Unless you’re the sort who lives for midnight fireworks – and you obviously are not – New Year’s Eve is a damp squib. It’s Christmas with all the good bits expunged, leaving nothing behind but forced jollity and terrible music.
Oddly, much the same rules apply to the Late Late Show. While the Toy Show is a rare example of an original idea emanating from RTÉ, the New Year Special (RTÉ One, 10.25pm) is a pasty-faced cover version of the BBC’s Jools Holland Hootenanny. That remains the case with the 2025 edition – though Patrick Kielty at least gives the impression of enjoying himself, which can’t have been easy considering it was pre-recorded on a random afternoon in November.
The guests are all essentially either musicians or sports stars. This plays into Kielty’s strengths, which include positivity in the face of impossible odds and vapid banter. That isn’t a ding: vapid banter can be challenging to carry off (we see you, Pat Kenny) and Kielty is great at it, as is made clear when he chinwags with champion athletes Kate O’Connor and Fintan McCarthy.
He also talks with singer Lyra, who shares an anecdote about pushing former taoiseach Leo Varadkar by the bum during an outdoor adventure show in South Africa.
There is also a flashback to The Traitors as Kielty sits down with winning trio Oyin, Vanessa and Kelley and the show’s cult star Paudie, in advance of his appearance on Dancing with the Stars Ireland. It’s a Paudie expanded universe, and we’re all just drifting through it.
But the chatter is ultimately a sideshow as RTÉ stages its own Montrose Hootenanny. David Gray is the highlight with two stunning moments from his early career, while social media star Garron Noone joins The Stunning on Brewing Up A Storm. Ticking the “only on the Late Late” box, meanwhile, is Sharon Shannon, performing a trad version of the K-Pop Demon Hunter soundtrack with the assistance of vocalist Lucia Evans.
Kielty has had a rough 2025, with the death of his mother and the end of his marriage to ITV breakfast presenter Cat Deeley. But he gives it his all throughout what could so easily have been a ho-hum new year hoedown. It doesn’t quite close the 12 months just gone with a bang – but there are worse ways to see out the year and to hope for better days ahead.