Brendan Courtney lifts lid on new season of Keys to my Life and confirms three guests

Brendan Courtney has lifted the lid on the upcoming new season of Keys to my Life – and confirmed three guests who will be appearing on the show.

The fashion designer and broadcaster fronts the much loved RTE show, which delves into the pasts of famous faces in Ireland and often makes for quite emotional viewing.

Brendan never expected Keys to My Life to become as popular as it has and is grateful for the guests he has booked over the years.

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He told RSVP Magazine: “We’ve got a really exciting episode coming up with Jim Sheridan. I really liked him. I have fallen in love with Niamh Kavanagh, she is just the nicest person. I knew her before to say hi to, but nothing else. Now I know she is just this incredibly positive human being. Tony Holohan is on the season too.

“I’m so grateful for Keys to My Life. I always expect it to be the last season, because that’s just life in television. You film something, it ends, life moves on, it’s grand. When you get the phone call to say we’re going again it’s like, ‘Really?’. I guess that comes from being a little bit superstitious. I always try to be optimistic, but because I’m freelance the glass is usually half empty rather than half full. You have to be prepared.

“What has now happened with Keys to my Life, which I’m so grateful for, is that we’ve tipped into Who Do You Think You Are? territory and people want to do it because they know it’s an homage, it’s respectful and it takes them through their lives. People are now approaching us to do it, which is great.”

Brendan has interviewed plenty of well-known people across music, theatre, and media on Keys to My Life. Who has been a standout guest over the years?

“Aine Lawlor is amazing, she is the broadcaster,” he said.

“I remember being so nervous the first morning going to meet her, because I was going to be interviewing her for five days. She’s from Artane, where I’m from, and my sat nav actually took me to my childhood home. It hadn’t changed at all. Two of my sisters died in that house, so my family had a really traumatic childhood there, when I look back.

“I eventually drove up to Aine’s home and told her I was a bit nervous to interview her, because she’s Aine Lawlor, and she told me, ‘I could never do what you do’. That was the nicest compliment I ever got.”

Aside from Keys to My Life, Brendan is a familiar voice to listeners on RTE Radio 1 as he works as a cover presenter.

A lot of people thought he might have replaced Ryan Tubridy over Oliver Callan last year, but the Dubliner says he was never in the running for that job.

He explained: “I was never spoken to about that job, it was never offered to me. Oliver was there five years before me, he deserved that job. People were telling me, ‘You should have got that job,’ and I was like, ‘I never went for it!’

“I’m back covering now for Oliver and Ray [D'Arcy] and it’s all back to normal. I’m not staff with RTE, I just invoice them for the work I do. People would probably be surprised at how poorly I’m paid but that’s okay, I understand how money and these things work.”

Brendan’s broadcasting career has spanned many years, and he previously admitted to “hating” his self-titled chat show on TV3 in the noughties. When he joined RTE Radio 1 to cover for Ryan and Ray a couple of years ago, things felt “different”.

Brendan said: “I was ready for it and the feedback was so positive. I’m very confident in what I do now and I’m not ashamed to say that. What I do very well is listen. A lot of people don’t, and it’s a great skill to have.

“I’m confident in how my voice sounds and in what I’m saying, but I wasn’t confident when I did that chat show. I just wasn’t in the zone.”

Read the full interview with Brendan in this month's issue of RSVP Magazine, on shelves now.