"My Mother Talked Nonstop to the Telly" - Rory Cowan Tells us About Narrating Gogglebox

Rory tells me that he’s new to narration but there'c certainly no shortage of words or energy coming from him as we sit down to chat. “I love the idea of Gogglebox,” he tells me with animation, “and I thought Caroline Aherne was great on the Channel 4 show. I love the gossipy side to it, you know, the idea of saying ‘Meanwhile, down in cork…’ and then us listening in on two auld ones chatting like they’re at the garden fence. I’m also way past the days when I can be getting all made up for a show, so hiding behind narration suits me great.”

The particular appeal of Gogglebox, he explains, is that “there’s no meanness to it. It’s not like other reality shows where tricks and schemes are brought in to make someone look bad. Gogglebox is just people having fun.”

Rory then proceeds to share his own first-hand experience with Goggleboxing. “My mother used to talk nonstop to the telly,” he recalls, laughing. “The weather forecaster, or the newsman might say ‘That’s the end of the 9 o’clock news, good evening’ and my mother would straight away go, ‘good evening!’ She’d be shouting at politicians ‘ack, go on, ya lying bastard!’ She’d be screaming at the telly, constantly. And I thought my mother was the only one that had that quirk. But everyone does it, I found. Everyone talks to the telly. So that’s why I think a show like this is such a fantastic idea.”

“The show will certainly be similar to the UK version,” he tells me. “Similar but different, and I’ll tell you why. Irish people don’t have this weird filter that other people seem to have that means they think about things before they say it. Everything comes out with Irish people, they love to chat. So when they’re gonna be looking at a news story or a comedy or a drama, whatever is it that they’re thinking, they’re gonna be saying it out loud.”

Gogglebox starts on TV3 this autumn.