Tommy Tiernan interview: Comedian talks ‘Derry Girls’ and LFC ahead of Philharmonic show

A veteran Irish comedian known for his no holds barred stand-up shows, Tommy Tiernan came to greater attention on British shores following his portrayal of the long-suffering dad, Gerry, in Channel 4’s smash hit ‘Derry Girls’.

Ahead of his date at Liverpool Philharmonic, Tommy talks to YM about the show’s eagerly anticipated third series, his love of LFC and having the craic with Ireland’s top Islamic cleric.

Interview by Lawrence Saunders

You last played Liverpool in April 2019. How do you find performing in our city?

I feel connected to the city because of the fact I’ve been shouting for the Red Men since 1977.

In terms of stand-up, it’s always seemed to be a city that’s kind of lively. There are places you go in England which are difficult places to perform. There’s a shorthand that doesn’t exist.

Perhaps there’s a big connection between Liverpool and Dublin because the ports are so close together. Maybe there was a lot of interbreeding between the two cities over the years and the sense of humour of one has infiltrated the other.

It would probably be my favourite English city to perform in.

What made you become a Liverpool FC supporter?

It’s a weird one. Back in the 1930s or 1940s, the idea that somebody from another city, let alone another country, would support Liverpool FC would have been bizarre.

But because the standard of soccer was so high in England, from the mid 1960s onwards, Irish kids chose an English soccer team to support. It becomes a hugely important part of your life.

The songs, the players and just the story of the club. Liverpool FC’s story has just been so dramatic over the last couple of decades – dramatic in horror and sorrow as well as dramatic in success.

You never say you feel it as deeply as the people from Liverpool, but you do get to share some of it, and it’s hugely important place for myself. I’ve got six kids and they are all Liverpool FC supporters.

My granddaughter was born recently and in one of her first photographs she’s in Liverpool FC baby-grow – we’re kind of fanatic.

Grá is a word we use over here for love, and I’d have a huge grá for Liverpool.

Promotional material for the new tour says it will be based around your favourite topics: God, sex and family. Why are you so interested in these three subjects?

That’s just where my imagination goes. What every show has to combine is a sense of adventure, with a sense of skill. [The new tour] had to be covering new territory because that’s the only way it’s exciting for me. But also my imagination is naturally attracted to Christ, women and children [laughs]. I can’t help that.

As a kind of writing exercise for every show, I do try to throw something in about current politics or stuff like that but it’s usually only 10/15 minutes of the hour and a half show. The rest is stories and notions about [God, sex and family].

Your chat show on RTE, The Tommy Tiernan Show, is an interesting concept for a talk show — not knowing who the guests are going to be before they walk out. Where did the idea come from?

I got the idea in a really cheap hotel in Hull – one of those hotel rooms where you know you’re only going to get to sleep if you’re drunk.

When I looked back at old Michael Parkinson chat shows from the 1970s, what I found amazing about them is that people were given the time and space to be really serious whereas now chat shows in England are very fast paced.

Unless you’re loads of craic there’s no point going on. You have to be loads of craic all the time. It doesn’t seem to drift into seriousness and I just thought that if all the interviews were unplanned, it would add a fantastic air of unpredictability to the show.

I’m recording the fourth series now and it’s going great. I get anxious beforehand because there is no way of preparing. What happens is you naturally fret, your imagination can’t help but picture who is going to come on.

For years I was convinced Adam Clayton from U2 was going to come on. I was upstairs in the dressing room beforehand thinking ‘I’ve nothing to say to the man’.

So basically my confidence is drained with fantasy guests before the show has even started, but it works and people like it which is the main thing.

Is there anybody you’d love to have on the show?

The researchers asked me before the second season started ‘what kind of people would you like’ and I said I’d love to interview someone religious.

I was expecting maybe the Archbishop of Dublin to come on, but what they did instead was they send the top Islamic cleric in Ireland on (Shaykh Dr. Umar Al-Qadri) – it was brilliant! He was up for the craic which was interesting.

We don’t get much exposure to Islamic clerics in Ireland. They wouldn’t be a natural port of call for someone stuck in a storm.

“I’ve made a suggestion to her that Gerry gets a vasectomy. Back in the ‘90s, vasectomies were hardcore and you had to walk around wearing tracksuit bottoms like a kind of de-balled cat.”

How did you get the role of Erin’s father, Gerry, in Channel 4’s ‘Derry Girls’?

I just happened to be in London one day, buying some Viagra Connect [laughs]. They don’t sell it in Ireland! My agent told me they were seeing other people for the part but she asked me if I fancied popping along to Channel 4 and having a read for it.

I read the script and it made me laugh. It was as easy and ordinary as that. [Gerry] was originally written to be from the north [of Ireland], but I’m not brilliant at sustaining accents to a believable degree. I can do them for a minute or so but not over the course of a series.

One of the legacies of the situation in Northern Ireland, is that some Northerner’s have the feeling they were abandoned by the Republic [of Ireland]. In two ways – first of all the way that when the Treaty of Independence was signed, the government at that time didn’t object to Northern Ireland staying in the UK.

Then when The Troubles started, say with Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, the response from the Irish government probably wasn’t dramatic enough. So some Northerners have a sense of ‘you kind of let us down’ and ‘you didn’t stand up for us when the opportunity arose’.

So I said to Channel 4, ‘if you put a Southerner in that situation, it gives you good comic scope’. It’s another reason for the grandad to hate the dad.

Will we ever find out what Gerry does for a living?

I’m not even sure. I think he might deliver bread?! Taxi driving in the north of Ireland would be a fairly strict, ex-paramilitary enterprise. For that reason, I don’t think a Southerner would find it easy getting into the taxi driving business.

When will the third series be out? Is there anything you can tell us about it?

We start recording in April and it will be out in October. I know absolutely nothing [about the third series]. Lisa [McGee], locks herself away for six months and just writes.

I’ve made a suggestion to her that Gerry gets a vasectomy. Back in the ‘90s, vasectomies were hardcore and you had to walk around wearing tracksuit bottoms like a kind of de-balled cat.

The other thing I suggested to Lisa was that Grandpa Joe could end up in a wheelchair for a couple of episodes and Gerry is the only person that can push him around [laughs].

Tommy Tiernan plays Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 7 March. For tickets and more information, visit liverpoolphil.com