The Rewind with Henry McKean - 1990
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You're welcome to The Rewind with me, Henry McKean. We're going to take a nostalgic look back on the year. Today, we're going to look back to the 90s. The year is 1990. Over the next hour, we'll be chatting to the game changers from 90, with movies like Ghost, Dancers with Wolves, and Pretty Woman.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison. I moved to Ireland. Here is my mum, Rosemary McKean, bringing us back to that moment when we moved here way back in 1990. Four boys, two dogs and a cat in a Volvo. And we sailed from Stranraer, I recall, and it was...

It was the afternoon. I can remember being so delighted seeing the Strand in Sandymount. And the only thing you guys wanted, you just wanted a McDonald's. And that's what you got. So we travelled all the way over from Scotland. We left a little village called Kilmacombe. We packed up this purple...

Volvo estate and there was bicycles on the roof, suitcases, elastic to keep everything in place. And then we took that ferry across the Irish Sea into the north and then we drove down. And then on arrival, you're saying all we wanted was a McDonald's. That's absolutely correct. And we went to McDonald's in Dun Laoghaire and we went to the house in Sandy Cove. And 35 years, Henry, I can't believe it. It's gone to flash.

It's been wonderful. I'm here with Neil Kavanagh, a friend of Rewind. I'm going to ask you to bring us back to 1990 and a car show. Yeah, so in 1990, I was the tender age of five years old.

And cars were kind of one of my favourite toys growing up, but I'd never really been to a car show. And so my parents brought me to what was probably one of the biggest, I think even to this day, one of the biggest car shows ever held in Ireland. It was the RDS Motor Show. And this was when every single brand was there. But I was sort of into my fast cars. And so it was a real rarity in Ireland to see anything exotic.

But on this stand, I remember it so clearly. My brother was with me. He was eight. And incidentally, he doesn't remember it as well as I do. It wasn't as defining a moment for him as it was for me. But on this show, on this stand at the show, was a Porsche 959, which was the ultimate Porsche of the time, a Ferrari Testarossa, which is now an incredibly valuable car, and a Lamborghini Diablo. And I had a little model of this Lamborghini, but to see one in the flesh was something else. But I was particularly lucky because

an uncle of mine was involved in the organisation of this show and he got me and my brother up on the stand to look at these cars and he whispered in our ear, "Which one would you like to sit in?" And of course we straight away pointed at this Lamborghini Diablo. He then proceeded to walk over to the car and had this sort of awkward moment in front of this big crowd of people trying to open the door, not realising, as me and my brother did, the door went up and not out. So we got this big round of applause when we sat into this car and it was a moment I'll never forget.

Fast forward 30 years after a lifelong passion of sports cars, I actually got to drive an identical Lamborghini when a more fortuitous friend than myself ended up with one of these Lamborghinis. And I tell you, I've never forgotten that day. It's always something I come back to. And I actually found a photograph of the exact stand only about two years ago. I think all my friends thought I was lying, but there was the proof. Thank you for your 1990 story. You're very welcome.

The Rewind with Henry McKean. I couldn't believe it when David Olivery went to take the penalty. I just couldn't believe it. I thought, no, come on. The nation holds its breath. Yes! Ireland are through to the quarterfinals of the... This is The Rewind, the year of Italian 90. And I remember coming into Ireland and it was just full of bunting and celebration. And there was a voice. There was a voice everywhere. You couldn't get away from it.

It's George Hamilton. George Hamilton, thank you so much for joining us here for The Rewind. Thank you very much for the invitation, Henry. A delight to spool back into the beginning of that decade and the wonderful memories that it conjures up. And, you know, for you, you're one of the most recognisable voices in the country. Like just chatting to people today about you before you came in, they know your voice and

as soon as you speak. So when you're in a hardware store or when you're, you know, I don't know, at the train station or ordering a pint, you know, do people always know your voice before they recognize you? It's kind of funny that because there'll be a flash of recognition a lot of the time, but then nothing further until you get into the second phase of the interaction. And then they say, are you...

Yes, exactly. It doesn't happen instantaneously, but something rings a bell and then it goes on from there. And you get a lot, you get that a nation holds its breath. And obviously you were nominated for a book award, an En-Post book award for that. And you've got your new book out as well, The Hamilton Notes.

