Brendan Courtney on 'live audition in front of the nation' — and his brand new podcast

His recent stint on the airwaves saw him stand in for Ryan Tubridy at the height of the RTÉ scandal. These days, Brendan Courtney is much happier recording his podcast with David O’Reilly, writes Noel Baker

Brendan Courtney and David O’Reilly have just launched their new podcast, Any News? Pictures: Emily Quinn

If the old equation of “man bites dog = news” rings true, what about “dog barks at Brendan Courtney?” As we settle down for a Zoom chat with the broadcaster and his new podcast partner, David O’Reilly, I’m able to re-introduce Brendan to my dog, Henry — the offending canine who for reasons unknown started barking at him as he walked the island of Arranmore a few summers ago.

“Most people do, with Brendan — humans as well,” cracks David. My achingly dull anecdote aside, dogs are actually quite topical, given that Brendan’s hound, Nancy Drew, is seated behind him on a couch, and David recently adopted two dogs whose owner had passed away. 

But as it turns out, anything and everything could become topical when it comes to David and Brendan’s new podcast venture. Suitably titled Any News?, it promises to take a sideways look at weird and wonderful local stories on a county-by-county basis. Described by David as “a labour of love”, the podcast also seems the ideal forum for the talented pair to explore aspects of our country that may have previously escaped their purview.

According to Brendan: “I was covering at Radio One, David works on 2FM, we did a slot together I think on the show that I was covering where you did a news round-up, so we were just laughing about really funny local news stories, so that was kind of in our head.

“We would ring each other and say, ‘any news? Any news?’ Like two old fish wives, right? And then we would make each other laugh with those stories, and it just came from there.

David O'Reilly.

“We make each other laugh, that’s key,” Brendan continues. “I have never done an entertainment podcast, and entertainment is kind of where I come from in a way, and so I was dying to do something and he just cracks me up.

“So we had seen successful formulas for podcasts and it is about having a device to bounce off and we really thought ‘funny news stories from around the counties, how brilliant’.”

While Brendan is long familiar to TV audiences for both his broadcasting career and his fashion line, David is a more recent arrival into the national consciousness. He has spent much of the past two decades acting in the West End in London, in various productions including The Book Of Mormon, Grease, and Lady Windermere’s Fan, as well as the role of Bean in the hit ITV series Benidorm. Yet it was actually the call to home that helped drive the podcast idea.

“I think we both lived away in London for so long at different times of our lives and we both ended up coming back to Ireland and Brendan would have ventured a lot more in different counties, or whatever, than I would, so there is a real kind of naivety there on my part,” David says. “We are delving deep — it’s an exploratory mission for me to get answers about the country that I come from.”

Brendan Courtney and David O’Reilly have just launched their new podcast, Any News? Pictures: Emily Quinn

Brendan chimes in: “He’s the worst kind of Dub ever.” David can’t really disagree. “I am your stereotypical ignorant asshole that has no idea about the rest of the country, but I am learning. Essentially it is about making people laugh but also, delving into these stories.”

As both Brendan and David see it, there is so much going on in Leinster House and around the world that it’s important to focus on the local — the peculiar, the amusing, the sense of community, the hitherto unknown. Given the county-by-county format, there are multiple angles. The plan is to open with a ‘Watercooler Moment’, followed by a spotlight on the county of the week, complete with ‘three little known facts about’ — one racy example is the discovery that there was a dogging map of Co Kerry.

Then comes the two-to-four bizarre and brilliant local headlines and stories and the ‘anything goes’ classified ads section. There’s even a ‘Dear David’ slot where the lads will try and fix a listener’s problem.

“For me it’s about finding that humour that is so embedded into our culture, even as we move on as a country and we become more diverse and eclectic in our culture, there is so much humour based in everything,” David says.

“So it’s about, one, showcasing the beauty that is this country, but [also] looking really hard at the humour and how it is there even in the most dire of situations.

“It’s an amazing country and one where, when I was growing up I was like ‘oh, I can’t wait to get away to London’, and then I couldn’t wait to move back. For me it is about celebrating and highlighting the humour that exists in Irish culture.”

Brendan Courtney and David O’Reilly, photographed at Brendan’s home.

There is no shortage of material. They give one example from a few years ago of a story in Donegal — ‘Delight as Turbo the Peacock Makes It Home After Letterkenny Adventure’. Just last month the Southern Star reported on a West Cork inventor who has built a prototype pedal-powered car which could fill a gap between cycling and driving. Even by swerving court stories, all life is there.

The premise is sound but the duo are well aware of the refrain about podcasts — everyone has one. But it’s not like they haven’t put in the preparation.

“We haven’t run into this where, [someone says] ‘let’s do a podcast!’ David says. “We have really tried to concentrate on coming up with a formula and mechanics that work, particularly Brendan. I’m very lucky because Brendan has a lot of experience in broadcasting and performing so it has been very interesting to watch him and a lot of what Brendan has done research-wise, he has tapped into the local newspapers, the local radio stations, and he has looked at them and the team we are working with are all very excited as well, because at a time when local radio and newspapers are closing down, we’re using them as a source of research, and they can use us vice versa.”

