Broadcasting legend Gerry Kelly on why new chat show gives him 'a buzz of excitement'

Interviewing an interviewer (especially one so esteemed) is always a bit daunting, but Gerry Kelly, the down-to-earth veteran broadcaster has a knack of putting people at their ease – a trait which has undoubtedly contributed to his long and distinguished career.

Not that this septuagenarian’s work is done, for he is back with a new show doing what he does best – chatting and having a bit of craic.

Kelly’s surname has been used umpteen times in the many eponymous chat shows he’s hosted down the years, including the iconic Kelly Show, Kelly's People, Kelly on Tour, Kelly on the Road, even Kelly on the Radio – the permutations seemed endless. And so sticking with that winning formula his new programme is called simply, Tonight with Gerry Kelly.

So far, so foolproof, but the difference this time round is that the show is not recorded in the hallowed halls of UTV’s Havelock House, but at Belfast Metropolitan College.

Gerry, and a team of UTV staffers, including Lynda Bryans who now works as coordinator of the Factual Television & Journalism Higher National Diploma course at Belfast Met’s Film and Television School, are offering their services for free to help media students create the eight-week series which airs on NVTV and YouTube.

Filmed in front of a studio audience, Gerry brings his own brand of wit and charm to the series – and he is in his element.

“It’s been like turning the clock back nearly 20 years. I’ve loved it. It’s been very special. I never thought when we finished I’d ever be doing a Kelly Show again. “It’s not the Kelly Show but the format is very similar.

“There's a certain buzz when you're standing behind, waiting for the voice to introduce you. I have to say it’s a lovely feeling and it just reminds me of the great times that we had. And the students are getting a real kick out of it."

And they’ve been able to attract some prominent guests including Roy Walker, singer Brian Kennedy, May McFettridge, comedian Diona Doherty, to name but a few.

However, the project has been tinged with sadness in recent days following the sudden death of his friend and colleague Ralph Campbell, who was a senior sound operative at UTV and was also working on the project.

Gerry said he was “devastated” by Ralph’s death.

"It’s unbelievable. I’ve known Ralph since I ever worked in UTV. Him and I came the same year in 1979. We’d been all over the world together. And he was only 61, he was the youngest of us all.

"I was speaking to him on Wednesday and joking with him when we recorded the programme. He was loving every single minute of it. Then we heard about his death. I am just stunned by the whole thing. He will be sadly missed.”

Gerry Kelly, a giant in local broadcasting, has had an illustrious career spanning decades, but he recounts how his first foray into television was less than auspicious

"Gary Gillespie and myself were asked to take over from Gloria Hunniford when she left Good Evening Ulster in 1982, and we were so bad we were taken off the air after – well, I was completely bad, I hadn’t a clue. And then they put in a young fella called Eamonn Holmes,” he laughs.

"For years I was in the doldrums in UTV and didn't know what I was doing. And then a few of the guys came up with the idea of doing a sort of Kelly on tour – so we did Kelly's People, and various other names with Kelly in it, and then in 1989 they offered me the full blown studio Kelly. It was never supposed to run for more than a year or two, but it lasted to 2005, 16 years, with 17 series."

Over the years he interviewed some huge names, including a nine-year-old Rory McIlroy, George Best, Tom Jones, Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton.

"Generally speaking they all opened up and gave me the interview that I wanted."

But, he confessed, there were some notable exceptions, most especially the late Sir Clement Freud.

Gerry had been warned not to ask about Freud’s famous grandfather (Sigmund Freud) or the idiosyncratic dog food commercials he did with Henry the dog.

But getting fed up with Freud’s ‘objectionable’ attitude, Gerry decided to have a bit of fun.

“He was giving me no answers to my questions, so I said tell me about your famous grandfather, and then, tell me about the dog food advert you did.”

Gerry, who is married to Helena and lives in Coney Island, near Ardglass, has two grown-up daughters, Sarah and Claire. and three grandchildren.

His parents were from Londonderry, where his father worked in the shirt industry. He, along the rest of his family moved to Downpatrick in the early 1950s and much of Kelly's early childhood was overshadowed by his father's alcohol problem . In the early 1960s, his father left the family on the pretext of going to Scotland for work, after which Kelly never heard from his father again.

“It was tough at the time, but I never think about it today. It’s gone. It’s not even part of my daily thinking whatsoever. I had never any wish to look for him.

"Maybe I should have done more than I did but I don't think my mother was that keen on it. But when I became a father it did make me want to be as good a father as I possibly could. And hopefully that's what I've done, I’ve wanted to make up for what I didn’t get. So we have a very close relationship with our children, thank goodness.”

Unlike his contemporaries, Gloria Hunniford and Eamonn Holmes who took their careers across the water, Gerry never had a burning desire to leave Northern Ireland.

“I had opportunities to go in the mid 90s. I was married with two young children at the time and I thought what am I chasing here? Is it more money? Is it a better lifestyle? And I discovered that I had both here. I had the lifestyle that I wanted.

“I remember Eamonn Holmes saying to me that I had the best job in British television. He said you travel 30 miles up to Belfast, you do your show, you come home and you're back in your own bed at 12 o'clock that night. And I did have the best job for many, many years. I could stay at home. I was earning good money. The kids were growing up. I loved the 90s and 2000s here.

"I never had any great wish to chase fame. To me it was always a job and I ended up loving it."

About 10 years ago the BBC approached him to do a Friday and Saturday radio show.

"I thought I’d do it even though I wasn’t madly keen on radio. I did it and I semi enjoyed it. But I gave it up just over a year ago. I left it on good terms, but I haven't been back since."

As for making a reappearance on local TV, he thinks “ those opportunities have gone.”

"Television is not what it was anymore. We did a special on George Best and we got something like 80 per cent of those watching television watching the Kelly Show that night. Now if you got eight per cent watching your show you’d be breaking out the champagne. Of course when we did that there weren't 300 television channels.”

Six years ago he was diganosed with bladder cancer, which was treated successfully with chemotherapy.

“Thank God they seemed to have got it and I have had no recurrence of it ever since. I get checked now just once a year and otherwise I’m in perfect health.

"I have now reached the grand old age of 74, which I can’t believe, so life has slowed down somewhat.”

Things may have slowed down, but when Gerry Kelly’s in front of the cameras, there’s no denying that life’s a lot more entertaining.

*Tonight with Gerry Kelly is broadcast at 9pm each Friday night on NVTV, which can be found on Freeview Channel 7 or Virgin Media Channel 159.