Sir, – Dr Matthew Sadlier’s late father deserves 10 out of 10 for imagination (Letters, January 17th).
In my time as an RTÉ newsroom reporter (1974-1979), I cannot claim to have seen Charles Mitchel scaling the RTÉ mast, but he may have done so on my days off.
On numerous occasions, however, Charles and I worked together on the so-called graveyard shift, up to and including the midnight news. With no one else around, the senior newscaster would read out some of the many heart-rending letters he received from his admirers. Not unnaturally, they treated him as a confidant since he appeared in their living rooms every evening on the box.
One lady explained that her daughter was heading off to America to marry “the wrong man”. “I will be left alone”, she wrote, adding: “What am I to do, Charles?” I was amazed and asked him what he would tell her. “Oh, I’ll tell her nothing. I never give advice”, he said.
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He then opened a drawer in his desk which was full of black-and-white photos of a smiling, youthful Charles Mitchel (at that time he was almost 60). On the back of the picture he signed off with the words: “With best wishes from Charles”, before popping the photo into an RTÉ envelope which ended up in the out tray. Turning to me with his trademark grin, he said: “There you are. Problem solved.”
I have included this anecdote, and many more from RTÉ and other newsrooms around the world, in my recent memoir Line of Fire: Journeys Through a Media Minefield (Orpen Press). – Yours, etc,
DAVID O’DONOGHUE,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.