House of Guinness, from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, jumped straight to the top of the Netflix charts this week. But what do Irish viewers think of it?
1. Bad Irish accents do Irish heads in
Thankfully, most of the cast are Irish and James Norton did a fabulous job of mastering it. He was, apparently, terrified of being "crucified". Thankfully, this was not necessary.
2. No sandwiches at a wake?
The opening scene, the wake after the funeral of Sir Benjamin Guinness, served NO SANDWICHES. No sandwiches at a funeral? Food is big at Irish wakes. Sandwiches are an absolute staple, alongside whiskey, tea and – yes – possibly a pint of Guinness. So as Irish comedian and singer Garron Noone (@Garron_music) said in his takedown of the episode: "I will be deducting a couple of points for that."
3. A brawl, naturally
Three minutes and 45 seconds is all it takes before someone shouts: "Free Irish from the English!" and there is a massive brawl at the funeral. "Very true to our culture," adds the hilarious Garron.
4. Guinness isn’t black
Don’t freak out! Due to the specific way that Guinness processes barley, the stout comes out a deep red, noticeable if you hold it up to a light. So even though you'll hear people shouting for ‘a pint of the black stuff’ at the pub, it's not actually true.
Now, more than 10 million pints of Guinness are sold globally every day, but, according to online grocers Ocado, the non-alcoholic version of the black stuff in Britain has taken over sales of the traditional version for the first time. Slainte! We think...
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5. Dublin doesn't look like that
If some scenes don’t look as if they were filmed in Dublin, it's because they weren’t. Unfortunately, little remains of Dublin that still looks as it did in 1868. The brewery scene, for example, was filmed at the Stanley Docks in Liverpool and the castle scenes are Penrhyn Castle in Wales.
The notoriously private (and we believe single) leading man James Norton ruled himself out just days ago as the new Bond for being 'too old'. He's 40. Daniel Craig was 38. Maybe rethink that one James…
House of Guinness is streaming now on Netflix.
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