Sir, Reading Eddie Holt's article of September 28th, I felt somewhat elated to discover that there is somebody out there who agrees with me regarding the talents of these so called "stars" of Irish television. I have long since disagreed with, and continue to question, market research statistics which suggest that 700,000 or 8,00,000, or whatever the figure is, watch The Late Late Show Even if my suspicions are unfounded and the figures are reasonably accurate, it would be interesting to ascertain how many of these viewers enjoy the show.
In recent years I have found from talking to several people, both male and female, of all age groups that in many cases it's just one person out of a family of five or six who insists on switching to the Late Late channel, so the actual viewers could be one filth or one sixth of the marketing figures quoted. Eddie Holt was commenting on the two Late, Late Show's in which Gerry Adams took part. His description of the original show was "a rude, ill conceived and amateurish ambush" and of the latest show, "smug and sanctimonious".
Surely most of poor old Mr Byrne's efforts over recent years have been amateurish and supercilious, or smug and sanctimonious. I wonder whom Mike Murphy had in mind in his book Mike and Me when he commented: "I think I am slightly embarrassed by the facile way that fame and admiration comes the way of even untalented TV `personalities'." Yours, etc.,
Raheny,
Dublin.