Vikings director had a stint on EastEnders
IFTA-winning Hannah Quinn recalls ‘intense’ time on famous soap and insists we need more women on TV
IRISH director Hannah Quinn, who is currently receiving plaudits for her work on Vikings: Valhalla, has told how she cut her teeth marshalling the cast of EastEnders.
And the Connemara woman, who picked up an Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) last week for her work on the hit Netflix series, revealed that she became friends with Laila Morse, who plays Big Mo, during her time on Albert Square in 2019.
It was a ‘really intense’ challenge, she says, as the show is shot as-live on multiple cameras and cut on the fly, ‘like The Late Late’, with most scenes completed in one or two takes.
She says the cast were ‘really welcoming and lovely’ – and surprised that she consulted with them before shooting began.
‘They were like, “nobody ever talks to us before we turn up on the day.” So we got on well for that reason. They knew their characters better than I did so I was trying to understand, does this make sense in the script for you and how do you portray that? Just getting their insight.’
Laila, who has played Mo Harris on the soap since 2000, took a particular shine to the Irish director.
‘She was like: “When you come back to London, you’ve got to stay with me!” Such an amazing woman. All the Slaters as well. I did a lot of scenes with them and they’re an amazing gang of women.’
Hannah is about to start shooting the third season of Valhalla in Wicklow, with season two already in the can.
And she said the Garden County is the ‘perfect’ place to shoot the drama, which is set in 11th century Scandinavia.
‘The sea and the mountains, all in close proximity to the city – that’s really valuable when you’re looking for locations and breathtaking places to shoot,’ she said. ‘We’ve got so many pristine locations in Wicklow. Luggala is used quite a lot in the whole Vikings series and in season one and season two of Valhalla.
‘Obviously the rain can be a disadvantage, but we roll with it here. You just get used to it.
‘And we always try to catch the sun when it comes out. We get beautiful sunsets and sunrises here most of the time, so you’re always trying to capture them.
‘Wicklow has a lot of trees, which are great camouflage for anything that you don’t want to see in the background.
‘We’ve got everything you need [in Ireland] to shoot the big blockbusters and the indie films as well. A lot of different nationalities have come here and they’ve all really enjoyed it. And they’ve had the craic as well.’
While she calls herself ‘lucky’ to have been offered the jobs she has, there is clearly more to her success than that. The last three TV shows she has directed – The Stranger, Fate: The Winx Saga and now Valhalla – have all spent time at the top of Netflix’s ‘most watched in Ireland’ list.
Quinn believes there is a need for far greater female representation on screen and in production roles in film and TV, saying the level of women in the industry ‘is either unseen or really dismal’.
She told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Culturally we do really need to see more interesting, clever and thoughtful women on screen.
‘I get very excited when I see female leads in a script as a viewer and as a director, because I want to live vicariously through their adventures. It’s great fun to engage with characters that I can relate to, see them go through great drama or emotional turmoil and root for them as their story progresses.’
Quinn says that she herself took the step up to directing in response to her own dissatisfaction with the TV her two sons were consuming.
‘It felt just a little bit too maleoriented and not enough of the female side, so that was a big draw for me, to step up and use my skills that I’d been learning for years. We have to see a bit more of what’s actually out there and more stories about families and relationships,’ she continued.
‘In Valhalla, I loved the brother and sister relationship of Freydis [Frida Gustavsson] and Leif [Sam Corlett] because it’s a family dynamic that’s rarely explored.’
Along with directing, Quinn has cracked another male-dominated field by learning to fly, receiving her pilot’s licence in 2017.
‘I always wanted to be a pilot. I went up with a friend of mine in a four-seater one time. It’s dual control so he let me fly the plane for a few minutes. So I thought, “I could actually do this.”
‘I’m like a Sunday driver when I’m up there. A fair-weather flyer. I have such craic. It’s incredible.’
‘Luggala is used quite a lot in Vikings’
‘It felt a little bit too male-oriented’