Will it all start again on the Late Late Show?

Dan Buckley asks whether Ryan Tubridy can rekindle that Gaybo attraction.

AT THE age of 18, Gay Byrne was turned down for a job at Guinness brewery, where his father and brother worked, because he was considered too young and immature. It was a good decision – both for Guinness and for Gaybo.

He had no real interest in drink so he would hardly have been much of an advertisement for the product and, after picking himself up and dusting himself off, he went on to host the longest running television chat show in history.

Ryan Tubridy was still a child when Gay was at the height of his career in the 1980s. Tubridy made his debut doing children’s book reviews on Poparama on Radio 2 in 1985 and doing the odd spot on The Gerry Ryan Show, he was hardly considered old or mature or good enough to unseat the most iconic of Irish broadcasters.

That was a good decision, too, both for RTÉ and for Tubridy. “This is an iconic television programme that has been the cultural wallpaper to my life growing up,” he declared in tortured prose after his accession to the LLS throne was announced on Monday.

“I have known no other Friday night without the Late Late Show around.”

So, what kind of a Late Late show presenter will he be and is the tired old formula dead in the water anyway? Should RTÉ consider burying it with full ceremonials instead of trying to give it the kiss of life? They opted for the latter, hoping that the cheeky, chipmunk-chirpy Tubridy would woo younger viewers while not upsetting the older generation too much.

Can Tubridy rekindle that Gaybo attraction? Probably – at least in part. He is no Adonis; his face shines best on radio but he does possess a seductive quality. In 2003 he interviewed me on Radio 2 about a novel I had written. Even though it took place at an unearthly hour in the morning, he was chirpy, funny, engaging and great craic. He had read the book, too, and wasn’t bluffing like some tabloid radio DJ. He knew his stuff and we got on well.

He can certainly think on his feet as well. When interrogated by Brian Dobson on the Six One news after the announcement, he paused for thought and then went into overdrive. Dobson reminded Tubridy that he had only agreed to a 10% cut in his €400,000 salary “after a lot of publicity and some pressure”. Dobson then asked the 35-year-old broadcaster if he expected a raise for taking over from Pat Kenny, who earns just under €1 million a year.

Thrown off at first by the question, Tubridy mumbled: “I haven’t the first idea. It’s the furthest thing from my mind.”

Dobson went for the jugular: “But it is an issue, isn’t it, because RTÉ is funded by public money? Is it going to cost more to see Ryan on a Friday night compared to a Saturday night?”

Quick as a flash, Tubridy countered: “This, I don’t know. I mean, does it pay more to present the nine o’clock news over the six?”

So, the guy has the balls and the brains but has he got what Gaybo had in spades? They call it charisma – a mixture of charm, sophistication and little wildness. Before feminists took exception to the term, Gay had become and been marketed as “the housewives’ favourite”. For years, apart from the Late Late and his Gay Byrne radio show, he presented the Housewife of the Year competition on RTÉ and his role in inflicting the annual marathon of the Rose of Tralee on the public should not be lightly forgotten. Many men disliked Gaybo’s smoothness and his appeal to women which, at its peak, seemed to be a cross between a goody-two-shoes son and a handsome, untouchable, young curate.

But Gay was clever enough to appear stupid, something that Pat Kenny never learned in his decade of hosting the Late Late. For 37 years he was the high priest of Irish television and it is unlikely that his success can ever be replicated. For more than three decades he was as powerful as any politician and more influential than most. Gaybo had the most finely tuned instincts when it came to broadcasting. He could be gentle and endearing when that was appropriate yet combative and challenging when the moment demanded it.

Gay and his family got death threats over his interview with Bishop Eamon Casey’s mistress, Annie Murphy, in 1993. Similar threats were issued in 1985 when he featured lesbian nuns on his show.

In 1999 he scored a double with Charlie Haughey’s mistress Terry Keane telling all and Mo Mowlam seducing the nation as Northern Ireland Secretary.

The old jingle ‘It started on the Late Late Show’ was true to life. Bob Geldof, U2 and Boyzone got their first taste of real success on the show. Everyone of a certain age has their famous moments, at least when Gay was in the chair. Who can forget Sinead O’Connor dressed as a priest or Mother Teresa’s endearing presence or the extraordinary moment when John B Keane held the nation enthralled singing ‘Many Young Men of Twenty Said Goodbye’? Yet, who can remember a single moment of greatness with Pat Keane as host?

Exactly.

If Tubridy is to succeed he will have to jettison the last 10 years of the Late Late and go back to the future when missing the show meant missing a slice of Irish life.

That means emulating Gay Byrne’s success. Pat Kenny always looked like a Fine Gael government – only there for the interim until the FFers got back into power.

Gay never failed to excite the interest of Mná na hÉireann. Shortly before his final show, I visited a friend who had just had triplets. Being brave of heart and broad of hip she had eschewed any kind of medical intervention by way of epidural so it couldn’t have been easy.

“How did it go? ” I asked.

“It was like being run over by a truck,” she replied, “but the worst part was that I missed the Late Late.”