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LAST NIGHT’S LATE Late was packed with starry guests: Christy Moore, Alison Spittle, some lads called Mel Gibson, Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg and John Lithgow, and UK comedian Peter Kay.

There was lots going on already, but somehow Peter Kay managed to turn the whole show on its head with a few hymns. Yes, hymns.

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At one point in Kay’s interview, Ryan Tubridy asked if he’d ever do an album like fellow entertainers Nick Knowles and Jason Manford. Kay thought about it, and said:

I’d do hymns. Why not? There’s some belting hymns. When I was an altar boy, the hymns were great. I’d do big band hymns. Do a bit of Bublé on them or summat like that.

Kay asked Tubs what his favourite hymn was (How Great Thou Art, an interesting choice) and immediately launched into a finger-clicking swing version of it.

Poor Ryan needed a minute to take it all in:

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But then the Late Late Show band had a go at accompanying Kay, and off he went performing swing versions of such Mass classics as I Watch The Sunrise and Give Me Joy In My Heart.

There was audience participation:

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There was Tubridy dancing (the spirit moved him!):

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And a rock’n'roll version of Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace, for which he extracted a woman from the audience to jive with him.

Isn’t she a mighty bit of stuff?

But in fairness to the rest of the crowd, we’ve never seen a Late Late audience enjoying themselves so much.

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Everyone at home was either wetting themselves laughing or sure they’d walked into an episode of The Twilight Zone.

“Disturbingly and amusingly satisfying” is probably the best description of it we’ve seen so far.

According to Late Late musician Jim Sheridan and some other RTÉ heads, the bit was unrehearsed, which just adds to the madness of the whole thing:

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We need a lie down after that. The lordblessusandsaveus.

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