Cilian Fennell, Tester of the Nation
Cilian Fennell has an appetite for the high-wire act of live television, which produces what he calls "a beautiful tension to life". The producer of Rip Off Republic, The Dunphy Show and Gay Byrne's later years on The Late Late Show is in the final stages of preparing to stage RTÉ's most ambitious live broadcast.
You can almost picture the pitch over a Montrose boardroom table. Think the Late Late meets Who Wants to Be a Millionaire meets Celebrity Big Brother, all wrapped up in a spool of Reeling in the Years, complete with 1980s shoulder pads and hairstyles.
Test the Nation borrows a TV concept from The Netherlands (the birthplace of Big Brother) for a studio, internet and text-message quiz based on the events of the past two decades. It has already proven itself in Britain, where Anne Robinson and Phillip Schofield host the BBC's version.
The beautiful tension will be everything. "You notice it with things like The Rose of Tralee. Huge audiences tune into the live competition, and hardly anyone watches the repeats. It's the anything-could-happen element of live TV. This will also have an element where people themselves are playing, both in the audience and at home."
Much work goes into making life under studio lights look spontaneous, and the man who trained as a marine zoologist and fished the waters of Newfoundland before he joined RTÉ will be conducting an army of designers, wardrobe people, scriptwriters and camera operators in rehearsals for the broadcast.
Six teams of 40 people from various professions, including a team of Italia 90 fans and 40 people from Revenue, will gather in the purpose-built set for the event, joined by six celebrities and hosts Ray D'Arcy and Miriam O'Callaghan. "We've been preparing for months. We went out and found people who had some kind of story to tell about the last 20 years, like butchers and architects. It is like an orchestra, with everything coming together in the end."
• In conversation with Catherine Cleary. Test the Nation is on RTÉ1 on June 5th