Ryan Tubridy has revealed his dream Late Late Show guest, ahead of the programme’s 60th anniversary special on Friday night.
Although Ryan has been hosting the show for 13 years, the broadcaster still has some famous faces he’d love to interview.
When asked to shared his dream guest, Ryan said: “For many years now, I’ve been asked this question as to who would I like to interview and I’ve answered it so often and with the same name that I think his people have taken an injunction out against me and a protective protection order in case I actually land in a door in London and say, please, would you come out and play?”
“That is Paul McCartney and look, the fact is I’m a Beatles nut. I’m a McCartney guy,” he explained. “I’ve seen him nine times in concert.”
“He has just made all this music that I buy stuff that his kids wouldn’t buy. Like I was I’ve been very loyal to Paul, and I think Paul should start giving something back, not just to me personally, but to the people of Ireland, they need to see him on the show.”
“I met him once. I was a disgrace, I fanboyed. I ended up tapping him on the shoulder like, like manically and he was kind of, I think her was looking around for security I had a chicken sandwich before, so that was nice I had bits of chicken in my teeth [laughing].”
“And I was wearing an unforgivable shirt that looked like something out of Wall Street in the eighties – but this was in the 2000s before a gig in Manchester,” he continued.
“He didn’t want pictures taken. I got a picture taken, and essentially the picture is him going, ‘don’t take the picture’, ‘please don’t’ and, and I’m manically grinning with my chicken teeth going and he’s kind of looking around for security.”
“So is it any wonder I can’t get the man on the show, so I don’t blame him [laughing]? So yeah, someday, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but ‘yesterday’ [laughing]. It’s never going to happen.”
“Also, I don’t want the interview to be by Zoom or by phone. It’s got to be face-to-face. We have to talk this out, Paul.”
“I don’t even need that much time with him. You know, just maybe 20 minutes, you know and ask so, ‘The Beatles what was that all about?’ He recorded some of the best music ever made by any human being. He is like Mozart or Beethoven – I like him.”
When asked to share his favourite guest he’s interviewed over the years, Ryan said: “It’s very hard to pick, you know, a favourite guest, but there are people who come through the door and you say, ‘oh, this should be fun.'”
“Like Michael Bublé, for example, is always, you know, a pleasure to see because he loves it. Peter Kay is another very funny guy that, seems to enjoy being on the show and being part of it.”
“I’ve always been a fan of Michael Fassbender. He’s good crack. John C. Reilly, another. So that’s a big question for 13 years of, multiply it by 37 shows, multiply and that’s math I don’t understand the question [laughing].”
Speaking about tonight’s season finale of The Late Late Show, Ryan added: “I am pleased to clarify that The Late Late Show is 60, not me [laughing].”
“It’s going to be a big party atmosphere this Friday and we have two just tremendous people who kind of reflect this generation more, more than mine.”
“Theirs, in a sense, really, because Jessie Buckley is now an Oscar-nominated Kerry superstar, wonderful, wonderful actor. Like I just love what she does.”
“And equally, Dermot Kennedy, the most lovely man in show business, remember the Toy Show we did with Michael. It was just a moment of beauty. He’s a great guy, a lovely fella. Dermot is on tonight’s show, with loads of others, by the way.
“But yeah, so it’s kind of nice. It’s nice to see that fresh sense of Ireland being reflected on the 60th Late, Late Show. We’re happy about that.”
“And we will remember previous presenters, obviously, and we will look at two other famous Irish guests from around the place who will come and hopefully join us. It will be joyful to just be the kind of end of the season then an ending on a 60th. It’s quite remarkable.”
“There will be messages coming in from all sorts of people. I’m a bit of a fanboy of Conan O’Brien, who is one of my favourite hosts. So, it’ll be quite a lovely Friday night. Tune in!”
The Late Late Show season finale airs tonight on RTÉ One at 9:35pm. Check out the guest line-up here.Â
