John Kelly

The View was a review programme and while that had its strengths, it also had inbuilt limitations. The new programme is a magazine show and is, therefore, considerably more flexible – the format freeing us up to do much, much more.

Another welcome feature in The Works will be regular contributions from three people for whom I have a lot of time. Sinead Gleeson, Nadine O’Regan and Kevin Gildea. They’ll be out and about with camera crews, as will I, reporting from here, there and everywhere.

They’re all very smart, clued-in people and they know their onions. In fact knowing about onions was a key element in the selection process. C.T Onions. “Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon.” etc.

Back in the studio in Donnybrook, with a brand new set, there’ll be interview, review and, of course, performance. Obviously I’m especially looking forward to the musical aspect and we’re already lining people up for the weeks ahead. As I write this the Steinway is being polished up for Neil Hannon.

It’s always a pretty stressful time getting a new show up and running but the team making The Works is the very same team which made The View and I couldn’t be happier about that. As a presenter I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of people.

So here’s to The Works and before anybody else says it, yes, I’m the spanner.

The Works goes out at 10.45pm on Thursday nights on RTE1, starting on Thu 26th Jan.  Follow The Works on Twitter.