Shane Lynch has revealed he was so angry with Ronan Keating for not wanting to reform Boyzone that he wanted to beat him up.

The Irish pop stars were recording their ITV special to mark 20 years of their career when Shane admitted his hatred for Ronan, according to The Sun.

First, the audience gasped when Ronan claimed he had worked hardest during the band's heyday and then, in a recorded clip shown during filming, Shane said: "I hated Ronan Keating. I hated him."

Show host Dannii Minogue commented that the atmosphere in the TV studio had changed after their revelations.

Shane replied: "I was in an angry place towards the end of the 90s so it was the nail in the coffin when Ro didn't want to get back together with us boys."

The singer said he had even stormed to Ronan's solo show at the Royal Albert Hall in 2000 with "angry and violent thoughts", but it hadn't come to blows in the end.

He said: "When I saw that man's face, any anger, any hatred, was gone. I wanted to hug the boy and say, 'Dude, please come back to us'."