Brendan Courtney podcast

According to Brendan: “We will try to keep going. I think successful podcasts keep going. As David said, this has been quite considered — to oil the wheels a bit we have done a number of pilots, and listened back, saying ‘happy with that, not happy with that’, we stripped out back, started again, and he keeps saying to me ‘you love a meeting!’”

For Brendan, it is “a pure joy”, adding: “Not to cast any negativity on it but I said to him I don’t care if it doesn’t explode or it’s not really big, it’s so much fun to do. That’s the actual magic of this, that you skip into work to do it.”

Which brings us, handily, to some of Brendan’s other jobs, namely his extended stint covering the 9 o’clock slot on RTÉ Radio One when Ryan Tubridy left the airwaves amid revelations over payments. For the Tallaght native, it sparked a peculiar period in which he seemed to be auditioning for a job he never went for.

“One of the most frustrating experiences of my life,” he says with a laugh. “That’s what I can tell you. So I’d been covering for a year and a half in that slot and I cover for Ray Darcy when Kathryn [Thomas]’s not around, and I love the two teams. 

So I’m in there and the shit hits the fan. So my cover turned into a live audition in front of the nation.

“People were putting money on me, I was like ‘nobody has spoken to me about this job, so stop fucking talking about this job’. Nobody talked to me ever, about terms, about availability, so I knew I wasn’t there; then [it seemed] I was in the running, then I wasn’t, but nobody spoke to me so I just kept saying ‘I’m a freelance. Nobody has come and spoke to me, this is not a reality’ and then there was a big ‘hope you get it, hope you get it’ in the public and I was like ‘oh my God, I didn’t go for it!’.

“So the frustration then was not getting it publicly, but I didn’t go for it!

“Oliver [Callan, who secured the slot] is the right person, he was there for years, it would have been really shitty if he didn’t get it. If somebody else had got that job I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you right now, I’d be angry. Because he put the hours in, he’s very, very good, the listeners love him, there’s no reason why he couldn’t have it and if I had got the job I would have gazumped him and that would have been shitty. That is just not fair.

Brendan Courtney

“In this particular instance the right choice was made. But I did spend the last two months getting the head tilt from people going ‘oh’,” he continues, mimicking the ‘sad face’ commiserations from well-wishers. “Nothing about my life has changed! The more you labour that you’re fine the more they go ‘oh, he’s not fine’.

“I have a two year contract with them for cover, which suits me perfectly — you get to go in and be the breath of fresh air and then you get to fuck off and go back to your own life!”

He says all this with a smile and an air of continuing bafflement, so it’s clear the head tilts are unnecessary. Besides, he has enough to be getting on with. In addition to his fashion line with Sonya Lennon, he also has another series of Keys To My Life coming up on RTÉ. The show allows the subject to revisit the places that meant the most to them over the course of their lives and he jokes happily that in the next season “everyone cries”. 

Guests include former Liverpool and Ireland football legends John Aldridge, the latest in a string of Jack’s Army heroes to have strolled down the corridors of their lives. The poignancy associated with all this hits a chord with viewers and is clearly something Brendan appreciates — as evidenced by his own, deeply personal documentary work in recent years.

Brendan Courtney

One project that has changed is a book which was originally going to be about his beloved mum, Nuala, and how only in 1978, with access to contraception, was she and other women allowed to claim an element of control over their lives. Yet as Brendan began work on the project, he came to a realisation.

“I don’t feel that’s my story to tell,” he says. “It’s very much her story to tell and she has dementia now. So I’ve taken the humour of it and I’m starting to write the story of growing up gay with her.” The working title is ‘Is that a boy or a girl’ — which is what I heard up to about seven years of age”.

Brendan’s acclaimed documentary, We Need To Talk About Dad, sparked a national conversation about how we cater for the elderly, and last year saw the broadcaster open up about his efforts to ensure Nuala did not have to go into a nursing home. Yet ultimately she did and as it turns out, it was for the best.

“It’s 10 minutes up the road, I’m there every day,” he says. “She thinks she is in the Red Cow. I said ‘mom, can we not be in the Shelbourne?’

That juncture of anyone’s life is tragic and sad, it’s the demise of a really feisty human, but we still have time with her and I sleep at night now knowing that she’s safe.”

With all this going on, it’s a wonder the lads have time to record the podcast, but — often thanks to Zoom — they do. There are plans to hit the road with it — “the community hall tour” — and talk of dance classes and bottomless disco brunches under the banner of Dancxtravagnza. Neither Brendan nor David seem like the type to lose their bearings or their sense of fun.

“There’s nothing worse than listening to people in a podcast saying their Lamborghini broke down her other day,” David says. “It’s so disenfranchising.

“It doesn’t matter what county I’m in, I always refer back to Ballyfermot.” As they put it themselves, “it’s almost Nationwide”.

Maybe there’s room for a certain canine guest? “I hope to see your dog again soon,” Brendan says.

• Any News? is available on streaming platforms now. Keys to my Life returns to RTÉ from March 24