Travelling Light
She was the face of No Frontiers for a decade but when that show ended Kathryn Thomas had to reinvent herself. So she put away her rucksack and took a job presenting Winning Streak. Then Gerry Ryan passed away and she found herself stepping into his shoes on Operation Transformation. In a revealing interview she discusses her ‘rivalry’ with Grainne Seoige over hosting The Voice, losing her virginity at 17 – and why RTE needed to stop paying its stars so much.
Olaf Tyaransen, 21 Mar 2012
I understand that the Winning Streak gig was different to what you had expected.
It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be but, listen, I had a great couple of years, it gave me studio experience. It was unusual because I had gone from a show that a lot of my friends watched to working on a show that a lot of them didn’t. But I learned so much. Again I was working with Aidan Power and Marty Whelan when I had spent the last ten years alone in front of a camera. I was learning how to deal with a studio audience. I was there with an earpiece in and a director going, “Okay, camera 2 zoom in.. 3, 2…” and “walk here now” and “audience applause”, which I had never done before. I’ve never used an earpiece and it was difficult and interesting and definitely a learning curve. It meant that when I jumped onto The Voice, and we’re doing the big live shows in front of 1,200 people with all of that shit going on and 65 million cameras and everyone working at once on this massive production, that I wasn’t intimidated. I think everything in my career has been steps.
You took over Operation Transformation following the death of Gerry Ryan. Had you known him well?
I wouldn’t have been friends with him, but I would have been friendly with him. He was always very supportive of me and he’d take the piss and we’d always have a bit of craic because he was a bit bold as well. I loved his boldness on radio and his honesty and I do genuinely think he was one of our best broadcasters. So I wasn’t sure about Operation Transformation continuing without him, and without his radio presence, because it was his baby. But when they said they were going to do it again, and they asked me to do it, I was confident I was up to the job. I knew it had to be different and I had to have my own self in it and also make sure I was still respecting what he had done. And I talked to Mick and to the family and once they were happy with it, I was ready to take it.
Was weight ever a personal issue for you?
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Olaf Tyaransen
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