Late Late Show review: Gifted with the common touch, Patrick Kielty moves between the serious and silly more skilfully than most | Irish Independent
Flor Lynch
Late Late Show review: Gifted with the common touch, Patrick Kielty moves between the serious and silly more skilfully than most
Paul Whitington
Doesn’t it feel like Patrick Kielty has been hosting the Late Late for ages?
In fact it’s only two years since he took over from Ryan Tubridy due to unforeseen circumstances etc, but already Kielty seems like your favourite armchair, or an old shoe, so familiar has his voice and schtick become.
Not that he’s done a bad job or anything. On the contrary.
The general consensus on Tubs was that he was great with the kids, not so hot with the grown-ups. Being good at the Toy Show is half the battle of course, and not to be taken lightly: Pat Kenny looked ill at ease in his plum pudding jumper, and Gay Byrne used to scare the Jesus out of nippers.
Patrick Kielty has taken two toy shows in his stride, and moves between the serious and silly more skilfully than most.
He’s had some memorable interviews too, with everyone from Leo Varadkar and Conan O’Brien (the most Irish person ever apparently) to a misbehaving Kneecap.
Too many northerners and too much GAA are the most frequent criticisms of his tenure, though no one is going to get too excited about that. And then there’s the quality of the guests, but that has been a problem for years.
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The Late Late normally kicks off pretty strong, however, and so it proved last night.
Opening his third season, Patrick welcomed a decent line-up, beginning with Michael Flatley, who gave Conan O’Brien a run for his money.
Sounding more Irish than I remember (more Irish than Barry Fitzgerald in The Quiet Man in fact), Flatley explained why he’d withdrawn from the presidential race. “I decided,” he said, “that the timing wasn’t right.”
The dancer has been recovering from cancer and, in a moment of emotional honesty, described how, in crowded rooms he would think “I knew it was just me and this terrible disease, and somebody’s gonna win”.
But then he got all pugnacious again. “They say never say never,” he told Patrick, hinting at a future Áras run. And then he stood up and started playing the flute: he’s pretty good at it too.
Next stop London, and a recorded interview with Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, surely the most blindingly handsome pair ever to appear on the Late Late. They’re promoting their new film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, which looks a bit ropey, but who cares about that, because we got to look at them.
Actors are very good at playing nice and saying nothing, but Colin Farrell is a down-to-earth sort of fellow, and checked himself for an overly sombre summary of the film’s plot.
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“I’m selling the shit out of it, amen’t I?” he said. Margot then revealed how she’d come to Dublin as a young actor and got mixed up in a Temple Bar lock-in. She was lucky to escape with her life.
Back in the studio, rugby legend Conor Murray showed up to flog his memoir Cloud Nine. Retiring from the game was “a strange relief”, he said, then told Kielty how, as a Munster rookie, he’d been mocked by Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell for wearing flashy white boots.
Wild switches in tone and topic have always been a cornerstone of the Late Late, and Mary Robinson came on next to describe a harrowing trip to Rafah.
Our former president eased the transition from trite to serious, however, by dancing onto the stage in unsettling fashion. This was a trick she’d learned from Archbishop Tutu, who would make fun of himself before hitting you with the hard stuff.
Ms Robinson did likewise, explaining how huge amounts of food and medicine were being deliberately blockaded at the Gaza border.
She pulled no punches. “It’s a deliberate famine in our time,” she said, “an unfolding genocide.” All of which impressed Patrick so much he wondered would she consider another run at our presidency. We could do worse. We will.
It was hard, during all this, not to wonder what was going on in Paddy’s head: he lost his mother in the spring, and separated from his wife, Cat Deeley, during the summer.
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Maybe it’s good to be back to work, and I like the fact that he acknowledged all this in his intro, saying how he’s “been blown away by all the love and support sent my way”.
Patrick Kielty is out of contract at the end of this season, but RTÉ are clearly hoping he’ll renew. Affable but astute, gifted with the common touch, Kielty represents a break with previous hosting styles.
In fact looking at Gay Byrne, Pat Kenny and Ryan Tubridy, one might be forgiven for thinking that all Late Late Show hosts were in fact one immortal person regenerated mysteriously every ten seasons or so in the manner of Doctor Who.
Gay was a bit sharper, Pat a bit stiffer, Ryan a tad giddier, but a grim continuum seemed to be in play.
Not any more. Quietly, and without fuss, Patrick Kielty has rid the show of prissy formality, and made it seem more connected to the everyday.
The Late Late is a lot shorter too, these days, and that has to be a good thing.