No more Mr Nice Guy for Kenny

IF Pat Kenny was angry at the RTÉ Guide for focussing on his comments about Eamon Dunphy in a recent interview , he would have been apoplectic over a radio ad for the same publication, as a vacuous female voice declared that Kenny was much nicer than that other man.

Nice is just about all Kenny needs to be labelled right now as he prepares to go head-to-head with the bad boy of popular broadcasting. Kenny's 'niceness' has been an issue in the past when Dunphy taunted him in his libellous 1994 Sunday Independent article as 'Mr F***ing Nice Guy' But Kenny took the court case against Dunphy not because he was called names and slagged off personally, but because he was roasted professionally. He was made out to be disrespectful and devious towards a guest a damaging allegation on the celebrity circuit. That is where Kenny sees the main difference between himself and Dunphy. Kenny is a professional journalist who doesn't allow the more flippant aspects of his TV show to shade his serious side. He describes Dunphy on the other hand as a hobbyist who flits from project to project.

If The Dunphy Show falls flat or Dunphy tires of it, Kenny told the RTÉ Guide, Dunphy can slip away and find something else to occupy his time. If the Late Late Show slumps, Kenny will be forever remembered as the man who killed off the world's longest running chat show. The stakes are higher for Kenny recognised by the station which has given the programme a long overdue boost in manpower and resources.