Mary Fitzgerald With How Do you Do? back on our screens, Stephen Meyler catches up with the legendary broadcaster
During the months of lockdown, many of us rediscovered the joys (and time-passing value) of simple craft activities. Just in time then, that the queen of ’90s arts and crafts on TV, Mary Fitzgerald, is back on our screens. She talks to Stephen Meyler abou
Back in 1994, The Den was an afternoon TV institution for the nation’s children in the hour or two between the end of school for the day and teatime. Amid the chaos of Ray, Zig, Zag and a foulmouth turkey, Mary Fitzgerald’s crafting spots were an oasis of calm, where you could learn how to make a draught excluder snake or a set of tin can phones. It was a particular time in Irish TV, so how does Mary feel now that it’s back on screen?
“Well look, I’m delighted it’s back on TV. The children who used to watch me then are grown up and now have kids of their own, and I think it was them who got involved in a bit of a Twitter campaign by a guy down in Limerick. He said ‘Wouldn’t it be great if RTÉ brought back Mary Fitzgerald’s iconic craft programme to introduce this generation of children to the joys of making things that we had when we were young?’
“That’s how it started and it sort of gained momentum. I didn’t know anything about this, until my daughter’s friend said to her, ‘How do you feel about your mom trending on Twitter?’
“The campaign was taken up by The Ray Darcy Show, so eventually RTÉ re-edited five of the shows for its Player, but there must be about 300 shows in the archives from the eight seasons.” There was a little difficulty with converting the shows to a new format, but Mary is hopeful that now it’s been done, there’s a chance that lots more of the archive will become available to new viewers, even if many of us get the show’s name wrong.
“It was called How Do You Do, but everyone started calling it Make and Do with Mary and that stuck.”
Mary was already a veteran of children’s TV when she started How Do You Do.
“When I was on Anything Goes [the longrunning young people’s magazine show that started in 1980], which is the first show that I presented, I was a primary school teacher and specialised in teaching arts and crafts. So when the producer wanted us to do something for children under 10, I said, ‘Well, I can make things.’ Then I used to write stories based on a tomboy character called Susie, who got into trouble every week – those two items really took off.”
The successful campaign to get the craft show back on TV came just as the pandemic began. “Parents were at home pulling their hair out, trying to home-school the kids, but also trying to entertain them while trying to work.
“It has been a very difficult time for parents of young children in particular. For example, my sister has an eight year old and a 14 year old, and it’s tough to keep them entertained. Doing crafts works for a lot of kids because they don’t see it as school work, even while they are actually learning new skills, like using tools, measuring and planning steps in a project.” Apart from occasional craft spots on shows like Today with Maura and Dáithí, Mary is now focused on a different career: “I’ve been doing PR and events management for 20 years now.” Public events were one of the first areas of life to close in the lockdown, but Mary says that while her work has stopped, she is finding ways to continue, using Zoom and other socially-distant means to stay in touch with her clients.
In the meantime, a whole lot of Irish parents are very grateful that she is keeping their kids busy at home this summer.
Doing crafts works for a lot of kids because they don’t see it as school work, even while they are actually learning new skills