Do people ask you to say a few words to them? Do they actually ask you to give us some of those famous catchphrases like danger here? Did you get that? Yes, that in particular is a particularly fond memory because there were two guys who were together in a bar that I happened to be in in downtown Dublin not long after I said danger here in the course of a match between Ireland and the Soviet Union.

in Hanover. That was Euro 88, two years before what we're thinking back on. And that danger here was obviously

something that came out of a sequence of play when the ball began with the Russian goalkeeper away to the left. And it seemed like a good time to draw a comparison with Paki Bonner, who'd gone quite a while without conceding a goal. But while I was in the middle of explaining this, the play moved rather swiftly from left to right until the ball landed at the feet of Oleg Protasov. And just at that point, I was putting a full stop to my Bonner remarks and

and it was obvious that there was danger here and of course there was and he scored and that was the equaliser to Ronnie Whelan's goal off his shin pad and

of Hanover then. Yes, but Danger Here in the pub, Mulligans of Pool Beg Street. Yes. I was shooting the breeze with some friends and these two guys came up to me and they said, is it really you? And I said, yeah, it's me. Because we've just set up a website called dangerhere.com. That's right. Yes. Paul Little was one of the guys and I'm still in touch with him. His dad worked in RTE back in the day, but it was just the chance meeting and

I know I'm not really answering your question, but they certainly wanted me to say danger here because they'd taken it. And, you know, there was a column in, I think it's still there, in Private Eye called Coleman Balls, which is commentator gaffes down the years. And

they were modeling it on this. It wasn't just me, there were others as well. And they had Ronglish, which was the way Ron Atkinson spoke English. So it was just a chance meeting. And we became friends right in that instant, and all because of something I'd said. And this is the thing, you know, being a commentator, you're there at some of the biggest events in the world.

In the world, biggest sporting events, and I've got it here, 12 World Cups, 12 Euros, 11 Olympics. Just unreal, all those years. 46 years at it, am I right in saying that? Yeah, it's actually even more than that. Is it longer?

And the first match report I did was in 1972, which makes it like 52 years.

And the first commentary I did was a rugby match. It was Ireland-Scotland in the spring of 1974. So we're actually talking 50 years as a commentator. Of course, you're 50 years at it. Yeah, the 46 bit probably relates to RTE. When I moved to RTE temporarily for the World Cup in 1978 in Argentina. And then when I came back from that, they offered me a job. So I must have done all right. Yeah.

And that's the thing. I mean, so many people, they leave RT and they go to the BBC. But you came to RT and you stayed for such a, well, I'm longer than I've been alive. I'm 46 years of age. Did you love it? Did you love being a part of it? Even though a commentary box can be quite lonely. And, you know, it's a really difficult skill. I tried it once. And talking of gaffes, and I know it's unfair to bring up gaffes.

It's a really difficult technique, isn't it? It's a real skill. Well, yeah, your colleague on Newstalk, Pat Kenny, had a wonderful phrase to describe the commentary. He said that there is a choreography to a television commentary because you're not on your own like you are on the radio and you can paint your pictures. Maybe you can actually...

indulge in a little bit of poetic license on the radio. But on television, your job is to complement what the viewer is seeing so you can't go off on one. And you say that in your books about not stating the bleed and obvious. It's hard not to. But sometimes you've got to and you've got, as you said, you've got to complement it. For you, I want to go back to 1990. We're here talking about that year. What was that like? And when you were, you know, over there, over there,

in Italy, did you realize how much magic was going on

And what were those Jack Charlton years like? And getting to the quarterfinals? Well, to begin with the great Con Houlahan remark, when someone said, what was it like, Italian 19? He said, I don't know, I was there. Of course. And there was a bit of that involved. So it was absolutely perfect. But that was the beginning of our adventure. Our first match was in Milan and we went on from there. Well, I think it was that...

inevitably the quarterfinal against Romania because how they got there they had played against the Netherlands and Egypt and England and it ended up

drawing 1-1 with the Netherlands, which was that match where the Netherlands scored, Niall Quinn equalized. And then they realized that if they kept it at 1-1, they'd both qualify. Yes, yes. But what that also meant was they had identical records. So there was no goal difference or anything like that. It had to be that mythical drawing of lots. And lying in wait are West Germany and Romania. And you think, whoa, this could be curtains here.

But of course, Ireland get lucky. They get Romania. The Netherlands get Germany again knocked out. Yes. West Germany go on to the final. And we get Romania. Yeah. And that was a stroke of luck. And then I was down to, the way it was divvied up was that I was down to do

The match in Milan, which was West Germany, Netherlands. And then the next day, the game in Genoa, Republic of Ireland, Romania. I can't remember what was supposed to happen there, but the planning had been done on the basis that Ireland weren't going to qualify.

