RTÉ producer and social justice campaigner – The Irish Times

Born June 3, 1949

Died April 14, 2024

Larry Masterson, who has died aged 74, was a respected and influential RTÉ producer and social justice campaigner. He had an intuitive understanding of what made for compelling television and a natural affinity with audiences, who he believed liked to be entertained and challenged.

At Montrose, Masterson forged a long and fruitful relationship with Mike Murphy, working with the presenter on the series The Live Mike. He later led The Late Late Show through the difficult transition from the Gay Byrne era and helped Pat Kenny and Ryan Tubridy adapt to the biggest job in Irish broadcasting.

In addition to his achievements in light entertainment, he was a tireless advocate for the less fortunate. Masterson helped found the Simon community in Ireland. He started working as director of social services in Drogheda. Although he eventually made a career in television, he continued to have a keen interest in current affairs and believed that ‘light entertainment’ such as The Late Late Show should have a political component. His formula for the perfect chat show was simple: there had to be conversation, gossip, politics and an element of pathos.

Miriam O’Callaghan also paid tribute. “Larry was the best man,” she wrote on social media. “A brilliant TV executive producer, but more importantly: a beautiful man”

Masterson was the eldest of three children and grew up in Gardiner Street, in Dublin’s north inner city. His father, Peter, was a carpenter, his mother, Margaret, a housewife. Life in the inner city was tough at the time, and the poverty he witnessed left him with a lifelong sense of obligation to those less fortunate.

After attending the local Christian Brothers school, he studied social sciences at UCD’s Earlsfort Terrace campus. During his studies, he attended a lecture at Trinity College by Anton Wallach-Clifford, co-founder of the Simon Community in London (named after Simon of Cyrene, the bystander who was forced to carry the cross for Jesus). The speech was a life-changing event for Masterson, who founded the Simon Community in Ireland with friends Brian McCarthy and Denis Cahalane. After graduating he took a job in Drogheda in social protection. At that time, Noel Smyth, a producer at RTÉ, asked Masterson to appear on panel shows to discuss the social issues of the day. Masterson was authoritative, passionate and demonstrated a keen grasp of the facts – talents that led to a job as an investigator at Bunny Carr’s Encounter.

In Drogheda he had met his first wife, the actor and film producer Áine O’Connor. They would split up after four years. Masterson later married his second wife, Hazel, with whom he had two daughters, Kerri and Tara.

In the late 1970s, Masterson collaborated with Mike Murphy on the critically acclaimed Live Mike. The duo brought mischief and a sense of adventure to Ireland in the grip of recession and political instability, gaining a cult following thanks to their candid camera sketches. They hit it off so well that when Murphy left RTÉ to start his own production company in the early 1980s, Masterson came with him.

They founded Emdee Productions (along with cinematographer Seamus Deasy). Their first hit was Murphy’s Australia – a pioneering example of celebrity travelogue, in which a household name travels abroad and reports on their experiences. “For more than forty years we were friends, business partners and TV colleagues,” Murphy wrote in a tribute. “He was one of a kind. Tough yet sensitive, but happiest in the company of Hazel, Kerri and Tara.”

( Friends, colleagues and family say goodbye to the late, great Larry Masterson )

Miriam O’Callaghan also paid tribute. “Larry was the best man,” she wrote on social media. “A brilliant TV executive producer, but more importantly a beautiful man, kind, empathetic, caring, funny and he always stood by his team and his presenter.”

Murphy eventually left Emdee, leaving Masterson in charge. It led to screen series such as Written in Stone. One of his most significant projects was 2001’s If I Should Fall From Grace with God: The Shane MacGowan Story, which told the story of the Pogues singer and featured interviews with Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Johnny Depp and Sinéad O’Connor. The success of these shows attracted attention from abroad and he received job offers from the BBC and Channel 4. While his love of Ireland and his family and friends kept him from leaving his home in Dún Laoghaire, several of his productions were shown on Channel 4 broadcast. and discovery.

He returned to RTÉ in the early 2000s as a freelance producer, working with Miriam on Open House and Saturday Night.

Masterson was an avid reader and art lover. His great passion, however, was exploring Ireland’s inland waterways by boat, a love he shared with viewers as producer of Dick Warner’s Waterways, the show he was perhaps most proud of. Since his retirement, he has spent much of his time in Spain, going bowling and swimming every morning. He is survived by wife Hazel, daughters Kerri and Tara, grandsons Spencer, Ryan and Dylan and sisters Anne and Patricia.