The theme was Toy Story with your host as cowboy Woody. But did the Late Late Toy Show deliver a special kind of magic? Donal O’Donoghue reports
Last night Ryan Tubridy once again broke some cardinal rules of his business: namely never work with children, animals or gaily coloured plastic toy houses. Because you never know when it all might come crashing down around you. But that’s what The Late Late Toy Show – or the Greatest TV Toy Show on Earth as it is now known – is all about. Or in other words the cute, the cuddly and the chaotic.
Last night's show was different from the very opening with the signature tune reworked into a Christmassy style jingle. Then we were crashlanded into some crazy panto with costumed kids singing, breakdancing and lepping about like they had escaped from the set of Willy Wonka. Or in fact Toy Story because that was the show's theme with Mr T popping out of a box as cowboy Woody and into studio full of toys that stretched to infinity and beyond.
Tubs was like a kid in a candy store – or that other Tom Hanks’ movie character, the big kid in Big: dashing about the crazy toy store set carolling "I love toys" and exhorting us to buy Irish and giving Cookie Monster a hard time.
For one night the recession and the euro and all that bad stuff was forgotten. This was another world, somewhere over the rainbow, where everything was Technicolor (even the doll’s poo) and we were all kids again. It was a special night for kids across the land – many were given a golden ticket to stay up late and watch the show – while all the other grown-up kids sat in the audience and whooped and hollered at the toys, the kids, Tubridy's wisecracks’ and, especially, the ‘there’s-one-for-everyone-in-the-audience' line.
Tubridy quickly ditched his Woody cowboy get-up for the now icomic Christmas jumper – a snowman on skis in case you're wondering – and got down to the business of being six years old again. He was a natural at it. But the stars of the show were the real kids – a bunch of cute, talented, cheeky, enthusiastic and mini X Factor types. They all came to be here via auditions: some on trikes, some on bikes and many in a super group. At times it was like a show called ‘Ireland’s Got Talent but Also Lots of Toys’. And occasionally it went off script – toys falling apart, the kid playing guitar to AC/DC’s 'Highway to Hell' and that young lad who put Tubs back in his box (metaphorically speaking).
And for a while – well two hours – we forgot the recession. We were all big kids, lost in nostalgia and up to our eyes in spy cars, muppets, dinosaurs and Fidgets.
Now the only thing is: how are we going to pay for those toys?
But that’s where Santa comes in, isn’t it folks?
