The Podge and Rodge Show

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The Podge and Rodge Show

RTÉ promotional picture
Genre Talkshow/Comedy
Camera setup Multi-camera
Picture format PAL (16:9)
Audio format Stereo
Running time 22 minutes
Creator(s) Ciaran Morrison
Mick O'Hara
Developer(s) Ciaran Morrison
Mick O'Hara
Executive producer(s) Jim Jennings
Starring Lucy Kennedy
Ciaran Morrison (Rodge)
Mick O'Hara (Podge)
Country of origin Ireland
Language(s) English/Irish
Original channel RTÉ Two
Original run 6 February 2006–Present
No. of episodes 42
Official website
IMDb profile

The Podge and Rodge Show (also known as The Podge and Rodge Show with Lucy Kennedy) is an Irish television show, broadcast and produced by RTÉ, featuring the two puppets Podge and Rodge as the hosts of the chatshow, with Lucy Kennedy as a co-host. It currently airs every Monday and Tuesday at 22:50 on RTÉ Two.

The show takes place in the fictional Ballydung Manor, a joke at Irish town names that begin with 'Bally-' (eg. Ballymena or Ballyhaunis). Another place mentioned is the "Stickitt Inn", thought to be in Ballydung.

It features celebrity interviews of a humorous nature and other humorous elements such as quizzes and racenights including hamsters in mazes and sheep shearing.

The show has been a phemomonal ratings success, regularly getting over 400,000 viewers a show, peaking at 440,000 for the week beginning April 9th 2006. It regularly has more viewers than Desperate Housewives and Lost, both of which are also shown on RTÉ Two. It is catching up to RTÉ's flagship show—The Late Late Show—which airs on Friday nights on RTÉ One, and has approximately half a million viewers.

Following on from the success of their show, Podge and Rodge were asked to appear in a number of ads for RTÉ which encouraged viewers to pay their television licences.[1]

Contents

[edit] First series

A pilot episode entitled An Audience with Podge and Rodge was broadcast on RTÉ on St. Stephen's Day in 2005. The series began in earnest on 6 February 2006.

Foster and Allen were among the guests on the first series. Podge and Rodge had previously mimicked them on their show A Scare at Bedtime with Podge and Rodge. Their characters are called "Fester and Ailin'" and have been seen on Irish television satirically arguing with Foster and Allen, with each claiming the other copied their act. Fester states: "Ailin' here came out of the womb with that accordion on him". Fester and Ailin' also claim that Foster and Allen's song "Bunch of Thyme" was in fact a stolen copy of their original work "Bunch of Lesbians". Fester and Ailin's other songs include "Tropical Diseases", "The Monkey Song" and "Doing the Wife's Sisters on the Sly" as well as the classic yuletide number "Dead Man Up The Chimney".[2]

When Ireland's Eurovision representatives Donna and Joseph McCaul were invited onto the show, they were asked to sing their entry for the competition. No sooner had they begun than the nasty duo went for an ad break only to come back as the song was ending, with the McCauls unaware of what had happened.

Tom Dunne was mocked for his lack of chart success with band Something Happens. Then in true Podge and Rodge style he was ridiculed with past clips of him sporting a bad hairstyle.

The series may best be remembered for Podge and Rodge's lustful fascination with Áine Chambers who they discovered online at www.sligozone.net and later invited on the show as a guest. She partook in a "Blind Date" spoof in which she was asked to choose between the two to take on a date.[3]

A feature introduced in the first series was Rodge's Wrister Wreview.[4] It involved various items, such as books, magazines and television shows receiving the expert opinion of Rodge. The items were rated on the Wrister Scale which was displayed on the screen.

Never to be accused of ignoring current affairs,[5] the duo aired their views on the naked calendar craze that was sweeping the world[6] and even did their bit to help out when Ireland was faced by fears of a bird-flu pandemic; they decided to 'kill' The Late Late Show owl. After spending much time taking aim, they eventually shot him to pieces.[7] Also in current affairs they found time to discuss the SSIAs, taking digs at Eddie Hobbs, Pat Kenny and The Late Late Show along the way.[8]

Johnny Vegas appeared as the last guest on the final show of the first series which was broadcast on 2 May 2006. His memorable interview involved him rambling on and on while Podge and Rodge watched on in disbelief.[9]

[edit] Second series

The second series began on October 16, 2006 with an appearance by Big Brother contestant Spiral.[10] Lucy revealed that she had been busy studying online over the summer and was now a fully qualified Sex Learning and Utopian Therapist (SLUT). She went out on the streets of Ireland to find out people's knowledge of all matters sexual.[11]

A feature that first appeared in this series was Ballydung Idol which featured spoofs of famous songs including "David Hasselhoff" (The Irish Hoff) performing "Jump in My Car" with "Pamela Anderson". Others to feature included the Singing Brickie, Richie Kavanagh, Bernard McHugh and Mary Harness (who performed Wuthering Heights). When the performance had reached a sufficient level of "crapiness" a fart sound erupted to halt proceedings. The level of "crap" was measured on a crapometer which Richie Kavanagh won with one minute and fifty-five seconds.[12] Winning Streak (a parody on the RTÉ produced gameshow of the same name) invited streakers to film their exploits and send them into the show with extra points being awarded for things such as more daylight and public streaking. Miss Ballydung was a beauty contest of sorts; a cross between Miss World and The Rose of Tralee. It featured such beauties as Miss Muck[13], Miss Poledance Fitness[14] and Miss Muff[15]. Queen of the Land bottle-fed a lamb as Podge and Rodge made references to its imminent digestion by a hungry human. The final will be held on the Monday 18 December 2006 episode.

