Lenihan was at the races when the head of the ECB called and he didn’t remember Cowen swearing during the talks where the Government guarantee was agreed on. And oh Brian Lenihan can speak French.

What else can we garner from last nights Freefall other than the programme makers love shots of traffic and big buildings and dramatic music?

If Brian Lenihan’s trip to the races in Gowran Park on September 27th 2008 was news to you well Shane Ross documented it in his book The Bankers.

Lenihan was working the 30 tables of Fianna Fáil supporters, each of whom had paid €200 for the privilege, when he received an urgent telephone call. It was not a tip for the 4.30 race. It was the personal assistant to Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank. The minister was advised to expect an urgent message from the governor of the Irish Central Bank, John Hurley, later that afternoon.

The minister headed for the Gowran Park manager’s office and rang Hurley. Trichet had been in touch, warning of banks in trouble all over Europe.

The next morning, Sunday, 28 September, Lenihan slipped quietly into the Central Bank’s Dublin Dame Street headquarters to meet Hurley in his top-floor office. Hurley relayed a grim message from Trichet. European banks were in crisis.

The other thing we learnt from the programme is that there are no women in Irish life, journalistic, political or financial who can be interviewed in a ‘talking heads’ programme on the banking crisis.

The three female interviewees were based abroad- the French finance minister Christine Lagarde and Gillian Tett from the US office of the Financial Times and Pamela Woodall from the Economist. The other female voices present was footage of Eileen Dunne/Anne Doyle telling us about the chaos as it unfolded and female callers to Liveline. I didn’t keep count of all the male voices, but there were at least 15 of them.

Now if you have not read it already go read June Caldwell’s excellent post on the women who forgot to ruin Ireland.

Next week’s episode (yes there is more of it!) features Bertie saying he was told not to worry about the issues which led to the crash of the banks. Can’t wait! (pfft)

(apologies for that rather awkward screen shot of Mme Lagarde – I was not watching Freefall again online to do another prt scr)