You know what? It is weird.

Here's a taster: "I had to play my first hurling match with a boil on me arse!" Or, "When I went on my first date in the cinema I had a boil on me arse!"

He squeezed that boil for all it was worth.

Maybe it was the editing but he needed better material. It's a pity Pat Shortt didn't go to the same school. I have higher hopes for future episodes with Deirdre O'Kane and Niall Toibin.

In the UK, comics are obsessed with The Magic Roundabout and Button Moon.

BBC4 went to Toytown on the subject. Children's TV On Trial suggested that problems from the real world and greed penetrated this once-safe haven in 1983 with the vandalism of the Blue Peter garden, the first time a toy manufacturer broadcast a cartoon (He-Man. . .

"By the power of Greyskull!") and Margaret Thatcher's 1987 appearance on Saturday Superstore, where she attempted to soften her image and judge pop videos. And Gripper, the racist thug who wrought havoc in Grange Hill.

Steven Woodcock who played Glenroy, the spunky Rastafarian, said these plots came not a moment too soon: "I was going to school with kids whose parents were in the National Front."

Justin Lee Collins also tried to revive the '80s in Bring Backf Dallas. His mission was to track down TV's original desperate housewives in 10 days. It's an appealing, but badly staged, concept. Even Patrick Duffy just happened to be wearing make-up when Collins knocked on the door of his hotel room.

Collins was warned off contacting Victoria Principal so he "surprised" Linda Grey (Sue Ellen) cycling idly along Venice Beach, Larry Hagman (JR) driving his golf cart near his apartment and Charlene Tilton (Lucy) on a massage table.

"Lucy is in there having her ass waxed!" Collins yelled, before supposedly creeping up on her with his camera crew.

Susan Howard (Donna) told Collins the audience felt deceived by Pam's Dream Season, after which Bobby returned from the dead in the shower.

"Dallas drove the stake in its own heart, " she said. Over 20 years later, she shed tears recalling how women wrote in when her character was pregnant with a Down's Syndrome baby.

The writers had Donna miscarry.

(Kicked in the stomach by a bull at the Southfork barbecue, if I recall. ) Collins scored a coup by finding "ugly baby" Christopher (played by Eric Farlow). He looked like a character from Honey, I BlewUp The Kids. Now 27, he is as big as a house and looks exactly the same with his chubby babyface. I half-expected the Ewing's Mexican maid Theresa to appear from nowhere and lead him upstairs by the hand for his afternoon nap.

Nobody threw their toys out of the political pram on Questions & Answers but Brian Lenihan came close. "Our party has more seats than your alternative government!" he told Richard Bruton. "We have 78 to your 71!" Bruton also riled Fiona O'Malley. "Please stop interrupting!" she hissed, as if chiding a hyperactive child. "You haven't stopped since the programme started."

A Fianna Failer in the audience made a jibe about Fine Gael's Contract for a Better Ireland: "I wouldn't give them the contract to paint my house." (A bit rich that, consideringf) Independent TD Finian McGrath and Labour's Joan Burton didn't go near that.

Bruton looked like he'd just been given a wedgy.

The Greens were at home still doing their sums, I should add, and couldn't come out to play.

However, in the aftermath of the election, nothing could stop a breathless Charlie Bird telling it like it is. He told Eileen Dunne on the news, "I predicted that some big names would fall!" Who needs Mori polls when you have this telepathic newshound sniffing out the poop?

I imagined Charlie bounding off like a happy Labrador let off his leash after this interview, finally wriggling free of his laminated Election 2007 press pass, seeking out a puddle in which to splash about and admire his reflection.

But I shall also always remember RTE stalwart Bryan Dobson, overseeing the distribution of the remains of Michael McDowell's votes, like a trusted family priest gently scattering his ashes.

Reviewed Class

Clowns
RTE1
Children's TV On Trial
BBC4
Bring Back Dallas
C4
Questions & Answers
RTE1