ARTS VIEW
independently produce a series of eight comedy programmes. and “Dermot soon realised if he didn’t write his half that only
On TV such an occurence was commonplace but on radio it was half a show would get written because I wouldn’t do any more”.
virtually unprecedented to farm out production of any kind. He also recalls Morgan’s unbounded buoyancy and positivity.
Gerry Stembridge, co-writer and studio director of the At that first meeting in Ballsbridge, he had insisted to
beloved Scrap Saturday, a series that made us laugh while we Stembridge that, “people are gasping for this, if it takes off it
held our breath (a difficult feat I know), wondered if RTÉ had will be huge”. Stembridge nodded politely, but he’d seen that
gone too far this time. He and Morgan had first met across a kind of optimism before. It took about four or five episodes
crowded Literary and Historical Society (L&H) event in UCD in before he realised they were actually creating something
1980. Morgan, fresh from his successes on The Live Mike on which would, despite its brief life, have a huge impact. Aside
RTÉ TV, was guest speaker, Stembridge was resident, L&H, from the often searing scripts, Stembridge feels part of the
worldly-wise cynic. No respecter of rank, the student heckled success was down to Morgan’s PR nose. “He was above all a
the guest. “Dermot heckled me back,” Stembridge recalls. great man at feeding journalists and after a while you had all
“When we met 10 years later I wondered if he remembered sorts of positive stuff turning up in the papers.”
the encounter. He didn’t say. I didn’t ask. All the while we Perhaps it was the combination of Morgan and Stembridge, or
worked together I never mentioned it. Now I’ll never know.” maybe it was the tag team of Charles Haughey and PJ Mara (as
That meeting, in the autumn of 1990, took place in an portrayed by Morgan and Owen Roe), but Stembridge notes, “by
upstairs room in Ballsbridge, at the office of Cue Productions, the time of the election of Mary Robinson, we’d really taken off”.
Morgan’s company. Intrigued by a ‘youth’ comedy series called A pub quiz question. How long did it last? Three years?
Nothing To It which Stembridge had written and directed for Four? (At this point a discordant buzzer sounds.) Sorry – wrong
RTÉ TV, Morgan was sounding out the Limerick man to see if answer. It was all over by the beginning of 1992, after three
he might possibly be interested in contributing to a new radio series – less than 18 months. “We didn’t even catch the end of
comedy series. It was going to be called Scrap Saturday (“A the Haughey era,” Stembridge recalls, without a trace of
name which did not make me feel wonderful,” admits wistfulness. “People like to assume RTÉ killed it, but that
Stembridge). Having recently left RTÉ at the time, Stembridge wasn’t the case. After the third series, I suggested a ‘softly,
was, in his own words, “ready for something else”, and softly’ approach with RTÉ. We’d given them a winning series.
agreed, or so he thought, to be part of a team of writers Let’s wait and see what they’re offering. Morgan agreed and,
contributing to the series. It was only at the second meeting frankly, time passed and RTÉ didn’t come looking. They
that he realised he was the team! probably expected us to approach them. They didn’t kill it off
Stembridge suspects that the size of the creative panel was but they didn’t make any effort to restart it.”
dictated by Morgan’s difficulty in getting anyone to work with In truth, both Stembridge and Morgan were ready to move
him. He was aware of the comedian’s reputation for on anyway. “There wasn’t a hunger in us to redo it. I actually
disorganisation so his working philosophy was a simple one. The felt a little bit relieved.” Furthermore, Stembridge reckons
scripts were divided on a 50/50 basis (they never wrote together) once Scrap Saturday had become a national institution,
Morgan’s mind had shifted to other things. His thoughts were
turning back to forging a successful TV career. He was not to
know at the time that he would do just that, but by
performing other people’s material rather than his own.
Arthur Mathews, Graham Linehan and Channel Four would
make Morgan a household name in the UK. Sadly, he did not
live to reap the rewards of the apotheosis that was Father Ted.
And part of the secret of the working relationship that gave
us “Maaaaara” and Donie Cassidy’s mobile wig? “I discovered
a way of getting annoyed with him which made him work,”
says Stembridge. For an Irish nation starved of decent political
satire at the end of the ghastly 1980s, it was like Columbus
discovering America.
Dermot with Pauline McLynn and Gerry
Stembridge recording an episode of Scrap
Myles Dungan (BA ‘74, HDipEd ‘75, MA ‘77) is a broadcaster
Saturday. Photo © RTÉ Stills Library with RTÉ and a writer. His next book is The Captain and the
King: William O’Shea and Charles Stewart Parnell.
PAGE TWENTY FOUR UCD CONNECTIONS
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