The late Gerry Ryan takes a highly critical look at his own television career in an interview broadcast on TV3 tonight at 9pm. He talks about how colleagues told him they were "ashamed" to work for RTÉ because of his show 'Secrets' and why he thought Eurovision was a "pile of camp crap" before he was offered the chance to present it in 1994.
Billed as 'The Last Interview', the programme was filmed in Dublin’s Four Seasons Hotel on October 21 2009 and Ryan is in relaxed and self effacing form as he looks back over his 31 years as a broadcaster. It focuses on his TV career as a presenter of 'Secrets', 'Ryantown' and 'Ryan Confidential' and he’s very forthright about his experiences.
"When I did 'Secrets' I would be walking around the campus in RTÉ and I would have people coming up to me saying, 'I am ashamed to work in RTÉ because of that show. It is disgusting'," he says in tonight’s interview. "I’d think, 'Ok that’s what my own guys think of me . . .' Every Sunday my wife used to cut things out of the paper about me before I could get to them and wouldn’t have to see them.
"Week after week I’d see another headline saying 'Another Turkey For Ryan' and there would be a picture of me with a turkey’s head superimposed on my face. I took it very personally. It was very difficult week in, week out. It’s going to get to you eventually."
He also talks about how he was initially approached to present the Eurovision Song Contest in Millstreet in 1993. "I don’t think that was really ever going to happen because Joe Barry, the Director General at the time, would rather have had Satan presenting it than me."
When the chance came up again the following year, he leapt at it. "I thought the Eurovision was a pile of camp crap but the minute I was asked to do it I was like, 'Oh thank you! Oh thank you!'”
He also describes 'Ryantown' as "utterly, utterly catastrophic" and 'Gerry Ryan Tonight' as “bulls***”. He also says he would rather have his "own legs sawn off" than present the 'Rose of Tralee' and that his one night presenting 'The Late Late Show' was the highlight of his broadcasting career.
"The head of entertainment said to me, 'We want you to do 'The Late Late Show''. And I said no because I always feel the guests don’t get enough time and I feel like an eejit and that I don’t contribute anything when I go on. It never works. He said, 'No - we want you to present 'The Late Late Show'. I said, 'Yeah!'"
However, 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' was the show Ryan really coveted.
Ryan jokes: "Gay [Byrne] kept getting in the way. I’d think, 'It’s a pity Gay’s not dead because then I’d stand a chance of doing it'. I’d sit there going, 'Please Gay, die'."
Originally filmed as part of TV3’s 'That’s Entertainment' series, Ryan also talks about his very first TV presenting jobs in the show at 9pm.
