two graham hickeys?
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Louthman’s ‘Late Late’ toy show becomes plastic fantastic internet cult
Una MullallyIT’S not often that there’s a buzz about the Late Late Show these days. But a young man in Louth is changing all of that. Five years ago, aged 18, Graham Hickey from Blackrock had an idea.
The softly spoken model maker and TV enthusiast decided to marry two of his loves . . . Lego and the Late Late Show . . . and create what has now become an internet phenomenon.
Hickey spent three months building an exact replica of the Late Late Show set, before using his trusty Sony camcorder to film his own version of Pat Kenny’s talk show, shot by shot. Eventually, he dubbed it with the opening credit music, Kenny’s voice and various musical performers to create the Lego Late Late Show.
Hickey, who has just completed a degree in media arts in the Dublin Institute of Technology, didn’t really do anything with the video he had shot until six weeks ago. His brother notified him of YouTube, now one of the most popular websites on the internet. A vast library of home videos and uploaded television programmes, YouTube serves over 100 million videos daily.
Hickey uploaded his Lego Late Late Show, and it has rapidly become one of the most watched Irish contributions to the website, and marked Hickey out as a bit of a web legend. The videos (on the site in two parts) have had over 4,000 views since they were uploaded just one month ago.
“I have no idea, ” is Hickey’s uncertain response when asked why he actually decided to make the Lego production. He prepared for the project by watching the Late Late and taking sketches of the set. “I suppose I just had an interest in model making and a giant lego collection at home, ” he told the Sunday Tribune. “I’ve always had an interest in TV production and the Late Late Show is the most significant television production here in Ireland. I’ve always liked it, so I suppose it made sense to do it in some way.”
The result is a hilarious and incredibly precise representation of the world’s longest-running chat show.
Lego audience members queue up outside the studio, before filling their seats and awaiting the arrival of Lego host Pat Kenny. First a Lego Mickey Harte performs, and in part two, Kenny enters the audience to chat about the evening’s competition, before Lego Nadine Coyle takes the stage to belt out ‘Fields of Gold’.
The most painstaking element of building the set was getting the lighting just right. “Planning the wiring took the longest, ” said Hickey. “There’s about 200 miniature lightbulbs throughout, and planning the circuits, sourcing the materials and using different gels to colour the light took quite some time.”
The remainder of the set is built out of plastic card, milk bottles and of course, more Lego.
“To the Lego purist, I’m a bit of a heretic, since I cut up [Lego] boards and took some liberties with the Lego, ” Hickey joked. To replicate tricky fluid camera shots, Hickey built tracking using cardboard, and made a Lego tray with wheels to place the camera on.
Since finishing the project, Hickey has won a national award for a documentary about Dublin’s O’Connell Street at the National Student Media Awards in 2004. He hopes to continue television production, aspiring to be a vision mixer. But he still nurses plans of a Lego Late Late Show follow up. “I might consider doing another one if they launch a new set next month, ” he revealed.
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How very curious – two GHs in the same county! Who’da thought it eh?
And just looking at the article this morning, a remarkably good looking chap at that too.
Quite extraordinary.Thanks for that info Paul – you bastard.
😀
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Well that’s certainly one description for it.
Thanks 😉
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I cried laughing when someone sent me this last week.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kTZSw-5g1Y
and
Part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdCK4wx9S0cthe lighting is amazing
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if that is you, well done, one of the finest pieces of TV ever produced in Ireland!
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Graham Hickey wrote:How very curious –]
Ever wish you’d used an alias?:)
There’s a poster, maybe 6′ x 4′, in the window of a large record shop in town displaying my handiwork, but nobody’d ever link the name ctesiphon with it.I’ll watch the video later. I sent the link on to some friends earlier and they’d all seen it already, the reaction being uniformly positive, so sounds promising alright. Keep us posted on the progress of the Lego ‘Afternoon Show’ with Blathnaid and Anna, if you would.
Makes me wish my folks hadn’t given all our Lego away in my teenage years.:(
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Philistines! 🙂
ctesiphon you do seem to hold something rather more than a passing an interest in The Afternoon Show given previous postings; is it their views of Merrion Square that tickle you boat, or views of a somewhat different kind?
Ever wish you’d used an alias?
Oh not really, only since about November 2002 – why do you ask?
🙂
Might I stress that video is about five years old now, and no, I did NOT build that Mansfield campus!
And apologies for the flowery language earlier – it just seemed apt. I’m usually far too ‘softy spoken’ for such obsenities :p -
Well remembered! Wasn’t that in the context of the reordering of Cobh Catherdal? That the O’Neill scheme would provide the perfect backdrop for our ladies?
Quiz 6
The Afternoon Show
Deal Or No Deal
Rikki Lake
CountdownAll in a day’s work when Archiseek is having an afternoon nap. Why, how do you fill your afternoons?:)
Seriously, I mention it probably because it’s the first instance of bad home-produced tv that springs to mind when I’m looking for an example- charmingly inept in places, frustratingly amateurish in others (eh… apparently). Nothing to do with the ladies, I’m afraid (unlike my love of Rikki!).
If the view of Merrion Sq were real, that might be something else, but I can see the real thing for free any day I choose.PS The videos were great.
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so for me the most amazing part of this is to learn how young GH is; I always thought he was hundreds of years old and wrote about the history of O’Connel street from personal memory
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Well he claims Graham Hickey isn’t an alias, but I know otherwise. His real name is Oisin, son of Finn from the Hill of Allen, and his real age would be revealed if he ever fell from his horse. (Not his high horse, mind.:) ) It’s such a tragedy, really. But at least it explains his love for the unspoiled countryside of Ireland- he remembers it when it was all just fields.
We should set him on the IRDA… -
yy yyou you mean you weren’t christened ctesiphon Mr c? 😮
And here was me thinking Ptolemy Dean was your big shot brother, with poor ctesiphon left behind in Oirland to take care of the farm.Heheh – your dry humour always makes me laugh notjim :). Never mind the Pillar, I remember Gardiner when he was in short trousers! – i.e. when he was in his forties, along with his waistcoat and stockings 😀
And the present day Boardwalk troubles are nothing compared to those Butcher Boys – ye don’t know how good you have it!Never went out of my way to deceive, but must admit to not exactly shouting matters from the rooftops either. As I’ve been outed, I s’pose tngz wil jst hav 2 chng wont dey?
Anyway, it’s embarrassing ressurrecting one’s own thread by replying, so if it could die a sudden death that would be appreciated.
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Graham thats deadly! Made me so nostalgic + reminded me that I had saved a lego castle in a cupboard, built 20 years ago 😮
…Just after looking at it again 🙂 , 6 storey Norman tower house – complete with loops, machicolatations/ barbicans and internal steps, although not spiral – as, in my day, cough cough, no such bricks existed 🙁 …
I better not say anymore or the authorities will find it + put a road thru it 😀
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Heheh – how apt :p
built 20 years ago
Yeah, sure 😉
Oh the fun we could have building a miniature Ireland in Lego, all rather appropriately in plastic. Motorways slicing through ruins, behemoth hotels next to Norman castles…
…sprawling estates of mindless units being built on the edges of villages:
McMansions by the dozen:
We could even publish ‘Build your own Lego House’ guide, featuring cutting edge bungalow plans:
Or traffic jams, and juggernauts forced through small villages, and pedestrians sidelined:
And confrontations breaking out on the platform in Pearse as patrons fight to get aboard the 17.13 cattle train to hell:
And of course some mind-numbing urban office infill:
(though secretly that looks rather good I think :D)
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