Soaps are such a part of people's lives . . . they either hate them or love them . . . and many of our viewers follow all the soaps. But we feel that it is important to offer people a good half hour of what they want . . . people really get into the characters, and we go to great lengths to ensure that the characters are believable.

As for the Irish language element, we get a terrific response from English-speakers - people actually tell me that they love the subtitles.

It's like going to a good foreign-language movie . . . after a while, you are so involved with the story that you completely forget that you are reading subtitles.

It is your responsibility to ensure that the audience is happy?

As the series producer, I am involved in everything, from script to screen. That includes the working with the writers, actors, crew, director, as well as the editing processf Does that mean that you step on a lot of people's toes?

Actually, the team all works together . . . we all share the same vision for the programme.

And do people expect to have "traditional" stories because of the Irish-language element?

We try to keep our storylines as up-to-date as possible. And we are sometimes controversial. For example, we ran a story on euthanasia, when Micheal gave Pauline the pills because she was in pain. And, at the moment, we have the storyline involving Fr David and Bernie, where a priest is in love with a divorcee.

Racy stufff Well, we are in competition with the other soaps, so we need to reach out to all types of people. This is why it is important to keep it topical and up-to-date . . . which isn't always easy, as we have to plan our storylines almost a year in advance.

Ok, so in the quest to remain fresh, do many of your characters meet an untimely end?

We actually stand out as the soap which has killed off the most characters. They have died in fires, car crashes, and we once had a double-suicide . . . which is horrific, rather than interesting. Sometimes it is a case that the actors want to move on, because you can become branded as an actor if you are in a soap for too long.

By killing a character, it means that the actor never have to face the decision of whether to come back.

Never?

Well, we have never had anyone wake up in a shower yetf