IN HIS OWN WORDS: Ardal O’Hanlon

The former Father Ted star has moved from Craggy Island to the Caribbean as DI Jack Mooney in Death In Paradise (9pm, BBC1). Here’s what he’s had to say about his life and career…

On his father, GP and Irish MP Rory O’Hanlon:

‘Saturday mornings were crazy. In the hall, there would be queues of constituents waiting to see him, and at the back of the house, there would be scores of patients waiting to see him. We children couldn’t get in the front door.’

On discovering he could make people laugh:

‘I was a terribly quiet, shy child. The comedy thing came when I was at university and I started doing stand-up, which I think was a belated compensation for all that time I spent hiding behind the couch.’

On one of his worst stand-up bookings:

‘One of my first shows in the UK was a gig in the lobby of a cinema complex in Essex. It was just me and four people in Motorhead T-shirts playing video games.’

On his doubts about Father Ted when he was approached about playing Dougal:

‘I thought it was a terrible idea. People in Ireland have been dressing up as priests for years and trying to make it funny; that was the stuff I was trying to get away from.’

On his superhero comedy My Hero (2000-06):

‘I enjoyed doing it, but I was never passionate about it. I always felt like a bit of a fraud in that outfit.’

On his Death In Paradise character:

‘Mooney is quite friendly, quite genial and slightly underestimated because of it. Maybe there’s some of the naivety that I’ve brought to other characters before.’