Manic Sunday

To the casual sofa surfer, Network 2's weekly pop music show 2TV must look like easy money. Hire a few young and godless RTE heads for a Sunday morning, gather up a batch of music videos, chuck in three or four easie-peasie competitions, fill the gaps with ads - and get Dave Fanning to say the first thing that comes into his head.

But the reality is considerably different (except perhaps for the bit about Fanning, who's got the art of the casual down to a T), so when the news comes through that 2TV is staying on our screens all through the summer, and simultaneously on 2FM, it seems like a good time to take a look at how this increasingly influential programme comes together.

I start my sleuthing by tracking down Programme Editor Ed Darragh in a war-torn RTE canteen on a muggy Tuesday a full five days before the next edition of 2TV is due to hit your tv screens. She's already been at work for two hours, and it's only nine o'clock in the morning - this woman obviously feels no shame.

Darragh has had a long career in the music industry and the media. A one-time member of Toy With Rhythm (who once nearly became Ireland's next big thing), she's written, produced and performed on countless radio commercials and worked as a researcher and interviewer on several radio programmes, including the Gerry Ryan Show and Moloney After Midnight. She's a sort of a human dynamo, and trying to keep up with her is a bit like dancing with a whirlwind.

By 10 o'clock the 2TV office is quietly rattling and humming to the sound of phone calls from record companies and band managers wanting to exhibit their wares to the nation. Darragh's first task is to meet Production Secretary Lisa Crowley to discuss any loose ends pertaining to last Sunday's programme. The team's disappointment that the folks at Apple failed to clear permission to use Beatles Anthology footage to go with Fanning's fascinating George Martin interview is obvious, but Darragh is genuinely chuffed to have met the man himself, and he seemed happy with the programme. So there's really little to tie up, except to see that competition prizes will be sent out. Sorted!

With last week's show safely interred in the annals of Irish music history, thoughts now turn to next Sunday, for which Ray Darcy of Den fame will take over the electric chair, allowing Dave to spend more time with his family for the weekend.

Researcher Sinéad Gogan arrives, happy as Larry, with the first basic schedule for "Rayday", as Darragh has now dubbed the upcoming show. Sinéad has been with the programme since last September. Part of her role is to keep tabs on the evolving content and running order and to meet and greet artists in for interviews on the day.

"That might sound easy," she admits, "but some guests can be troublesome. I can recall one who was in such a bad state that we filmed the interview with him separately. Despite the fact that his so-called friends said he was okay he could barely talk and he was puking all over his trousers. As you might guess, we didn't broadcast the interview and it was all pretty sad."

Darragh and other members of the team, most of whom seem to be wearing Garbage t-shirts, pore over Gogan's schedule. Ray Darcy spots something he's not too happy with, pointing out a similarity between the first four videos. "The video content really determines the rhythm of the programme," he maintains, and in this case he clearly has a point. After a quick confab, Darragh opts to alter the running order, with The Corrs' 'Dreams' video coming in at the top of the show. Darcy seems to be satisfied with the switch.

"This is the routine," explains Darragh. "The schedule could go through twenty complete reworkings in the course of the week, but it's important that we start on it early, so at least there's some shape on the programme and we can fine-tune it as we go.

"Generally, we are working three shows in advance. The next programme goes out on 31st May, and we have a heavier burden because it's a bank holiday and we're putting out a kind of greatest hits Flashback programme on the Monday, but we've already pencilled in interviews for three shows down the road."

As if on cue, a phone-call interrupts to confirm that Shirley Manson from Garbage will do a phone interview on 7th June.

There's some discussion about how to cover the Murphy's Cat Laughs comedy fest, and Darragh is clearly holding out for a big name or two. Looking at the schedule again she also decides they must go out on something "sexier" than Elton John. There are no dissenting voices.

Crowley arrives back with three new videos for Darragh to view and we swap the maelstrom of the 2TV office for the quieter pastures of the RTE viewing room.

"I have to watch all these videos very carefully," she explains, "and not just for the quality or for technical glitches. Because of the time we go out at, I have to check them for tits and bums and guns and violent scenes of any kind. It's not just what's happening up front either, but something in the background can catch the eye of Vigilant Vera from Tallaght and she's on the phone to complain."

She carefully looks at videos by Brandy And Monica, Matchbox 20 and Neil Finn, stopping occasionally to review a particular scene. Finn gets her vote straight away, but the other two are mere 'maybes' at this point. While in the video viewing area, she also checks out the stock of Trisha Yearwood videos because Yearwood's due in for an interview on "Rayday".

Back in the 2TV office there's a call from Sharon Connelly from Hot Press confirming details of a competition which will allow Stereophonic fans to see the band in Cardiff. Next, a crew must be confirmed for a shoot in the Music Maker store as part of a competition for a Pearl drum kit. "We're down to the last three drummers and we need to confirm judges so we can announce the winner on Rayday if we can," Darragh says.

