I’m going to shoot first and ask questions later, says Charlie

CHARLIE MURPHY, who has won acclaim for playing trade union activist Jessie Eden in Peaky Blinders, will star opposite Aidan Turner in a rare revival of Martin McDonagh’s pitch black comedy The Lieutenant Of Inishmore.

Murphy (pictured) is the only woman in the cast. She will play Mairead, described as a force of nature who’s also good with a gun. ‘She shoots first, and asks questions later,’ Murphy said.

The 29-year-old Irish actress described her character as someone who ‘pushes the frustration of youth into politics’.

‘She thinks she knows what she’s talking about — but she hasn’t got a clue,’ said Murphy, who has also appeared as the kidnapped Ann Gallagher in Happy Valley and the Bronte sisters drama To Walk Invisible, which were both written by the great Sally Wainwright.

McDonagh is very much the man of the moment, thanks to the success of his brilliant film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which won big at the Golden Globe Awards and is considered an awards season frontrunner, along with Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape Of Water.

The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, which will be directed by Michael Grandage, runs from June 23 at the Noel Coward Theatre, with a company that also includes Denis Conway, Will Irvine, Brian Martin, Daryl McCormack, Julian MooreCook and Chris Walley.