The cost-of-living crisis and the war in Ukraine will provide a backdrop for this year’s Late Late Toy Show. Children from Ukraine, who would have scarcely believed a year ago that they would be in exile in a country thousands of kilometres from home, will participate in the popular pre-Christmas TV show in which value-for-money stocking fillers are sure to feature.
The theme of this year’s show will be The Wizard of Oz. The yellow-brick road will lead to RTÉ’s Studio 4, where there will be a good fairy and a bad one, a lion, a tin man and a scarecrow, plus a supporting cast of munchkins. Just where Ryan Tubridy will fit in the cast, viewers will find out later.
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There is also a growing international audience for Ireland’s favourite television programme. People in 120 countries watched online last year.
Tubridy, in his 14th year at the helm, said the Toy Show has become less about toys, though there will be many of those around, but more about the children involved.
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Two hundred have been selected as participants. Juliette Maguire, who is nine and from Newbridge, in Co Kildare, will be singing. “From that my lips are sealed,” she said, a universal refrain from those taking part. “I auditioned in August. I wasn’t expecting anything. When I was called to audition I was really, really excited. It started off from there.”
There will also be three Irish sign language interpreters on screen in relays. ISL has become much more visible since it was made an official language, in 2017. Amanda Coogan, whose parents are deaf, will be signing on behalf of families like her own. “We want people like the younger me to watch the Toy Show with their mammies and daddies. We want it to be a fully inclusive thing for deaf people. The language has had a brilliant acceptance.”
Tubridy likens presenting the Toy Show to “cutting the brakes on a car and letting it all roll downhill”. Two years ago he was caught using unparliamentary language when a bottle of Fanta sprayed everywhere as he opened it. “I went to a school in Finglas this week. They wanted to know what age I was, what was I doing in their school and do I like Fanta. There are expectations when you are the toy man. “The show is utterly unpredictable. The children are live and they’re manic. They have jellies coming out of their ears.”
It is entirely predictable, though, that The Late Late Toy Show will again be the most watched programme of the year. Last year’s version attracted a total audience of 1.7 million, almost 800,000 more than the next most popular programme, the 2021 All-Ireland Final between Tyrone and Mayo.
