Hollywood star Colin Farrell strips off in THONG in unearthed snaps of cheeky RTE TV debut at 18

HERE is Hollywood star Colin Farrell as you’ve never seen him before — in a thong on RTE.

The Irish Sun can reveal the incredible footage of the hunky Dubliner, 45, after it was found on an old VHS collection.

Nowadays the star is disguising his good looks playing tubby baddy The Penguin in The Batman.

But in 1994, then 18-year-old ­Farrell bared all as a model on long forgotten RTE lunchtime chat show 12-2-1.

Hosts Marty Whelan and Ciana Campbell and a panel including Fair City’s Tony Tormey and late newspaper editor Paddy Murray, had no idea they were looking at a future superstar in the nip when Marty declared: “First on we have Colin, who’s wearing very little . . . ”.

And when the skimpy outfit is revealed to be a thong costing £19.99, late much-loved journo Paddy jokes: “You’d get six decent white fronts in Dunnes for that. It’s like a jock strap. It is a red jock strap.”

Teenage Colin gives a glance of his rear with a smart twirl, to which flabbergasted Marty, 65, says: “My God, he’s turned around.”

But the ladies on the panel are more than impressed shouting “turn around Colin, please” — which causes the Castleknock man to give them an eyeful of both cheeks.

However, it’s all too much for TV legend Marty, who cries out: “No Colin, don’t turn around again.”

One unseen female panellist coos: “Wow look at that, he’s got a great body.”

And soap star Tony, 58, who plays Paul Brennan in Fair City, observes of Colin’s revealing bulge: “If I wore that I’d have to have a sock down the front to get the same effect as that man.”

But panellist Annie McCartney, RTE’s Belfast correspondent at the time, wasn’t taken by his package.

She said: “I don’t find the thong all that attractive really. I think things have to be a bit less obvious.”

During the segment, Colin was also joined onstage by a scantily-clad female called Mimi.

The astonishing clip was discovered by Greg Molloy, who runs the KillianM2 TV Archive, which digitises long lost TV recordings.

FOOTAGE DISCOVERY

The Meath man told The Irish Sun: “I came across it in part of a random donation of 100 VHS tapes, containing Irish music shows from the late 80s to early 90s, random things crop up at the end of tapes.

“Here was an incomplete episode of RTE lunchtime show 12-2-1, but thankfully the Christmas underwear section survived in full.

He added: “It’s amazing what they got away with on Irish ­daytime TV in the 90s. Long before social media, someone strutting around the 12-2-1 or Live at 3 ­studio in a thong was forgotten as soon as the show was over.”

And Greg believes there could be more old footage of Colin knocking around an archive somewhere.

RACY APPEARANCE

He added: “There would have only been a ­relatively small number of male models used on the RTE daytime shows on a regular basis. I would say it wasn’t his last fashion gig in Montrose.”

RTE regularly celebrate the career of Farrell with an overused clip which shows him line dancing in a Dublin bar as a teenager.

And Greg believes the station doesn’t have a copy of the racy appearance — and possibly didn’t know it ever existed. However, he is happy to donate it to RTE.

He said: “I wouldn’t imagine too many of Colin’s pals would have been aware of his lunchtime TV gig to give him a ribbing over it. If you didn’t catch it while it was going out live, it’s unlikely you would get a chance to see it again.

“Live shows weren’t generally recorded at the time.”

Farrell wanted to be a soccer player growing up but realised his pitch skills weren’t up to it.

After an unsuccessful Boyzone audition, he enrolled in acting school, but left after he was cast in Ballykissangel.