So we were not assigned to this match. However it worked out. So suddenly I'm on this match. So Tom and I have to travel in our hire car from Milan to 100 miles odd to Genoa on a really hot day. And we leave in the morning and we're thinking, you know, if this works out, we really need to stay down there. So we decided we were going to book a B&B when we got to Genoa.

not come back to our hotel in Milan. And then we had another thought. It's just that we're about to leave Milan. We pass a shopping centre. Let's go in here and get a bottle of fizz, just in case. Just in case. Just in case. So we get the bottle of fizz and we put it in the back of the car and we drive. Yes. And we're having a great time. I remember the journey very well. Tom's a great mimic and he was mimicking Jimmy McGee all the way down to Genoa. It was wonderful. Anyway, we got to Genoa, we found lodgings and then we went off to the match.

We parked in the official car park. Now, in Italy at the World Cup in 1990, every host city was dry on the day of a game. So there's no way we should be having Asti Spumanti in our possession. Oh, definitely not. And certainly not taking it into the stadium. Yeah, uncommentated. But somehow or another, it secreted itself in my satchel and in we went. And it was...

at our feet through the 120 minutes of stultifyingly dull extra-time scoreless draw against Romania. And then, of course, it goes to the shootout. And I'm told that the 6-1 news, which is on at the same time, is going to take the shootout because it's so monumental. And at the same time, in Dublin Castle...

Charlie Hoagie was wrapping up Ireland's presidency of the EU because it was the end of June, the six months was up. Of course. And he suspended the press conference. He said, there's something we should be watching here. And so all eyes in Dublin Castle then turned to the array of televisions...

Everybody was watching. All watching it. I didn't know that bit of it at the time, but I did know that anybody who was watching Irish TV, because there only were two channels, was watching either us on Network 2, as it was called, or RT161 News. And that's where it came from. Because when Timofey and Bonner

set it up for the final penalty kick to decide it all. I was aware that everybody... Every eye, every eyeball. Every Irish eyeball was on this. And that's how that came about. And we're back to Pat Kenny's choreography of the television coverage because there's no surprise to an experienced commentator what happens in a penalty shootout or with any penalty kick.

They'll give you a wide shot. Yeah. They will then focus on the goalkeeper and then they'll focus on the taker of the penalty. Yes. So we're in a close-up of David O'Leary when I say this kick can decide it all and then shut up because I know there's a wide shot coming. It's visual, yes. Let the pictures... Let the pictures tell the story. So O'Leary places the ball...

And the shot changes to goalkeeper and O'Leary about to take the kick. And that's the moment that the words just came to me because it was obvious that everybody was watching The Nation Holds Its Breath.

Absolutely fantastic. That's how that came about and you could never script that. It's like at the moment. There are those who feel that, yeah, and you do prepare facts and figures and have them at the ready. But the great Bill McLaren once said to me, you know, all of that stuff that I prepare and all the multicoloured notes. He was brilliant.

Yeah. He said, I will only use 5% of that, but I will never know until the match is over. What I'm going to use. Yeah. What I'm going to leave out. You've got to be ready for everything. Yeah. And it's, it's the swirl in your head when you're in, in the zone and it's the match that's consuming you and all around it. And,

that these phrases come to you. You've got to trust yourself. It's a bit like a player, or indeed, I often say a jazz musician. You know, you're on the saxophone and I'm playing the piano and there's the drummer and now you're the soloist. And what am I going to do here? That's a bit different and special. But you know where you're starting from and you know how many bars there are until you get back to where you're supposed to be. But in the meantime, you can do your thing. There's a little bit of jazz there. So the match...

and the nation holding its breath and Paki Bonner and David O'Leary pouring that stale, fizzy wine over me live on the air when I interviewed them after the match. That would be the sporting highlight of Italia 90. But the personal highlight came when I came home because bear in mind, a World Cup's a long thing. I've been away like five weeks or more and my two daughters at the time were eight and five.

So, Daddy's missed. They missed you. And they came with their mother to pick me up at the airport, and this was great. And when we got back to the house, hadn't they done a collage of... Ciao was the mascot of Italian 90, and they'd drawn Ciao in a big picture, and it was on our front door. Oh, fantastic. And the car pulled into the cul-de-sac and then into the drive, and as I got out of the car...

All the children in the cul-de-sac came running. Oh, beautiful. And from the next door house emerged my neighbour, Martin Coonan, former principal of Star of the Sea National School in Sandymount. I know it. In his pinstripe suit, which was his trademark.

