Dave McSavage claims RTE is ‘failing at its job’

Dave McSavage has launched a scathing attack on RTE accusing the station of “failing at its job”.

The Savage Eye star admitted he regretted making a fourth series of the hit show, before hitting out at the State broadcaster.

He said: “Outwardly you look at RTE and you think, that looks like a TV station.

“But the proper remit of a TV station is that it produces quality and RTE doesn’t, so it’s failing at its job.

“You have the studios, you have all the equipment, you have television cameras, you have producers but nobody can write anything.

“Nobody can write comedy. They can’t produce anything original. I’m sorry to have to say that.”

Revealing the most recent series of The Savage Eye would definitely be the last, the funnyman claimed he had only agreed to make it for the money.

He added: “We are finished thank God. I didn’t want to do the fourth series.

“I did it for the money and I shouldn’t have done it. I‘m glad it’s over and it’s gone. I’m bored poopless with the characters.

“I’m writing a new thing and I want to just put all that behind me. I’m glad I did it but I’m bored with it now.

“You work on these characters and take them as far as they can go and then you start getting repetitive, and that’s what happened.”

But despite growing tired of the show, McSavage was “surprised and relieved” to see it become a hit.

He said: “As a comedian you’re standing in front of an
audience and they have an expectation that you’re funny.

“If you’re not funny and you’re consistently not funny, the anger or hatred that is directed towards you seems quite inappropriate. If you’re not funny people get really angry with you.”

Despite the series’ often controversial nature, McSavage is glad he never let public opinion sway his material.

He explained: “If you start second guessing what you think people want to hear, those people who don’t like you will hate you more.

“So at least if they hate you, they’ll think he’s got integrity, he sticks to his guns.”

The comic also revealed details of his next project, which sounds like it was influenced by his time on the Savage Eye.

He said: “ I’m working on a thing called Poor Me and the Bastards. It’s about people who are incredibly selfish and narcissistic and can’t form truly proper relationships with other people as they’re so wrapped up in their own heads.

“And how ultimately disappointing your experience of life is when you’re ike that, to the backdrop of people trying to put a TV show together.

“It’s examining the characters that gravitate towards broadcast TV, creative types and all the distractions involved in that.”

The comic is a recovering alcoholic but has recently fallen off the wagon after 10 years sober.

Speaking to Dave Fanning on 2fm, the star admitted he has recently been drinking just to get drunk – and enjoying it.

He added: “I am an alcoholic and I’m drinking at the moment.

“I didn’t drink for 10 years and I started drinking a few months ago. It’s no more exciting than that. There’s lots of different types of alcoholics. There’s the middle class people who sip white wine after six and just keep topping up until they fall asleep.

“Then there’s the low bottom drunks who are in the gutter and just keep drinking until they die.

“When I drink, I drink to get drunk. It’s very enjoyable in the moment, but I don’t know if it’s sustainable.

“There’s a hollowness to just drinking for drinking’s sake. You’re not drinking for any particular reason.

“You’re just out and it’s very hedonistic. You reach a point where it’s just – I can’t be doing this anymore.”

As a young man McSavage travelled the world busking and performing comedy.

This led to an uneasy relationship with his father, former Fianna Fail Minister David Andrews.

He explained: “He’s a very loving guy, but you know the emotional side of things…

“As a father you want the best for your son. He looked at me and he’d ask me things like things like, ‘So what are your plans for the next few years?’

“Sure I had no idea from one day to the next. Brothers and sisters, they had a career path. I don’t like long term plans.” The 48-year-old has two sons of his own, and said he hopes he enjoys a better relationship with them than he did with his own father.

He said: “I’m very lucky, I have a great relationship with my two boys.

“I am a little bit better I hope. But sometimes when you have kids you empathise with your own parents a lot more. It’s also nice to think that your kids are better than you.”

Source – Irish Mirror