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INTERVIEW:Playing a gormless but lovable priest in ‘Father Ted’ may have defined his career and overshadowed his subsequent work, but Ardal O’Hanlon is comfortable with the legacy and the expectation that comes with it, he tells EOIN BUTLER, even when he is trying to publicise his latest work.

THERE’S NO GETTING around it. Not when you speak to him on the phone. Certainly not when you sit down with him in person. Eleven years have passed since he hung up the old dog collar, and the actor’s hair is now showing flecks of grey. But to fans of Father Ted, the much-beloved sitcom on which he made his name, the two are indivisible: Ardal O’Hanlon and Dougal Maguire. Dougal Maguire and Ardal O’Hanlon.