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WHEN WILL PAT Kenny be back on our screens? Will we see him challenging politicians or will he be swatting up on his Top 40 knowledge again?
More importantly – how has he settled into his new dial position? And what does he think of Ray D’arcy’s move back to RTÉ?
To find out, TheJournal.ie sat down with the broadcaster to talk about his new roles at UTV Ireland and more.
(By the way, if you only care about whether he misses the Late Late Toy Show – or who he thinks is a better host, himself or Tubs, head over to DailyEdge.ie).
So, when will we see you back on our screens?
The series I will be doing on UTV Ireland will start in March or April. But the station launches on 1 January and I wanted to have a presence on that first day.
To get a series ready is a tedious process – you have to put tenders out, look at ideas and get into production. I had been much touted for coming over to UTV Ireland – but then not to see me for months?
They had this idea of introducing me on day one and that’s how Out With The Old – In with the U.
So they got me out and about in the middle of December to shoot. The idea was to find me in different areas around the country talking to different people. It will be a taster menu of what might lie ahead. It will run for an hour on New Year’s Day.
It is a sort of a ‘Remember him?’
What was being out on the road again like?
We could have interviewed all of them in Dublin but that is not the same. We wanted to find people in their home place because you get a deeper understanding of what makes them tick.
Ireland also looks fantastic in the programme.
I do outside broadcasts all the time for radio but it’s been 25 years or so since I’ve done reporting like this. Frontline was four years in the studio, the Late Late was 10 years in the studio and 11 years in the studio in Kenny Live.
I always liked working the two media. Each complemented the other. Sometimes there were tensions – years ago – going down the country by day and coming back at night to do a programme called Nightbus on Radio One.
You’d be absolutely exhausted and literally living on your nerves to get back on time to do the show. Other than time conflicts like that, I’ve always enjoyed the two disciplines. So it’s nice to get back to the television.
Why should people watch the New Year’s Day show?
I would say the first motivation will be curiousity. I hope when they tune in, they will find it gripping and entertaining and very watchable. I would say the main thing people will be saying, ‘What does UTV Ireland have here?’
If you remember Terry Wogan’s first evening chat show – on the very first programme, he fell down the steps. What was on the front pages the next day? Terry Wogan falling down the steps.
There is always a sense of people wanting to see something new. But then there will be people who come to knock. That is just the way we are as a people. People will always want to knock something in the beginning.
Fair City was appalling. It really was. But now it is solid. The people who find it credible and not at all embarrassing which it was in the first few weeks.
If you persevere and deliver work of quality you’ll get there.
And what will the new show in March look like?
That is still in the melting pot. I am not being coy – we have just commissioned a production company. Television is tedious. A radio programme you can do in the lobby of a hotel with a laptop and a couple of microphones, television is different.
It will be audience driven. There will be an audience and a guest or guests.
In my mind’s eye, the kind of show I want is that when you switch on, you won’t know. It won’t be formulaic. That’s what I’m hoping. It could be one person [interviewed]. It could be four people. It could be a row. I don’t know at this stage. But I hope it’s not predictable. That’s my ambition… If we can construct a few watercooler moments.
Will you be competing with the Late Late Show for audience?
UTV Ireland has a daily news programme going out at 10pm Monday to Friday. So to say I am going up against the Late Late… It is not going to happen.
Do you think people will switch channels for you?
I would hope so. I don’t think TV is as difficult as moving the dial. I used to say:
‘The radio you will never shift is the one in the milking parlour which is covered in a fine layer of congealed cow shit, switched on at the mains and on a high shelf and they never go near it.’
And that will never move but TV is different. If you asked people, for example, in a border county if they watch The X Factor on UTV or TV3, they might not remember. They just remember watching The X Factor. People are not as channel loyal. They are programme loyal and I hope if they like what I do, they will be programme loyal which means they will enjoy UTV Ireland. But it is not the same as it used to be – RTE One, Dallas, The News, The Late Late show.
But, I know already that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. That’s inevitable. I’m hoping that we’ll be very proud of the output.
Do you prefer the current affairs or lighter interviews?
The Late Late and Kenny Live were great training grounds in gauging the temperature of an audience. It can be comedy and pathos. The best thing with comedy is to roll with the punches and be the straight guy. You are not trying to be funny. If it is Jimmy Carr or Tommy Tiernan, you’re job is to be the straight guy and get beaten up by the comedian.
But equally, if someone is telling you about the tragic death of a child, you have to be empathetic. Those skills were there in the Late Late and Kenny Live.
