Q&A

CRAIG DOYLEtalks Twitter, RTÉ and giving the people what they want with EOIN BUTLER

Your new RTÉ show is about social media. But you don’t have a Twitter account. So how is the show going to work?

No, I’m not on Twitter. I don’t like Twitter. I don’t know what it’s about. Maybe I’m insecure, but anyone I know who has signed up has always ended up regretting it. Obviously, it has a role for people voicing opinion on matters that are in the public domain. But I don’t like the other side of it.

What side is that?

Angry, vitriolic people who use the site to attack people. I saw what happened to Ryan Tubridy and some others I know, and I just didn’t like it. But to get back to your question, the show will have its own Twitter page.

So if we want to send you abuse we can do it via that account?

Yes, abuse the show’s Twitter page by all means.

How many of the futuristic gadgets you introduced to the world on ‘Tomorrow’s World’ came into everyday use?

Wow, that’s an interesting question. I did that show from 1996 to 1999, and even then the day of robots and gizmos was gone. I remember doing a piece on video phones, telling the audience that one day in the distant future a product like this might possibly exist. Of course, the phone was the size of a bus. Fast forward to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand this year and I was able to go into a coffee shop, connect to wifi and chat face-to-face with my kids. That’s amazing.

You once described yourself as having a boy-next-door persona. What do people not know about you that would most undermine that image?

I’m sure my wife could mention a hundred things. I’m 40 now. I’m quite irritable. If I open a door for someone and they don’t thank me, I will say it to them. So I’m no longer the boy next door, I’m the man next door. On second thoughts, don’t put that. That makes me sound like a serial killer.

Besides serial killer, what did you want to be when you were a young lad?

There were lots of things. I wanted to be a vet. I wanted to be an army cadet. But I was talked out of both of those. Which is just as well, because I’d never have been able to do the same thing every day. I just don’t have the attention span.

From 2004 to 2008, you hosted a programme called ‘Young, Irish and Wealthy’. Wasn’t that show emblematic of a lot that was wrong in Irish society in those years?

Yeah. Was I uncomfortable doing it? Maybe a little. But television is about serving the audience’s appetite. And at the time, all people wanted to know was who was making money and what were they spending it on.

Would you ever do ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ or one of those shows?

No. I have a problem with all that spangly stuff. It’s not me. Admittedly, I did some sort of a singing thing recently for the Cancer Trust in the UK, and that was just awful. But at least it was for a good cause. If you have to do the jungle one – whatever it is called – your career is already in the shit. It’s time to go back to college.

You had a brief run as a Saturday night chat-show host on RTÉ. Did you enjoy that?

I thought I would, but I didn't. People come on, they plug the book or whatever, and then they leave. It wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped. I seemed to find myself constantly interviewing people from Coronation Streetand EastEnders. I'm sure they're lovely people, but I've never watched those shows in my life. Michael Parkinson says a chat show is like inviting people into your home. It's important that you give a damn about your guests because, if you don't, it comes across.

Some snide reports in the press suggested that you had a sense of entitlement – that having been successful in Britain, you thought you could just walk into your own show here?

One of that paper's main feature writers was allegedly in a battle with me for Saturday night – I didn't see it that way myself – but it was hardly surprising that they hadn't nice things to say about me. Six or seven years ago, I'd have thought, sure, I did this or that in the UK. Where's my show? But it doesn't work like that. This show I'm doing now, The Social, is the first show that was made with RTÉ where I have a desk, a car pass to get through the gate. It's taken me that long to get that respect in there, but I've no problem with that.

The Socialbegins on RTÉ2 on Tuesday, November 15th