Ahead of this evening's premiere of Charlie, a new series about the life of Charles Haughey, Newstalk spoke with the writer of the series Colin Teevan.

Teevan says the show was born out of Haughey's immense influence over Irish politics in the 1980s, and the widely different views that the public held of him.

Though he believes the late Taoiseach is more an anti-hero than role model, Teevan says he "embodies a reflection of who we are as a culture."The writer also sees Haughey as a forbearer of the aspiration in Irish culture which would come to dominate the country during the Celtic Tiger.Through his research and writing, he became more sympathetic to Haughey - Teevan says "the inevitable result of writing drama is that you look at a character from their world-view" - although some of his actions and corrupt dealings remain confounding.The first episode of the three-part series gets underway on RTE1 at 9.30 tonight.

Aidan Gillen and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor from crime-drama Love/Hate are among the cast.