Frontline then was about being on the money and listening acutely to everything everyone was saying and challenge, challenge, challenge. Over the years I have built up a satchel full of skills and hopefully they will all be useful come March/April.
What do you think of TV3 and RTÉ’s efforts ahead of UTV’s launch?
I don’t mind making a comparison to when I joined Newstalk. When I was at RTÉ, I had never been on a bus shelter in my life. As soon as I joined Newstalk and I was out there with all the posters, I saw Seán O’Rourke on every bus shelter that I came across.
And I thought, ‘Well, that proves something’. If people respond in a way that is competitive, that shows they feel threatened. That’s gotta be full marks for the newcomer. If the newbie in town makes other people scared, that is no bad thing.
If everyone ups their game, the public get a bigger deal all round.
What do you think about Ray D’arcy’s move back to Montrose?
Well, I was surprised to refer to it as going home. It’s like a lad who comes from Kimmage and lives in Foxrock who decides to go back to Kimmage. After 14 years and his mammy is no longer living there, he refers to it as home. It’s bizarre. I wish him luck in whatever he is doing. That was the only odd thing about it.
Will we see you then between January and March/April on UTV?
You never know if an election comes along I might pop up.
I could be on screen then. I could be a presence if there was to be a taoiseach’s debate – or a wannabes’ taoiseach debate. I am sure UTV Ireland would like to host one of those and I would be happy to be in the chair.
Do you think that will happen?
We’re all watching this space for a new political movement of some kind.
And I would be hesitant to even predict where that is going to come from. But someone is going to jump off the fence before too long. The potential rewards of an undecided public are so enormous that they could actually whip up 30 seats before people have time to find them out.
Did you ever think about getting into politics?
No [with emphasis]. I have a very ambivalent attitude to politicians.
On the one hand, I find the Leinster House life – the idea of being whipped into line and vote one way because you’re a member of a party, the compromises politicians make, the parish pump nature of Irish politics – I hate all of that.
On the other hand, the people who actually do it – the practitioners – are actually to be admired. Strangely enough, you can give out about all of them – but they journey from Kerry or Donegal or Roscommon to Dublin and represent their constituency, hold clinics at weekend.
What a job.
I think you have to have a calling.
Is there anything that is on your to-do list?
People often ask me who would you like to interview if you could? And I often say, ‘Let’s start with the dead people.’ Adolf Hitler. Because you wonder… How can someone who does such things have human form? But, no, the more you get to know people, the less intimated you are by them.
The bigger the star, the nicer they are. Usually. The smaller the star, the more obnoxious they are. Usually. Although there are exceptions to both of those rules.
In terms of ultimately doing something – on the backburner somewhere, there are developing world documentaries that I’d like to do. I’ve been to Africa and various other parts of the world. I was in Sri Lanka a year after the tsunami. To try and get a sense – and convey a sense – of how some people who have so little can be so happy. And we who have so much – and I don’t mean rich people in Ireland, I mean everyone in Ireland – has so much and can often be so unhappy. That’s something I’d like to do at some point.
Why aren’t you on Twitter?
Well, probably my programme will be on Twitter. Personally, I’m not on Twitter. Do I really think I’m the Pope and I’ve things to say to people? I’m not Stephen Fry. I don’t feel that my pearls of wisdom of any more worth than anyone else’s. And, if I do express an opinion, a political opinion for example, I’m in trouble trying to be objective interviewing a minister the next morning or his opponent.
How long more will you go on broadcasting?
Until god takes me.
*************
Kenny’s New Year’s Day documentary, produced by Loosehorse, will feature a backstage interview with 2014 sensation Hozier, entrepreneur Seán O’Sullivan and Kathleen Lawlor, the grandmother of Tom Vaughan Lawlor who plays Nidge in Love/Hate.
The 99 year old will celebrate her centenary next year – but she’s never watched an episode of the RTÉ drama which made her grandson a household name.
A number of other well-known faces, as well as some extraordinary citizens will pop up across the hour.
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Everyone is getting poorer so let’s ram up the price of everything. Makes loads of sense
Will these fare increases be in punts or euros?
Chinese yuan I’d say
dublin bus and dart just put up there prices every year no matter what.
in 2002 the price of the bus into town was €1.60 from most areas and next year it will be roughly €2.40.
Imagine if everything had that much inflation over the last 10 years?
I wouldnt mind but dart punctuality is down according to the posters, half the time buses dont show up on certain routes, the real time displays at the bus stops are ficticious and theres never been less security on the dart/and none on the bus.
great country this though
Inflation was that much over the last 10yrs!!!
