Ardal O’Hanlon: ‘I fell asleep on stage once – I could hear someone doing my material, got annoyed and woke up’

<p>In the lead-up to the new series of Return to Paradise, the actor and comedian talks Father Dougal’s knitwear, Van Morrison and his disappointing sauerkraut</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/newsletters/2019/oct/18/saved-for-later-sign-up-for-guardian-australias-culture-and-lifestyle-email?CMP=cvau_sfl">Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email</a></p></li></ul><p><strong>What’s the longest word you can make out of the letters A-R-D-A-L-O-H-A-N-L-O-N in 30 seconds?</strong></p><p>“Anal” springs to mind, because I was doing a show in Limerick in Ireland and the stage manager genuinely thought my name was Anal. He called me over the Tannoy [PA system]: “Could Anal please come to the stage door?” But there must be a bigger word than that. I’m usually good at Countdown. This is quite annoying. This is how I define myself – by my ability to conjure up words from random letters. Is “Nolnaholadra” a word?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/oct/26/ardal-ohanlon-interview-10-questions-father-ted-dougal-return-to-paradise">Continue reading...</a>