RADIO REVIEW:THERE WAS something deliciously ironic about The Tubridy Show (RTÉ Radio One, weekdays) discussing the jolly middle-class antics of Enid Blyton's Julian, Dick and Anne, George and Timmy the Dog.
Only this time they had lashings of Benecol with, as the promo goes, "a healthy helping of Tubridy". Ryan seems to cringe at that, too.
I'm not sure what Benecol is, except they might change the name as it sounds more like gloopy Ovaltine than ginger beer. Looking at Benecol's website, which is about lowering cholesterol, its products appear aimed at good-looking older folk with grey hair. If silver foxes are its target market, why hitch its flag to a show that tries so hard to be so young, hip and 2FM cool?
Ryan constantly references Mad Men, the US TV drama about Madison Avenue ad-men set in the 1960s, which he has been watching (not on RTÉ, however) and which featured as a pointy-headed panel discussion on Wednesday. It's out on DVD, has been all over the internet since last year, with five episodes of Season Two uploaded, and Season One was already shown on BBC, but will only now be screened by RTÉ, with a big puff piece to promote it in the RTÉ Guide.
Then again, maybe I'm irked because he's trying to plug the Mad Men square peg into his carefully branded Tubridy/
Camembert Quartet-shaped hole and, at the risk of being a big child, I was watching it first. Hands off Don Draper, bitches.
Anyway, Madeleine Keane, Richie Byrne and Amanda Pleass were all laughing too loudly on Tuesday, having a gay old time, shouting over each other to discuss Enid Blyton, who was voted the best-loved author of all time in a recent study of 2,000 adults (for the Costa Book Awards, so it's not exactly a statistical parting of the Red Sea). I liked Ryan's intro: "Smugglers, secret passages, and lashings of ginger beer. We are speaking, of course, about the Democratic National Convention." Woof! And Richie's remark: "She's just great crack!" On other cultural significance, there was an unexpected nugget from Amanda: "We had the same argument about Tin Tin last year." You know, I'm sorry I missed that one.
They went to Toytown on Blyton's racial undertones, and Noddy and Big Ears' relationship. Ryan asked Madeleine if she was Anne or George. "I had a middle-class childhood and academic father. The little convent girl in me was making sandwiches . . ." But she was a tomboy too. Richie, Ryan, Amanda and Madeleine chuckled copiously at the posh accents of the TV actors playing Julian, Dick, Anne and George. (I have a friend who says, "Everyone I was in Trinity with has been on The Tubridy Show". So they should know . . .)
By the way, Timmy the Dog used to growl at swarthy working-class men in cloth caps, but his tail would be wagging wildly in this studio. I think I may need some of that Benecol now.
It was exhilarating listening to the Democratic National Convention live, not on TV or the internet, but over the wireless, courtesy of Newstalk's late-night partnership with NPR. NPR News (NPR.org, Newstalk, weekdays), hosted by Andrea Seabrook, covered the speakers who don't make the news this side of the pond, and also had correspondents on the floor, talking to delegates. As Hillary Clinton ended the roll call, paving the way for Barack Obama's nomination by acclamation on Wednesday, one of her supporters said: "I thought it would give me closure. I thought it would help my heart." Just as she was exploring her heart and Hillary's soul - she said she'd seen Hillary's soul and it was very big - she was interrupted by Senator Harry Reid from Nevada onstage.
Happily, he was less polite than his new leader.
"The history of the last hundred years has been a toxic mix of oil and war," he opened. And that was just the beginning. "Faced with a new kind of war, this president and his vice-president helped their friends the old-fashioned way: through war profiteering, tax cuts for billionaires and, in many cases, out-and-out corruption." Don't hold back, Harry, tell us how you really feel. And he did. He compared John McCain's simplistic off-shore drilling mantra to a snake oil salesman. "Even if Doc McCain's magic off-shore oil elixir won't work, will it do any harm? The answer is, we just don't know, and neither does he." Harry's speech was more soothing than a lullaby.
Speaking of positive messages, the husky-voiced presenter of Dublin's Talking With Lynsey Dolan (Country Mix, weekdays) had Linda Mooney, angel card reader, on Thursday's show, sprinkling stardust and inspiration.
"The angels are always sending us messages," she warned. A biblical plague of texts came flooding in with listeners' dates of birth. "I nearly forgot to shuffle the cards," Linda said. That could push someone over the edge. "I forgot to shuffle the cards again," Linda added. Buck up, woman, lives are at stake here.
"Thank the higher powers and the angels," she told PJ. "You have the Midas touch, you could create a masterpiece or a disaster," she told Karen. "Cut the cords of negativity," she told Louise, "avoid naysayers." If you're still reading this, it's a little too late for that.