775 The Late Late Show

First  viewed  :  Autumn  1986

This  show  is  of  course  an  institution  in  Ireland  and  the  second  longest-running  talk  show  in  the  world  after  The  Tonight  Show  in  the  US.  For  37  years  it  was  presented  by  Gay  Byrne , in  latter  years  also  the  show's  producer, who  retired  just  before  the  millennium  and  was  responsible  for  breaking  the  taboo  on  public  discussion  of  a  number  of  controversial  subjects  in  Catholic  Ireland.

Channel  Four  used  it  to  fill  up  their  afternoon  schedules  in  the   second  half  of  the  eighties  which  was  when  I  caught  the  odd  episode  but  other  than  that . I  don't  think  it's   been  regularly  broadcast  here. Byrne  was  perhaps  a  little  too  unctuous  for  Anglo-Saxon  tastes.

One  or  two  of   its  incidents  have  crossed  over  into  the  UK  consciousness  though.  In  1992,  it  ended  the  ministerial  career  of  Northern  Ireland  Secretary  Peter  Brooke  who  was  prodded  into  giving  a  rendition  of  Oh  My  Darling  Clementine   on  the  same  day  as  an  IRA atrocity  in  Ulster. Not  long  after  that, the  nascent  Boyzone  appeared  on  the  show  and  a  nakedly  hostile  Byrne  persuaded them  to  do  their  dance  routine  without  the  benefit  of  a  backing  track, a  clip  that's  been  much  repeated  since. Sadly,  it  did  not  kill  their  career  off  as  he  intended  but  full  marks  for  trying  Gay !