This is a great series. As you watch you get pulled into the lives of the various characters living in a small village. While there is a tendency to romanticize the rural life in many films (and in part here), there is a greater depth than the average show. There is much humor in this series and also much heat break. As much as the viewer yearns for things to go right in the characters lives, things tend to go wrong and the characters must deal with personal loss, death, divorce, and financial ruin. For a show billed as a comedy, it is more drama with an overlay of humor. I am being somewhat vague in this review because this is a series to be dipped into for episodes that are uplifting and heart warming but ultimately overshadowed by reality. If you watch it once you will find find that after the passage of a few years you are longing to revisit Ballykissangel and share in the lives of what almost become real people.

Now being re-run on ITV3, I am really enjoying BallyK all over again. For me, the acting of the whole ensemble cast is wonderful and particularly Stephen Tompkinson as Father Peter Clifford. His relationship with Assumpta is fascinating, even when I know what happened, because it shows them actually relating to each other as people and not in the roles that they play in the village. Peter goes beyond the traditional remit of the priest, while executing it faithfully, and his kindness and good judgement are an inspiration to all. He is an example of a really good man, although he has his own inner conflicts which are played convincingly. Most of all, I feel that all the characters in BallyK are friends who I want to visit - I feel as if I know them. It also hasn't dated too much and I think new viewers would enjoy it as much as those of us who remember it warmly from the first time around.

Bally K is the kind of quality television series I never tire of watching. The acting by an ensemble cast is first rate as is the script. I thought it gave foreigners an interesting picture of life in an Irish town. I thought the series lagged a bit after the initial two characters (Father Clifford and Asumpta) left but still had enough to continue interest. I noticed a strange commonality between almost all the main characters. Did anybody else note what all these pivotal characters had in common: Asumpta the local bar owner, Brendan the local teacher, Siobhan the local vet, Dr. Ryan, local yokels Liam and Donal, entrepreneur Quigley, storekeeper Kathleen, Garage owner Padraig and his successor in the later series, father O'Comnnell's sister Orla, Eamon and his elderly replacement and stable owner Avril? Not one of them was married? Rather unusual for a "typical" Irish town. Finally, one can wonder why Ireland, a country that sends priests all over the world, has to import them from England and Australia? I do recommend the series as an example of quality television, all too rare on local schedules.

The best series on PBS since Upstairs, Downstairs. Enjoyable storylines and delightful characters. Ireland never looked better. Will we ever see the episodes after Father Clifford left BallyK.