Green Tea - Quality Control ??

Ernest

Green Tea is an externally-sourced programme but that doesn't excuse RTE from maintaining overall editorial control on what it contains.

Its jokes are lame and repetitive, it has a few very good voice imitations (Miriam O'Callaghan and Micheal Martin for example and Cowan when he was relevant) and a few modest efforts (Tubridy, Marianne Finucane, Joe Duffy and Enda Kenny, for instance) but they have failed completely to capture Munster accents like Michael Noonan and Joe Higgins and have very weak imitations of Alan Shatter and Eamonn Gilmore. Their take on Michael D Higgins still consists of shrieks and whoops and is not in the least funny and now that he is President must be considered to be in very bad taste.

That aside, the script is consistently very weak and has become quite formulaic. They seem to have finally dropped the "dame Enda" line which was never very clever. The dreary female voice at the introduction of the programme and end is just that - a dreary voice which adds nothing. Worst of all, the the coarse vulgarity of some of the lines really grates. Could they please be persuaded that repeatedly saying "sh*te" and "gob-sh*te" is not funny any longer.

I recall, back in the days of Gay Byrne's Late Late Show, hearing the late Hugh Leonard marvel at Irish theatre audiences falling about laughing whenever a character on stage used a swear word. I really think that contemporary radio audiences have moved on - even though the writer(s) of Green Tea do not seem to think so.

padd b1975

+1 on your point re Michael D, Callen should be pulled aside and told to learn some manners and show some respect to an office thats above politics.

His imitations are generally quite good but let down by cringeworthy toilet humour and woeful tumble weed gags.

Lapin

Existing thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056390285


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