And this pinstriped gent had a silver platter on which was a bottle of champagne and glasses. And this was my welcome home. That is just so beautiful. What a beautiful Italian 90 memory. George Hamilton, thank you so much for joining us. And a quick reminder to the listeners out there, the Hamilton Notes is in all bookshops now. Thank you for joining us on The Rewind 1990. And thank you very much for having me, Henry. It was a most enjoyable trip down memory lane.

The Rewind with Henry McKean. The Rewind with Henry McKean. We're talking about the year 1990. A huge year for me personally. It was the year I came to Ireland. I moved to Ireland as a child. I was just 12 years of age. And I remember a can of Coke was 50p. Back in Scotland, it was 25p. Also, chocolate bars were 20p.

25p back in Scotland they were 20 that was the first thing I noticed and you couldn't get spiral bars or cherry coke but I got over that we're joined now by Jonathan de Berger Butler and you've been looking into some of the biggest stories of the year in 1990 you're very welcome

It's interesting that you mention the cost of living back then in 1990, because 1990 was the same year, the year that you arrived, Henry, that the Irish pound coin was introduced into circulation. Yes.

Now, you might remember it. It was a big silver coin. I do. It was a beautiful thing. Beautiful coin. Yeah, it was a beautiful thing. It was a little bit bigger than the current two euro coin. And it was thin. And it was quite thin, but it was heavy. You could feel it in your pocket as you were going around. But you got value for money back then. There was a stag on the back of it. There was. And the harp, the requisite harp there. And it replaced the old...

green pound note. The old punt. Yeah, the old punt, which stayed around in circulation for a while. But I remember you only needed a few of them to buy a pint. Now, obviously, I was only 14. You were buying them at 14? No, I was about to say, Henry, I mean, I was only 14 at the time, so I wasn't buying pints. Not many. Not many, no, no. Although I do remember there were still a few bars around town where you could probably go in with a bit of a squeaky voice and still manage to get a pint. And a bad fake ID. And a very bad fake ID, yes. Well, we won't go into that.

We won't go into that too much. Yeah, so obviously the cost of living, I remember everyone used to drive a Nissan Micra and roads were made out of concrete, not tarmac. And that's changed now. Also, from a pop music point of view, tell us. Yeah, I do not want what I haven't got. Does that ring a bell with you? It does.

Absolutely. Sinead O'Connor's second album, which contained the smash hit Nothing Compares to You, which I think was released later that year. And of course, the video became famous for that trickling tear that rolls down her face when she mentions the flowers that were planted by her mama in the backyard. And yeah, it was, as you said, it was a Prince song and it went global and it

made her into a superstar. Turned her into a superstar but as we all know it didn't last for too long because of her ripping up the picture of the Pope which of course happened. I can't remember what year that happened but it doesn't make it into 1990. It was a few years later and my understanding is she took the Pope's picture from her mum's bedroom and she was trying to punish her mother and obviously the Catholic Church as well and now all these years later we can understand why she did it. Indeed, indeed.

Earlier that year, Nelson Mandela was released from prison. He was released from prison in February the 11th of 1990. And I'll never forget it because there was lots of coverage of it. I mean, I only had two channels back then. You just had the two? Only had the two, yeah, absolutely. You mean you didn't have the big aerial to pick up?

the ones from the UK? No, we wouldn't do such a thing as a league like that. Oh, what about Sky? We got Sky that year. We got Sky later on. You did get Sky. Yeah, eventually we did. But back then in 1990, we still only had the two channels. But I remember that this was covered on RT1. There was widespread coverage of it, as you can imagine. I mean, he had been in prison for 27 years and nobody had seen him besides the few prison cards and the other prisoners that were with him. He was a young man when he went in. Well, he was a very young man when he went in.

Mr. Nelson Mandela will, within seconds, within seconds appear and that will be the moment the world has been waiting for. There's Mr. Mandela, Mr. Nelson Mandela, a free man taking his first steps into a new South Africa. Mrs. Winnie Mandela next to him, waving to the crowds, hand in hand,

They leave the Victor Fester prison. A car pulls up at these gates and all of a sudden this man walks out and people had to get accustomed to seeing this figure because, of course, he became one of the biggest names in not just South African politics, but global politics. As I said, it was February 11th that he was released and four years later,

uh he became the first prime minister or was a president i can't remember of south africa president i think and obviously presidential you know 1990 apartheid was still there it was breaking up and i remember the images i remember i used to like watching the news even as a 12 year old i know that sounds really strange but i did enjoy it that and the simpsons kind of the same now really um on cable link on a sunday night and with that uh

