So, what has TV3 done for you so far? Nobody who understands the realities of broadcasting in the 1990s expected a new, commercial channel would be anything other than entertainment-driven, but we did hope it might have a bit of zip and provide an opportunity for fresh voices and talents. It has actually happened, but with one problem - the channel in question isn't TV3, but Network 2, reinvented over the past year in response to the new competition as a slicker, more youthful operation. It ain't rocket science, but it's dexterous, confident television which knows its viewers and gives them what they want.
@last tv, the brainchild of Tom Johnson and Mary Murphy's company, Stopwatch Television, is one of the most successful fruits of the new policy. Now into its second series, this sharp and often funny magazine show doesn't take itself too seriously, buzzing through several items in the course of a TV half-hour. One of the things that gives the show its energy is Stopwatch's decision to sub-contract many of the items out to other young programme-makers. "It's as much a creative decision as a practical one," Johnson says. "In a way we're following the model of a print publication in that we have a core of people who do a certain amount of the work, and then we bring in people who have specific interests or talents to take on some stories.
"A 10-part series will have about 50 items, so clearly we'd start getting tired and scraping the barrel if we had to come up with all of those ourselves. This way we get everyone else's best ideas. It also means you can get people in for a couple of days to do something, but they don't have to give up their jobs or make a longterm commitment."
Next Monday's programme, for example, has an item featuring Huey of the band Fun Lovin' Criminals being measured up for a sharp new suit by Louis Copeland, a quirky idea thought up and filmed by journalist and DJ Donal Scannell. "We try to have one well-known face in every programme, but doing something different," says Johnson. "There are plenty of other programmes that just do that `tell us about your new record or film' format. So we've got Richard E. Grant going on a pub crawl, even though he doesn't drink, but we've intercut it with scenes from Withnail and I. Donal Scannell would obviously be mostly music-oriented, especially towards dance music, but if he came up with other ideas, we'd be only too happy to look at them. We also approach people like Paul Duane, who directed a very funny short film called My Dinner with Oswald last year. Paul is filming a segment with comedian Colin Murphy, which is a story about Colin winning a Star Wars watch in a competition in the 1970s."
Ah, the 1970s, and increasingly the 1980s, the nostalgic refuge of all comedy magazine shows looking for an easy gag. With Barry Murphy and Mark Doherty's Couched also plundering the RTE archives for bad haircuts and embarrassing moments, the nostalgia boom is threatening to get out of hand. The TV Heaven slot on @last tv, having already remembered the mid-1980s youth show TV GA GA, will be turning its attention to Hall's Pictorial Weekly, the sports competition show Superstars, and the career guidance programme Nothing To It in weeks to come.
"All this nostalgia stuff seems to tie into the whole twenty-something feeling which the show is about," says Johnson, who points out it's not all about cheap, quick laughs. "We've got a new thing called The Lost Albums, where we'll remember five great albums by Irish bands which should have sold millions but didn't." The bands featured are The Blades, Microdisney, The Stars of Heaven, A House and My Bloody Valentine. "It's not a `whatever happened to' sort of piece, it's more a celebration of these great records."
One of the best ideas on @last tv is the J'Accuse slot, a much-needed opportunity to bring begrudgery back into Irish broadcasting. J'Accuse started with a bang on Monday with John Ryan's babyoiled attack on Michael Flatley, which fortuitously coincided with the climax of Flatley's court case, although there was a simpler reason for its appearance then, according to Johnson. "We test these things out on people, and everyone seemed to think the Flatley story was really funny, so that's the reason we decided to put it in the first show of the season." The next J'Accuse has TV presenter Fiona McShane taking a swipe at tampon ads, while future targets include the Leaving Cert, the banks, feng shui and golf. Making the first series last year was a new experience for Johnson and Murphy, their first shot at producing and directing broadcast television. The second series presents a new set of challenges, Johnson says. "The fear of the unknown we had last year is gone. Now we have to worry about the challenge of reaching a larger audience. We started before Network 2's relaunch last year, when it was a far less focused channel. Now it's much more aimed at our audience. Last season we were broadcast in a more marginal slot, at 10 p.m. on Tuesday evenings, opposite RTE 1's Tuesday movie. Now we're sitting in a prime-time slot in the middle of Network 2's comedy strand on Mondays. But our ratings for the first show were the best we've ever had, which is great."
@last tv is on Network 2 on Mondays at 9.30 p.m.