Anonymous

Anonymous was an Irish television series broadcast on RTÉ Two. Its concept was to disguise well-known personalities, with the use of prosthetic masks, bestow upon them a fake identity, and set them up in what were intended to be humorous situations for the sake of entertainment. Format and history Anonymous was presented by Jason Byrne, who also used a hidden microphone to communicate mischievous ideas via whispering to the disguised personality. It ran for five series, with the last series broadcast in 2009. Byrne was offered funding for a further season, but turned it down, stating that it was too hard to find people who didn't know of the show and therefore saw through the ruses (its sister program, Naked Camera, did not help matters). He wanted the show to be remembered as being good while it lasted, and not being cancelled when it became desperate. Byrne was the celebrity who went anonymous in the final episode (Hector O hEochagain, the second ever guest behind Samantha Mumba, presented the show). Participants The series is known for showing the then Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine in a humorous light in an episode filmed before his death in January 2007. Ervine was one of three political representatives from Northern Ireland who agreed to partake in the programme; the others were Paul Maskey of Sinn Féin and John Dallat of the SDLP. They were interviewed by Belfast comedian Patrick Kielty, who was in the guise of New York TV reporter, "Betty Silverman". Ervine's family consented for the episode to be broadcast in the aftermath of his death.