Derry Girls star Ian McElhinney says Tommy Tiernan is 'quiet and philosophical' on set rather than playing up to the comedian role of cracking jokes in between takes.
The pair are well known and loved for their on screen report as squabbling in laws Grampa Joe (McElhinney) and Da Gerry (Tiernan) in the Channel 4 sitcom.
But offset, the pair are much more calm and collected, according to Belfast born star McElhinney, who says the popular comic is much more quiet than fans may expect.
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He told Irish Daily Mirror: “He’s lovely, and actually he’s very quiet and self contained and philosophical, Tommy.
“He’s not actually cracking jokes left, right and centre.”
It comes after star Saoirse-Monica Jackson, who plays Gerry’s daughter and Grandpa Joe’s granddaughter Erin in the series admitted she only cried on the last day of filming Derry Girls when she saw Tiernan getting emotional.
Speaking on the red carpet ahead of the premiere of the third and final season, in the city that inspired the show, McElhinney, who also starred in Game of Thrones, as Ser Barristan Selmy, said the success of Derry Girls has been hugely ‘gratifying’ after decades in the industry.
“It’s great.. You know you can spend your life working as an actor and the world doesn't necessarily know nor need to know,” he said.
“So whenever you are in something, that you are lucky enough becomes known, in a bigger way, it is very gratifying.
“You kind of know you are not doing things in a vacuum, actually people are picking up on it and loving it. And then when people come up to you and tell you how much they like it, then what is not to like about that.
“That’s very nice.”
And off the back of Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast making waves worldwide, and huge Hollywood camera crews rolling into Ireland in their droves in the past few years, he says there has never been a better time to be working as an actor in Ireland.
“This is a big place for screenwork. Whether it is film or TV. There is a lot being made here, not necessarily always about here, but being made here and that is so good for the industry here, and for all of the actors here.
The 73-year-old went on: “I remember when I started acting here, for easily ten years, anything I was filming I was going somewhere else.
“Because an awful lot of what we were filming was about the troubles here, and it was too sensitive to film here, we had to go somewhere else.
"So there has been a whole seachange in that regard, you can be here and work in the industry beyond the localisation of the material.
“And that is nice to know. It is great when you get something that has the warmth and the appeal that is local.”
The first of the six episodes of Derry Girls season three airs on Channel 4, tonight, Tuesday, at 9.15pm.
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