There were hundreds of thousands of people that lined the streets as he walked out, got out of the car and walked. Absolutely fascinating and historical. Later that year, Iraq invaded Kuwait, triggering the Gulf War. So this was Saddam Hussein, who, of course, decided that he would install a puppet government system

in Kuwait to clear debts from his Iran-Iraq war that had gone on a few years before. He was trying to stop them drilling in his territory, at least that's what he said as well, and he wanted better access to the Persian Gulf so he could access the oil wells there. There was also a moral argument that he came up with later on which kind of resonates today because he wanted to hold Israel to ransom effectively and get them out of power

Palestinian territories, which he had seen as being illegally occupied. So even then, that was the discussion. It didn't last very long. It started on August 2nd, as I said, in 1990, and it lasts until February of 1991, and his forces were comprehensively beaten

by a group of nations that came together. I think there was more than nearly 40 nations. Operation Desert Storm. Desert Storm, that was it. And yeah, I remember it really well. We lived in Kuwait, not at that time. We were out of there by that stage.

But I remember my dad saying he recognized some of the Westerners that Saddam had taken hostage in hotels at the beginning. He recognized some of them. Some of them were his friends. So we were really kind of following it quite closely. And we were really quite cross with Saddam for what he did because, you know, Kuwait then was a...

was a sovereign country. But yeah, you say it yourself, Saddam wasn't captured. It was the next time. It was 2003 they went after him for weapons of mass destruction, which didn't exist. Yeah, and George Bush, he was the president. This George Bush scene, the president at the time was asked about it. And he basically said that

Look, had we continued into Baghdad and gone after Saddam Hussein, it would have cost a lot more lives than they had lost. I think the Americans only lost something like 150 lives in that particular campaign. So they decided to stop.

where they stopped. And that was bad news for other groups which had launched an uprising within Iraq, most notably the Kurds, many of whom were then massacred as a result of their involvement in an uprising. So it was kind of inexplicable in a way that they didn't go after Saddam Hussein and finish him off. - Yeah, it was surprising. - Yeah, finish him off. But then of course the sun went in and did it a couple of years later. - Kuwait is liberated. Iraq's army is defeated. Our military objectives are met.

Kuwait is once more in the hands of Kuwaitis in control of their own destiny. We share in their joy, a joy tempered only by our compassion for their ordeal. Are there big events, Jonathan, in 1990 that you want to share with us? Yeah, it was actually the same month that that invasion happened in Kuwait that Brian Keenan, do you remember Brian Keenan? I remember Brian, yes. He was released from captivity after 1,574 days.

He had been kidnapped in Beirut. He spent a lot of time with the UK journalist John McCarthy, who I think was released before him, was he not? Around the same time, yes. A couple of months before him. He went on, of course, Brian Keelan to write a brilliant book about his experiences called An Evil Cradling. Have you ever read that book? I haven't. I've heard of it. And it was a huge, huge book for him.

Yeah, yeah. It was a huge, huge book and it was brilliantly written. I remember reading it when it came out. And I met him a couple of years later and thanked him for writing the book, actually. Did you? He's a bit of a hero, I have to say. He was. There were huge crowds around him when he came home. And the relief and there was such joy on the streets of Ireland when he was released and when he was brought home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. An extraordinary man, no doubt about it.

And now Mrs. Robinson will make her first speech as President of Ireland. Citizens of Ireland, you have chosen me to represent you and I am humbled and grateful for your trust. The Ireland I will be representing is a new Ireland, open, tolerant, inclusive.

Many of you who voted for me did so without sharing all my views. This, I believe, is a significant signal of change. A sign, however modest, that we have already passed the threshold to a new pluralist Ireland. 1990 was also the year that Mary Robinson was elected. She became the seventh president of Ireland, of course, the first woman to be elected. She had a recent movie adaptation

out, warts and all. She talks about everything in it and about stepping down early. And she regrets that. She joined the UN. But, you know, there was lots of internal politics and she managed to win it. Tell us about that internal, the political movement at

Yeah, it was very interesting because you had three candidates. So you had Mary Robinson, Austin Curry, who was running for Fianna Gael. And then, of course, you had Brian Lennon for Fianna Fáil. Now, Brian Lennon was seen as the favorite and a shoe-in, really, for the presidency. Although at that particular time, Charles Haughey, who was the Taoiseach, was quite unpopular there.

