“For feck’s sake, I’ve been arrested by Father Dougal.”
Irish actor and comedian Ardal O’Hanlon knows he’s synonymous with the role of Father Dougal Maguire – one of the most beloved characters in the history of Irish culture.
Speaking to Dion Fanning on Ireland Unfiltered, O’Hanlon said he’d found it hard to escape his Father Ted days, saying: “It never goes away.”
However, the comedian noted that there’s an unfortunate policeman in England who faces the very same problem. His doppelgänger.
“I had a fella come up to me the other night, not the other night, but about a year ago, I was doing a gig in Saint Alban’s near London, he came up to me and he looked very like me. Like he was my genuine doppelgänger,” O’Hanlon said.
“And he came up to me not to have a laugh, he came up to give out to me saying that his life is a misery because he looks like me. Turned out he was a policeman in London, that was his job and that no one took him seriously.
The poor creature gave O’Hanlon an example of the kind of response he gets when he tries to arrest people.
“And he was, like, genuinely upset about this,” O’Hanlon added.
“It’s not my fault and he’s looking at me and he actually told me about the first time he ever made an arrest. The criminal started laughing at him going ‘For feck’s sake, I’ve been arrested by Father Dougal.’
“I’m going ‘Well, I look more like myself. Can you imagine what it’s like for me? You think you have it bad?'”
Honestly, Officer Dougal is a spin-off show that we would watch in a heartbeat and we think both men should seriously consider it.
The Showing Off Must Go On is at Cork Opera House on 30 October, Vicar St, Dublin on 9 November and University Concert Hall, Limerick on 29 November. Tickets available here.
Ardal will also be at the Vodafone Comedy Carnival, Galway in Town Hall Theatre with The Showing Off Must Go On on 26 October.
