It’s the first day of his new show, and Oliver Callan is sounding nervous. “The paint is still wet on the shopfront. It’s still bring-your-spare-underpants-to-work time for a fair while yet,” the comic impressionist turned radio-talkshow host remarks as he opens the debut edition of his eponymous RTÉ Radio 1 programme.
Given that he has been a regular presence in the 9am slot since the departure of its previous occupant Ryan Tubridy, it might seem odd for Callan to be jittery, but now that his name is above the door it’s a different ballgame. “I’m not standing in for someone for once,” he says before ruefully adding, “although that feeling will probably never go away.”
Such tentativeness is understandable. Given the ignominious circumstances of Tubridy’s exit, the time slot has come under far more scrutiny than most one-hour light magazine shows would normally merit. Keen media observer that he is, Callan obliquely acknowledges this by invoking the old spirit of “Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant” when he offers a “warm, warm welcome to the newspaper radio critics who are tuning in today – for the last time.” (None of us are getting off that easily.)
In truth, the new presenter seems more worried about potentially dulling his edge as a satirical mimic, as showcased in his Radio 1 series Callan’s Kicks. When he makes a cruel quip about parts of the Montrose campus having a sense of decay – “For some reason RTÉ Gold comes to mind” – he promptly pulls himself up: “Am I allowed to make comments any more?”
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Still, his opening monologue has a barbed laconicism usually absent from such spiels, initially at least. He describes RTÉ as a “soaring rocket replete with optimism and high in public favour” while recognising the irony that he’s starting out on the same day that the network releases details of its 10 highest-earning broadcasters. “Thank you, management, for that impeccable timing,” he says with a sigh. (His own name isn’t on the list, although he has disclosed that his annual salary in €150,000.)
But anyone looking for Callan to wield a new broom and sweep away the fusty conventions of the chatshow will be disappointed, however unrealistic such expectations might be on the opening day. The presenter’s talk soon turns to accounts of his past week, walking the “boreens swamped in water” of his native Co Monaghan: though characteristically funny, it’s standard fare, to put it mildly.
Similarly, his guests are in keeping with the lifestyle-magazine format. He speaks to a former teacher of the controversy-courting Belfast Irish-language hip-hop trio Kneecap, who remembers the rappers as “very well brought up”. Callan mischievously asks whether his guest’s incongruous description of her former pupils is “ruining their street rep”, but it’s hardly earthshaking stuff.
His interviews with the mountaineer Ryan O’Sullivan and the jazz singer Dana Masters are slightly more substantial, or at least as is possible in 10-minute conversations. O’Sullivan, the youngest Irish climber to scale the “seven summits” of the highest peaks on each Continent, describes the challenges he has faced in a cheery manner that Callan does nothing to discourage.
Masters has an interesting story to tell: a South Carolina native, now dwelling at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, her grandmother was a prominent civil-rights activist who instilled a keen sense of racial justice. But while the effervescent Masters briefly alludes to the racist prejudice her mother experienced, there isn’t enough time to dig deeper, particularly with Callan keen to hear about his guest’s (warm) view of life in Northern Ireland.
In short, it’s nothing you wouldn’t have heard from Tubridy or, indeed, Callan’s former Nine O’Clock Show colleague Brendan Courtney. Of course, it’s only day one of a two-year contract. For all that Callan and his reshuffled production team may want to set out a fresh stall, there’s no sense of reinvention or even manifesto to these first proceedings. There’s a long way to go, but Callan will surely know that he needs to do more for his show to make a big impression.
