The star of the creepy detective series reveals five secrets from the Irish set

1 My character, Det Rob Reilly, is a fractured man and over the course of the story you see him break down. He’s the only one with an English accent at work and, besides his partner Cassie, he has no friends. I’m Irish and it was difficult doing the accent when in Ireland with so many locals. To begin with I kept it up between takes, but I found myself cringing asking for an Americano in an English accent. 2

We filmed a lot in the magical Tollymore Forest in Northern Ireland, which was also in Game Of Thrones. But it was absolutely freezing. We were filming in November but had to pretend it was August so we were dressed for summer. We also filmed in the Crumlin Road Gaol, a supposedly haunted Victorian prison. 3

Rob is haunted by a wolf in his dreams and several times I was nose-to-nose with a real one. To get it to come close, they put meat paste on me. One time the trainer leaned over to put some on my neck but dropped it below my belly button – the wolf went for it and had to be held back.

4

I can’t say making the showwasfun.itwasan intense seven months of working long hours. And the subject matter is grim! Sarah Phelps, the show’s writer, is British but her mother is Irish so the humour feels uniquely

Irish. It’s very dark and cynical.

5

There are two timelines in the story, 1985 and 2006. To make the change obvious, a different colour film was used for the 80s bits to make it look grainier. The costumes changed too: bright colour for the 80s, blacks and greys in 2006.