By now Bianca Luykx has arrived and she is as infectiously enthusiastic off screen as on. She's ambitious and admits to a desire to work behind the cameras. "I want to get into production," she explains. "With cameras getting smaller and less intrusive all the time, I see a big future in the sort of 'video diaries' genre for television."

Bianca does most of her work outside the confines of RTE.

"I read as much about the music scene as I can. I like to find something funny that I can have a laugh with Dave about. I can pick up some interesting stuff at places like The Globe, the Blue Room or Blazing Salads, but I always stay in on Saturday night to write my script for the next day's show." Saturday night's all right for writing, then.

The phone rings again. It's James Cunningham from MCD trying to persuade Darragh to show a Saw Doctors video. There's something about a live gig. Darragh goes into overdrive, tongue firmly in cheek. "The Saw Doctors? They're fuckin' rubbish. How do they keep getting away with it? I'd go for the support act rather than have them on. I'd have to sleep with God to have them on." She laughs gleefully when she hangs up. It's an interesting exchange, raising the question of where a band like The Saw Doctors fit in the RTE scheme of things. Before there's time to get into that, the phone rings again. It's Justin Greene from MCD. She's off again. "The Saw Doctors are shite. They're not 2TV material. I've even said no to Aslan."

Seconds pass and the phone rings again. Another pitch. Darragh is unforgiving and clearly on a roll. "Sinéad Lohan? Is this guaranteed Irish day? What do you mean Dave Fanning told you to ring me about her? Can I quote you on that? If I listened to everybody who told me that shit . . ."

The barrage of phone-calls prompts a discussion about promo people. Ed's got some strong feelings about how the job should - or shoudn't - be done. "Kathryn Mason from BMG is great," says Darragh, "So's Elva Tarpey from Universal and Chris Roche and Darren Smith from EMI. Some people can hear you saying no and they back off. Others come on like steamrollers and piss you right off."

On the face of it, there'll be no Saw Doctors or Sinéad Lohan on "Rayday", but then again, it's impossible to avoid the suspicion that Darragh's combative phone style may be just part of the game and an astute tactic for dealing with the endless pressure.

There's a spot of collective musing over whether Coca Cola, who have been sponsors of 2TV for years, are still sponsors for the extended run. Nobody seems quite sure: clearly that's something that needs to be sorted out, and pronto.

Executive Producer Isobel Charlton drops in to show off a bunch of flowers delivered from Chris Roche Promotions as a thank you for something or other. Gestures of this kind are obviously appreciated by the team, in spite of the fact that they are inundated with more promotional goodies than they can handle.

Isobel outlines the programme's brief: "The 2TV brief is to provide a music show for an age group ranging from 9 to 25 and up to 35. So we have to constantly monitor video content. Having young kids of my own gives you a sharper perspective on what should go out. So violence and anything overtly sexual is out. For example, there's a dodgy bit in a Robbie Williams video, but it comes towards the very end and it's easily faded out. All the videos go through a layer of people before they get to the screen, so if there's anything at all someone's bound to pick it up, but the buck stops with me if there's a problem."

Isobel Vasquez has been working on the show as Production Assistant, but her involvement is coming to at least a temporary end - she's now been sentenced to work on Bibi's new programme with Mary Irwin taking over the role.

"One of my main jobs", she tells me, "was to clear all the copyrights ahead of each programme for legal reasons. We have to pay £65 for each video broadcast and they all have to be cleared with the copyright owners and logged."

We set about discussing the problems of a video-driven show going out on radio, but Darragh says it generally only poses problems at the beginning and end of videos. "Some of them have no sound for a short while after the visuals start. We probably need to be a bit sharper on that and fade videos in later and out earlier," she says.

Talk of radio prompts Darragh to heap praise on the redoubtable Ian Wilson who - aided by Gerry Gogan - handles the 2FM part of the simulcast with the same commitment he brought to years with the Rock Show.

The phone rings for the 756th time. It's God, telling me it's time to go. All tired out from just watching them work, I leave the 2TV team to continue dealing with the record company PR people and working out the mechanics for the various competitions which have been confirmed and consolidating the cornucopia of details that go into making 2TV the action-packed, fun show it is.

When the programme goes out I spot some late additions. For example, the video of The Fugees featuring A Tribe Called Quest is in. So are BHwitched. Trisha Yearwood turns up for her interview and doesn't puke all over her trousers. Ray Darcy gets called "Dave" about a dozen times, shows off his hairy arms, and acquits himself in fine style. Kerri Ann is interviewed. Declan Muldoon from Roscommon wins the Stereophonics trip with V2 Records to Cardiff, Sunday World Journalist Eddie Rowley rocks in to tell us about his next Boyzone book and Face/Off tops the Xtravision video chart.

And there's absolutely no sign of The Saw Doctors or Sinéad Lohan. I think I hear a phone ringing. n