Radio Review: Push up there on the sofa, Pat Kenny, your days of being called Ireland's Alan Partridge are over. After nipping at your heels for some time now, Myles Dungan has finally wrestled the V-neck sweater off you with his Sheridan family interview on Rattlebag (Tuesday, RTÉ Radio 1).
It's impossible to do a bad Jim Sheridan interview and this wasn't exactly bad, just so difficult to listen to that it typified everything that's so often (although, to be fair, not always) wrong with the programme.
On Tuesday's Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday), the newly-minted Oscar nominee was on the phone and, in a few minutes, Joe Duffy managed to convey our bursting collective pride that In America has been nominated for three Oscars. Sheridan said he didn't want to say too much because he had a long-standing agreement to go on Rattlebag.
"Sorry to give a plug to another programme, Joe," said gentleman Jim.
"On a day like today I don't mind if you give a plug for another station," said Duffy, with a sense of fun that was spot-on.
Then Rattlebag came on. Getting the Sheridan family on air just hours after hearing the nominations was a real coup. The four Sheridans were in the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, Fran and Jim in a suite, daughters Naomi and Kirsten in a bungalow in the grounds.
"Those kids were that film," said Jim, speaking of the two Bolger sisters, Emma and Sarah. He pointed out how different they are from Irish kids years ago, so positive and confident, not weighed down by any baggage.
"Yeah. They don't know that the Irish are rubbish, they haven't copped on to that yet," said Dungan, hopefully being ironic but magnificently missing Sheridan's point. The interview was punctuated with Dungan's trademark giggle that at times was so high-pitched it could probably be best appreciated by dogs.
"Arthur Lappin should have been nominated best producer," said Sheridan.
Did the presenter of RTÉ radio's flagship arts programme delve a little into the role of the producer in the run-up to the Oscars or even into Lappin's vociferous lobbying to retain the Section 481 tax break without which In America would not have been made? Or in other words something, anything, that might have been of interest to a movie-loving, arts-minded audience? No, he didn't. He told Jim that he and Lappin were mates. Kirsten and Naomi - just voted two of the most talented screenwriters in Hollywood - were asked would they be shopping for "posh frocks on Rodeo Drive" for Oscar night. Can't see anyone asking Sofia Coppola that.
What Rattlebag is up against is that there is so much arts coverage on so many different programmes now, and a lot of it is very good. Tuesday's Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) took a look at the Whitbread shortlist, focusing on the eventual winner, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. A teenage boy read an excerpt and a literary critic specialising in children's literature and a medical expert on autism (the book's main theme) gave their views. It was lively and informative. With other programmes producing these sort of high-calibre packages, Rattlebag, as the State broadcaster's arts show, is really going to have to start living up to that august title and get more authoritative and heavyweight.
It's not like Dungan doesn't know how; he did, after all, present Five Seven Live for years, dealing seriously with all manner of current affairs issues. All the more puzzling then that Rattlebag sounds like a cheesy afternoon television chat-show. Other general arts programmes, including Artszone (Lyric FM, Thursday) and Hugh Linehan (Newstalk 106FM, Saturday) deliver the goods week in week out, showing that it can be done, the material is there.
What can't be done is prove what happens after death, although After Death, What? (BBC Radio 4, Monday) gave a fascinating insight into the current thinking on near-death experiences. The curious thing about the phenomenon is that people who report it, no matter what their age or cultural background, always describe the same experience. Dazzling white lights, dark tunnels and meetings with long-departed family members and friends - usually starting from a vantage-point hovering above their own bodies. The current knowledge of how the brain works doesn't explain all this, although there is a theory that in a pre-death moment so many endorphins are released that the brain in some way disengages to create an alternative reality, based on memories.
A theologian wondered why Christians haven't seized on out-of-body, near-death experiences as proof of the immortality of the soul or, at the very least, as evidence that what we see around us isn't all there is.
"We know that there is something on the other side," said the theologian. "Rarely but sometimes something can break through." Bit like Rattlebag really.
