accept a knighthood if it was offered.

"I wouldn't. I'm not anti-royal but I don't believe in the royal family. I genuinely wish them all the very best," he said.

He recalled with a smile though that he has enjoyed a few pints with some of the royals.

"I've met Wills and Harry, I had a drink with those lads. I'm trying to work out who bought that drink!"

After spending so many years moving among the great and the good, he said one of the main things he learned is that "everyone's attracted to a bit of stardust".

"That's their big dark secret, everybody likes it. If you look at politicians they like to be beside rock stars, rock stars like to be beside politicians. Everybody wants to be seen in acontext where they're slightly more important than they actually are," he said.

At 44, Kielty still has the same healthy and chirpy presence that audiences fell for when he started his TV and comedy career more than 20 years ago.

He calls himself a lifelong fan of country music, something he first picked up from his father Jack's earlier career as a showband promoter.

Along with Jim Aiken, Jack Kielty was responsible for booking many of the big acts of the day, such as Engelbert Humperdinck at the Hilltown Hall in south Down, and Roy Orbison in the Dundrum Hall.

Kielty remembers hearing about his father handling a disastrous Hilltown booking with the world champion boxer Joe Frazier.

"He actually did a singing tour after winning the world title. The streets of Hilltown