Comic Ardal collars new role in Derry Girls
FATHER Ted star Ardal O’Hanlon is to make a guest appearance in the new series of Derry Girls.
Channel 4 said comedian and actor O’Hanlon, best known for his role as witless priest Dougal Maguire in the hit comedy, will play “Eamonn, the awkward, middle-aged mummy’s boy of the Quinn/McCool extended family”.
“Ardal O’Hanlon joins our family this year, which is brilliant,” Saoirse-Monica Jackson (25), who plays Erin in the series, told RadioTimes.com.
Actress Nicola Coughlan (32), who plays Claire, revealed that O’Hanlon’s character Eamonn is “a real Irish stereotype”.
“I think it’s something that everybody will recognise, and he completely gets it so on the money,” said Coughlan.
“It was really surreal, just looking at him, because he’s such an iconic figure in Ireland and he’s such a lovely man. He’s so good in it.”
The actress recalled being told off by Derry Girls writer and creator Lisa McGee for “bullying” O’Hanlon when filming a scene where it gets “quite physical”.
“We were like: ‘We’re not bullying him, he’s like a national treasure!’” she said.
Fans of Derry Girls got their first look at the long-awaited second series earlier this week when a 60-second trailer for season two of the show, set in the early Nineties, was released.
All the main characters will be returning to reprise their roles, which has been earmarked for release next month.
Last month the main characters were immortalised in paint in a mural on the gable end of Badgers Bar & Restaurant in Derry’s Orchard Street.