Having dropped Tonight with Vincent Browne and its star item, the re-enactments of the tribunals by actors Joe Taylor and Malcolm Douglas, RTE has brought it back in response to public demand. It was always intended to broadcast some shows recording Charlie Haughey's appearance at Moriarty, but this has now been extended to cover the new revelations at the Flood Tribunal about radio licences and such like. Vincent Browne was summoned back both this week and next to do it, with Emily O'Reilly, and RTE now say they will include re-enactments in the new late political show planned for radio this autumn. There will be a new presenter, not yet found, and format.
Sources in RTE say the powers that be, who tend to believe the country shuts down for June, July and August thus making it safe to let the top presenters away for long holidays, came under such pressure to cover the tribunals in the depth Browne did, that the policy reversal was forced on them. Meanwhile, Taylor and Douglas have been racing from their show, Will We Get A Receipt For This? Will We F...? at Dublin's HQ, to Montrose for the nightly broadcast. They finish about 10.15 p.m., read the transcripts in the taxi and are on air around 10.30 p.m. During the day, they attend the tribunals to pick up the accents. From being jobless when the Browne show closed at the end of June, they are now over-extended.
Some members of the HQ audience, including the critics, have been presented with brown envelopes stuffed with fake £20 notes. Mr Justice Feargus Flood, who attended with his wife on Tuesday night, didn't receive one, but one retired senior judge did. Happily, the production to date has avoided the writs that in their line of legal work is something of a hazard.
