SOMETIMES you just want to be entertained, and this gentle comedy has entertainment value aplenty. If you have seen the film "Whisky Galore" - where a group of islanders conspire to hide from the authorities a ton of whisky salvaged from a shipwreck - this will ring a few bells. Only here the key event is a massive lottery win, and the conspirators are the inhabitants of a tiny village in rural Ireland.

Ian Bannen plays the lead character, Jackie O'Shea, who discovers that one of his fellow villagers has won the lotto and wages a campaign of friendliness to discover who it is. He, his wife Annie (Fionnula Flanagan), and best chum Michael O'Sullivan, spend a small fortune in their efforts sweetening up the village folk in the hope of hitting the jackpot. However, when they do discover the winning ticket holder, the two old men find themselves getting into some pretty crazy shenanigans. This is director David Kelly's first crack at a feature and there is little doubt that he will be back with more on the strength of it. He comes to film via commercials which explains why his debut feature is so polished. You can see it in the editing, so wonderfully precise, especially towards the end, where a spate of fast cuts and rousing score spin you into a hilarious climax.

It is difficult to find fault with the gentle, even pace of the narrative too: it balances incident with character development and mood-setting to a tee. Okay so the blarney is played to the hilt, and Kelly, who worked on the script for "Waking Ned" for four years, paints a rosy idyll that some might find too much. The settings are picture book Ireland, small smoking cottages, misty wheat fields and sweeping aerial shots of the rugged cliff faces.

But Waking Ned is not just an advert for the irish tourist board. For a start it was shot largely on the Isle of Man.

But it is also quite sophisticated, with some memorable performances: Ian Bannen, such a versatile performer, bridges many levels of emotion. Michael O'Sullivan, as his partner, and Fionnula Flanagan as his wife Annie are also excellent. It is a funny, sometimes touching and almost always entertaining film. You can't make much better recommendation than that.