It became apparent as the campaign went along that Mary Robinson was running a good campaign and she became a real contender. But the real turning point came when a tape was released of an interview with Brian Lennon. He had given it to a PhD student.

And in it he talks about putting pressure on President Hillary all of eight years previously not to dissolve the Dáil. Now this was something that he had always denied doing to friends and to anybody who asked. But in this interview he admits it.

This goes out into the papers and it kind of ruins Brian Lennon's reputation. Charlie Haughey has to kick him out of cabinet, as far as I recall, and it kind of dents his confidence. Now, he does make a bit of a comeback towards the end of the campaign. And in fact, in the first round of voting, he got about 7% more of the votes than Mary Robinson. But at that point, Austin Curry and Mary Robinson had done a transfer pact. Austin Curry was knocked out.

And the majority of those transfers went over to Mary Robinson and she became the first woman president of Ireland. She was inaugurated in December of that year. I remember going to the cinema to actually see The Field. Tell us about The Field. Oh, The Field. I mean, what a wonderful movie. I mean, that was Jim Sheridan who directed that. He's been in the news recently. He has. He's been knocking about. Might be making a documentary on another interesting character. But this was Richard Harris who starred in this, in the role of the Bull McCabe.

But there was so many people in that cast. Sean Bean played the son. Tom Berringer played the yank, I think he was referred to. Brenda Fricker was Richard Harris' or the Bull's wife. I think she only had one line in the whole thing towards the end, but she stole the show. Yes, she did. And John Hurt played Bird. So there was quite a cast and it was a wonderful movie, I remember. It was

very moving. Yeah, very moving. I remember lots of people in Ireland being quite proud of it at the time and the production levels and that kind of thing. So she's putting up the field? That's right. On the first day of October by public auction. Public auction. What will happen? Men will make bids. Bids? Bids? For my field? Just who would insult me by bidding for my field here in Carrickthoman? There might be outsiders, but...

I remember that film so well and those memories of 1990. Ireland was on the up. It was before the Celtic Tiger and there was just, there was this happy-go-lucky feel and it was such a powerful year for me and a culture shock. I mean,

moving to Ireland. So similar to the UK, but so, so different. And I discovered red lemonade as well. I mean, I still, I admit that I'm, I still like Marmite though, even though the Irish don't really, do you like Marmite? No, no, I'm not a fan of Marmite, Henry.

that's not good I'm delighted that you've integrated fully with the red lemonade that's fantastic it's very bad for your teeth and Cydona can you still get Cydona Cydona an absolute classic now you're bringing me back to memories of holidays down in Connemara and in

the middle of the summer of 1990 and the Cydona which people would give to you or the older people my brothers would drink it and they'd say I'm having it because it tastes like cider It was sour there was a sour flavour I generally stuck to the Coca-Cola and Fanta You kept to the Fanta Well Jonathan de Berger Butler thank you so much for joining us for Rewind 1990 The Rewind with Henry McKean

The Rewind with Henry McKean on Newstalk. David O'Callaghan from the Here and Back Again podcast. It's Rewind. It's 1990 and we're going to talk about pop culture. We're going to talk about everything that happened in the movies, in music and in your life.

Yeah, I would have been in Maynooth College at this point. And yeah, it was... Movies-wise, I just remember we regularly would get the bus into town to go to the cinema because it was cool back then, or it wasn't, I suppose, cool. But the big kind of...

I suppose trend or vibe of the year was gangster movies were absolutely massive that year. Gangsters. Yeah, gangsters were everywhere. It was the Coen Brothers with Miller's Crossing, if you remember that. Brilliant movie. Look into your heart. Look into your heart. Oh, John Turturro, you snake in the grass. Absolutely brilliant. There was Godfather Part 3.

Still sketchy. Still disappointing. I watched it again recently. It's probably not as bad as I thought it was, but it's still not Godfather 1 and 2. And at the time, it was criticised, wasn't it? Oh, it was absolutely panned. When you're following up two of the best movies of all time, you're on the... No, gone. Probably the other thing it suffered from was the fact that there was a new kid on the block. Martin Scorsese released Goodfellas.

and obviously people lost their mind one of the best gangster movies of all time absolutely brilliant i'm funny how i mean funny like i'm a clown i amuse you i make you laugh i'm here to amuse you what do you mean funny funny how how am i funny and goodfellas is still brilliant the soundtrack is great the acting is great it's dark but it's also funny and it's still great to this day yeah to this day fantastic and the energy like it's it's like a a

a punk rock band like it's just the energy in the movie is unbelievable and funnily enough for that year there was if anybody remembers the small guy Joe Pesci or Joe Pesci well he was Pesci in Home Alone he was actually in Home Alone the same year so I always like to think that everything bad that happened to him in Home Alone was payback for what he did in Goodfellas

So Home Alone was a huge hit that year. So looking at the overall year, the most popular movies worldwide, Ghost was number one with Patrick Swayze and Danny Moore. I know. Talk about flashbacks. And I can guarantee you, and everybody knows, the sign-ups to pottery classes went through the roof. Did you sign up? Were they sexy? Yeah.

