Eilis O’Hanlon

National broadcaster needs to show balance G

EORGE Hook opened Monday’s High Noon by castigating Leo Varadkar for flying off to Canada, rather than sorting out the country’s problems back home. The Newstalk broadcaster was suitably thrilled when the Taoiseach was goaded into responding.

Hook can be hammy and theatrical, but the incident highlights what’s been missing later in the afternoon on Newstalk Drive, which replaced George’s former Right Hook programme. That’s no criticism of regular presenters Sarah McInerney or Chris Donoghue, both accomplished broadcasters who did exactly what they’d been asked to do. It’s just that a straightforward news show is not what is needed in the slot.

Newstalk bosses have now acknowledged as much by handing Drivetime to Ivan Yates, whose style on Yates On Sunday is as punchy and entertaining as Hook’s, though much less histrionic. It ought to work well.

Booker Prize-winning author John Banville was on Liveline — and there’s a phrase one doesn’t get to write very often — to talk about the more than 100,000 live animals which have been subj eN cit geed lla to Laswc is eonn ti Hf iic cite ensdt ia negrcaitam Trinity Collegeodve es rt rt uh me p reams tifn ewes ty,ei al rms.odHiae suggested thathq um at aun rs au ext pfu er giim ta et nut rn onko kn le another instead.

“I’m not being tongue in cheek,” the vegetarian author insisted when Joe Duffy asked if he was joking. “I’m being absolutely serious. Have we the right to kill animals?” That’s probably too profound a question for a show like Liveline, but fair play to Banville for giving it a go.

Summer continues to provide an opportunity to showcase programmes which might otherwise not find favour.

Manchan’s A-Z Of Ireland followed travel presenter Manchan Magan and producer Colette Kinsella on a five-part road trip around the country in search of unusual natural wonders. The show was broadcast over five consecutive nights to mark Heritage Week, though the first episode did take some liberties. “A is going to be for Ice Age,” Magan began. “As in Age. Age of Ice.”

Nice try, and it did allow them to begin at the beginning, as it were; but come on, that’s cheating. Minor quibbles aside, the show was an evocative blend of natural sound, science, and chat, and deserves to be downloaded and kept for further listening.

Today With Sean O’Rourke marked the centenary of the birth of former Taoiseach Jack Lynch with a disappointingly depreciative 12-minute interview with historian Diarmaid Ferriter that focussed more on the former Fianna Fail leader’s weakWnaetscs es thNaOn achievements.

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TahveaiUl aC bl De tpor voiefe wsesro sr in is Irenlatnitdl.ed to his opinion, but the national broadcaster is not entitled to pretend that one side of an argument is sufficient to assess the reputation of such an important political figure. RTE could have invited another guest to present a moderating counter view.

Eoghan Harris, perhaps. Or is the broadcasting fatwa still in place at RTE?