'Wild Decembers': 1970s?

IT'S the 1970s as you've never seen it before: emails, mobile phones, futuristic jeeps and sun beds. Or at least, according to an RTÉ feature-length drama which has become lost in time.

TV viewers have complained after spotting errors in a new drama, Wild Decembers, which was originally advertised as being set in the 1970s. According to the RTÉ Guide, the programme was a "feature-length drama based in 1970s' Ireland" which was "adapted by Edna O'Brien from her novel Wild Decembers".

Despite this, viewers were baffled by scenes where actors could be seen having to read by candlelight, only to be seen later emailing on computers. There were cars with 1992 registrations while the use of old-style phones were followed immediately by the use of mobile phones.

Later released biographies of the show then said the adaption was based in "contemporary Co Clare", which also puzzled viewers who went online to complain.

"Seriously... [what]... is going on, is it present day? Set in the '70s? It has every '50s' cliché going, with gypsies and church statues and, shock horror, an unmarried mother," posted one viewer on online forum boards.ie. Another said, "Modern mixed with the '70s. Pathetic".

An RTÉ?spokeswoman said:?"There has been a misunderstanding about it. The book upon which the drama is based was set in the '70s, but the television drama itself wasn't set in the '70s – it was a contemporary interpretation."