Now Nancy’s off to meet the Pope
ONE of the brighter lights of young(ish) Irish TV presenters, Baz Ashmawy is a likeable and gregarious host with mammy issues. Or maybe he has no Mammy issues at all. After all, working with your Ma when you’re Baz’s age wouldn’t be high on the agenda for many men but the Ma in question, Nancy, tends to be far more than just the makeweight in this particular double act.
Having originally made his name working on travel shows, his hit with Sky One, 50 Ways To Kill Your Mammy, was eventually sold to more than 100 countries and remains one of the more endearing programmes to appear on screen in the last few years.
Now the intrepid duo are back in the Vatican with Baz And Nancy’s Holy Show (RTÉ One, tonight, 9.35pm). Starting off in Knock, they make their way from Mayo to Rome and an audience with Pope Francis.
It’s all very harmless and likeable but given the fact that Nancy has now reached an even greater level of cult status in this country, I suppose you could say that it’s nice of Mrs Ashmawy to give her son Baz another job on one of her shows. He wants to be a presenter on the telly one day, don’t you know...
I don’t know about you, but I still haven’t been able to wash the stench of Ed Sheeran’s vile cover of ‘Fairytale Of New York’ out of my mind.
It’s bad enough that Sheeran and that other purveyor of bland, soulless pap, Ronan Keating, had the nerve to cover the song in the first place, but the fact that they also felt qualified to ‘improve’ the lyrics shows that the Philistines will always be with us.
Music programme of the week is undoubtedly Fairytale Of New York
(RTÉ One, tomorrow, 9.35pm), a perfectly timed documentary about the making of a song rightly recognised as a true and genuine Christmas classic.
In fact, there are some – and who are we to argue? – who say that this is the greatest Christmas song of all time, and it’s arguably the most accurate Christmas song ever written. Sure, most of us won’t end up in a drunk tank in New York (then again, I hear Christmas shopping in NYC is back being a thing with Irish people, so you never know), but the air of pathos and bitter regrets is something that most of us associate with this time of the year.
It is, most importantly, a beautiful, touching song which forever dashed the myth that Shane MacGowan was just a rabble rouser sent by God to destroy Irish traditional music.
Against all the odds, MacGowan will make it to his 60th birthday on Christmas Day and this documentary, featuring his former bandmates, Christy Moore and even Paul Simon is perfectly timed.