Richard Hogan: My four tips for Patrick Kielty on how to be a great Late Late Toy Show host

"The show is more about the kids you’ll interview than the products they will chat about. Half the fun is when the products fail! So don’t worry about that."

Richard Hogan . Photograph Moya Nolan

It’s hard to believe that The Late Late Toy Show is only one sleep away. Times arrow seems supercharged, advancing at warp speed. I remember so clearly as a child, thinking on Christmas night; we are further away now than we have ever been from Christmas morning. The next Christmas seemed like an Everest away. An impossible amount of time to traverse. 

That’s time. When you want it to slow down, it speeds up and when you want it to speed up it slows down. Ah, Einstein and his bloody relativity! It stalked my childish play, school days an endless droning of time, summer gone in a blink. Though I’m struggling with the speed of time, it’s nearly harder to believe that only three people have been at the helm of The Toy Show since 1975. I have been writing about this perennial favourite in the Hogan house for many years. Putting my cards on the table, I love it. I think it’s a great annual moment where the country stops and comes together to share in the magic of television.