Kieran Prendiville has had an extensive career in television. He has been a presenter and a reporter in science, news and sport. Yet he is probably best known for his work in popular drama with hits such as Badger, Roughnecks and of course Ballykissangel.

We invited you to send your questions and you did by the bucket load. We selected a representative group.

Kieran Prendiville answers your questions over these five pages.

G Ashcroft from Essex wrote to ask:

"What gave you the idea for Ballykissangel?"

Kieran replies:
A few years ago I spent several weeks on an oil rig researching a drama series called Roughnecks. After a while I went stir crazy and started fantasising about a place where you didn’t hear the thud and clatter of heavy machinery twenty four hours a day ... and where it didn’t smell of diesel oil.

Then I remembered the holidays in Ireland I took when I was kid, when my father took all eight of us back to this tiny village in County Kerry where he was from ... and then I remembered some of the characters ...and then I was off and running.

I had to put it aside for a few years while I wrote Roughnecks; I didn’t honestly think anyone would be interested but there you are.

By the way, the village - it’s a town now - was called Killorglin. Just up the road there’s a real place called Ballykissane.

Georgina in Tampa, Florida wrote

"Dear Mr. Prendiville:

At the outset let me you, thank you, thank you, thank you for being that evil genius who was able to deceive me. I watched Ballykissangel from beginning to end, all the time believing that it was " real" and not a dream. Did you decide to deliberately leave the series the same time as Dervla and Stephen, and did it have any thing to do with the way in which the storyline was going?

Am I right in saying that perhaps baby Kieran was named after you?"

Kieran Prendiville answers
Thanks for the evil genius tag. I think I like that. Yes I did decide to leave at the same time as Stephen and Dervla ... but I only wrote their characters out because the two actors said they wanted to leave.

It seemed like a good time for me to move on too. Having said that, never say never ... I’d hate to think I could never go back.

Yes I’m afraid the baby was named after me but it wasn’t my idea. I was very touched until a jaundiced script executive said the kid’s tantrums reminded them of somebody...

Jean Rice asks:

"I was disappointed that Assumpta and Peter left the show. Was this their decision or the producer's? They made the show! I'm still "mourning" both their departures!"

Kieran:
Me too but I think their story had gone as far as it could go. We had to resolve the sexual tension between them one way or the other. It was their decision to quit, my idea to kill off Assumpta. I was afraid the series had become a bit cosy (a personal view) and I wanted to give the whole village something truly dramatic to chew on. I thought it would have been a bit limp to have the pair of them get on a bus and leave town. A lot of people, I know, disagree.

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