Ardal O'Hanlon

(Ardal on his first crash.)
Ardal: But instead of spinning off the roundabout, I spun on. I ended up on the central reservation, in the middle of a bush. This was the busiest roundabout in Ireland. And because it was so busy I couldn't get off the roundabout again. I had to send for sandwiches. I just remember everyone laughing at me.

Ardal: There are infinite ways of doing comedy and if you can find the one that suits you, a way that is different from everyone else then it will work for you.

(About Father Ted.)
Ardal: When I first heard about it I thought it was a terrible idea. People in Ireland have been dressing up as priests for years and trying to make it funny and that was the sort of stuff I was trying to get away from. But when I saw the scripts and realised how bizarre it was it instantly appealed to me. I thought it would end up a minority thing and I was really amazed the way it took off.

Ardal: Comedy is really all I've done over the last 10 years and to do it you have to have some sort of self-deprecating streak.

Ardal: The funny thing is when you are wearing a superhero costume you do actually feel like a superhero. The padding on the costume helps that feeling too. It makes you feel pretty indestructible.

(About his role on My Hero.)
Ardal: It's not every day you get a part where you get to put on a Lycra outfit so really it was the Lycra that attracted me to the role.

Ardal: I was never really into superheroes as a child. We weren't allowed to watch much television in our house so I wasn't a television or a movie buff nor were we encouraged to read comic books. My mother fed us books but it was mainly proper classic children's literature like the CS Lewis books. Much later, as a teenager, I saw some of the sixties Batman series, but wasn't particularly enthralled by it. My heroes tended to be footballers, the Pope and JFK.

Ardal: I just like doing different things. I get very impatient and very bored easily and I'm always curious to try other things. If I had an ambition in life it would be to know everything, but I guess that's a bit unrealistic. But as long as I can breathe, I hope I will continue to try and do different things. It's about not being afraid to fail. Of course I care about that but you've still got to try things and that's what I want to continue to do.