Best known for his obnoxious and entitled Ross O’Carroll-Kelly creation, author and comedy writer Paul Howard joined the writing team of The Young Offenders for the show’s long-awaited new season and describes it as "a dream job".
"I’ve loved this show from the start."
If Paul Howard is trying to ingratiate himself with fans of The Young Offenders, he is doing it from the off. No messing. Straight in there.
We are at Terence MacSwiney Community College in Knocknaheeny, on the north side of Cork city, where an episode of the much-loved comedy is being filmed. Young Offenders fans will recognise it as the home of PJ Gallagher’s Barry Walsh, principal of the fictional Saint Finan’s Community School.
Howard is there to see his script come to life, while also explaining how the creator of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, arguably the great fictional embodiment of uber-posh south Dublin entitlement, came to be involved in a comedy about working-class petty criminals from Cork.
It is not an obvious match. But Howard is keen to stress his long-held affection for The Young Offenders.
"I loved the original feature," he says. "I’ve loved the show from the beginning. So, for me, it was a dream job. It was odd, because I found the voices came surprisingly easily. I think they were in my head, because I’ve seen every episode at least twice. Conor and Jock, in particular, I think I was taking in by osmosis. Not that I’m saying it was easy to write, but their voices were there, which was great."
You could say he knew from the outset what he wanted to do with the episode, and Howard confirms as much.
"Yeah," he says. "I did. I was given an episode outline, where you’re beginning and where you’re ending, and the places you have to go via to get there, and I had some ideas for it as well. I really enjoyed it."
Despite being London-born and Ballybrack-bred, Howard was immediately at ease working on what would be considered a very Cork show. As any Dub worth their salt will tell you, a fair chunk of Leesiders can be found working within a short bus ride of the River Liffey.
Howard recalls: "When I worked in newspapers, I think about half of them were from Cork, especially when I was in the sports department. When they got together, the Cork accent was like it was to the nth degree. And I used to go to Toner’s with them afterwards, and I’d just sit and listen.
"It’s just such a beautifully lyrical accent," he adds. "It was like music, sometimes, listening to them. Often I couldn’t understand what anyone was talking about, but I liked the music of it."
Entering Henry Higgins territory, the My Fair Lady professor played by Rex Harrison, Howard reflects on his fondness for writing in accent. Roysh?
"When I write the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly books and columns, I write a lot in phonetics. I’ve always had this love of how words sound, and how those sounds look on a page. I’ve written in Northern Irish phonetics, I’ve written in Cork phonetics, and Kerry phonetics, so that’s something I’ve always been interested in and something I’ve always loved.
"But there’s just something about the Cork accent," he says again. "It’s so musical."
With his phonetic credentials established, the next question is how Howard made the move from books and newspaper columns into television writing. It is not, he explains, a new departure.
"I’ve been doing some television writing for the last couple of years. I worked on two seasons of Bad Sisters. I was recently in Canada for six weeks working on a show called Sisters, a co-production between RTÉ and a Canadian broadcaster.
"I suppose I’ve been transitioning into television writing for the last couple of years, from when I finished the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly series. Cormac [Fox, executive producer of The Young Offenders] and I have been working on another project, and he asked me if I’d be interested in writing an episode of The Young Offenders. I didn’t even need to think about it."
Being in Canada, Hamilton to be exact, at the time proved a bonus for Howard. The climate was certainly more conducive to indoor creativity than outdoor activity.
"I had a little bit of downtime when I was in Hamilton," he recalls. "It was the middle of winter there and it was about minus 20 degrees, so it was freezing cold. In the evenings and at weekends I just didn’t want to leave the hotel room, so I did quite a bit of the work on Young Offenders while I was away. So that was kind of handy."
And now he is sitting in a Cork school, watching ideas he came up with in Canada turn into an episode of The Young Offenders.
"It’s really nice for a writer to spend a day on set because it reminds you that, when you’re sitting in your little office on your own, you’re making massive, expensive decisions that have ramifications. Like, don’t put a helicopter in. A car is a much more sensible way to arrive at a wedding."
As it happens, this particular episode of The Young Offenders revolves around a wedding taking place in the aforementioned Saint Finan’s Community School. It is a subject that also featured in Howard’s North American project.
"I wrote an episode of Sisters, the show I worked on in Canada, so consciously I was trying to make the weddings very different. Because weddings can be very samey. That’s why I’m so happy it’s here in the school rather than in a church. They can kind of look the same, but there’s just something about being in the school where so many of the brilliant Young Offenders moments have happened over the years.
"And actually I got a bit of a buzz walking through the entrance to the school today," he adds, slipping back into fan mode. "It was just so familiar to me. I can’t tell you what a thrill it was for me to get out of the car this morning and walk to the school. And Alex was standing in front of the school, in his wedding tux, and it was like, ‘Wow.’"
The new season of The Young Offenders drops on RTÉ Player on Friday, 3 April. The show, produced by Vico Films for the BBC in association with RTÉ, will also air weekly on RTÉ One from Saturday, 4 April at 10.30pm.
The original cast returns, with Chris Walley as Jock O’Keeffe and Alex Murphy as Conor MacSweeney, alongside Hilary Rose, Shane Casey, Demi Isaac Oviawe, Dominic MacHale, Jennifer Barry, Danny Power, PJ Gallagher and Orla Fitzgerald.
Season five sees Conor and Jock back together after a disastrous brush with the law saw them spend time in jail on two different continents. After a chance opportunity allows Jock to escape from Colombia back to Cork, the lads quickly slip into their old ways, wreaking havoc everywhere while still only wanting the best for themselves and their families.
The truly remarkable thing about The Young Offenders is its longevity. It first arrived in 2016 and, four seasons and a film later, it is still standing. That kind of success story is rare in Irish television.
And for Howard, that history carries weight for anyone arriving at the show at this stage.
"It’s so loved and that’s why there’s a huge sense of responsibility coming in this late in the day to write an episode," he says. "People love these characters. Alex was telling me a story this morning about people stopping him around Cork and wanting him to be Con.
"People love the show and love those characters, so there is that pressure on you when you’re writing, that you’re writing for something that’s not your creation. It’s established and people love it. Your first job, really, is: don’t mess this up. And don’t ruin people’s expectations of what it’s going to be."
