Actor Owen Roe has said that his short stint as Jim Cawley in Fair City was a real eye-opener, and that the curmudgeonly GP continues to follow him around Dublin.
The stage veteran, who is currently starring in The Father at Dublin's Gate Theatre, told RTÉ Entertainment that people are still asking him about his time on the saop, which saw his character - the hard living Jim rubbing some people up the wrong way.
"I knew it was popular, but not that popular," Roe said. "It's no problem for me to walk down Grafton Street anytime of the week. But after having done a week of Fair City there were old ladies coming up and hitting me and stuff like that, calling me names! I was like, 'I've been doing this for 35 years - one week on Fair City and suddenly they all know who you are!'"
Although Roe's performance as a man with dementia in The Father has been hailed as one of the best of his long career, he said that the RTÉ soap still finds a way into the audience's conversations when the curtain comes down at the Gate.
"Some woman came out of the show the other night going, 'Well there you go - there's still life after Fair City!'" he laughed.
Roe also told RTÉ Entertainment that his association with Carrigstown stretches back further than fans realise, to the early days of his career.
"The gas thing is I wrote two episodes of Fair City when it first started!" he revealed. "One episode in the first season and an episode in the second season. I co-wrote it with a friend of mine - we were part of the creation of it.
"There was a whole gang of us that used to meet every Sunday in a hotel off Kildare Street under the direction of [EastEnders creator] Tony Holland, the deviser of Fair City. Brendan Gleeson even was in on it at one stage as one of the writers!"
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"We would all sit around, talk about soap opera and look at examples of soap opera from the UK and we'd have script editors over," he continued. "There was a bit of a competition for the naming of the soap as well. Nobody beat Fair City - that was Tony Holland's one.
"It was strange having written two episodes way, way back then to turn up nearly 30 years later playing a character. I'd never done it so I decided I'd do it for a short stint."
As the show prepares to celebrate its 4,000th episode, Roe paid tribute to the work rate of its cast and crew.
"I kind of expected it to be breakneck enough, but not so much of a turnover where you've got very little time to think," he said. "You needed to do your homework before you went in!
"They were great people to work with and it was great to work with people who had been friends. Like Tony Tormey, for example, who's a good pal but I'd never worked with him because he was always in Fair City."
As for the prospect of Jim making a comeback, stranger things have happened.
"People did like him, even though he was a bit grumpy and a bit bolshie," said Roe. "I think people liked his candour and his directness. If they wanted to bring him back that'd be ok too. I'd be quite happy to do that - if they wanted to.
"I was glad they didn't kill him off or put him in prison, which is what usually happens when I'm on television!"
