ThegoodandbadofRTÉsummedupinoneshow

IT ALWAYS amazes me how something so small and seemingly insignificant can reveal so much. This was certainly the case last Saturday evening on RTÉ television when Tommy Tiernan continued his excellent chat show with an interview with All-Ireland winning footballer Joe Brolly. At a cursory glance, you might be forgiven for thinking this was a casual chat, a bit of light entertainment to distract us from the horrors of recent killings on our streets or an election campaign that is wearing us all down after only a few days.

But really, what this 15 minutes of television did was highlight in a single sitting all that is great and terrible about RTÉ. The good and the bad of our nation’s public service broadcaster was on show for all to see.

Firstly, the good. Tommy Tiernan’s television show has been a revelation, and the penny seems to have dropped with the powers that be in Montrose who are finally giving him more air time in a prime time slot.

The beauty of Tiernan’s show is its simplicity. By not knowing what guests are due to appear before they walk into the studio, the comedian has no way of preparing any questions or scripts. He has to act on his feet and go on instinct when interviewing his guests. It is often the case Tommy has never heard of the guest sitting in front of him, but this can manifest itself into the show’s most entertaining moments.

Tiernan also keeps his questioning to a minimum, instead allowing his guest to dig deep on whatever he or she is discussing. A recent appearance by fellow comedian Brendan O’Carroll turned into the most extraordinary interview, where Tommy allowed the Mrs Browne’s Boys star to explore some raw and emotional family history, including the death of his first child, something Tiernan was not aware of until the moment it was revealed live on air. It made for riveting television, facilitated by Tiernan’s nuance and sensitivity.

Last Saturday’s interview with Brolly was equally as compelling, mainly because

Tiernan allowed his guest to have a right cut at RTÉ, despite the fact that he was sitting in an RTÉ studio appearing on an RTÉ show. It was the brave and right thing to do.

You see, RTÉ have unceremoniously dumped Joe Brolly from The Sunday Game panel, which brings us the terrible side of the broadcaster. It seems RTÉ had enough of Brolly’s insightful, cutting and often brazen analysis on The Sunday Game. There has always been an unpredictability to Brolly’s television appearances, which would entertain and enrage the masses in equal measure. Love him or hate him, he was required viewing on The Sunday Game.

But when RTÉ presented their pundits with scripts for last year’s All-Ireland football final outlining how they wanted the discussion to pan out, Brolly had enough. He was not prepared to operate in such a sanitised, stilted environment, and effectively told the broadcaster to take a hike.

Why RTÉ didn’t move heaven and earth to retain his services is beyond me. Yes, his unpredictability is such that the RTÉ lawyers would have been routinely sweating, but surely Brolly is a calculated gamble worth taking.

As Saturday’s interview with Tiernan revealed, Brolly is a complex and fascinating individual, a critical thinker with a social conscious. A practicing defence barrister in Belfast, Brolly discussed with Tiernan how he recently took in a homeless teenager who was slipping down the road of criminality. The boy lived with Brolly for a few months, and now has his life back on track.

We need figures like Brolly on RTÉ’s flagship shows, and The Sunday Game will be a lesser programme without him this summer.

Joe Brolly will be missed on The Sunday Game.