RTE star Ray D’Arcy has said he still is “perplexed” over the axing of The Den.
The broadcaster was reacting to comments made by Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin at the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Sport and Media asking RTE’s Director General why The Den was axed.
Ray said he’s just as “perplexed” as Mr Griffin, saying he still doesn’t understand why the hit children’s show was shelved, despite being a ratings hit for the national broadcaster.
He said: “He (Brendan Griffin) put a question to Dee Forbes. He was talking about the golden age of children’s television and then he got onto The Den.”
He played a clip on his RTE Radio One show of Mr Griffin asking why The Den did not return for another series, adding: “because certainly during 2020 it was one of the most positive outlets I think in RTE”.
Ray reacted to Mr Griffin’s comments on his RTE Radio One show, saying: “Can’t disagree with you Brendan. And as happens in those Oireachtas committees, the questions can be quite long so Brendan continued."
The clip continued with Brendan asking Rte’s Director General Dee Forbes why did it not return.
“And he said he was perplexed,” said Ray, before adding: “And I’m perplexed as well and everyone I meet is perplexed. I still don’t understand…
“This is how conversations go: ‘Howiya Ray, how’s things? Great. I really loved The Den. Why didn’t it come back?
“And they expect me to have an answer… I don’t understand why it didn’t come back. I’m still perplexed.
“Dee Forbes went on to say… I’ll do it verbatim so I don’t misrepresent her… ‘I’ll have to say The Den is a personal favourite of mine, deputy, I remember it the first time around and as you said it fulfilled a fantastic role during the pandemic, we keep things under review constantly and I think it fulfils a particular role. We've stood it down for now.’
“Stood down,” says Ray. “You’re stood down.”
He continued to read out Ms Forbes quotes, saying: "That doesn’t mean to say it might not come back again.
“Little glimmer of hope", Ray reacted.
“Can’t disagree Dee. But yeah, more said there than I’ve heard. I suppose we’re none the wiser there on that one but anyway thanks Brendan, thanks for representing us at the Oireachtas Committee on arts and culture,” he added.
Ray had previously opened up about his disappointment over the show not returning, admitting he was prompted to speak out against the axe because his nine-year-old son Tom told him that his voice should be heard.
He said: “He (the man in RTE) had said ‘Yes, it is coming back in the autumn’ and then he said ‘yes it is coming back in January’ but then
yesterday he said ‘no it is not coming back in January’.
“Tom is aged nine. He was the strong one in the relationship last night. We were having the chats when I was putting him to bed. He
said, ‘so The Den isn’t coming back’ I said ‘Yea’ and he said ‘are you disappointed?’
“I said ‘yeah’ and he asked, ‘Would you like The Den to come back?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I would’ and he said ‘Well, you have to make your voice heard’. That’s what he said. His exact words.
“What am I going to say? It’s disappointing, it’s a pity.”
But John Morrison - the voice behind the talking turkey – previously told us he wasn’t disappointed The Den wasn’t returning, admitting they were in two minds about it coming back.
He told us: "No, not really (disappointed). I enjoyed doing it, but it’s one of those things that you do at the time.”
Mr Morrison said it was a “Covid show”, adding: “There was no live audience.”
“We were in two minds. When they first said it was coming back, we were like ‘cool’ and then when they said about slots and stuff, we
said 'look, we wouldn’t do it in the light, it has to be done in the dark. It’s a family show during the winter and everyone watches it.'
“It’s sort of like que sera, sera. You never know, it might come back in 10 years’ time. No one is giving out.”
