The Panel

The Panel is a talk show produced by Happy Endings Productions for RTÉ, based on the Australian programme The Panel, produced by Working Dog Productions for Network Ten. The theme song was "Waterfall" by The Stone Roses. Until 2006 it was hosted by Dara Ó Briain. Ó Briain, having presented Echo Island, came to popular acclaim at home through his regular appearances in Don't Feed the Gondolas, a topical comedy show in the same Monday night slot on Network 2. Recorded at various locations around Dublin—including Belvedere College's O'Reilly Theatre, Dublin City University's Helix Theatre and Blanchardstown's Draíocht Theatre—its sudden apparent cancellation in December 2005 annoyed fans but The Panel returned with a largely unchanged format in October 2006. Until early 2008 it aired on Network 2 (later RTÉ Two), usually on a Monday night. A disastrous move to RTÉ One (with the role of presenter rotated among the likes of Ray D'Arcy, Charlie Bird, and Dáithí Ó Sé) preceded the show's demise; one last run began on 7 October 2010 and ran each Thursday at 22:15 on RTÉ One until 26 January 2011, with Craig Doyle presenting. Format The show had a host who chaired the discussion, along with four panellists who changed from week to week. Regular panellists included Colin Murphy, Andrew Maxwell, Neil Delamere, Mairead Farrell and Eleanor Tiernan. They discussed current events, interspersed with interviews with special guests. Panelists were typically professional comedians, and as such the show aimed for pure comedy, rather than any hybrid of discussion or analysis and topical jokes. The producers and regular performers were clear that the show was distinguished from other panel shows by the absence of games, rounds, scores or other contrivances.