Back with a new season of Keys to My Life, Brendan Courtney has plenty of other irons in the fire. He talks to Claire O'Mahony about his TV and radio career, leaving the city and creating a new home.
"The hustle is real, and it never stops. It’s exhausting as you get into your 50s," says Brendan Courtney. "When you’re younger, you have this beautiful naïve view that it’ll happen. Then, when you get a bit older, you go, 'Yeah, it’ll happen, but it’ll take 10 times as long and there’ll be 100 'nos' along the way.’"
The 54-year-old multi-hyphenate — TV presenter, broadcaster, writer, fashion designer — speaks from experience, having hosted and created numerous TV light entertainment and documentary shows for more than 20 years.
He’s in good form as he sits down to chat about ambition, love, his house renovation, why he’s a ‘sea squealer’ rather than a ‘sea swimmer’ and everything in between.
Brendan is currently on our screens with the fifth season of Keys to My Life – the TV format he created that brings well-known people on often emotionally charged visits to the places they have called home.
"When I write a format, I always think the key to its success is that people can imagine themselves in it. People can imagine, ‘I wouldn’t go there,’ or ‘I would go there,’ or ‘I wouldn’t date him,’" he explains. "Everybody has a story; every adult has lived in a few places, and all the stories are remarkably different as well."
This season’s line-up includes the first Irish elite sportsperson to come out as gay, hurler Donal Óg Cusack, TV presenter Gloria Hunniford, singer Sandy Kelly, director Jim Sheridan and former Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan.
"Donal Óg’s story is amazing," he says. "That really touched me personally because of him coming out and being in sport, and such a maverick."
Brendan got to know Tony Holohan when he co-presented Ireland on Call with Katie Hannon during the pandemic. "I met Tony loads, but the Tony I met was so precisely professional," Brendan recalls.
"He is nothing like that in real life. He's like a different person, just a lovely, kind, sweet man. But in professional terms, he's an army general. He takes his job very seriously, and so he should, obviously. It's a very serious job. He had his own stuff going on, and we talk about that in the show. His wife [Dr Emer Holohan, who passed away in 2021] was very sick for four years."
The veteran Northern Ireland TV presenter Gloria Hunniford also features this season. She is someone Brendan has always admired. "She’s 85 and she’s amazing. But they are all amazing," he says of the show’s guests.
In Ireland, housing and home ownership are deeply emotive, tied not only to security and stability but also to identity, pride and belonging. And, of course, we love peeking inside other people’s homes. But Brendan doesn’t believe that curiosity is the main driver of Keys to My Life’s popularity.
"That never really comes up. It's really walking through this door – this happened here, the good, the bad, the ugly, whatever it was in their life. That’s the bit that catches people."
He does, however, admit that the show’s original idea sprang from his own fascination. "It’s just nosiness. I think visitors to Ireland confuse our nosiness for friendliness! We're great craic, we're friendly, but we're cute and we're nosy about people’s houses. But what we didn't expect in the first series was that it would be so emotional."
Today’s cover shoot takes place in his refurbished Wicklow bungalow, perched on a hill with sweeping sea views. The work, though, isn’t quite done. "It’s not finished yet. It's a bit overwhelming, to be honest," he admits. Until the renovation is complete, he’s holding onto his city-centre apartment. "As soon as I can get a line in the sand, then I'll be getting rid of the apartment," he says.
Back in February, Brendan was walking home to that same apartment when a car pulled up at a junction. The three men inside greeted him; he said hi back, then two jumped out and attacked him, kicking him in the head five or six times. The case is now with the DPP. "I've been advised that anything I say could influence that or influence an appeal," he notes.
Despite the upheaval, he says he’s eager to finally complete his Wicklow home. "Shout out to my neighbours; they’re just amazing. They have three young kids, and they’re putting up with all the noise of the build. My sister is my other neighbour," he explains.
