Every week we take a look in the RTÉ Guide archives to check out the cover stories from years gone by. "Comedy is one of the most difficult things to bring successfully to the television screen," wrote Ultan Macken in the RTÉ Guide on this week in 1982, and he wasn't wrong. But the recent successful launch of the British version of the legendary American sketch show Saturday Night Live shows that there's still an appetite for a sketch comedy show with musical interludes, and Irish talent has made an impact on both sides of the camera at SNL UK. Irish writer and comedian Gráinne Maguire is working in the writers' room and Jamie Dornan was the show's second guest host; Nicola Coughlan, who had a cameo in the first episode, returns to host this weekend.
There was no SNL in Ireland in 1982, but there was the one and only Twink, aka Adele King, whose eponymous music and comedy show launched that spring. The creative team included performers Twink, Jonathan Ryan and Tom Murphy, and writers Brendan Balfe, Tom Andrews, Brendan and Martin and Paddy Murphy.
According to Macken's article in the RTÉ Guide, "the performers, writers and producers had a series of meetings in which they thrashed out the basic kind of sketches on which they wanted to work. Good family entertainment jokes, no politics, no satire, just good jokes - that was the aim."
There was more to the show than comedy, as Macken explained. "Musically Twink is a pleasant series with a song each week commissioned from an established Irish songwriter and a guest star from the world of Irish pop."
You can see Twink in action on the show here.
