RTE is the national broadcasting company for the Republic of Ireland. Living in the North of the island, we have always had access to the channel, although at one stage (before NTL / Virgin) it did require an aeriel that was about 20 ft high!
Last night, very late, sister-in-law and I had managed to gain control of the remote for the tele and were flicking through the various cable channels when we chanced upon RTE1. The news was just finishing and the weather was about to come on so we paused for a minute to see what was in prospect for today. It cuts to a shot of a man, old enough to be your Da and dressed like hes going to your cousins wedding.
I'm studying the map behind him trying to work out what part of Ireland he is explaining the weather for, and I'm just not recognising it. And then sister-in-law sits up and exclaims 'Thats California!' And so it was. Why they were broadcasting the weather in California we can only guess. But, this being RTE, it's probably because Mary from Roundwood, Co.Wicklow wrote in to 'Brendan the weatherman' to say her wee Seamy had gone to Los Angeles for his holidays and could they please let her know what kind of weather he was having so she could send out some more factor 50 if he needed it.
We were still in shock from the weather when the 'Late night prayer' came on. How lovely, we both thought. We should have known better. The 'prayer' transpired to be a short story about Mary who was visually impaired and her dog going to Mass and then buying chocolate biscuits in the local corner shop. They didn't even say 'Amen' at the end of it.
I have to say, I haven't laughed as much in ages, the pair of us were choking on our late night cup of tea (all very Mrs Doyle!) So, if you have cable or even satellite, can I suggest you have a wee gander at RTE, it's good for a laugh.
4 comments:
Lovely story. Last year, on holiday in Malta, we found a TV programme with an old guy showing people how to do different knots with rope. It was all in Maltese except for the names of the knots. We watched it for at least an hour as the Italio/Franco/Arabic guttural and glotal language suddenly became a round turn and two half hitches.
Nigeria TV is even worse. They cut the programme off before it finishes because they have run out of time and want to start the next one!
....anyway, what were you doing up so late? I thought you put your curlers in and went to bed early every night with your cup of cocoa and your book club homework.
I couldn't find my face cream, or the glass to put my false teeth into for that matter, so I was having a bit of a late night.
Anyway, 'late' is relative - this was RTE, were they show the 'Late, Late Show' at 9pm!
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