Patrick Kielty says he 'can't get head around' landing dream role as ...

“I still feel when I’m hosting the Late Late Show that someone is going to tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Ok, nice try, off you go,’” Patrick tells Magazine+.

Like a showreel, Kielty then recalls a litany of highlights from his life in the last year.

He says: “It was a mad, mad year for me, getting the Late Late Show, hosting my first Toy Show, having a movie (Ballywalter) that came out, being asked to be the grand marshal in the St Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin…and then ending up in the Vatican beside Chris Rock and Whoopi Goldberg with Tommy Tiernan and meeting the Pope was, like, very surreal.

“With any one of those things I’d be going away saying, ‘Jeez, that’s mad!’, but then they just kept coming.”

Comic Kielty (53) is chatting by Zoom from his family home in Dundrum, Co Down, while on holiday with his two young sons, aged eight and six. Being a dad is another role in life that he clearly adores, despite the challenges that come with it.

“I have our boys over at the minute, I rented a camper van and I’m knocking around with them doing your typical Irish holiday, sunburnt one minute and then pissin’ rain the next,” he laughs.

“Family means a lot, so for me to have a job that now brings me back to Ireland every week and lets those boys get back here couldn’t be better. The eldest fella was down playing football in a wee cul camp during the week.

“What’s lovely is you’re down at the pitch that’s named after me auld fella and you got your son out there playing on a pitch named after your auld fella and you kind of think, it doesn’t really get much better than this.”

Kielty’s father, Jack, who worked as a building contractor and was a key figure in Dundrum GAA, was murdered at the age of 45 in 1988 by loyalist paramilitaries. Patrick was only 16 at the time.

What would he have thought of his son taking over as host of the Late Late Show, was it on his radar? “Ah, Jesus, he would have been made up, sure I watched it on his knee,” Patrick says as the childhood memories come flooding back.

“When you’re up here (in Co Down) you had two TV aerials back then…and you always knew the Catholic houses because they were the ones with the two aerials.

“There was a flicker switch and you had to switch from the Belfast aerial to the Dublin aerial to get the Late Late Show. It was always my job to go in under the TV and flick the switch over to the RTE aerial.”

Jack Kielty was thrilled to see the Down minor football team win the All-Ireland in 1987, with Patrick as the substitute goalkeeper that day.

“The auld fella definitely sunk a few brandy and lemonades that night, so I’m not sure if there would have been enough brandy in Ireland if he had been around to see me host the Late Late,” he says.

And is your mother thrilled? “Mary wouldn’t really tell you that much,” Patrick says laughing. “I remember at the start people were stopping her when she was out and about and saying, ‘you must be very proud of your son.’ And Mary would go, ‘well, which one are you talking about? I’ve got three of them.’ The classic Irish mammy stuff. But the fact that she stays up till the end of the show…that’s the seal of approval.”

Kielty was a guest on the Late Late Show during the Gay Byrne era, and a recording of Gay welcoming him is now used to introduce the comic and actor since he took over the show.

“There’s a card over there on the wall from Kathleen, Gay’s wife, that they sent me for the first show and I’ve never taken it down,” he says. “There’s a photo of me da over there and the missus (Cat Deeley) and the kids, but that card (from Kathleen) is there and it’s still surreal stuff.

“The only thing I ever wanted to do was make Gay Byrne laugh on the show. If you could make Gay Byrne laugh you kind of knew that you had the seal of approval because he didn’t do fake laughter, it had to be funny. He was always very good to me, he was always kind to me. He was a definite hero of mine, so to be sitting in his chair is a massive, massive honour.

“When I was sitting at that desk in that chair for the first few shows last year there was nearly always a moment every week where I was thinking, ‘Jesus, I’m hosting the Late Late Show!’

“Gay was the best in the business and there’s so much stuff that you can learn from Gay. He always asked short questions and then shut up, he knew how to set a comic up for a story, he knew how to listen…it was master class stuff.”

As he gets set to host his second season of the Late Late, Patrick says he feels confident knowing that he now has the audience on his side. “There’s a trust that builds up between you and the audience, and the minute that you know they trust you you can freestyle a wee bit more,” he explains.

“Going into the second season you kind of feel, ok they now know I can drive the bus. I think a lot of people were tuning in last September not knowing how the hell it was going to be at all, and now they know what they’re getting.”

With his wife, Cat, hosting the This Morning show on British TV, the couple are juggling busy schedules.

He adds: “We’re settled in now to a pattern that kind of works. I wouldn’t for a second say we’re juggling any more than any other family with young kids. The only difference for us is that both of us are doing our dream jobs…you’re getting up in the morning and you’re doing your dream job. You can’t buy that.”

The Late Late Show is on RTE One next Friday at 9.35pm.