There will be a moment when we can watch Patrick Kielty’s all-new Late Late Show without playing the mental parlour trick of imagining how predecessor Ryan Tubridy might behave in similar circumstances (a sort of Not Tubs Time Machine). That moment is not yet here. Halfway through an enjoyably big-hearted Late Late Country Special (RTÉ One, Friday, 9.35pm), when Kielty joins in on a sing-along of Alan Jackson’s It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, all you can think is … Tubridy wouldn’t do that. Nor, obviously, would Gay Byrne or Pat Kenny. In fact, Pat Kenny singing a country song about all-day drinking on live television is listed in the Book of Revelations as one of the harbingers of the Apocalypse.
Kielty though, negotiates a potential broadcasting banana skin with enthusiasm and impressive pipes. Country music isn’t just a demographic box for the Co Down host. Kielty’s father ran a music hall in the village of Dundrum. He has described “country and Irish” as the soundtrack to his childhood. Some things just can’t be faked. Kielty’s delight when welcoming Declan Nerney and Philomena Begley is 100 per cent genuine.
Nerney is accompanied by his niece, Saturdays singer Una Healy and shares Kielty’s enthusiasm as the evening kicks off. He is thrilled, moreover, to discover he’s been inducted into the Late Late Show Country Music Hall of Fame, where he joins Philomena Begley, Daniel O’Donnell and the late Big Tom. Things get zanier as Kielty invites Begley and fellow singers Cliona O’Hagan, Michael English and Gerry Guthrie to play “Country Casino”. The presenter presses a red buzzer, and a random artist’s name appears. In Guthrie’s case, the wheel stops at Alan Jackson, and Kielty dives in, vocal cords first.
There is also a “surprise” appearance by Nathan Carter – it’s the Late Late Show Country Special, how surprising can a Carter cameo be? – who pops up to present two fans with tickets to his show in Killarney. The evening then concludes with an interview with Sandy Kelly, who has a new album and book coming out. She shares a wonderfully bizarre story about Johnny Cash ringing a random radio station in Cavan in the 1980s after it played her new single. However unlikely, it began a life-long friendship between the two. The culmination was their duet Woodcarver – a sort of rococo cousin third removed to Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers’ Islands in The Stream.
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On social media, there’s some sniffiness about the Late Late celebrating country music. But why not? It’s a peculiarly Irish phenomenon that unites otherwise disparate parts of the island, such as Tipperary, the Midlands and the North. After weeks of debating who is more Irish – the Wolfe Tones or The Cranberries – how refreshing to leave all that aside and agree that, for many in this country, music is best served in a stetson and with a jolly drawl. Ten-gallon hats off to Kielty: he has delivered a Friday night hoedown brimming with charm and chutzpah.
