About this season
The Meaning of Life is an Irish television programme, the first series of which was broadcast on RTÉ One in 2009. It is presented by the veteran broadcaster Gay Byrne. Each episode involves Byrne interviewing a well-known public figure. The series is broadcast each Sunday night at 22:20. In 2010 The Meaning of Life returned for both a second and, later, a third series. Interviews with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and actors Gabriel Byrne and Brenda Fricker during the second series attracted media attention when they spoke of their religious habits and child sexual abuse respectively. Gay Byrne appeared on The Late Late Show on 18 December 2009 to discuss the programme. A fourth series soon followed. Then a fifth series from January 2012. And a sixth in October 2012. And a seventh in January 2013.
Episodes (6)
1. Cecelia Ahern
Aired 25 January 2015 • 26 min
Cecelia Ahern talks to Gay Byrne about growing up with Bertie.
2. Stephen Fry
Aired 1 February 2015 • 39 min
Comedian, actor, writer, presenter and all round renaissance man Stephen Fry discusses his views on faith.
3. Barry McGuigan
Aired 8 February 2015 • 27 min
Former boxer Barry McGuigan talks to Gay about his strong Catholic faith.
4. Mary Black
Aired 15 February 2015 • 27 min
Mary Black talks about her disillusion with the Church, her struggles with depression, and her mystical experiences.
5. Earl Charles Spencer
Aired 22 March 2015 • 27 min
Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer and brother of Princess Diana, talks with remarkable openness and candour about his sister’s tragic death, his controversial oration at her funeral, their difficult childhood together and the challenge of guarding his own privacy, as the brother of the world’s most famous woman.
6. Archbishop Rowan Williams
Aired 1 March 2015 • 27 min
The former Archbishop of Canterbury and now Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, Dr Rowan Williams joins Gay to discuss faith.