Derry Girls’ ‘hot priest’ Peter Campion made his character ‘sexy’ according to his co-star, Ian McElhinney.
Having graced the screen in everything from Love/Hate to Peaky Blinders, it’s Co. Offaly native Peter’s role as ponytailed priest Father Peter in the hit Channel 4 comedy that fans can’t get enough of.
But playing down his popularity as the show’s ‘sexy priest’, the star said he never planned to become a sex symbol in the show.
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Looking back at when he first got the call about the part, the modest actor said: “He was just a priest at the time.”
Speaking in an interview with Irish Daily Mirror, as they promoted season three of the sitcom, his co-star Ian McElhinney, best known and loved by fans of the show as Grandpa Joe, cheekily chimed in, ‘He made him sexy’, with a laugh.
And Peter admits that it has gone on to garner a lot of attention on the streets.
“I don’t get shouted at but people do talk to me, they bring it up in conversation,” he quipped.
The actor, who is also the familiar voice behind RTE dating show First Dates Ireland, as the show’s narrator said he also gets stopped by fans wanting him to recite something from the show.
“They want me to do some lines from it. But what I have to say is, when I do those voiceovers, I speak very close to the mic so my voice sounds deeper.
“And that’s why I don’t sound like that on Derry Girls. It’s a big show, people talk about it a lot and they really like it.”
Meanwhile, at home, the actor, who shares two children with his wife Red Rock star Valerie O'Connor, said work also naturally slips into daily conversations too.
“Yes, I think we talk about it without knowing that we talk about it. We have got two beautiful kids. And it is probably part of the conversation where it is just there but we are not really aware of it.”
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