People in Need hardly describes it. After a year of Friday nights without Gay Byrne on the television, people were nearly desperate. So there was huge relief last night when the great man returned to the nation's screens to front the seventh biennial Telethon.
Looking relaxed in a series of jumpers, all of them for sale, the broadcasting legend could have been auditioning for a more permanent comeback in Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
But he was collecting fortunes rather than giving them away on this occasion, and his unrivalled ability to soak an audience had the Telethon reaching its £5 million target just after midnight with no sign of slowing down.
If Gaybo's return marked the end of a period of cold turkey for viewers, the event otherwise meant people making sacrifices for charity. In this spirit, Daniel O'Donnell dispensed tea at a party in Killarney while, in return for the tea, people attending had to listen to him sing.
Meanwhile, and speaking of cold turkeys, Dustin was banished to the Telethon phone centre in Carrick-on-Shannon to face two of his favourite targets for abuse: Leitrim and Derek Davis.
] Sadly, one epic challenge - a planned makeover by Celia Larkin of the Kerry Independent TD, Jackie Healy-Rae - failed to materialise. The organisers said Mr Healy-Rae cried off two weeks ago, perhaps alarmed by rumours that the process would involve the surgical removal of his cap. Ms Larkin had to make do instead with two other Independent TDs, Tony Gregory and Mildred Fox.
Elsewhere yesterday, staff at Dublin's Irish Life Centre walked a tightrope between blocks of the Abbey Street complex, safe in the knowledge that they worked for an insurance company.
The Three Irish Tenors delivered a rooftop performance at the Swiftcall centre in Merrion Road; and everywhere you looked there were people doing wild and wacky things (although the election of Ken Livingstone as mayor of London was apparently unconnected).
People in Need said the decision to locate in Carrick-on-Shannon this year was in recognition of Leitrim's consistently highest-per-capita contribution to the event.
But at nearby Mullaghmore yesterday, protesters continued to block access to Eircell staff attempting to work on a phone mast, and some sceptics suggested the Eircom-sponsored event had been used as a cover for the work.
