“I’M quite boring at home,” admitted comic Ardal O’Hanlon, who’s made a triumphant return to the live scene since removing his TV dog collar.

“I save it all for the stage,” added the former Father Ted star, who is opening this year’s Blackburn And Darwen Comedy Festival on November 4 as part of his latest acclaimed tour.

“Yes, believe it or not I’m quite quiet at home,” he said in his thick Dublin accent.

“Although I must say I don’t know what I’d do to get things off my chest if I didn’t have a gig for a few months.

"Stand-up is great for that. You can rant and rave about things that have been getting you down.

“I honestly never need to shout at home,” he laughed.

“Everyone should do stand-up. While you are yourself on stage, you form almost a character, an exaggerated version of yourself, so you can go off on one and people aren’t cross with you — they laugh!”

Ardal may have made his name as nice-but-dim Father Dougal Maguire but he takes his career as a comedian very seriously.

“It’s no laughing matter,” said the 44-year-old comedian-turned-actor.

"I’ve taken it all very seriously since returning to the touring circuit.

"I’m one of those sad people who takes a notepad everywhere I go with me to jot down ideas when they come to me. I record things on my phone too.

“It can get quite annoying for people who are with me at the time, when I stop a conversaton mid flow to talk to myself into my phone,” he laughed.

“TV was always the icing on the cake,” said Ardal, also the star of BBC comedy My Hero and Irish sitcom Val Falvey, TD.

“While I love television, you are just a cog in a huge machine.

"Whereas with stand-up you’re on you’re own. It’s more of a thrill, and it’s always been my real job.

"You get that fear, when you’re up there on your own, which is great.”

And back on the stage, armed with just his rehearsed jokes and a microphone, Ardal is enjoying a bit of resurgence in the scene where he first found fame in the early '90s.

As Dublin had no real stand-up comedy scene, together with Kevin Gildea and Barry Murphy, Ardal O'Hanlon founded the International Comedy Cellar, above a pub in Dublin's South Wicklow Street.

It was here he was spotted for the part in Fahter Ted.

Having just completed a critically-aclaimded run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival recently, he is back to what he does best — just don’t ask him to tell a joke.

“I can’t pick one joke to tell. I don’t want to leave the others out,” he said when I requested to hear his best joke from his current set.

“I’m more of a storyteller and they run on from one another.

"My style is talking about my take on the world; the recession; being a man in the 21st century, that sort of thing.

“It sounds quite run-of-the-mill, I know, but if people can relate to subjects it works.

"It’s just about finding a way of approaching the subjects in an original way that hasn’t been done by every other comedian a million times before.”

When he’s not on the road, Ardal lives at home in native Dublin with his wife Melanie and their three children.

In his spare time (of which there isn’t much) he coaches an under-eights football team in the local village.

“Not that they take me seriously — no-one does. When you’re a comedian people asume you’re always joking, no matter what you say.

"I love football though. If I could have had my life again I’d try a bit harder to make it as a footballer.”

But Ardal was born to make people laugh so, armed with his best jokes, he hopes to make some new friends in Blackburn.

He added: I’m really looking forward to coming to Blackburn. I’ll be bringing my A-list show.

"I’ve been practising at home in my office. It’ll be an honour to get things started at the festival.”

* Ardal O'Hanlon is at King George’s Hall, Blackburn on Thursday, November 4. Tickets cost £18 from box office 0844 8471664.