{"id":418219,"date":"2026-04-26T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/418219\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T10:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T10:00:12","slug":"comedian-actor-and-author-on-dad-rory-ohanlon-father-ted-arthur-matthews-dermot-morgan-and-new-book-a-plot-to-die-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/418219\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedian, actor and author on dad Rory O’Hanlon, Father Ted, Arthur Matthews, Dermot Morgan and new book A Plot to Die For"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThough his role in Father Ted conferred him with national treasure status, actor, stand-up and author Ardal O\u2019Hanlon says that he is still filled with self-doubt. Alongside with the imposter syndrome, however, is a quiet confidence that he learned from his beloved, and recently departed, father\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes with Ardal O\u2019Hanlon<\/p>\n

Ardal O\u2019Hanlon made his first attempt at writing a book when he was still a teenager. \u201cI actually tried to write a crime novel when I was about 18,\u201d the now 60-year-old comedian and actor says. He is sitting in a back room of The Odeon venue in Dublin, having just finished the photoshoot for this article. He\u2019ll go home after our interview, before coming back into the city centre for a gig tonight. His foot is in a boot, a recent injury acquired while playing tennis with his wife. Despite that, he says: \u201cI would say I have more energy now than I ever had really. I would even go as far as to say I am fitter than I ever was. When you\u2019re touring\u2026 the adrenaline is \u2013 you\u2019re alert.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in Chicago,\u201d he continues of that first book. \u201cMy girlfriend had gone out to be an au pair,\u201d he says of Melanie, his now wife (the couple have three children, now all in their twenties). \u201cI followed her out. I ended up living in the basement of the house she was working in. I was very inspired by the architecture in Chicago. I was reading a lot of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett at the time. So, I decided to write a hard-boiled kind of book. A noirish novel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though his role in Father Ted conferred him with national treasure status, actor, stand-up and author Ardal O\u2019Hanlon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,6361],"class_list":["post-418219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-life-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}