Irrepressible presenter Angela Scanlon has revealed that she has some nerves ahead of her new series Close Encounters which kicks off tonight with a look at Irish born wrestler 'Sheamus'.
The roll-call of interviewees for the series is impressive, with Dawn O'Porter, Katie Hopkins, Rory O'Neill and Jason Byrne among the subjects she will be grilling.
Speaking to TEN, Scanlon said: "I want to see what each of the subjects think, because it's about them more than it's about me.
"So there's a nervousness that goes with that because you build up a relationship with these people in a short space of time and in a somewhat unnatural environment. I'm curious to see how they feel about everything!"
Tonight's episode follows pro-wrestler Stephen Farrelly aka 'Sheamus'. The Cabra-born athlete has stormed the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) circuit for the past six years and held the championship title three times.
Did Scanlon ever expect to make a TV show about a pro-wrestler? "I mean, I always dreamt about it!" she laughed. "No, I didn't, honestly. I'm one of four girls; there's no lads in the house, apart from my dad who wasn't really the WWE type! I was vaguely aware of wrestling just from friends' brothers down the road and stuff like that, but never really knew a massive amount about it."
"It's such a bizarre and brilliant world," she continued. "I had an absolute ball; it was one of my favourite ones to shoot. Sheamus is a sweetheart. He's a total contradiction, because he's very funny but he's low-key. He's quite considered as Stephen Farrelly, and as Sheamus he's a mentalist!"
"I was quite fascinated by this guy who has 2 million Twitter followers, who has a huge fanbase and huge following in the States but we don't really know very much about him, so that was the appeal - to see what the hell he's at," she said.
Angela Scanlon and 'Sheamus'
Scanlon also developed an admiration for the world of professional wrestling, which she described as "hardcore".
"It's so physically demanding, not just inside the ring, but the amount of work and the amount of time they fight, like five, six times a week in live shows and in televised shows available to almost two billion people. So there's a huge amount of pressure and quite a relentless workload and schedule. So it really impressed me, actually, the commitment. It's bonkers but it's amazing."
Scanlon enjoyed the change of pace with each episode, and noticed a big difference between shooting with Dawn O'Porter and the guys.
She explained: "Every episode is completely different. There's a real difference in tone and in pace in them as well. With Dawn it was more thoughtful and we explored so many different things and talked about a lot of things, whereas with the guys I was very much observing what they were doing and their madness. So they have been really different and that's a challenge, but that's kind of what's kept it interesting for me as well."
Angela Scanlon's Close Encounters kicks off tonight at 10pm on RTÉ2.
