On the couch... With Paddy Cullivan
Musician, satirist, commentator and voiceover artist, Paddy Cullivan was born in Galway and grew up in Dublin. He’s best-known as leader of the Late Late Show house-band The Camembert Quartet. Paddy is a writer for Callan’s Kicks and co-founded the Leviathan political cabaret. He hosts a satirical political debate, It’s Not the Cuban Missile Crisis! at Whelan’s in Dublin on November 14
How much TV do you think you watch every week?
I’m scared to work it out – probably 40 hours a week. I watch television all the time, but often, it’s just on in the background while I’m working away at home. My excuse is I have to keep up for satire purposes.
What’s your all-time favourite telly theme music?
I love classics like Get Smart and Mission Impossible, and recently, anything Bear McCreary does. He wrote the music for Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead, both all-time favourite shows.
Are you a “telly on, laptop on the knees and phone for tweeting” over-load kind of person?
Yes. I live-tweet special events and like trolling current affairs and property shows, particularly when Dermot Bannon won’t obey his client. I had great fun with the presidential election.
Who controls the remote in your house? I have the remote-control gaffer-taped so it will only ever be removed from my cold, dead hand.
Do you watch much music television?
I watch Later… with Jools Holland and Other Voices religiously. They both showcase brilliant and awful music in equal measure. It’s all I can do since the ridiculous loss of Top of the Pops, which made music into a What are your unmissable shows right now?
I really loved Succession with Brian Cox and Trust with Donald Sutherland, both of whom prove, like Corbyn and Trump, that life begins at 70. I’m still avidly following The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones too.
On which chat-shows, besides the Late Late, would you like to play in the house-band?
The only person I’d leave Ryan for would be the amazing Conan O’Brien!
Are there any genres of TV you just can’t abide?
I love Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, but apart from that I cannot bear gratuitous cookery and property shows. I can’t believe, post-recession, they carried on as if nothing had happened, and that now, in the middle of a housing crisis, there’s any appetite for nosing around other people’s houses and nding out their moribund interior design choices. Sorry!
Is TV satire redundant in the age of Donald Trump?
It certainly is in the US. America’s satirists are so full of rage they’re no longer funny. In fact, Trump is quite a bit funnier. Jon Stewart got out just in time – before America lost its mind and its funny-bone. I still watch Bill Maher every week, but the best satire is coming from libertarian comedians such as Greg Gutfeld and PJ O’Rourke. The President Show, starring Anthony Atamanuik was genius because it skewered both sides.
Are there any shows you have on box-set, DVR or red button that you haven’t quite got round to watching?
No, and I won’t watch anything on Netflix, despite what everyone tells me!