In Profile: Michael Redmond

"I think Graham [Linehan] and Arthur [Matthews] wrote the part around me. My stand-up routine at the time mainly consisted of one-liners with long pauses in between."

Redmond has deadpanned his way through the UK comedy scene for the last 25 years, initially working from London back in the days when "you could call up for an open spot and have a gig by the end of the week. I think it takes about a year nowadays." He became a regular fixture at The Comedy Store before his on-stage persona was immortalised in the first series of Father Ted. "I was living in London when it first aired and I didn’t get a lot of attention. But then when I moved to Glasgow, everybody seemed to know me. It only caused me a problem once. This woman, who’d obviously never been at a comedy gig, came up to me after I’d been compering at The Stand. She said, ‘I was a bit disappointed, I thought you’d be more like Father Stone.’ Can you imagine that, a compere who stands there for 10 minutes saying nothing? Actually, that’d be great. I’d do it every week if I could get away with it."

Redmond has been compering The Sunday Service at The Stand in Glasgow for the last five years now, which gives him a chance to muck around and get involved with the audience a lot more, something he really enjoys. As well as performing, he’s a prolific writer, although he’s had some horrible luck over the years. "I wrote a show for Radio 4 called Eamon, Brother of Christ. It was about how the holy family were really Irish and Jesus had this older brother who never got a look in. It was written and recorded and then this new controller came in, a Scottish Catholic. He only found out about the show when he saw it in the Radio Times and he refused to broadcast it because it was blasphemous. Of course, what I forgot to consider was that if Jesus had an older brother, Mary wouldn’t have been a virgin."

With that level of Biblical understanding, Redmond probably would have made a rubbish priest. Lucky for him he’s a great comedian.