Deirdre O'Kane has said the journey to bring her new Sky comedy show to the small screen was rocky but she is relieved Irish comedians finally have the opportunity to show off their talents "across the water".
Shelved several times due to lockdown, The Deirdre O'Kane Show debuted on October 17 on Sky Max, and the stand-up star said "it's great to finally have it out there" as it "took ages".
During an appearance on RTÉ One's Today, she told presenters Dáithí Ó Sé and Maura Derrane: "It was supposed to be made two years ago, we missed the shooting of it by about two weeks of the lockdown.
"Of course we were all so naive, we thought it would put it back by a couple of months and then it was put back again and again and again. So five times the dates shifted and I actually just thought it was probably gone then and I thought that is a big opportunity lost.
"Because comedians, Irish comedians in particular, we haven't had a show on in the UK that can we can sell our wares across the water, we haven't had that before. I was really worried and thought it's not going to happen."
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The comedian said the set-up of the show had to change due to working within Covid restrictions.
"The thing that changed the most were the acts, because obviously nobody could travel into the country so we didn't know if acts could come in from the UK or the States," she said.
"We're very lucky that we have a rich pot of comedians to choose from in Ireland. The line-up changed and also the set changed because we didn't know if we could have an audience.
"We didn't know how many we could have, and in the end we only have 30 sitting on the stage and at the last minute we got a minute we got a 100 who are seated behind me.
"I thought we'll just take it, you can't see them but at least it's noise. We got them at the 11th hour."
Today airs weekdays on RTÉ One at 3.30pm.
Watch The Deirdre O'Kane Show, 10pm Sundays on Sky Max and streaming on NOW.
