TV VIEW/Johnny WattersonWith their GAA magazine programme Breaking Ball, Setanta Television pulled off something of a coup and were able to produce a Gaelic games package that reflected the GAA's modern thinking.
The programme is presented in a crisp, trimmed way and uses innovative set-pieces and current popular music to set the tempo and drive the various bite-sized pieces that make up the 30-minute slot.
The strength of Breaking Ball lies in the fact that the script, written by Tom Humphries and Seán Moran of this newspaper and Denis Walsh of the Sunday Times, is even and on the button.
How Setanta could follow Breaking Ball with At The End Of The Day, screened on RTÉ 1 on Monday evenings, at times tempted you to believe Breaking Ball was a miracle of chance.
The new quiz show, which arrives in the absence of George Hamilton's "Know Your Umbrella", sets two celebrity teams against each other in a similar format to BBC's A Question Of Sport, presented by Sue Barker. There the comparisons end.
Tracy Piggott, school marmish and for some reason asked to diligently tick off the questions and answers with a biro (was she actually keeping the scores too ?) introduced the two teams. Captain Tony Cascarino and rugby's Neil Francis teamed up with Paddy Courtney.
Courtney was the gag man. Inserted to keep the show moving at a rollickingly funny pace, Courtney was doomed even before a question was asked.
Introduced by Piggott as the man "who gave up accountancy to become one of Ireland's funniest comedians" was not only a contradiction of sorts but flagged us to the likely possibility this person would not make us laugh, although would be relentless in his efforts.
The opposition team including Lord Clifton Wrottesley, Michael Carruth and captain Joe Brolly, had no professional help in the laugh department except, occasionally, from several of the questions.
Old footage of Alex Higgins practising on a snooker table was shown. Who was he? When did he win the two world snooker championships? What age was he when he won the first and, wait for it, how much money did he get for winning the first? Big Cas gamely ventured, "about £400 or £500".
"You're wrong. In fact it was £480," said Piggott, scribbling furiously with her biro on the jotter in front.
Brolly's team was asked what belt Courtney holds in judo. Reasoning that nobody, not even one of the country's funniest former accountants, would arrive on national television and declare they hold a yellow belt or a brown belt in the sport, they concluded it must be black. Right answer.
Neil Francis, in a specialist round, was asked to go head to head with Lord Clifton Wrottesley. What was the sport that made a return to the last Winter Olympics, Wrottesley was asked.
"The Skeleton," he replied knowing for a fact he'd nearly won a medal in it about a year ago.
Who was the Irish captain in the 1991, Francis was asked. Franno, not taking too long to figure out who it was captaining the side around the time he was winning some of his 36 caps in the second row kept a straight face. "Philip Mathews," the former lock suggested. Right again.
"If you offered me a BLANK this morning, I'd be all over you," said Sam Torrance. "What was the missing word," asked Piggott. A brolly, suggested the Comedian.
Nope. A 69, we were told, to the sound of barely stifled laughter. Adult sex on a sports quiz show. Now that is hilarious.
The show lurched along. The questions spanned the chasm between impossibly easy and plain impossible. One of the draws of quiz shows in sport is not just for the family at home, the ones that count, to shout out the answers and display their sporting anorak tendencies, but the chance to see footage of sport.
There was a "what happens next round" but asking viewers to remain interested largely in former and current international sportsmen looking perplexed or embarrassed and answering questions about themselves smacks of lack of effort.
Something the panellists would never have been guilty of doing.
Another question posed on Sky Sports on Saturday night was would Wayne McCullough 2 - The Pocket Rocket flies again - triumph in his first British fight in seven years, staged in London. The 32-year-old was asked to impress as well as win. And he did.
He then hoisted his four-year-old daughter Wynona into the ring after the fourth round stoppage of South African Johannes Maisa and declared he was back.
McCullough could well come up as a quiz question in the RTÉ series. It could either be, at what sport did Wayne McCullough win an Olympic medal or what weight is his daughter?