No. It was a bit messy. No. No. You didn't find love at the popular class? No. Sadly not. Still looking. Still looking. It's popular classes have collapsed. No. Moving on. Erm...

So Ghost was number one. Then you had Home Alone, which was a huge family favourite. Everybody loved Kevin McAllister. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Pretty Woman caught the imagination of the public and was a massive hit. Absolutely huge. Big mistake. Big mistake. Huge. But it wasn't a big mistake. It was fantastic. It was unbelievable. Like, people just... And it's still one of those classic rewatchables that you'll just... If it's on the TV, people go, eh, we'll have a look here. ♪

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So really great. And then rounding off the top five was Kevin Costner's Dancing With Wolves and Goodell Arnie had Total Recall, which I obviously as a nerd, I was obsessed with. It was a great movie and they gave us the three breasts. Yeah, there was that. And then they had kind of coming off like a robotic. You could argue it's looking well into the future and a lot of it's kind of come true even though we're not on Mars. But other than that, it's all kicking off. Yeah.

sequels were very big that year so you had Back to the Future 3 again not as probably loved as the other two probably because it was a western but when you look back now I think that was unfairly judged unlike the Godfather 3 and you know a grower yeah absolutely and that was a great trilogy Gremlins 2 the new batch I absolutely adored most other people didn't Predator 2 and Die Hard 2 also came out

And then on the stress side of everything, on the horror side, Misery, Stephen King's Misery was a huge, huge hit. Talk about 90 minutes of absolute, oh my God. And who will ever, the sledgehammer to the foot.

stop the madness like katty bates get out of my life just and she won the oscar fair play to her but do you still love misery i absolutely yeah no it's just stephen king movies there's probably about 10 brilliant ones and then there's about 100 absolutely rubbish ones next year should be a big year for them but um things like shawshank and stand by me so misery belongs in that in

iconic rewatchables as opposed to all the other... I've not even got a name happening because they're so bad. It's very important that I mention my own emo side, Edward Scissorhands. Brilliant film. Absolutely brilliant. Oh my God, I went to cinema about six times to see that movie. I have my Italian Edward Mani di Fabici poster still to this day and I adored it. And it was funny, but it was dark and there was a really lovely feel right through it.

Yeah, it was kind of... So autistic. Yeah, it was just beautiful to look at and it was just... And again, the sound, the score was beautiful and... And Johnny Depp at his best. Yeah, and pure emo. Like, in any way, if you're ever going to be an emo, that's the movie for you. Awards-wise for the year, so Kevin Costner's Dancing With Wolves won seven Oscars, beating, unfortunately, Goodfellas, which...

still is a bit... Yeah, and, you know, Dances with Wolves, it was good. It wasn't that good. But it was, in the 90s, unlike these days, in the 90s, that was a classic...

Hollywood Oscar movie and you could see and it was again it was a much more closed voting academy and they were a lot older they were older and they just went man on a horse three and a half eras yeah Native Americans and they didn't like the violence in Goodfellas that was simply it the same way Tarantino some of his didn't make it because you know they got nominated but they didn't win because of the fact that the voting academy was also old and liked old kind of movies um

So, as I said, Kathy Bates won for her role in Annie Wilkes in Misery, but probably, I remember watching it live and the most disturbing and upsetting thing for me of the night was the fact that Madonna, with her song Sooner or Later, I Always Get My Man from Dick Tracy, beat my man, Jon Bon Jovi's Blaze of Glory. And I'm probably still upset to this day, but...

because she got an Oscar for that tune. Like, can you even, can you even jump on Jovi? Can anybody remember the tune of that song? No, it's Madonna. That's why I can give you a blaze of glory. I'm not going to give it to you now, but now that would be my bias, but I don't care. And obviously still people talk about the fact that when you look back, dance with wolves, not good fellas, not a good look.

