Best known as the creator of the character 'Ross O'Carrol-Kelly', Howard has now joined the talented writers on The Young Offenders series and describes it as a "dream job."
In an interview with RTE, Howard explained his long love for the series, he said: "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."
Howard confirmed that he already had an idea of what he wanted to do with the episode, he said: "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."
Howard explained that despite being born in London he felt at ease working on a show based in Cork. He said that when he first worked in newspapers he was around the Cork accent daily, "I think about half of them were from Cork, especially when I was in the sports department," he said.
"It’s just such a beautifully lyrical accent. 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," he said of the Cork accent.
Howard explained his transition into television after writing his Ross O’Carroll-Kelly series. He stated that he was working on another project when the executive producer of The Young Offender's, Cormac Fox asked if he would be interested in writing an episode for the new season of The Young Offenders, "I didn’t even need to think about it," Howard said.
The writer was in Canada when he got the offer, "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," Howard recalled.
Howard spent some time in the school where they are filming the episode, he said: "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."
The new season of The Young Offenders will be available on RTE Player from April 3rd (tomorrow). Episodes will also air weekly on RTÉ One from Saturday, 4 April at 10.30pm.
