I boycotted the start of the new series of The Meaning of Life (RTÉ One, Sunday, 10.30pm) because the first guest was Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, thus making us wait another week for Johnny Logan.
Politicians are inveterate gossips. The absence from public life of Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald since June, when she went into hospital for an operation, was bound to be widely noticed and commented on.
It was testament to how much the occasion meant to Patrick Kielty that his voice was cracking with emotion before he’d even finished his opening monologue on Friday.