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A LITTLE BIT TV

Derek Davis pictured at RTÉ in 1981 Image Name: Derek Davis pictured at RTÉ in 1981 Description: A Little Bit TV Copyright: © RTÉ. This image may only be published in print or online for editorial use during the publicity period (the weeks immediately leading up to and including the transmission week of the relevant programme or event and three review weeks following) for the purpose of publicising the programme, person or service pictured and provided RTÉ and the copyright holder in the caption are credited.In certain cases particular images may be subject to embargo. For use outside of these terms and conditions please contact the RTÉ Television Press Office. Please see http://www.rte.ie/about/organisation/terms.html for full terms and conditions for rte.ie

To mark the TV50 year, RTÉ launches ‘A Little Bit TV’, a series of eight profiles of well-known and much loved Irish television presenters.

Programme 5: Derek Davis

Derek Davis has had one of the most varied and colourful careers in Irish broadcasting. His iconic status as daytime TV host belies a background in hard news. He started his broadcasting career in the BBC in Belfast in the early 1970s, the worst years of the Troubles, and followed this with a stint as a Big Tom impersonator on the RTÉ satirical show Hall’s Pictorial Weekly.

After a follow-up ballroom tour came to an end, he joined RTÉ as a television news reporter in 1975. Ten years later Derek left a plum job as newscaster on the nine o’clock news to host a prime time TV entertainment show. In 1986 he found yet another niche when he joined former continuity announcer, Thelma Mansfield, hosting popular daytime programme Live at Three. Then he made the leap from the sofa to riding the waves of a long-running marine series. Most he won the Celebrity Bainisteoir cup without breaking a sweat – unlike the time he hosted the Rose of Tralee…