrible shame that a programme on such a huge start from Belfast was not commissioned by a local broadcasting company. I do hope that you will all get an opportunity to watch it at some stage.
Kathleen

[MARTIN FOSTER]

Hi guys,

Hope you are all well and those that were lucky enough to see the Ruby programme enjoyed it. Unfortunately, my contact for recording Irish TV programmes has died so I have not been able to obtain a copy of the programme as yet. I wonder if it might be possible for some kind soul to put a copy in the library? Is that a hint I wonder?

Kathleen, nice to see you and hope you and your mother are well. I am sure the programme brought back a lot of memories for your mum and I agree it is a shame she wasn't given a mention.

Best wishes.

Martin.

[MrFizzy]

I enjoyed the content of program but even as a newbie (but one who has done a little background reading) agree that the program left you wanting to know more and left out several key figures including her very good friend Marie Cunningham. I would also have liked to have heard from some of Ruby's most dedicated fans who took their holidays together for example to see her perform and got to know her. I suppose that 50 min was never going to be enough. My hope is that it will be shown on UK TV as well and lead to wider follow up stories of Ruby's life and music.

[mal macleod]

Thanks to Mrfizzy I was able to find the RTE play it again page and saw the programme. What a pleasure! It was so well done and brought back so many memories.
Although I dont often send feedback to the official Ruby site I regularly access it to keep in touch and find out whats going on. This was one occasion that I'm glad I still do.
Wonder if there is a DVD of the programme available? Would appreciate finding out.
Regards to all of you who make such a fine job of the site - much appreciated.
Mal Macleod

[Teddy O'Neil]

Well done Bernie! a fitting tribute to a lovely lady. The programme made clever use of the limited TV/film recordings available of Ruby's performances and of course we enjoyed the background music of Ruby's songs.
There was very little reference to Ruby's recordings of Irish songs which seems strange when the programme was made for RTE - but still a fascinating piece of television. I hope the BBC takes up the programme so that it can be viewed by a wider audience.

Ted

[Bernie Burgess]

Hello Friends,

I am in an Internet Cafe on the Island of Lanzarote and finding it very difficult to carry out all that I want to achieve. I am so pleased that some comments on´Ruby and the Duke· are starting to appear but I will need to catch up with everything when I return on Feb, 4th. I will add my thoughts regarding Marie. I understood that Michael Beattie went to meet Marie at her home and interviewed her so I am at a loss as to why some of that interview was not included????? I can only add my own personal apologies to Marie but I had no sway regarding actual content.

I will enlarge on the programme and all the comments when I get back to my home.

Adios Amigos. Bernie.