Ryan Tubridy spills Late Late Toy Show secrets and hints at theme for this year

It’s the Late Late Toy Show time again, but this year Ryan Tubridy says it’ll be a little more back-to-basics than perhaps it has been in recent years. He spoke with Donal O’Keeffe about bringing back Christmas, who actually picks those toys, and why there are no children in the Toy Show audience.

A lot of the show this year is going to be about home, says host Ryan Tubridy.

“Sometimes the Toy Show can get lost in the theme, and forget that it’s Christmas, so we’ve been bringing it all back home a little bit more this year,” Ryan Tubridy says, when asked about the theme of this year’s show.

It’s the biggest night of the year for children’s television, and, as usual, the theme is almost a state secret, but this year the Late Late host is willing to give something away, perhaps even to everyone in the audience.

“It is a closely guarded secret, but what I will say is that during the summer, we generally like to try and take a sense of where the country is at, or where it might be at come November or December, and this year we felt that people might be in a little bit of bother with bills and expenses and expectations in that regard.

“So that has influenced where we are going with the show and the theme, and a lot of the show this year is going to be about home and it’s going to be about Christmas proper.”

In the midst of a spiralling cost of living crisis and a winter of eye-watering energy bills, that is probably a prudent move, especially as the likes of Cork Penny Dinners warn that more people than ever are turning to charities, and it’s a topic he will return to later in the interview.

When we talk, it’s the start of November, and the hype for this year’s Toy Show is already building. He laughs when asked if he is jangling, exhausted, or, at this stage, both.

“Actually, I’ve got that nice kind of post-Halloween, pre-Christmas Neverland feel, but I have been singing, dancing and doing a lot of interviews, and going to a lot of meetings, so the machine is cranking up. They’re putting coal in the engine, you know, it’s like the ship is about to set sail. The HMS Toy Show is about to embark on another odyssey. It’s very exciting.”

Ryan Tubridy channelled Fantastic Mr Fox for the opening number of The Late Late Toy Show 2020. Picture: Andres Poveda

I tell him that I was given some questions for him by some younger people, and he reacts warmly.

“My favourite people!” he says.

My niece Mary, who is 12, asks: “If the Toy Show is for kids, then why isn’t the Toy Show audience for kids? Why is the studio audience restricted to adults only?”

Tubridy readily concedes it’s an excellent point, but he doesn’t think he can really address it satisfactorily.

“It’s a very boring answer to a very intelligent question from a very bright girl or young woman, Mary, I love the question because it’s very astute, and I’m kind of going ‘Why aren’t we there, what’s the story with that?’ And, unfortunately, it’s about legalities, and health and safety, and an audience that has to be over 18, and it’s a shame.

“But tell Mary that I will investigate this because it’s definitely something I think I’d rather see, a younger audience, but the difficulty is that the Toy Show can often work on a Shrek-like level where the kids are on the floor doing one thing and the adults are in the audience laughing at another. It’s trying to get that balance right, but yeah, she makes a fair point and I will look into it.”

Ryan Tubridy pictured during the opening of the RTE Late Late Toy Show 2013. Picture: Andres Poveda

Mary’s older brother, Charlie, asks why the Toy Show can’t start at a reasonable hour for kids, and he suggests a starting time of 8pm wouldn’t be a bad compromise so younger kids could still stay up late without being like zombies with their eyelids held open with metaphorical matchsticks by the end of the show.

“No, again, it’s a very good point, and it’s one that I have been struggling to answer with any sense of reasonable outcome for 13 or 14 years now,” Tubridy says.

“Again, a fair question. The answer seems to be, ‘Because it is’. You know when your parents say that to you? If I asked one of the adults about this, ‘Why is it at half nine?’ ‘Because it is’, which is no great explanation,” he admits.

“Again, it’s probably something to do with ad-breaks or something boring like that. But it’s always been ever thus, and it’ll always be that way, they say. I mean, it’s mad because it can go on till half twelve, and you’re sitting there going, ‘Who’s watching?’ But I will say part of the excitement of the Toy Show is being allowed stay up really late, and I think that for children under eight, they generally get to see the first 10 or 15 minutes and then they watch the rest on the player on the next day.

“But children over that age tend to be allowed a pass and that’s part of the joy of it and so I can see why people would want to keep it where it is.”

He asks me to thank my niece and nephew for their “very intelligent questions”. I tell him I will, and he laughs when I warn that it will be all downhill from there.

I ask who picks the toys featured on the Toy Show. After all, an appearance on the most-watched children’s programme in Ireland amounts to a massive boost in advertising, so who decides which toys get that boost?

