One of the key figures in Today FM’s Shave Or Dye campaign, to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society, D’Arcy speaks exclusively to Hot Press.

“When I was about 11, my grandmother died at the age of 54,” he reveals. “She was five-and-a-half stone and it was lung cancer… I think everyone in Ireland, unfortunately, has been touched by cancer in a real way.”

Asked if he misses Eamon Dunphy on the airwaves, D’Arcy replies: “Yeah. We need a voice like that. There’s no voice on the radio now that’s giving out, that gets angry. It’s not RTE’s job because they’re a public service broadcaster and they have to be balanced in their reporting. So opinion isn’t what they do. So come back, Eamon!”

Ray confirms that his partner Jenny went into labour on the night Pat Kenny was attacked on The Late Late Show. “Yes. That is true. She started laughing and that brought on labour!”

D’Arcy also explains his religious views: “I would have attended mass until about 28. And, increasingly, I was finding myself during the sermon questioning things. And then there was a new curate, and he came to the sermon – and he could have been younger than me, I was 28/29 at the time – and he said that if you’re not suffering, you’re not a good Catholic. And at that stage I just said, ‘Ah lads, come on’.”

The interview gives a remarkable insight into the life, background and opinions of Ireland’s most successful independent broadcaster. Read it in in full – complete with brilliant pictures by Hot Press snapper, Mark Nixon – in the new issue of Hot Press, out today.