The best talk shows don’t seek consensus

SPEAKING on Monday’s Newstalk Breakfast, presenter Paul Williams suggested that the irritation of London Tory Brexiteers at Dublin’s efforts to scupper plans for the UK to leave the EU was a throwback to an old colonial mentality about “the unwashed Irish” and that they were really just thinking: “How dare those Paddies upset our plans?”

There may be some truth in that, but isn’t it equally the case that the Irish attitude to those who voted for Brexit in the UK is to see them as ignorant and unwashed as well, and to ask how dare these uneducated oiks upset the plans of the European elite, and that this sense of superiority suffuses all coverage of that issue on Irish airwaves?

This may reflect general opinion about Brexit in Ireland, but isn’t radio more interesting when it challenges, rather than merely echoes, consensus? That's what makes The Mother Of All Talk Shows on the UK's Talkradio station such a breath of fresh air. Presenter George Galloway is a frightful old ham, somewhat like a left-wing answer to George Hook, with some dodgy political positions, but whatever his shortcomings, making boring radio isn't one of them. Whether discussing the war in Syria or the West's propaganda war against Russia, he says things that simply aren't being heard elsewhere, and that's always refreshing.

Galloway also gets the whole point of talk radio. On Tuesday, one of his guests was financial writer Dominic Frisby, who noted that the British Labour party had stopped speaking for traditional working class communities which support Brexit. Galloway asked him if he agreed that the EU stood only for “centrist vapidity”. “Utterly,” agreed Frisby. “This isn’t good for radio,” Galloway said. The best talk shows, like drama, need conflict, sparks.

Newstalk, in particular, needs to be different, or it’s nothing. The soft touch should be left for human interest stories, such as the lovely interview with Gay Byrne on Tuesday’s Ray D’Arcy Show on RTE Radio One. Whether describing the “horror of horrors” of his recent chemotherapy treatment or admitting “I don’t suffer gently, I rail against it” while also acknowledging that he’s had a “remarkably trouble-free” life health wise in his 83 years, Gaybo is incapable of being anything less than a compelling speaker. That voice remains as mellifluous as ever and will always be a cause of huge gratitude that Irish radio has been blessed with this giant of broadcasting for more than half a century. Gay Byrne changed the country for the better, with the soft power of his inclusive personal rather than domineering force. Finally, I take it all back. Last week, I may have suggested that including barbecues on Newstalk's Moncrieff in a series of things hat "changed the world" may have been stretching it a bit, Well, this week on the show, can devoted the same slot to... the straw. Come back, barbecues, all is forgiven.

LISTEN BACK

Visit the RTE Player at rte.ie/player