All of us 90s kids will be pretty happy at this news – it seems The Den might be returning to our tv screens!
Next year marks the 30th anniversary of our favourite Irish children’s show, which gave us the likes of Zig & Zag and Bosco. And now RTE star Ray D’Arcy, who was undoubtedly the face of The Den, has hinted we may have a reunion to look forward to.
Chatting to TVNow this week, Ray said something may be in the pipeline for his new Saturday night chat show:
“A lot of people sitting in on Saturday nights now, with their kids in bed, actually grew up with The Den so it might just work – we might get the old gang back together again and do something on the new show to mark the occasion.”
Ray reminisced on his first day on The Den, saying he learned from the experience that the challenge with anything new is to learn how to become comfortable.
“As the host, you are inviting people into your space, it’s your room in your house, so you have to be completely comfortable – hopefully sooner rather than later. I remember when I started on The Den, the first day I sat with my feet up on the chair, hugging my knees and I thought I was so cool, I was there going, ‘That looks really relaxed’.
“By the end of the week, I was on the phone to nobody, going, ‘Yes, yes Zig is heartbroken, you really shouldn’t have broken his heart like that’. I was on the phone to some fictitious woman who Zig had a holiday romance with – that was my chicken on the lap moment for The Den… five days in, which was amazing.”
The Today FM presenter was frank about his new series, saying he can’t compete with the Late Late Show, which airs the night before.
His new show, which is set to kick-off this weekend is no match for a programme with such heritage, according to Ray. He said: “The Late Late Show is the oldest chat show in the world – people have grown up with it.
“It’s hard to compete against that heritage – we have zilch heritage.”
