Late Late Show talking points: A bumper guest list and a touching farewell to Shane MacGowan
Ruth Jones and Joanne McNally on the Late Late Show
It felt like a bumper guest list on Friday night’s Late Late Show, with eight guests joining host Patrick Kielty. Dara Ó Briain, Ruth Jones, Joanne McNally, Sonia O’Sullivan, Jarlath Regan, Iain Stirling, Tara Flynn, and Marian Keyes were interviewed on the show, with Dundalk band The Mary Wallopers performing their most recent song, The Blarney Stone, as well.
“I only come out tonight for a couple of quiet guests and then somebody said ‘ah go on Paddy you'll have another guest’,” Kielty told the audience. “And so I did and then somebody bought me another guest and then we did a round of guests and then somebody said ‘ah Jesus Paddy, have a guest for the ditch’ and so, the good news is I've dumped the car, we've locked the door, we're here for the night.”
The choc-a-bloc list meant there were no one-on-one interviews but all panel chats. However many of the guests shared some common ground so all conversation flowed easily.
The line-up was comic-heavy, which suited Kielty down to the ground. The first trio of guests, Ó Briain, Jones and McNally, are famous for their comic skills, whether on the stage, the page, or the screen and they bounced well off each other. Ó Briain and McNally work in the same circles and regularly bump into each other at gigs, with Ó Briain sharing an anecdote about when they shared the stage at the Sydney Opera House.
Next up were O’Regan and O’Sullivan, who were later joined by Stirling — of these three, only O’Sullivan doesn’t have a comedy background. However, the Ireland’s Fittest Family coach has worked closely with O’Regan, who enlisted the Olympic athlete to help him train for a 5km run.
Finally, comedian Flynn and author Keyes spoke about their agony aunt podcast and other upcoming projects in their respective areas. The tipping of the scales towards comedy made for an overall lighter show and Kielty seemed perfectly at home overseeing proceedings.
Gavin and Stacy writer and actor Jones revealed she started watching an Irish television series during the covid lockdowns and developed a fascination with its main star. Jones said she has seen every episode of Room to Improve and has nothing but praise for its star, architect Dermot Bannon.
“During covid we all developed some strange habits,” she explained. “I became addicted to Room To Improve. Dermot Bannon, I was obsessed with him. It wasn’t so much that I had a romantic crush on him, I just loved what he did and how he changed all those rooms. I watched every single episode.”
The only disappointment here was that Kielty didn’t announce Bannon as a surprise guest in the same way a child’s hero would appear on the Toy Show.
Stirling — who is Scottish and married to Dubliner Laura Whitmore — spoke about his surprise at the duration of weddings in Ireland and sparked a long conversation about the cultural difference between Irish weddings and those elsewhere in the world.
He said his own special day in Dublin was “an Irish wedding so it went on forever. I was at an Irish wedding last Saturday. It's still happening.”
“In Scotland a wedding is a sprint to get as drunk as you can by midnight and then you leave and never speak to that couple ever again. I was at a wedding in Ireland last Saturday: at half past eleven they brought out sausage rolls to keep people awake.”
O’Sullivan, who got married in Melbourne, said Australian weddings are “pretty good but probably better if they're in Ireland”.
Later, the topic of weddings was rekindled when Flynn revealed a fellow guest on Friday’s show officiated at her wedding to her husband. Flynn says Dara Ó Briain rose to the occasion at short notice, much to her delight.
Closing the show, Kielty sent a touching and subtle message to the grieving family, friends and fans of Shane MacGowan, who was buried in Nenagh earlier that day.
As the credits rolled, he bid goodnight to viewers at home before adding “goodnight, Shane”. The band closed the show by playing the opening chords of Fairytale of New York as the credits rolled.
