‘Talk-masters’ were hottest ticket in Cork town for literary festival finale
Jennifer Evans of Evan's sweet shop in Bantry, which has been in her family for over 100 years, with Graham Norton and Ryan Tubridy. Picture: Darragh Kane.
The final night of the West Cork Literary Festival very nearly solved the political crux of the summer – who could unite the entire country as president?
“Would you run?” former RTÉ broadcaster Ryan Tubridy probed BBC star Graham Norton, in the hour-long interview that was the closing event of a hugely successful festival, on Friday night.
“Don’t you have to do it for, like, 14 years?” replied Graham, sprightly adding: “I’d do it for two!” But the Bandon man quickly clarified his comment with: “I really think it ought to be someone who lives here.” That statement opened up another query which went unasked – does Graham not intend to retire to his lovely Ahakista home if he ever decides to throw in the towel at the Beeb?
It had been billed as a meeting of two great ‘talk masters’ and it was undoubtedly the hottest ticket in town.
Ryan certainly found himself at the receiving end of one of television’s quickest wits.
Introducing the event, Tubridy joked it was like Dublin’s “46A, you wait for two former chat show hosts to come along …” and quick as a flash Norton interjected:
It was the first of many quips about Tubridy’s troubles which the Dublin man tried to brush off, saying he had opted to leave the Friday night talk show to “turn down the volume a bit” on his career.
“That didn’t work out too well, life is not linear, that’s for sure,” he laughed.
In the unsurprisingly hilarious chat between the two men, Graham also revealed that his next book was inspired by a footstool he saw in a New York junk shop, with the names of children embroidered into it – and the story will be set between America and Ireland.
He was so taken by the stool that he bought it immediately and brought it home with him.
“Have you ever done that before?” asked Ryan, referring to the purchase of an item that would inspire a best-seller.
‘Eh, no, I’ve never based a book on an embroidered footstool,” replied Graham, with a characteristically sharp retort.
App?
