Conta-me como foi
Conta-me como foi (transl. Tell me how it was) is a Portuguese television drama series which has been broadcast on RTP1 of Rádio e Televisão de Portugal from 2007 to 2011 and since 2019. It recounts the experiences of a middle-class family, the Lopes (Portuguese: Os Lopes), during the last years of the Estado Novo.[1]
| Conta-me como foi | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama, Historical, Comedy |
| Based on | Cuéntame cómo pasó |
| Starring | Miguel Guilherme Rita Blanco Catarina Avelar Rita Brütt Fernando Pires Luís Ganito |
| Narrated by | Luís Lucas |
| Country of origin | Portugal |
| Original language | Portuguese |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 134 (+22 confirmed) |
| Production | |
| Production location | Lisboa |
| Production company | SP Televisão for Rádio e Televisão de Portugal |
| Release | |
| Original network | RTP1 |
| Original release | 22 April 2007 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
Development
The first episode was broadcast on 22 April 2007. The series begins in March 1968 with the arrival of television to the house of the Lopes just in time to watch the Festival da Canção 1968. The last episode of the fifth season was broadcast on 25 April 2011 with the Lopes living the Carnation Revolution on 25 April 1974.[2]
In February 2019, RTP announced that the series, after eight years shelved, would be renewed for 52 more episodes, with the storyline moving firmly into the 1980s. The first episode of the sixth season was broadcast on 7 December 2019 with the Lopes entering 1984.
The series is an adaptation of Cuéntame cómo pasó, a Spanish series by Televisión Española starring Imanol Arias and Ana Duato.[3] It has also been adapted in Italy by RAI as Raccontami with Massimo Ghini and Lunetta Savino,[4] in Argentina by Televisión Pública Argentina as Cuéntame cómo pasó with Nicolás Cabré and Malena Solda[5] and in Greece by ERT as Τα καλύτερά μας χρόνια with Meletis Elias and Katerina Papoutsaki.[6]
Plot
António Lopes (Miguel Guilherme) and Margarida Marques (Rita Blanco) are a married couple that have emigrated in the 1960s from Ermidão, a (fictional) small village inland, to a (also fictional) working-class suburb in Lisbon, along with her mother Hermínia (Catarina Avelar) and their three children, Isabel (Rita Brütt), Tóni (Fernando Pires) and Carlos (Luís Ganito) seeking a better life away from the hardships of an impoverished countryside. António works as a clerk at the Ministry of Finance in the mornings and at Eng. Ramires' (José Raposo) printing house in the afternoons. Margarida and Hermínia make trousers for a department store at home while doing the housekeeping. Isabel works at Clara's (Maria João Abreu) hair salon along with Náni (Sandra Santos), Tóni is starting a master's degree in Law making him the first Lopes going to university and Carlos spends his school days with his best friends Marinho (Manuel Alves) and Luís (Francisco Madeira). With great effort and hard work they are able to purchase in installments their first television set, their first washing machine and even their first car.
The Lopes' story is narrated from an indefinite present by an adult Carlos (voiced by Luís Lucas). Their story is directly and indirectly affected by the events and the social, economical and political changes occurring in Portugal since the late 1960s until the early 1980s. The Lopes are also direct and indirect witness of the historic acts occurring those days.
Cast and characters
Lopes Family
| Character | Portrayed by | Seasons | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ||
| António Lopes | Miguel Guilherme | Main | ||||||
| Maria Margarida Marques | Rita Blanco | Main | ||||||
| Hermínia Marques | Catarina Avelar | Main | ||||||
| Maria Isabel Marques Lopes | Rita Brütt | Main | ||||||
| António José Marques Lopes (Tóni) | Fernando Pires | Main | ||||||
| Carlos Manuel Marques Lopes | Luís Ganito | Main | ||||||
| Luís Lucas (narrator) | Main (voice only) | |||||||
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Ratings | Setting | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | Viewers | Share | |||||
| 1 | 9 | 22 April 2007 | 22 June 2007 | 614 835 | 6,4% | March 1968 – September 1968 | ||
| 2 | 31 | 30 September 2007 | 15 June 2008 | October 1968 – October 1969 | ||||
| 3 | 17 | 4 January 2009 | 26 April 2009 | 804 583 | 8,5% | November 1969 – May 1970 | ||
| 4 | 23 | 17 October 2009 | 16 May 2010 | 589 337 | 6,1% | June 1970 – May 1972 | ||
| 5 | 24 | 14 November 2010 | 25 April 2011 | 674 292 | 7,0% | August 1972 – 25 April 1974 | ||
| 6 | 19 | 7 December 2019 | 25 April 2020 | 577 964 | 6,0% | 31 December 1983 – December 1984 | ||
| 7 | 11 | 3 October 2020 | December 1984 – | |||||
| Total | 134 | 22 April 2007 | March 1968 – ... | |||||
References
- RTP is getting ready Conta-me como foi premiere (In Portuguese)
- Conta-me como foi press release (In Portuguese)
- Cuéntame cómo pasó official page (In Spanish)
- Raccontami, the Italian Cuéntame (In Spanish)
- Argentinian Cuéntame cómo pasó official synopsis (In Spanish)
- Τα καλύτερά μας χρόνια official synopsis
Further reading
- POUSA, Laura; FORNASARI, Eleonora (2017). "Tell the (hi)story to the nation. Two transcultural adaptations of the Spanish TV series Cuéntame cómo pasó: Raccontami and Conta-me como foi". Communication & Society. 30 (2): 1–15. ISSN 0214-0039. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
- DAHL, Julie M. (2017). "Portuguese Memories Made in Spain: How the Spanish Television Series Cuéntame cómo pasó Became Conta-me como foi" (PDF). Limite. 11.2: 195–214. ISSN 1888-4067. Retrieved 12 January 2020.