Risteárd Cooper

what was just, you know, presented to us and along the lines of, say, Housewife of the Year, for example, with Gay Byrne.

And you're looking back on that now and you're thinking, how the hell was that even a programme?

How was it legal?

When you look back even at Apprematch, which began back in 1998, it was also brave at the time.

I mean...

Were you tapping into the characters themselves or was it the whole idea of punditry?

And were you ever nervous of that idea that you were kind of ridiculing people, but in a humorous, it was a kind way?

Yeah, I mean, I don't think I've ever really gone out of my way to humiliate somebody.

I'm not interested really in doing that.

But what interests me is pointing things out.

It's a little bit like, you know, a drawing, a caricature drawing where you're emphasising certain features maybe that the person would prefer not to be emphasised.

and whether that's a vocal thing or maybe just a take on what sort of attitude they have.

I often think the most interesting representations of people isn't necessarily the most accurate in terms of how they sound but you're doing something with the impact that they have or how they would like to portray themselves and you're kind of maybe showing that up and putting the spotlight on it in a way that might make them feel a little bit

uncomfortable.

Like a lot of the people that we did in our pre-match were, I suppose, in, you know, middle-aged men who were, who were in kind of quite comfortable positions.

We weren't really, we weren't really having a go at anyone who was that kind of vulnerable or whatever.

So, and I don't think, I don't think, I actually think a lot of the pre-match characters that we did maybe benefited to some extent from the fact that it was quite a, you know, you know, it was, it was, it was gentle ribbing really, as opposed to it being, you know, hard edged satire.

Yeah.

And we kind of like people who are self-deprecating, particularly those who are in the spotlight.

I mean, one of my favourite skits that you ever did, and maybe it was because of my own background at Ireland AM, it was a skit on Ireland AM one morning and you threw to the kitchen and the recipe that you were cooking was beans, not on toast.