RadioReview:Such was the crisis that Ray D'Arcy (Today FM, Monday) suggested Joe Duffy would have to come back from his holidays - who else could properly handle all that Barbra Streisand concert venting? Of course, he wasn't really flattering Duffy, more getting in a gentle dig at the age profile of RTÉ's Liveline listenership, writes Bernice Harrison.
The diva's concert was "Oxegen for old people" according to his - by implication - younger, groovier listeners. And just to hammer home the demographic difference, D'Arcy said his mother had gone to the concert.
As it turned out, tales of traffic chaos and muddy misery did take up the entire Liveline programme on Monday, though the callers were on such a heated roll you got the feeling that if most of them had misdialled and been connected to the speaking clock they'd still have told their long, involved stories. All Duffy's stand-in, Damien O'Reilly, could do was occasionally ask the obvious - "Did you not think you were mad, paying €500 for a ticket?".
It was Liveline at its best and worst. Access radio let people tell their stories on air, which in turn helped put pressure on the promoters to be seen to address the problem, though whether all that public outrage actually results in refund cheques remains to be seen. For those of us who couldn't care less about the shenanigans in a field in Co Kildare, the repetitive stories made for a tedious listen.
Not that Liveline was the only programme to get Streisand-related moans. One of the first was probably Culture Shock, Newstalk's Saturday evening arts and culture show which got texts from frustrated concert-goers actually stuck in traffic. It probably wasn't much consolation, but they were at least listening to a good radio programme whose strength is in the variety of subjects it covers.
To coincide with the first general release here of a Bollywood movie - Awarapan - researcher Shruti Shandiliya, raga musician Mou Sultana and actor Siraj Zaidi gave their informed take on the genre; while later, Hadani Ditmars, author of Dancing in the No Fly Zone talked of the challenge of cultural reconstruction in Iraq.
Presenter Fionn Davenport also interviewed actor David Horovitch and there was a quirky item on video games that have a humanitarian bent - such as Darfur is Dying, in which gamers have to choose to be a character, a refugee for example, and then complete a series of tasks from fetching water to dodging bullets.
One quibble, though, would be that, as the programme is obviously live (what with those Streisand texters), a review of the week's new releases, productions and performances might be a worthwhile and informative addition.
Alastair Campbell was as ubiquitous as Streisand across all media this week - Tony Blair's former spin doctor has published his diaries and, for such a slick operator, he got himself more than a little overheated in the Today with Pat Kenny studio (RTÉ Radio 1, Monday).
The interview with Kenny's stand-in, Tom McGurk, started off smoothly with flattering questions about Blair's role in the Northern Ireland peace process and gossipy snippets. Days after he was first elected, Blair "bounded down the stairs" and announced "I've worked out how to solve the Northern Ireland problem". And if that bit of Boy's Own cheesiness doesn't make you howl with laughter, I admire your complete lack of cynicism.
"I'm going to move on to the whole Iraq business in a minute," said McGurk before an ad break - and that's when the two-chaps-chatting-in-studio façade gave way to a snarling, sniping interview that was a riveting listen.
"What was a press officer doing authoring intelligence briefings?" was the first question, and it set the tone for what was to follow. McGurk talked to Campbell about his "instrumental part" in the decision to got to war, and, referring to the thousands of deaths, he tried to pick at the spin. "Have you no moral feeling about this?" he asked, mentioning that day's news of 80 people killed in a car-bomb explosion in Iraq. Campbell stuck to his guns about the decision to go to war being an attempt "in very trying circumstances to do the right thing". By this point he had started to preface his answers with "with respect" and using his interviewer's first name - always a sign that chumminess has gone out the window.
Campbell said his first question upon arriving for the interview was "Where's Pat Kenny?" "Is that a compliment?" asked McGurk. "Take it as you will." sniped Campbell, having the last word.