One constant gripe among Irish people is how we can be portrayed on film and TV, from 'top of the morning' style accents to drunken buffoonery. Father Ted star Ardal O'Hanlon is having none of it though, and told the Radio Times in a recent interview that he often removes any 'Irishisms' from scripts.

"From day one working in TV, I have been very conscious of the way the Irish are represented," he said.

"In every show I've been involved in I read the script, take out the Irishisms right away and say, 'I'll supply those'."

He went on to talk about those infamous EastEnders episodes where the Fowlers went to Ireland and we all came across like inbred idiots.

"Father Ted was written by Irish people, so that was fine, but around the time we were shooting it EastEnders went to Ireland and represented it as this terribly backward society where people were going around with one eye and drunk," he explained.

"That outraged people in Ireland. But that will happen from time to time, we were brought up with that."

O'Hanlon is about to take over from Kris Marshall on Death in Paradise, a show about a detective inspector who is transferred from London to the island of Saint-Marie in the Caribbean. (We're sure it's got nothing on Craggy Island).

The lead on the series was originally played by Ben Milller for the first three seasons, Marshall for the following three, and now O'Hanlon, who will play DI Jack Mooney.

The Monaghan man said of his new role, "Ben's character was uptight. Kris's was more clumsy and, I suppose, with me, they're going for something a little bit quirky on the island.

"I've tried to bring a certain kind of warmth to it. 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."

Fr Dougal takes on crimes? We're in.