Living by the coast has its perks. "I was in the sea this morning. It's really handy because I can bring the dog [his beloved Nancy, who also stars in the photo shoot] for a quick walk on the beach, and I just jump into the sea."
Still, he laughs at the idea of being called a sea swimmer. "I'm a sea squealer. I get in, take a picture for Instagram and get out. No joke."
As for the gear? "I do have a dry robe, but I don’t use it. I let guests use it. When people come and stay, I give it to them. I have a towelling changing robe."
In August, Brendan stepped in for Ray D’Arcy on his daily radio show. "I love it," he says. Radio suits him. "Because of Keys to My Life, people tell me crazy sh*t. They open up to me. It's like they're giving me confession. Actually, the producers on the radio show say to me: people really want to talk to you. I think that's because of Keys to My Life. I think they see me listening, and I don't know, maybe that's it. But people tell me private details all the time."
Would he like his own show? "I want my own radio show," he says simply.
Brendan and his partner of 10 years, Adam, broke up last September, but have remained close friends.
He tells an amusing story that sums up their relationship, where Brendan arranged a date in a restaurant, but the date was a no-show.
"I knew Adam would be coming home from work. I just texted him saying, ‘I'm in this restaurant that we love, I've got a table for two. Do you want to come?’
" The restaurant staff, who knew the couple well, were confused as they thought they were back together. "We had just had a glass of wine, and then my phone rang, and it was the date! I was like, ‘OK, I have to be honest. I was meant to be on a date, you’re sitting in his seat, and I think he’s going to turn up’. Adam said ‘Oh, thank God, I’ve been dating somebody else as well."
This month, the two are going on holiday together. "We’re going to Greece, where we’ve already done 62 islands together. We backpack and we hike. We holiday really well together. Now, ask me that again at the end of October!"
When I ask if he’d rather be liked or respected, Brendan says that early in his career, it was about being liked.
"I was doing theatre from the age of 14 ’til 19. At 19, when I came out, I decided I did not want to be an actor because I'd been acting all my life as somebody else. When I came out, the way to be myself and still get attention was to be a TV presenter," he recalls. "I wanted to be a TV presenter because my parents were emotionally unavailable, and I went out to the world looking to be liked by everybody. That's what drives a lot of people with modest talent… As I grew in confidence and got better at what I do, I now don't need to be liked."
Now, it’s about something else. "I absolutely yearn to be respected," he says, "because I’m working class. I was sent to elocution lessons. I decided I wanted to work in RTÉ and got in on two weeks’ work experience. Then once I was in, they couldn’t get me out. Within six months, I was on screen. I knew nobody, I didn’t go to the right schools, I had no connections whatsoever, but I’m still working there."
Brendan credits his success to hard work and an ability to adapt.
"I pivoted a couple of times. I pivoted away from entertainment. I didn’t want to be a comedian. That wasn’t right for me. I wanted to share more stories, and I wanted to create the format I’m in.
"When I wrote Wanderlust all those years ago, a good friend said, ‘Why do you want to be a presenter? Do you want to be well known?’ I was like, well, really, I created this idea. I want to package it, film it, pick the music, put it on screen, and hand someone a videotape at the time and say, ‘That’s my work.’ That creative process for me really drilled into what I like doing in my career. What I like doing is creating something out of nothing. That’s all."
And create he does. "I’m currently writing a book. I’ve written a comedy drama. I’ve written a brilliant – I have to say –animation script with my brother, who’s an animator, as are my two nephews, so we put a collective together. The animation script is about the deer in the Phoenix Park, but really a comment on colonialism. I’ve also written a comedy called Mammy Issues about a gay man whose mother moves in with him. Of course, nothing might happen with any of these ideas.
"I saw an interview I did in 2005 in The Sunday Times in which I had listed the ideas I was working on. Of the four or five ideas, I said, I’m doing this and then this. Two of them became TV series. I was like, ‘Oh, God, that actually happened.’ I’m a big believer in: put it out to the universe. You never know what can happen."
