The spoof sporting commentary of Apres Match has been the best comedy output from RTE over the past few years, and the live version, plus a variety of guests, was a cracking show. It featured the usual (and some less usual) suspects - Bill O'Herlihy, Eamon Dunphy, Johnny Giles, Frank Stapleton, Mick McCarthy, Mark Lawrenson, Alex Ferguson, even Kevin Myers hosting a Last Word, in a series of match discussions, behind-the-camera chat, poetry, song (!), and a demonstration of Stapleton's newly-invented football boots, each made out of a single, small Guatamalan cow.
"It's a metaform." Huh? Right, Frank. Barry Murphy, Risteard Cooper and Gary Cooke were in sparkling form, waltzing in and out of the characters. The Apres Match sketches were interspersed with the other acts, who also made varied appearances in the sketches in what was a refreshingly well-structured show. Both Ian Coppinger and MC Eddie Bannon were great, and brothers Mark Doherty and David O'Doherty, who usually perform separately, made a terrific double act, Mark's odd-logic observations and David's more upbeat geekiness and Jonathan Richman-style songs complementing each other perfectly. More, more, of all of it.
