Getting To The Art Of The Matter

For respected broadcaster John Kelly, The View now lies in the rear view mirror of a new vehicle he’s driving called The Works. The decision came pre-Christmas that, after 12 years, RTÉ’s arts mainstay would end its review incarnation in favour of something a little different. Weeks of uncertainty followed, with dissenting and disappointed voices, given the show’s strong standing in the arts community. Thankfully, a replacement, The Works, has just commenced transmission, aiming to fill your cultural quota each Thursday. And, making us doubly grateful, John Kelly and most of the old crew are onboard. A case of ‘The View is dead, long live The Works’, then.

The way Kelly tells it, the change was a long time coming. “While The View had its strengths and successes, the review format has in-built limitations. For a long time, myself and others have been talking about broadening out and that couldn’t have been done under the old umbrella. I think everybody was thinking the same thing and now seems like a good time, socially and in terms of where the country’s at, to do more. We can get into things in more depth, we can devote more time to certain things as is necessary.”
With much unfounded conjecture regarding the slot’s future, it’s heartening to see much the same crew take on this new project. Kelly sees his continued presence as a stamp of approval.
“I’m very grateful,” he notes. “There’s no doubt, if you’re going to revamp a programme, one of the first things that might occur to you would be to get rid of the presenter. So I’m very pleased that they’re behind me fronting The Works. That’s a vote of confidence and I don’t take it lightly.”
Kelly will be joined by several reporters who have acquitted themselves well as View contributors in the past – Sinéad Gleeson, Nadine O’Regan and Kevin Gildea.
“One thing I constantly heard during The View,” he says, “was, ‘Why can’t you get more of the same people on all the time?’ Now we have three people who are really smart and who I have a lot of time for. It will change the flavour, and one-off reports should yield a few idiosyncratic pieces. I’m delighted to have all of these characters involved.”
One such ‘character’ is Sunday Business Post Books and Arts editor, Phantom 105.2 DJ and former Hot Press contributor (so you know she’s good) Nadine O’Regan. “I was thrilled at the prospect of joining,” O’Regan says. “Like most people I was disappointed that The View would be changing at all. So I was really happy to hear it was more of a remodeling. The idea is to take it out of the studio and broaden it a little bit.
“I watched The View in college, I’m such a nerd! It was the only show I’d push my housemates off the couch to watch!” she laughs. “Growing up in Skibbereen, you don’t feel you’re at the centre of things when it comes to the arts. So it shone a light into a world I really wanted to be part of. Hopefully The Works will continue to have that appeal. And we’ll be covering lots more that the original format would have struggled to cover comprehensively.”
One thing John Kelly is hoping to expand on is their music coverage.
“Over the years, our contribution was never really recognised because the performances came at the end. But when you look back at the archives, there’s a very substantial back catalogue there. So I’m looking forward to moving it into a more central position.”
Concerns have been raised that the new format might lead to a ‘dumbing down’ of sorts – that its fast-paced nature may compromise content and consideration. Kelly and the show’s producer Betty Purcell have taken that into account. “You’ve got to get the balance right,” John says, finally. “Whilst certainly dumbing down would be a disaster, at the same time the tone shouldn’t be so wilfully esoteric that it drives people away. I hear about the arts and ‘elitism’ and that argument is a bit boring. It’s not some sort of academic pursuit, it’s the stuff of people’s lives. There are people that are elitist about it but they’re nothing to do with me.”

The Works airs on Thursday nights at 10.45pm on RTÉ One.