Ah well! That’s how it is in real life. One minute you are riding the crest of a monumental wave, then a second later you’re dragged down drowning and gasping for precious air and holding on for dear life. That’s how it goes.
Just like an experienced cabinet maker who diligently sharpens his chisel on a wet stone to carve the perfect piece of furniture of his dreams. But just when he thinks that he only has the last twist of the wrist to crown his lifelong creation, he stops and jerks his tool against what he discovers is a knot. A wooden knot, do you believe it? Right in the middle where he least expected it.
In Maltese we say ilqatna ingropp or sibna ingropp. Just like in everyday life, when we come up against a difficulty, we express it in the same way by saying sibna ingropp fil-hajja.
Ingropp-Pi is just that. It’s the title to Net television’s next comedy series to be aired next October. It is a play on words on the jolt one gets when one comes up against a difficulty in one’s life. That is why it is spelt in that manner, Ingropp-pi so as to ensure that everyone who reads the title has to pause and stutter just in the same manner our cabinet maker had to stop when he came across his ingropp.
Lino Grech’s master pen or rather typewriter (because that is what he still uses) is once again in full swing, hammering away in the production of line after line of the kind of brilliant situation comedy for which he is known. After the award-winning F’Bahar Wiehed and his adaptation of Oliver Friggieri’s Tfal Jigu Bil-Vapuri, which both aired on NET TV and were directed by Charles Stroud, the two have teamed up again for this completely new series.
The first ingropp that was found was a house which could accommodate the six month shoot together with the crew and actors, whom we shall be meeting in the story. On the shoestring budgets with which TV stations in Malta work, building one’s own complete upstairs and downstairs set for such a production is not feasible. Nor is it practical to invade a family’s privacy by filming in their home for more than a couple of days.
So a vacant villa had to be acquired, and filled with all the paraphernalia that one can imagine in a large family madhouse, complete with grandparents, three children and a not so small group of multilingual foreign students.
Yes, this has been recreated from scratch, complete with the interior decor and nosey neighbours.
Creating the authenticity of a real family atmosphere, together with all their everyday needs and events, is what Stroud wants to establish. He has gone into great detail and through painstaking preparation, together with the author, to create a homely atmosphere.
In his search for authenticity, Charles Stroud has experimented together with NET’s cameramen in new ways of lighting up a scene, and they have come up with a simple, original way of exposing the shots so as to avoid the sharp studio-style lighting to which we are so accustomed. In fact, a natural home ambience has been achieved which still provides a brilliant picture. Although he has worked in this medium for the past 31 years, Charles’ continuously energetic approach encourages his crew to do their utmost to give the audience their best. Another ingropp out of the way.
During the next few months the actors will live in a “real home”. They will become dependent upon each other and worry about each other. They will quarrel and cry, and cry with joy and laughter. We shall too.
After all, a bit of comedy in our lives is what the doctor ordered and NET TV knows the correct medicine.
The cast of Ingropp-Pi includes Moira Muscat, Ray Attard, Josephine Mahoney, Joe Borg,George Micallef, Rina Camilleri, Adreana de Carlo, Andrew Borg Carbott and Claire Muscat.
Meanwhile Charles Stroud and Lino Grech have also turned to L-Isfida participants in casting their production. It has been confirmed that Larissa Bonaci and Ronald Briffa will appear in a few episodes as will Maria Buckle, Jean Marc Agius, Frank Zammit, Christopher J Agius and Daphne Caruana.