Too much information, George

RADIO REVIEW:A COMMON confidence-building tip given to nervous public speakers is to imagine the audience in their undergarments, or less. But judging by The Right Hook(Newstalk, weekdays), the reverse process does not hold true. This week, as George Hook revealed that he liked to sleep naked, the image of the presenter reposing au naturel sent a shiver down the spine of the listener rather than providing any reassurance.

Hook cannot be accused of inconsistency. Never one to back away from voicing what he sees as hard political or social truths, Hook was equally frank about his intimate grooming habits, however much his audience may have wished otherwise. Not only did he share his tips for comfortable night-time nudity – “duvets all round, less sweating, more breathing” – he candidly referred to past occasions when he had worn the same underwear for a week. We’ve all heard of shock jocks, but this was ridiculous.

The trigger for Hook's oversharing about his smalls – and his nocturnal lack thereof – was Wednesday's news that a Dublin social-welfare office had banned the wearing of pyjamas by those attending interviews. The item had already been the subject of an illuminating vox pop by the reporter Henry McKean on Moncrieff(Newstalk, weekdays). Among the highlights were an unemployed mother of three who praised the comfiness of her velour Mickey Mouse pyjamas while speaking of her postnatal depression, and an ex-con who berated the fashion for nightwear while admitting he had sometimes worn nothing but tracksuit bottoms. "But that's lying behind a locked door in a cell; I wouldn't be walking the streets," he added.

Hook was predictably more opinionated on the matter. “It sends out a terrible message if you go to the dole in your pyjamas,” he said. His annoyance seemed less concerned with bashing social welfare recipients per se. Having faced unemployment himself, Hook felt it was vital to maintain the routines of washing and dressing even when not working. “This is not for others; it’s about self-esteem,” the presenter said, raising one of his favourite bugbears.

A low estimation of one’s own worth seems to be, in Hook’s view, the most egregious misfortune that can befall anyone, whether due to joblessness or more private reasons, and he faces up to anything that may cause it, no matter how discomfiting. Hence, when discussing Tuesday’s news about €6.3 million being spent on Viagra for medical-card holders, Hook referred to his own experience of erectile dysfunction.

Speaking to Dr Derek Freedman of St James’s Hospital, the presenter said he knew all about the lack of self-esteem caused by the condition but was concerned whether such medication should be a spending priority, particularly when some recipients might “go to the pub and sell [Viagra pills] for a tenner each”. Freedman countered Hook’s fears, while memorably comparing this “efficacious medication” to a splint – “sometimes you just need it for a short time and it returns back to normal” – a metaphor that only added to the show’s catalogue of disturbing mental images. Overall, Hook lacked the outraged tone he normally reserves for stories of outlandish public spending, perhaps because he understood the condition well.

Busy as he was divulging personal information, Hook was curiously indifferent to the handover of €1.25 billion to Anglo Irish Bank’s senior unguaranteed bondholders, describing it as “an irrelevancy”. Others were more exercised, however, as much by Leo Varadkar’s assertion that a failure to pony up would cause a “bomb” to go off in Dublin as by the payment itself.

Colm Hayes(2FM, weekdays), who appears to be positioning his show as the pop-music station's public-affairs forum, was particularly incensed by Varadkar's stance. On Tuesday he repeatedly intercut the offending quote with a clip of the Minister's pre-election pledge that Anglo was "not getting another cent". It was an unabashedly opportunistic skewering on Hayes's part, but it was also an effective slice of polemical broadcasting, nicely priming his show for the heated debate that never quite followed. Instead the contributions, from politicians, campaigners and listeners alike, were measured and reasoned, perhaps because the opposing sides never really crossed paths on air.

Philip Boucher-Hayes delivered a more quietly damning indictment on Monday's Drivetime(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), when he forensically dissected Varadkar's alarmist assertions. Delivering his report with a tone of calm patrician authority, Boucher-Hayes undermined the Minister's comparison of Ireland to Denmark (in relation to the potential interest-rate rises that would supposedly follow nonpayment of such debt) and dismantled the claim that the IMF-ECB-EU troika "spoke with one mind". As a kicker, the reporter also pointed out that all but €1 billion of the unsecured senior debt had been repaid. Soon, he said, "there will be no bondholders left to burn. They will all be left holding taxpayer cash instead."

It was a disturbing thought: even the image of Hook in his greying Y-fronts could not dislodge it.

radioreview@irishtimes.com

Radio moment of the week

For sheer incongruity, it was hard to top the brief appearance by John Banville, Ireland's master of austere literary fiction, on Liveline(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays). As Banville spoke about the Oscar-nominated film Albert Nobbs,which he scripted, his taciturn manner unsurprisingly seemed lost as he spoke to Joe Duffy, who did his best to draw out his guest. Still, there was evidence of the writer's bone-dry wit when he spoke about publishing under his own name and his crime-fiction pseudonym of Benjamin Black. "A Banville in one hand and a Black in the other," he said, gently chuckling. "I'll be the Danny Morrison of the publishing world."