Episode fifteen of this series, broadcast on 4 December 2006, was billed as The Sex-Toy Show[16], a reference to the popular annual Irish television tradition The Late Late Toy Show which had been broadcast three days earlier. Lucy and the boys were joined by a team of sexperts who unveiled some of the best selling sex-toys on the market.[17] The guests were asked to demonstrate a number of adult toys which jokingly included an inflatable Pat Kenny.[18] Patrick Kielty was surprised to find himself locked in a cage as the credits rolled.[19] An "apology" was issued on the following night's show. [20]

In continuing with their trend of inviting weathermen onto the show, Daithí Ó Sé made an appearance.[21] He was asked to present the weather while taking part in an Evil Circus.

Brian Kennedy was the latest in along line of Eurovision representatives that had been on the show, following on from the likes of Mickey Joe Harte, Dickie Rock, the McCauls and J-Lo. Therefore Podge and Rodge took the liberty of deciding not to mention the Eurovision for the entire interview.[22]

Aslan's Christy Dignam had his hand gestures made fun of with Podge asking him if he'd ever considered presenting the News For The Deaf. He spoke of his time in Thailand with Buddhist monks. Podge and Rodge reflected on newpaper headlines including the one which heralded the band's supposed "split" and "Christy Dignam Dead!", a case of mistaken identity that even Gerry Ryan fell for.

When Dara O'Briain appeared on the show as a guest he pointed out that he had asked the duo to appear on his show The Panel at a time when nobody else in RTÉ would give them a chance and that they had the cheek to now have 100,000 more viewers. Podge responded by pointing out that the correct figure was 250,000.

Ray D'Arcy was another face from the past to feature in the second series.[23] Darcy, now a popular DJ on Irish radio, used to present children's television show The Den on which Podge and eventually Rodge made their first television appearances.

The duo gave their own version of The Late Late Show intrusion when comedian Paddy Courtney interrupted them as they broadcast one episode, shouting foul-mouthed obscenities which resulted in the screen switching to the show logo. The show continued as Podge promptly pulled out a gun, a fake gunshot was heard and the man was next seen lying flat on the floor as if dead.[24]

Innuendo was again a common feature in each episode including references to places such as Wank, a mountain in Bavaria and the village of Fucking, near Salzburg in Austria. Shitty Santas was a countdown of the five worst Irish television santas. Number one was Sean Moncrieff who was then interviewed by the duo who dubbed him as "one of the six bald broadcasters of Ireland". (Dara Ó Briain, Anthony Murnane, Ray Shah, and Mark Cagney being the others.) Colin Carroll discussed the sport of elephant-polo of which he helped Ireland win the World Championship. He attempted to break a world record; the fastest time to eat three crackers. The world record was fifty seconds but Carroll only managed fifty-nine seconds before spitting the third cracker over Podge and Rodge.

[edit] Christmas special

Podge and Rodge will host a special show The Nightmare Before Christmas from Ballydung Manor on December 19. It will celebrate Christmas from their perspective. Guests are yet to be confirmed.

[edit] New Year's Eve special

Podge and Rodge will ring in 2007 on 31 December in a special programme lasting forty minutes instead of the usual thirty-minute format. The New Year's Eve show will be called Bogmannay. It will be broadcast on RTÉ Two from 11.30p.m. On it the boys will be looking back at some of the highlights of their year. They will also be handing out their very own Ballydung Awards and announcing the winners of the Miss Ballydung and Ballydung Idol contests. Guests are yet to be confirmed.

[edit] DVD

A DVD of highlights from season one and other bonus features was released in Ireland on Friday, 3 November 2006.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Songs

[edit] Articles


Radio Telefís Éireann original programmes corporate logo
Comedy & Drama shows: The Blizzard of Odd | Bull Island | Hall's Pictorial Weekly | The Irish R.M. | The Panel | The Podge and Rodge Show | A Scare at Bedtime | Strumpet City
News & Current Affairs: Discovery | Nine O'Clock News | One O'Clock News | Prime Time | Questions and Answers | Reeling In The Years | 7 Days | Six One News
Chat shows: Kenny Live | The Late Late Show | The Live Mike | Tubridy Tonight
Soap operas: Bracken | Fair City | Glenroe | The Riordans | Tolka Row
Talent Contests: Celebrity Jigs 'n' Reels | Charity You're A Star | You're A Star
Irish language: Buntús Cainte | Trom agus Éadrom
Children's: Bosco | The Den | Wanderly Wagon

See also: List of programmes broadcast by RTÉ
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