We've also got so much more that's happened in 1990. Like, it was a great year. There was lots going on. Obviously, it was the end of the 80s and it was a new decade. And here in Ireland, there was, you know, it wasn't quite the start of the Celtic Tiger, but there was a good feel. There was just a lot of American TV that...

I suppose prestige-esque kind of stuff was starting to land. Most notably Twin Peaks. Like David Lynch's Twin Peaks was... And you loved Twin Peaks. Oh, it was... As I said, I was in my new college and we used to watch it in a friend... Because the house we were in, we didn't have... Well, we had a TV, but we didn't have any... We didn't have a TV for some reason. That's just stupid because you could have used rabbit's ears. We're such more... Anyway, we used to watch it in a friend's house every Monday...

and record it and then go back to my house and watch it twice again and then there'd be meetings in the canteen and we'd miss lectures discussing kind of so this to me is the start of the whole going down the rabbit hole Stan behaviour of people kind of

spotting something in a show and going... Forms, really. Yeah, trying to figure out who did the murder and is this a red herring? And it was madness. And then Julie Crew's score was one of the most beautiful things. And as a kind of... It's depressing as hell, but something you would listen to on loop in the house. This is like six lads live in a house and we'd be playing it out. It's insanity, but what a show. Absolutely adored it. Then, obviously...

Agent Dale Cooper Kyle McLaughlin played him with and his love of coffee and cherry pie like to us we all wanted cherry pie and then we had some cherry pie and we're like we'll stick to apple tart thank you very much also out that year was believe it or not Beverly Hills 90210 or 90210 to their friends so Brandon and Brenda living in Beverly Hills California it was

in its first year, it kind of flopped. It didn't really catch on. However, it kind of touched on many topical and hot topic buttons that teenagers were into, like those huge things. And from its second year on, it grew and grew, and then it just became this smash hit. It was huge. I mean, for example, I always wanted to visit the Peach Pit.

because the chef or the owner would always help them and I thought that guy seems so cool but yeah it was massive I used to watch it every week when you think of how big the OC became years later like Beverly Hills 902 was the OC before the OC except everybody was about 40 in the show but they were playing like 50, 70 year olds they were some of the actors and I remember actually bumping into Jason Priestley on Grafton Street years later and he looked exactly the same he hadn't aged

Also that year, it came out in the States in December 1989. However, it landed in Ireland in 1990. It was, believe it or not, The Simpsons, which is now on its 36th season. So it's kind of mad to think that that's how old The Simpsons is.

Classic must-see TV, sitting around the TV watching it. A lot of people big into that and obviously now it's on its 36th season. Other shows just launched in that year that kind of still are in people's heads over the years. So Law & Order, the first ever Law & Order. Northern Exposure for those Canadians out there who remember that kind of cuteness. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, believe it or not. And Mr Bean.

Mr Bean I always thought Mr Bean was earlier so that was 1990 I thought it was that as well so maybe I'm just doing my maths wrong but I No I think you're right and Mr Bean is still a global sensation It felt like it was 80s like mid to late 80s but everything feels like the mid 80s but it's like oh it was 1990 so there you go Mr Bean and then one that one show that I was

obsessed with and it's kind of weirdly become popular in the kind of you know gangs of people who go out for a party and book a room like these escape rooms so the Crystal Maze on Channel 4 launched with Richard O'Brien who people may remember from the Rocky Picture Show this was like a group of people contestants doing these challenges over in different set in different period time pieces and

and you win, every time you win, you get extra time for your, you're in this dome, and everybody knows the dome, they'll see it where, there's these, kind of, gold foil tickets flying through the air, the air con has blown them everywhere, and you have to catch the gold ones, and not the silver ones, and pack them away, and it was, absolute madness, and I,

I religiously watched that show for about four years and then it went away. And it was a sensation at the time. I suppose it was like The Traitors of Now. It was massive. Yeah, that's really good. It's The Traitors of Now, but you go to London now and there's a crystal maze. You can do like all, they pop up as a hatchetron escape rooms. The crystal maze is now a thing. But I think at some point, I was a betting man, it'll come back on TV. They had it just pre-COVID.

Richard Iowati was presenting that but then because of Covid they shut it down but I have a feeling it's such a kind of iconic thing that I think Jan 4 at some point will bring it back Well Dave O'Callaghan thank you so much for bringing us back to 1990 The Rewind thank you so much Thank you very much And that's it for The Rewind 1990 until the next time I'm Henry McKean and thanks for joining us The Rewind with Henry McKean