Shock and awe

Dermot Bolger stays up late into the night to see what the current RTÉ schedule has to offer As a working novelist, I have often pined for the EU to introduce a Promising Young Irish Writer Mountain along with the EU Wine Lake and Butter Mountain: somewhere where yet another batch of promising Irish novelists could be hung upside down in cold storage for a brief period to give us time to catch up with the never ending explosion of Irish writing. I also suspect that a few greying musicians wouldn't object to an EU Latest Irish Musical Sensation Mountain as a constant succession of new singer-songwriters and groups like The Guggenheim Grotto, The Rags and Delorentos appear.
There are certain things that RTÉ do well and things that RTÉ do badly. Music is one thing that they do well, with their antennae frequently tuned to the changing Irish music scene and good exposure given to new acts on shows like The Last Broadcast and the interesting Other Voices (RTÉ 2, 11.30pm, Wednesdays). Other Voices has broadened out into a full hour show, excellently presented by John Kelly. The first show of the new series had an eclectic mix, ranging from the good Vyvienne Long – Ireland's second most famous cellist – to the banal James Blunt. As RTÉ are aware – with their recent Eye-to-Eye series for younger viewers – music has a huge youth following. It's surprising therefore that when producing a quality product like Other Voices, they cannot find an earlier slot that 11.30pm, when much of its target audience would, in theory at least, be tucked up in bed. The Last Broadcast has a similarly late slot, despite showing the quirky but somewhat incestuous Irish music animation Eyebrowy, which has a cult following among secondary school students. Aficionados can keep up with it via the website www.eyebrowy.com, but as RTÉ repeat so much it would be nice if they could find an earlier slot for some of its music.
Somebody else with a cult following among secondary school kids is Hector Ó hEochagáin, although at times one suspects that his greatest fan may actually be Hector Ó hEochagáin. Anyone who can make the Irish language cool has got to be a good thing, and Hector brings a great freshness to the small screen. Hanging with Hector (RTÉ 1, 11.15pm Thursdays) is back for a second series where he “hangs out” with various people. Having kicked off his first series by hanging out with the Taoiseach, in some ways it had to be downhill from there unless George Bush decided to give him three days' access during which his bodyguards had a collective heart attach. A self-confessed zany person works best with a straight man who can't answer back, which was why the Ahern stuff was so good. Even there however Hector was so busy being zany that he never commented on the most interesting moment in the filming – when the French president imperiously shoved the hard-working Irish ambassador out of the shot at a picture opportunity when Bertie arrived in Paris.
This week, Hector hung out with comedian Jon Kenny in Co Limerick, and both spent the show out-clowning each other. The novelty paled after a while, especially when every time it seemed we would get a genuine insight into Kenny, Hector seemed keen to push the clowning up a notch. He is an amusing presence on television, perpetually convinced that the Irish have the great craic in the world, but other “zany” presenters have learnt to give people more rope to perhaps inadvertently reveal things that they would never say during a normal interview. There comes a time when a fresh and vibrant face can be in danger of becoming a one-trick pony. It might be nice to see him push the boundaries of his obvious talent in slightly less obvious ways.
Pushing the boundaries of other people's talent is exactly what comedian Des Bishop is doing in his new series Joy in the Hood (RTÉ 2, Monday, 9.30pm) in which he visits places like Ballymun and housing estates in Limerick and Cork to work with local people who fancy their hand at being stand up comedians. Each show builds towards a local live performance, in which the comedians deliver very mixed but raw material which bears out the notion that humour is the first natural defence mechanism of the poor. There are some jokes that would be offensive if told by outsiders but within the context of the tellers they have a rough and earned truth about them. Times have moved on from when the founder of the League of Decency suffered a heart attack as the first indigenous naked breast was shown (faintly through a window) on RTÉ, but if we are sufficiently grown up to have such graphic language and sexual content at 9.30pm on a Monday, RTÉ might think of squeezing in a bit of music the right side of half eleven.