Sponsored by Your License Fee: The Late Late Show Megathread

Interesting article by Patrick Freyne in the IT this morning.

A few snippets in there, little snapshots if you will.

"Before Tubridy arrives, Toy Show producer Neasa McLaughlin shows me the various vehicles all lined up neatly for use, and introduces me to a nurse, Aoife, who is there lest any child comes a cropper. She’s been there for much of the week including at a Toy Show-related shoot the night before. She has, I’m told, a “big bag of drugs”.!

"While most of the RTÉ teams, including the week-to-week version of the Late Late team, exist together in a big open-plan office, the Toy Show team are hived away from early September in a room with a closed door. "

"When I first arrive to RTÉ, Tubridy, clad in a jumper covered with Atari-style Santas, brings me to me to see his previous Toy Show costumes, which are in a corridor that leads down to the costume department lined with pictures of Tubridy on set. “A gallery of horrors,” he says. “The scary part of Madame Tussauds… I had it written into my contract there be pictures of me everywhere. Like North Korea.”

He’s done 13 Toy Shows now so there are Lion King-themed costumes, Frozen-themed costumes, a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-themed costume, a Mary Poppins-themed costume, a Fantastic Mr Fox-themed costume which is really a velvet suit with a tail and ears. “I liked that outfit. You could wear that.” A pause. “If you were Franz Ferdinand.”"

"It’s a very full-on part of the year for Tubridy, coping with his radio show, the regular Late Late and then, brewing in the background, the Toy Show. “The only thing is the payoff: you got handsomely elected with 81 per cent of population, like a tinpot dictator.”"

"Tubridy is drawn first to a yellow-beaked crow puppet which he sticks on his arm and begins to operate. “CAW!” says the crow.

“CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW!” says the crow into McMullen’s ear.

“It’s really annoying,” says McMullen."

"As well as matching toys to the individual children, McMullen and McDermott also have to match them to Tubridy, who vetoes the ones he finds boring or finicky. “I have two or three notebooks with ideas,” says McDermott. “We live in this cabin for 2½ months. Us, two chairs and two space heaters.”"

"Is it nerve-wracking? “It’s always a bit scary but it’s fun,” she says. “Is it fun?” she asks herself. “Yeah,” she concludes. “It’s fun.”"

"Picking children for the show is very difficult, says McQuaid. “We watch over 3,000 videos… If you get a call to come to audition we’ve seen something special I can’t even put words on.”"

...

"They’ve been through a lot. Kate was friends with the children who died tragically in Tallaght in September. “"

Has he any words that sum up this time of year for him? “It’s a run. I’m running for mayor, mayor of Crazy Town. I’m hoping to get elected.”

It paints a picture of an over-indulged RTE contractor with pictures on the wall a la Johnny Carson in NBC Burbank in the early 90s, and all his former costumes on display for the staffers to marvel at.

Jokes about his contract, and what seems to be a ridiculous waste of RTE resources (two young ones in a portacabin for three months looking at toys), and the production team-which is surely the same LLS team-meeting in camera-a team incidentally that don't seem the happiest of collectives-also stood out for me.

And of course they had to pore over a couple of thousand auditions for something or someone that stood out-which, in the case of the kids that were there when Mr. Freyne visited, just happened to be MISERY.