“There is a whole Toy Show team, behind the scenes,” he says. “There are researchers and producers, and there’s what’s called toy assemblers who make sure all the toys are in situ and in place, and they would go through all the catalogues and they’d go through all the toy fairs in the world; not attend them all, but go through what’s happening. And they judge it on what the kids of the world, and particularly in Ireland, are interested in and what they’re buying.

“So we’re dictated really by the children of Ireland, and what they want, and what they want to see and what they’re currently playing with. So it’s thought through, it’s not done on the basis of product placement, it’s done merely on the basis of popularity.”

The Purcell from Cavan, Angela (6), Fionn (8) and Christopher (11) reviewing books on The Late Late Toy Show 2020. The book section is an important part of the show for Tubridy. Picture: Andres Poveda

Do the toy companies have an input into the show, or the toy shops?

“No, not that I’m aware of,” he says. “They might have in the past but now, I don’t think so. And in fairness, if we had to go to, say, FAO Schwarz or Nimble Fingers or whatever, all the shops, we’d be going to them to say ‘What’s happening, what have you got, what are the big sellers?’ and they might get involved then, but we call the shots. No one calls the shots for us.”

One stand-out section of the Toy Show where Tubridy every year shines is when he sits down and discusses books with young readers and is clearly completely at ease among his own people. Would it be fair to say that is his favourite part of the night?

“I would say that there may not be a book part of the Late Late Toy Show if I was not presenting it,” he says. “It’s an essential part to me because I’m evangelical when it comes to reading and children. I want them to read, I want their brains to grow, I want their worldview to expand and they are not going to get that as far as I’m concerned without reading.

“You’re dead right, though, it’s like I’ve been a social butterfly at the ambassador’s party, and then I get to sit down with my own crew and say ‘How are the heads? How do you think the party is going?’”

Is it true that in his home he has a desk where visiting children can read?

“I have an old school desk that’s been in the family for years and years, and I keep one section of my book shelves, nearer to the ground, for kids, so if I have nieces or nephews visiting, they can sit there and read. And I also have a selection of books that sometimes if kids come in, that they can leave with one and they don’t have to bring back as well.”

I ask whether his shelves have Tintin and Asterix, and he replies that they do, but those tend to be for him. He keeps the likes of the Mr Men, Roald Dahl, and Jacqueline Wilson for his guests.

I mention that I met eight-year-old Toy Show superstar Adam King a few months ago, and he laughs with delight when I repeat Adam’s line that Ryan is a good friend of his.

“What a kid! Lovely family, just amazing people,” he says.

Ryan Tubridy: 'I think we lost a bit of Christmas over the years on the show. I want to see a Christmas tree and I want to see snow.' Picture: Andres Poveda

On a recent visit to Cork he was a guest of James Leonard and Timmy Long on The Two Norries Podcast, returning the favour after they had appeared on the Late Late Show. The Hollyhill natives had spoken about overcoming addiction, and rebuilding their lives after imprisonment, and Tubridy says he has come to consider the two men to be friends.

“When they came up to the show, I just loved their vibe and I liked their story. I’ve said this to the lads, you can be born and get the right Lotto numbers and you can be born and you don’t get the right Lotto numbers and you’re dealt a tough hand, and what do you do with that hand?

“The Two Norries have come through their various vicissitudes of life and come out the other side with this amazing podcast and attitude. I was just so impressed by them. They’re great guys, and we’ve become friends. And yeah, I’m a big fan.”

As we finish up, I ask how soon it will be before preparations for the next Toy Show begin.

“We think about it the day after, the day of, you know, it’s kind of an in-joke we have, going ‘So, have you thought about it?’ and the music has just stopped. But realistically, around July the team sits down and they start pulling together ideas.”

He repeats his earlier observation that bills will be a serious consideration in many homes this Christmas, and that has informed the theme and tone of this year’s show.

“We’re gonna bring it all back home, bring it back to basics and endeavour to Christmas it up again. I think we lost a bit of Christmas over the years on the show. I want to see a Christmas tree and I want to see snow. I want to go there. So that’s where we’re going, more nostalgia, more home.”

And, given the recent controversy at Dublin’s Mansion House, I ask, how about a live crib? There’s silence for a second before Tubridy bursts out laughing.

“Good idea. With Muppets. Yeah, no, we’ll leave that to the people who choose to do these things. Or not.

“I want the show to feel more Christmassy in the set to reflect more Christmas on the show itself.”

Finally, given some 60,000 people have come to Ireland from Ukraine this year, fleeing invasion and murder, will this year’s show have a Ukrainian flavour?

“I think whatever is happening in the world at the moment, it will be reflected among the children, the toys and the acts, so without giving anything away, just keep an eye out and you’ll see that.

“It’ll all become apparent on the night.”

• The Late Late Toy Show will air Friday November 25 at 9:35pm on RTÉ One & RTÉ Player.