The Meaning of Life - Season 4

First aired: 3/6/2011 6 episodes

Episodes

1. Michael Parkinson

Aired: 3/6/2011

In the chair is Gay’s long-time friend and former colleague, Sir Michael Parkinson. The two of them worked together in the early days of Granada TV, including the night The Beatles made their television debut. Paul McCartney asked Parky for his autograph… for his Mum. The band also asked the young Gay Byrne to manage them. He said ‘No’!

2. Brendan O'Carroll

Aired: 3/13/2011

Brendan O’Carroll tells Gay Byrne, the man who discovered him, how much his TV character Mrs Brown owes to his Mum, an ex-nun, pioneering Labour T.D. and widowed mother of eleven.

3. Abbot Mark Patrick Henderman

Aired: 3/20/2011

The Abbot of Glenstal is a paradox: a priest who never wanted to be a priest, who freely describes the Church to which he has given his life as "a dinosaur". Expect the unexpected, as Gay asks him life's big questions.

4. Brian Cody

Aired: 3/27/2011

Kilkenny GAA legend, Brian Cody tells Gay Byrne why he's never been tempted to leave the faith - or for that matter, the county - of his upbringing.

5. Martin Sheen

Aired: 4/3/2011

On a day when his son, Charlie, appeared to be committing career suicide, Martin Sheen spoke to Gay Byrne with remarkable openness about his family, his faith and his film career - three strands which come together in his latest movie, The Way.

6. Ben Dunne

Aired: 4/10/2011

Even before the Moriarty tribunal had branded his behaviour "profoundly corrupt", Ben Dunne admitted to Gay Byrne he'd been "a complete eejit" in his past dealings with politicians. His colourful life has included several brushes with death, an IRA kidnapping and a chequered relationship with Charlie Haughey. He reveals how it was the infamous events in a Florida hotel room that put him on the road to redemption.