They have cut the services so they should be cutting the fares instead of increasing them.
Did I read the other day that Dublin bus were buying a s**t load of new busses to upgrade their fleet? Question no 2 is why do I always see junkies getting on the bus with a free travel pass? I pay a fare only to have to endure listening them scutter out of them on their free ride. Sickening.
I think that was Bus Eireann!
Hey don’t red thumb me, it’s true, it was an order by Bus Eireann! Lol
So much for encouraging people to use public transport price increase is not the way to
If the leap card prices are as cheap to use as the Oyster card in London then fair enough but if not then its back to the car for me…..not that I can really afford that either!
German marks!
We be all goin back to the pony and cart days if this keeps up!
Someone told Dublin Bus the recession is over and passenger numbers are set to climb.Normal reaction of a state company in times like this.
It is fundamentally wrong for a monopoly provider to be sticking to public transport users at the same time as cutting benefits and increasing charges in general.
It is time we got real and privatised transport, energy supply, Coilte, Bord Mona the DAA and all the other State owned monopolies.
We here talk of not selling the family jewels but for whose benefit do these agencies exist, certainly not the consumer, citizen or tax payer.
Energy and Airports are not monopoly industries in this country. Plenty of private competitors in both of those areas.
Great idea Peter.
Introduce competition and raise money for exchequer.
Pretty sure the market is open on transport, but private companies want it because there’s no profit to be made.
Meant “private companies don’t want…”
Companies intending to provide a publically accessible bus service must invest large sums in premises and commisioning reports for various state bodies.Then can have their license application vetoed by their state funded competitor.
Would you stump up money for this?
Who exactly competes with the DAA?
Heathrow!!
please let me apologise in advance for my language but………..F**k you bus eireann!!!
I read the other day the Dublin bus are buying a load of new busses to upgrade their fleet. Looks like were gonna pay for that now. Can someone please tell me why the junkies that get on the bus all have a free travel pass? As if it’s not bad enough having to listen to them, now we’re being asked to pay more for the privilege. Truly sickening in these times.
I thought that was a sick joke when I read the headline. Services on all of the mentioned services, except Luas, are plummetting in terms of efficiency and frequency, so they want us to pay more for the privilege of having to wait longer! Scumbags
Try and get public transport home at 23:45 on a Sunday to Thursday. You can’t. Gotta love Irish Public transport.
We need a private competitors in both of those areas to do to CIE what Ryanair did for Aer Lingus.. it used to cost 300 punts to go to London not anymore…
Yes maybe the answer is to Privatise the transport system. Then we will see a better service and all that. Take it out of te hands of the Government.
Damn this phone, I was told my first comment didn’t go through. Sorry for similar comment being there twice.
Motor tax gone up, VAT gone up, petrol and diesel gone up, one would expect public transport to stay same or go down…where’s the balance? This formula is persistently shifting to the left!
Nothing surprises me about Irish rail. They manage to cut 30 minutes of journey times to Gslway in 60 years and they still take 3 hours when you can drive in 2 1/2 hours. The CEO is on the top 10 paid in the country and he should be sacked for poor proformance yet he will get a performance related bonus every year since he started. Go figure! I know we paid more for our new trains than the Chinese paid for their fast trains which can travel the same distance in 35 minutes. Yes 35 minutes to Galway and cheaper engines. Stinks to high heaven – when you think of the salary paid to the head of China rail and what he achieved and our lot. The taxpayer and the travellers deserve better. The PR guy for Irish rail is great. He thinks cutting journey times to Waterford by 15 minutes deserves an oscar. It really deserves a P45.
Yeah goes up every January by 5 to 10 cent without fail on Dublin Bus and Luas, which would be the two I’d be most familiar with… Disgrace!
They are so off the mark. The cost of state sponsored travel versus other counties is in most cases way off the mark. I presume VAT increase will apply also. Recently in barcelona, 8.15 for a 10 trip pass got me to and from airport and 8 metro trips. Similar cost in dublin (I know there isn’t a metro in dublin) would be about 25 or more. And we want to be a tourist venue!
I remember those Barcelona passes were €6 just a few years ago…
Fare enough
No surprise here.I can’t remember the start of a year where fares didn’t increase.
Even when insurance, fuel, tax, and car servicing aretaken into account it still works out cheaper to car commute 70km/day. Wheres the logic in increasing fares??????????
