''Live at 3'' is a popular Irish afternoon

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broadcast live on

RTÉ 1 (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

. Presented by

Thelma Mansfield Thelma Mansfield (born 1949) is an Irish television presenter and artist who worked mainly with RTÉ television. She started out at RTÉ in 1965 as a continuity announcer. From 1986–97, she co-hosted the RTÉ 1 afternoon show '' Live at 3'' ...

and

Derek Davis Derek Davis (26 April 1948 – 13 May 2015) was an Irish broadcaster from Bangor. On television, he co-hosted '' Live at 3'', presented '' Davis at Large'' and '' Out of the Blue'' and won '' Celebrity Bainisteoir''. Early life Davis was bo ...

, it was

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

's flagship daytime show from 1986 until 1997. Ireland's most successful Daytime TV programme, reaching audiences of 300,000 at times, both young and old. The Monday edition was produced for older viewers and evolved from " Going Strong" presented by

Bunny Carr Bernard "Bunny" Carr (31 July 1927 – 19 September 2018) was an Irish television presenter. He presented shows such as '' Quicksilver'', ''Teen Talk'' and ''Going Strong'' on RTÉ. He later set up his own communications and public relations co ...

. Its theme music was 'Arlecchino' by

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History

In 1986 RTÉ had a new corporate brand for both of its stations RTÉ 1 and

RTÉ 2 (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

. As a result of this the daytime service split its programming between adults and children. ''Good Afternoon'', broadcast on RTÉ 1 for several years, saw presentation announcer Thelma Mansfield at the helm introducing both children's and adult programmes, she also carried out interviews with musicians and other well known people. From 1986 '' Good Afternoon'' remained but

Ian Dempsey Ian Dempsey (born 16 January 1961) is an Irish presenter of television and breakfast radio. He is the long-running presenter of the breakfast show on Today FM, self-titled ''The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show'', which runs from 6-9 am each weekday. ...

, accompanied by Zig and Zag, took control of introducing children's programming from 4:30pm with a new show called ''

Dempsey's Den ''The Den'' was a long-running children's entertainment television programme on Ireland's public broadcaster, RTÉ. First broadcast on 29 September 1986 on RTÉ1, it moved to Network 2 two years later. Initially a continuity strand for wee ...

''. This was preceded by a new

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-style show called ''Live at 3'', which Director of Television Dick Hill asked producer Noel Smyth to set up and edit. RTÉ weather presenters, including Gerald Fleming,

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, Jerry Scully, Dr. Aidan Nulty,

Joan Blackburn Joan may refer to: People and fictional characters *Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters ** Joan of Arc (c. 1412–1431), patron saint of France *Joan (surname) Art and media * ''Joan'' (Alexander McQueen ...

and Jean Byrne, would make rotational appearances on the show to present the weather forecast. The series was due to be available on the

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in late 2021 to mark "60 Years of Television".

Production

The first edition of ''Live at 3'' was broadcast from Studio 4 in the

RTÉ Television Centre The RTÉ Television Centre is a television studio building which is owned by Ireland's national public service broadcaster . It is part of the RTÉ campus located at Donnybrook in South Dublin. The building houses the main production studios ...

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Dublin 4 Dublin 4, also rendered as D4 and D04, is a historic postal district of Dublin, Ireland including Baggot Street Upper, the southernmost fringes of the Dublin Docklands, and the suburbs of Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, Irishtown, Merrion, Ringsend ...

. This was the first studio to be brought into full operation at RTÉ since the Television Centre was built in 1961. The studio was completed in 1982 but was not fully equipped until four years later. In 1982 Thelma received the Jacobs TV Award for "Live at 3" and Derek received it for "Live at 3" in 1991.

Cancellation

In 1997, RTÉ decided to axe ''Live at 3''. Thelma Mansfield later revealed she was first made aware of this when she saw a newspaper headline reporting the show's cancellation while stopped at a filling station in the west of Ireland.

References

{{s-end 1986 Irish television series debuts 1997 Irish television series endings 1980s Irish television series Irish television talk shows RTÉ original programming