After five years as a judge on The X Factor, Ronan Keating thought his role on The Voice this year would be to bring a sense of calm and gentle humour to a panel that last year was a tad fractious. He did not reckon on the competitiveness of the other judges.
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"It was intimidating," he said of the episodes he has filmed so far. "I was inexperienced and not knowledgeable on how the game is played. I was a little bit scared about pressing the button. You don't have to pitch in The X Factor, because the format's different. It's more about nurturing the talent on The Voice. I was sitting on a panel with experienced coaches. I had to learn very quickly how to pitch and how the whole thing works."
Q: What were you doing wrong?
Keating: "My pitches weren't very strong in the beginning and I wasn't getting the artists that I had turned for. So I had to reassess my pitch. It's a very grounding thing for someone who's 23 years in the game and done what I've done. All of a sudden you're almost begging for these people to believe in you. I think it's a great format, very clever, but it's very humbling."
Q: Your pitches weren't persuasive enough?
Keating: "Exactly. People change their mind when it comes to the pitch. If you're not convincing them, they will go with the coach they feel is convincing them. You have to be switched on, you have to be talking the talk."
Q: So it toughened you up?
Keating: "Tough is not really the word. It made me wiser. It showed me very quickly what I needed to deliver to win, to win the artist for my team. I guess I went in a little too cool. It was an education."
Q: Last year there seemed to be a feud between Delta Goodrem and Jessie J. How are they getting on this year?
Keating: "From what I've heard of what happened, they're in a different place this year. The dynamic on the panel is very positive. Everybody is respectful to each other with what we all bring to the panel, but all of us want to win and you want the best for the artists that you're mentoring."
Q: You've got a mischievous sense of humour. Were you tempted to stir up trouble between Delta and Jessie?
Keating: "The girls do enough of that themselves, in a good way. They're both powerhouses in their own right. They stand up for what they believe in, and it's quite fun at times to watch them just go at each other. They fight it out a little bit when they're trying to win over an artist and it's very entertaining."
Q: There's been criticism in the UK that these sorts of "shiny floor" shows are on the way out, because they "lack authenticity". Do you think they're overdramatised?
Keating: "It's a TV show. It's got to be interesting. Somebody comes on stage and sings and walks off, people are going to switch off. You've got to engage the person watching at home, take them on the journey, keep them entertained. That's why you need drama. But the drama is there, it's not taken out of thin air. It's just emphasised. It's not created, it's just enhanced."
Q: Did you worry about having to replace Ricky Martin?
Keating: "Of course. You're filling someone else's chair and that's not something I've ever had to do in my life. The nation really felt a connection with Ricky and he was loved. I just went in and tried to be myself. I didn't watch any of Ricky's shows, on purpose, so that I wasn't, what's the word, paranoid. So far so good. Everybody thinks I bring something positive. A lot of people have said to me that coming on the panel, I've brought a little bit of calm, that's the word they're using. Being the oldest, I bring a bit of sense. I'm only joking."
The Voice starts on Sunday, May 1, at 7pm on Channel Nine.
Always the bridesmaid
Australians who have watched any British TV series in recent years will know the face of Shaun Dingwall, but his name will almost certainly escape them. In shows such as Silent Witness, Vera, Poirot, Death in Paradise and New Tricks, Dingwall is usually the cop or the crim who stands in the background and gets overshadowed by the main stars.
He's reconciled to this happening again in his latest series – a revival of Maigret, based on French crime novels written in the 1950s but filmed in Budapest. Dingwall plays Inspector Janvier, who is the sidekick to the top detective, played by Rowan Atkinson. That seems like an odd bit of casting for the comedian best known for Mr Bean, Black Adder, Love Actually, Johnny English and Four Weddings and a Funeral, but Dingwall thinks it was inspired.
"For a start, he looks very French," he said. "Then you read up on the character of Maigret and he's quite quiet and quite private, and Rowan is both of those things, and suddenly the bits of the jigsaw slot into place.
"I'm Maigret's faithful lieutenant. Janvier is a guy who has been on the streets, he's been around the block a few times. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty. Maigret is much more introspective, he has this way of working which is very private, while Janvier complements him, goes out and does his dirty work for him."
Did Dingwall have difficulty keeping a straight face as he looked at Mr Bean?
"The minute you're on set and you're in costume and there [are] cameras rolling, all you do is play the moment," Dingwall said.
"All the other stuff, all the preconceptions you have about somebody, they just disappear, because they have to. That's what we do. If an actor has any skill, that's the main tool in the toolbelt, to be able to just shut everything off and just focus on what you're doing."
Maigret starts on June 12 on the Foxtel channel BBCFirst.
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