Once again the fee paying passengers are being hit. They say the transport is in Deficit and that is why they are increasing fares. I think that they should look at how the bus pass is being used. For example is it fair that one with bus pass can travel all over the country. I do not think so. I would only allow them to travel in their own locality . It is unsustainable in these times to allow people travel the length and breath of the country. I am not against the bus pass being used in moderation. It is very expensive for the fee paying Passenger. Trains are crowded and buses are full of people on the pass a the fares are to expensive. SO GOVERNMENT SHOULD REALLY LOOK AT THE PRESENT ARRANGEMENT ON THE PASS AND REFORM IT TO A SUSTAINABLE LEVIL
So you think that Senior citizens or people on invalidity/disability living on a basic pension/welfare who may need to travel the length and breath of Ireland for everything from medical treatment to visit family or even to get basic supplies. Not everyone lives in a town or city. Also bus passes tend to require an income limit so that the people who receive them cannot generally other wise afford such transport. I can’t speak for the junkies but I can speak for my disabled father who occasionally travels from Dublin to Meath to visit his mothers grave. Or who travels to the other side of the city for treatment. To do this he needs to be accompanied by my mother. He receives very little else next to the travel pass dispite decades of tax paying before falling ill and being forced due to his invalidity to give up work. It is for men in my fathers position as well as elderly people that the travel pass exist. Should they look into reforming who gets the pass, yes. Should they limit the travel area? No, because we should be doing our best for the vulnerable in our society. I am a fee paying passenger, as was my father before his illness. Having paid your taxes yourself Mr. Stokes, if you should fall on the most desperate of times medically or become infirm due to age, would you not like to receive what is an invaluable resource for thousands in Ireland? How much more isolated would the elderly in Ireland be if they could not afford the addition €5 return fare to visit there friends/family or even went shopping. It’s easy to criticise it when you honestly aren’t RELIANT on it.
I’m researching a piece on how these price hikes will impact upon commuters. As a regular bus taker I’m quite worried myself!
I seriously hope they don’t pushup the price of the monthly ticket.
If you’re be interested in helping me out you can drop me a like at doransarahk@gmail.com
Cop yourselves on. Someone has to pay for their annual increments and sustaining progress pay rises!
we just need competition in the sector. we’ve seen how it has forced the old esb, bord gais, eircom to drop their prices. as for dart fare increase. what a joke. the service now only runs every 15 min which means standing room only from Bray in morning rush hour. and there is no way the journey from Bray to pearse should take 45 min. speed the Feckin thing up 15% and I would be happier paying the extra fare!
Sometimes you wonder is it worth making a comment.
I am in favour of people having the bus pass. I know that they need it to go to Hospital if it is a long way from where they live. OF COURSE PEOPLE ESPECIALLY THE ELDERLY HAVE TO HAVE THIS FACILITY When the late Charlie Haughy introduced the pass Ireland was a different place then. I know that there are people living in the country who depend on public transport to get them fro AtoB. Also that it is not everyone that has the luxury of their own transport. So Yes they need the pass.MY POINT IS THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE GETTING THE PASS AND DENYING THE PEOPLE WHO DO NEED IT. WE ALL KNOW THAT RESOURCES ARE STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT . So in that situation I am saying the Government needs to reform who get the pass.
It’s probably best that you stay off the internet Francis
I thought it was a free Ireland. Everyone is entitled to express an opinion.I do not like to see people who need the care of the state undermined. They worked hard all their lives. I am referring to those who are abusing the system.
I think that is cruel. I am not against people getting the bus pass I am only making an observation I would never say to anyone that they should stay of internet. .
another hike whats next?
?
One has to ask the Question why the state transport system is in deficit.
so a ?1.85 bus fare becomes ?2.12, they are not going to charge ?2.12, they are most certainly chafe ?2.10, so again it goes up and becomes ?2.15. 30c more to sit on the 27 with all the smack heads when it arrives every 40min instead of the advertised 10min
I can’t believe you want the dart to speed up. During the last floods I got a bus to Blackrock and then a dart to Bray. At Blackrock I noticed the sign on the platform saying next Dart 39 mins so I go for coffee up the town and come back after 20 mins to notice the sign say next Dart 48 mins – I asked the ticket master who told me to ignore the signs as they were all wrong. He also told me to get the Dart from platform1. this is the opposite side to meal and as I was waiting the lady on the other side said she was going to Greystones and it was leaving from that side. I went back to the ticket master and he told me that both sides were being used and going in the same direction for Bray and Graystones – I waits and got my Dart but expected it to crash as it was on the opposite side and I thought of the ticket masters final words to me” he said the system is fucxxx and the lads at the stations are using their mobiles to organise each Dart”. I prayed a little. God help tourists.
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