Undercover Hobbs to save our SSIAs with new TV show

EDDIE HOBBS is back on television screens, but the beleaguered Government can rest easy — the consumer champion is taking aim at the SSIAs.

In a three-part series, Hobbs will hit the streets in disguise to find out how easily people are duped into spending their hard-saved cash before counting down the 30 things to do with your SSIA.

He said: “It is a bit like the Rip-off Republic series in that it is below the current affairs level and it is more entertainment and information rolled into one.

“I’ll be looking at the sensible-to-the-silly ways you can blow the money and how to save or invest it — it is really about do you spend it or splash it?”

Among the more interesting aspects of the new show is the idea that Hobbs, with his unmistakable persona, has managed to dupe people into thinking he was a dodgy salesman or an Anglo-Irish market researcher.

However, he admits to have benefited from a “tall good looking” distraction at his side in Lorraine Horgan, sister of international rugby player Shane.

“It would have been easier in the days of Mike Murphy but we used very good make-up. I had to go over to London to get my head measured and all, for the wigs, but it helped to have a beautiful leggy distraction keeping them from paying too much attention.”

Hobbs says not everybody will be looking to throw their money away. “A lot of surveys are out at the moment saying what people will spend it on but I have to laugh because it depends on who is sponsoring it. If it is the car crowd it will say people will spend it on cars, etc.”

Thirty Things to do with Your SSIA starts this Monday on RTÉ 1 at 9.30pm.