We are delighted to announce the first full series to be shot at the Mansion House.

13 April, 2015

We are delighted to announce that Pat Kenny’s new show for UTV Ireland is set to be filmed in front of an audience at our Conference Venue Dublin.  The new show which will be called “Pat Kenny in the Round” is set to be shot in front of a live audience in our unique venue.

The Coco Television show is set to include “one or more” guests in conversation with Pat Kenny each week, including a mix of well-known and popular Irish and International guests being interviewed. As a live recording it is set to minimally edited and it will be shot in front of an audience of 140 people in the Round Room large banquet hall. 

When it comes to venues in Dublin, the Mansion House was especially selected for filming.“The Mansion House adds something to it,” says Stuart Switzer, managing director of Coco Television, which counts major Irish RTÉ programmes among its credits including, CrimeCall, Room to Improve, Don’t Tell the Bride and The Consumer Show. “Filming in a studio or somewhere like the Helix is an easy default.”

The series producer is Dave Skinner, who has made the Mobo awards and Bafta red carpet programmes for the BBC. He is also a producer for Big Brother for Channel 5 and The Big Breakfast for Channel 4.  Producer Dave Skinner says the set will be made to seem “intimate”, despite the fact that the Round Room “is a big old room”.

Skinner also says the show, in which Kenny will have some input, will veer away from the “fairly superficial” 8-10 minute interview format.

Audiences are a little weary of the usual style of “tell us about your book, and then let’s move on” formula, says Coco’s head of television Linda Cullen, the show’s executive producer. “And Pat is probably better at in-depth interviews than the quick fix. I think he’s known as a good interrogator,” she says.

Cullen also resists comparisons to programmes that specialise in one-to-one interviews, such as ITV’s Piers Morgan’s Life Stories. “Piers Morgan’s show is about Piers Morgan. Pat Kenny is not Piers Morgan.”

With the fear of counter scheduling, UTV Ireland are remaining tight lipped about the time of the slot for as long as it can, though the first show is expected to go out next month and there will also be a summer break for the show.

The guest list has remained a secret with UTV Ireland denying press reports. The first person in Kenny’s Round Room hotseat will be tennis legend Martina Navratilova.