Graham Norton has achieved huge accolades over his lengthy career, such as fronting his own chat show for 19 years, having two best-selling autobiographies and most recently even penning a novel.
Despite all of this success, a role that the Cork native is still remembered for is that of Father Noel Furlong in hit comedy Father Ted. Graham played a hilariously annoying priest that Ted tried to avoid but could never escape- much to the delight of viewers.
Speaking at Dublin’s Mansion House last night, the 53-year-old revealed that he almost didn’t get the part of Fr. Noel because he wasn’t what the writers were looking for.
“I had signed to a new agent, when I say new- I signed to an agent! I’m still with the same agent, and she represented Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, who wrote Father Ted, so she said ‘look, I’ve signed this Irish guy, surely there’s some part he can play!
“So they called me in to read for Fr. Noel, and I read it, really liked it, we all laughed and I walked out. And I only found out afterwards that when I walked out they thought ‘oh we’ll hire the real person later, the person who is actually going to play the role.’ They saw him as older. Then suddenly they were filming the next week and they still didn’t have a Fr. Noel so by default I got it,” he said.
Speaking of the show, Graham said that when he watches re-runs now he realises that the character of Fr. Noel is quite true to life for him. He also told the audience that he’s shocked when famous stars quote his lines because he barely knew them at the time!
“It’s one of those things where I thought I was playing this kind of huge character but whenever its on I think ‘he’s quite like me.’ Really, it’s not that far from the truth!
“When pop stars are on the chat show they come up and say these really weird things to me, like they’ll go ‘half past 11.’
“The tour buses must come with dvd’s of Father Ted because they all watch it when they’re on tour, so they know all my lines and I didn’t even know them at the time!
“It’s one of those shows that they show over and over again and it’s brilliantly timeless,” he said.
Check out some of Fr. Noel Furlong’s best moments here:
