Radio Review: Broadband has finally arrived in our kitchen so I spent too much time this week trawling through digital radio stations I've never heard, downloading podcasts and generally enjoying the fantastic reception.
Station surfing aside, it'll really pay off when the dreaded cricket season starts. I know from e-mail feedback that many readers can only get a decent BBC Radio 4 reception on long wave and are, like me, beyond frustration at the long hours of cricket that edge out regular programming.
The new (to me at least) technology meant tuning into The Keith Finnegan Show (Galway Bay FM, Monday) to get a handle on what his former flock feels about the return of Dr Eamonn Casey. Judging by coverage in the print and TV media, the public is gagging to see the 78-year-old former bishop loading up his car, getting on a ferry and arriving in Ireland - images of every step of the frail-looking Casey's return were all over the media at the start of the week. Not so, said callers to the show.
Finnegan's guest, Bishop John Kirby, said he shared the irritation of many of the callers, branding the media's interest in Casey as over the top. "A lot of people consider it to be a closed issue and the story is now being driven by the media," he said. "The public aren't interested any more." Finnegan summed up the reaction of his listeners - "wicked tired they are of it".
Tribunal mimics Malcolm Douglas and Joe Taylor were back on Wednesday (The Vincent Browne Show, RTÉ Radio 1) with the day's events at the Mahon tribunal, breathing life into another subject it's easy to be tired of. It signalled the return to form of a programme that has been patchy - to say the least - for the last couple of weeks. It reached an all-time low on Tuesday when, in Browne's absence, someone had the brainwave of putting Westmeath Independent editor, Dave O'Connell, in the presenter's chair and inviting into the studio what they called - God help us - the "new wave of Irish comedians".
The new wave turned out to be some of the stand-up trainees featured on Des Bishop's TV series Joy in the Hood and viewers of that show wondering why, after all the workshops and training, the volunteers got only a minute of TV-time, will now know the grim truth. They aren't funny.
Established comedians Conal Gallen and Alan Shortt were also in studio and for the torturous hour of air-time everyone seemed to forget that it's bad manners to laugh uproariously at your own jokes and the secret of good comedy isn't timing, it's being funny. I know it's a late-night slot and no one expects big-budget productions, but an hour is a long time and listeners deserve better than a programme that wouldn't have made it on to the most amateur community radio station.
The most consistently enjoyable arts programme continues to be Off the Shelf (RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday), simply because it features people who really know their subjects. This week's book for discussion was Richard Bradford's new biography of poet Philip Larkin, the splendidly titled First Boredom, Then Fear. In life, the popular perception was that Larkin had the sex appeal of a turnip, but Andrew Motion's 1990s biography revealed that the curmudgeonly old poet had a complicated and very busy love life. Andy O'Mahony's panellists Tony Roche and Dennis O'Driscoll were a little sniffy about the gossipy elements in Motion's book, but happily for the general listener they did spend a bit of time talking about it. Bradford's biography, they said, emphasises the degree to which Larkin compartmentalised his life - his fear of confrontation appears to have contributed to his avoidance of marriage, which is as good an excuse as any.
The book got a warm review, while on Rattlebag (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday), the new production of Faith Healer at the Gate Theatre got a rave. There was, of course, mention of the Donal McCann version of Brian Friel's play, and at this stage I've heard that 1980 production mentioned so many times it's edging into GPO/Dandelion Market territory - can that many people really have been there? The Gate production that opened this week is heading for Broadway, and its star, Ralph Fiennes, is guaranteed a standing ovation because, as we heard in the often hilarious More Fabulous Flops (BBC Radio 4, Sunday), that's just what happens there. "It used to be the case that you only stand up for John Gielgud," said Jane Goodman, an off-Broadway producer. "Television has dumbed people down to such an extent and the tickets are so expensive that if they spend 100 bucks for a seat, they have to stand up or else they feel foolish."
