Cork show airing on Amazon Prime

A Cork writer and producer of a two-part documentary on the West Cork Flying Column, called The Brigade, says he is thrilled that it has been picked up by global networking giants Amazon Prime Video.

For the documentary, 12 men in West Cork were put through their paces as they lived like Tom Barry and the Flying Column.

It is now available to watch on the network in all English-speaking markets, except in the US, where the rights are owned by a different company.

Speaking to the Echo, Sam Kingston said: “We only found out last week it is currently available on Amazon. It is a real personal highlight.

“It is nice to have a show on Amazon, which is so well-known globally. You get commission on every hour somebody watches the show, but it is relatively small,” he said.

The Clonakilty man thought of the concept for the documentary in 2015 and it was aired on RTÉ in June 2019. “I pitched the idea behind The Brigade to RTÉ as I came up with the concept,” Mr Kingston said. “I have pitched a few things to RTÉ down through the years and most of the time they are rejected.

“We were delighted with how The Brigade turned out. It got a great reaction. It went down very well with people, which is very pleasing,” he said.

Mr Kingston, who is a keen historian, has also had two documentaries aired on TG4 in recent years: One dealing with the origins of the Cork GAA jersey and another about ice hockey in Canada.

He has a new documentary coming out on April 16, about the childhood of Michael Collins.

“It is called The Young Fellow and it deals with his 16 years spent growing up in Clonakilty,” Mr Kingston said. “We will be releasing a feature-length film.”

Mr Kingston is also working on his debut book, which he plans to release next year.