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how the fuck did they meet each other? How did th
ey fall in love? How did they have the gift? windscreens to sell car insurance and brought a guru on a smokey, floaty, cloud replete with a lit-up fluffy chariot to sell mobile data deals. Closer to home, their work encompassed the most coveted of accounts with the National Lottery where, yes, they filmed in the Bahamas aboard a yacht owned by J-Lo. And, perhaps, one of their most revered ads being the Spar Christmas tree one which has become a staple of the season with its track by The Raveonettes. Personal detours included a book: 100 Facts about Pandas, which Mike co-authored with David O’Doherty and Claudia O’Doherty (who stars in Extra Ordinary) as well as Mr Foley, a most charming short where a man wakes up in a hospital bed and realizes that he can’t hear any sounds except those provided by a pair of Foley artists and a small musical troupe. They had set out to make a feature called The Bogman which they’d scripted, but fell foul of the budget/ambition/ experience intersection with funding as firsttime directors. But now, all these undertakings have coalesced into the wealth of experience they bring to bear on Extra Ordinary, their hugely impressive debut feature which goes on general release this month after scooping the top award at the Galway Film Fleadh over the summer. It tells the tale of a driving instructor, Rose Dooley (Maeve Higgins) who has to summon her supernatural ‘talents’ to save a lonely Martin Martin’s (Barry Ward) daughter from Christian Winter, a rock star (Will Forte) who is seeking to use her for his Satanic purposes and career revival. It’s packed with their customary flourishes – clever gags, witty dialogue, cultural touchstones, familiar-face cameos and sharp direction which brings a charming sincerity to proceedings, much like its lead Higgins. Extra Ordinary is also a send-up of the horror genre and its attendant tropes with frequent, exquisitely fun punctuations suffusing the storyline. “The catalyst for the story was one of those clickbait things we’d read,” explains Mike. “It was about a ghost that was groping people in an old folks’ home in the UK in the middle ➝ From top: Barry Ward and Maeve Higgins in Extra Ordinary; On set for Extra Ordinary 28