There they are, the original Dáithí Ó Sé and Claire Byrne. Derek Davis and Thelma Mansfield ruled Irish television throughout the 80's and 90's. They brought a blend of all kinds of everything from 3pm every weekday on RTE1. It featured fantastic stuff like music and interviews, interior design, gardening, automobile maintenance, knitting, arts etc. etc. A large part of the Gammagoblin's formative years were spent watching Live at 3 after coming home from school. I must say though, even I couldn't stick the OAP specials they had on every Monday. No OAP specials for Daithi and Claire though, oh no. OAP have to take what they're given these days.
Since then RTÉ have constantly been chaning afternoon programming. Be it "The Afternoon Show" or now "The 4 O Clock Show, incorporating The Daily Show", it seems that they are desperately trying to recapture the magic that Live At Three. I say they should just bite the bullet and bring it all back. Bring back Derek, bring back Thelma, bring back the old features. Even bring back that 1980's Japanese influenced set design! We have the massive debt and poverty like we had in the 1980's, isn't it time we brought back the television programming now too! Think of it: watching Live at 3 again, this time on the huge 3D LED television screens that we bought on hire-purchase which we now can't afford to pay back. Ah yes, I'm getting teary eyed at the prospect.
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This post has been in the making for a few weeks but I've decided to finalise it before Christmas so that I can call it a Christmas present to a certain mega fan of Derek Davis. You know who you are.
6 comments:
They really should bring it back. I wish they would just repeat long stretches of RTÉ TV from the early nineties. Things were much simpler then, we used to wear onions tied to our belts, as was the style at the time! I'm fascinated by Derek, he has this strange hypnotic quality. I want to watch him all day on his own channel, DerekTV. I love the way he does that thing with his hand:
http://i.imgur.com/nUlE4.png
I really wish they brought back the clock and tv listings pages they displayed before the station started every day. That blend of easy listening and hot jazz... it did more good for expanding the viewers musical tastes than LyricFM ever will!
Haha ha! I just looked at the picture now. Well spotted! It reminds me the Viking Direct man.
http://a803.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/12/l_97795274960d98b5c8da9ef6318ba462.jpg
That Viking cunt. Order from them once and they'll bombard you with catalogues for the next fifteen years that scream 'Dear {Your misspelled name pulled off a list}, we miss you! Please order an office chair or some shit.'
Depends on your perspective. Burning the endless supply of Viking Direct catalogues is heating my home for Christmas. Thank you Mr. Viking Cunt, you've saved Christmas. Ho ho ho...Merry Fax Paper! A box of Bic pens for everyone in the audience.
I remember being in the audience with my classmates and the local active retirement group from Dangan/Summerhill Co.Meath. All the students wore our meath colours, and we sang beautiful meath as the credits rolled up at the end of the show.... what a day that was!!
Great story, Alison, thanks for sharing! I hope you got Derek's autograph :)
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