Entertainment

Ardal O'Hanlon frequently amends scripts to remove 'Irishisms'

Ardal O'Hanlon frequently amends scripts to remove 'Irishisms'
Ardal O'Hanlon frequently amends scripts to remove 'Irishisms' Ardal O'Hanlon frequently amends scripts to remove 'Irishisms'

Actor Ardal O’Hanlon said he is very aware of how Irish people are represented on British TV and that he frequently amends his scripts to remove the “Irishisms”.

The former Father Ted star, who is replacing Death In Paradise’s Kris Marshall in the BBC1 series, said that people in Ireland have been “outraged” by the way they are portrayed on-screen, using the 1997 Dublin-based episodes of EastEnders as an example.

Ardal told the Radio Times: “From day one working in TV, I have been very conscious of the way the Irish are represented.

Ardal O’Hanlon (Yui Mok/PA)

“In every show I’ve been involved in I read the script, take out the Irishisms right away and say, ‘I’ll supply those’.

“Father Ted was written by Irish people, so that was fine, but around the time we were shooting it EastEnders went to Ireland and represented it as this terribly backward society where people were going around with one eye and drunk.”

The BBC was forced to apologise after receiving complaints from viewers over the stereotypical overtones of the three special episodes, which focused on Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) travelling to Ireland to meet a long-lost relative.

Ardal said: “That outraged people in Ireland. But that will happen from time to time, we were brought up with that.

The actor and comedian said he is “crippled with doubt” to be taking over the reigns as Detective Inspector Jack Mooney in the Caribbean-based detective series from Kris, who has played DI Humphrey Goodman since 2014.

Kris Marshall (BBC/Red Planet Pictures/Denis Guyenon)

He said: “For most of us, even the apparently very confident ones, doubt is a big part of life. But I’m of a certain age now, and those kind of things don’t plague me the way they might have 10 years ago, I embrace the challenge.”

Kris joked that the main difference between his departing character and Ardal’s is that “he’s Irish, for starters”.

Kris said: “His character’s a lot more anecdotal, so the way he goes about things is different. He’s also been recently widowed – and he has a daughter in her early 20s. So that’s a whole different dynamic.”

Kris Marshall (BBC/Red Planet Pictures/Denis Guyenon)

He revealed last week that he is standing down from the popular programme because he wants to spend more time with his children, after spending six months of the year filming the show in Guadeloupe.

He said that it was always his plan to end his time on Death In Paradise within a few years, once his son had grown up and when working abroad half the year “became impractical”.

“It was always quite a finite thing. I certainly didn’t hide it from anyone I work with,” he said.

This week’s Radio Times is on sale today.