Question marks over Doyle’s quiz show return

TV Watch with Declan Tierney

Jaysus there were times when we would give up everything for Anne Doyle. She was the RTÉ newscaster who seemed to have everything.

She had the looks, she had the boobs, she had the steely charisma that had obviously attracted a lot of admirers over the years . . . and she commanded an authority.

A couple of years back she decided to resign from RTÉ and give up news reading which was a brave decision on her part at the time. But it is one that she doesn’t obviously regret.

But it is her re-emergence on television which annoys me most. Here we have an ageing former news reader now back on our TV screens presenting a quiz show which is nothing short of an abomination.

Like, Anne Doyle was a newscaster. She was never a gameshow host. She was never a quizmaster. She was never someone that got involved in light entertainment and yet she now finds herself behind a horrendous quiz show on RTE.

This was a typical case of horses for courses. Ann Doyle was a very good news reader but when it comes to light entertainment of this variety, she is terrible. She is so wooden that she reminded me of the Seoige sisters who find it difficult to relate to other people.

The previous night Anne Doyle was on the Brendan O’Connor show in an unfortunate blue dress which didn’t do anything for her shape. They proceeded to engage in a conversation that meant nothing to the watching audience as it seemed to relate to a meeting that they had previously and there were various strange innuendos attached.

It was a very strange interview in view of the fact that it was just schoolyard banter between both host and guest without any questions being asked. In the end, he did ask her about why she didn’t get married and she gave the routine answer about not having any great passion to have children and all that.

Apart from telling us that she is otherwise involved in a long-term relationship with a widower, the interview was pointless and only mentioned the fact that she was hosting a new quiz show at the end of the meaningless discussion.

Roll on the following evening and we have Anne Doyle presenting a quiz show in which the participants were housed in steel sheds. Now, I can appreciate that the RTÉ budget is not what it used to be but the set was abomination. It was like something that you would have in your garden but you wouldn’t want your neighbours to see.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.