There are many reasons you should dislike the Voice of Ireland – do we really need yet another talent show for a start? – but somehow it hooks you, holds your attention and entertains you in a way that The All-Ireland Talent Show or You’re A Star or any of RTE’s earlier nightmares never could.

Maybe it’s the presence of big Bressie and his scarcely hidden contempt for Kian Egan; perhaps it’s the over-the-top camp antics of Brian Kennedy, or the very real fear that little Sharon Corr will slip down the back of her massive seat – but whatever it is, the Voice is a step up from past disasters.

Naturally it’s not a new idea – we haven’t had one of those for a lifetime – but at least the producers have cottoned on to the fact that talent shows aren’t about the talent ... they’re about the judges.

And having four or five of them sitting there telling you that a tone-deaf lorry driver from Carrickmacross is the next Elvis would fool no one – that’s why the honesty here, even if it’s delivered with enough cattiness to frighten a cat, is the secret ingredient to success.

For those who have missed the audition stage – and by now you have – the idea was that four judges would be faced away from a singer so that they would judge him or her on vocal ability alone.

Theoretically this would mean you could have one or more of our celebrities hitting their buzzer and turning around to come face to face with a 24 stone, cross-eyed ball of sweat covered in spots. But for the most part, you wouldn’t have ruled any of them out even if you could see them from the very start.

For once, they weren’t all misty-eyed teens hoping to be the new Jo L or Justin Bieber; some of them had hit albums and singles in the past before the road to fame proved to be paved with potholes.

Once each of the judges picks their twelve choices, they morph into coaches as it moves onto the next stage; each coach divides their team into duos and sets them a song they must sing together; the duos battle it out on stage in front of a live audience – and the coach chooses only one person from the duo to proceed to the live shows.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.