Hilariously Dry, when all around are falling apart
The Dry RTÉ One, Wednesday
Bridgerton Netflix, streaming
When we last saw Shiv Sheridan at the end of the first series of The Dry, she had regained her sobriety after a fall from the wagon, and was back attending AA meetings. So too was her mother Bernie (the delightfully doleful Pom Boyd), who finally accepted that the death of her elder son had led to an unacknowledged dependence on alcohol to get her through the day.
Seven months later, a lot has changed. In the first series, father Tom Sheridan’s affair with an acupuncturist was found out, and he now lives in a chalet in the back garden of the family home. Bernie has found herself a new lover, the oleaginous Finbar (played by the brilliant Michael McElhatton), who has been sober for 30 years and is a bestselling author of inspirational books, and who likes to walk around the house semi-naked, much to everyone else’s disgust.
Shiv’s sister Caroline (Siobhán Cullen, who suddenly is everywhere, from Obituary to Bodkin) has taken up with a new boyfriend after breaking up with her fiancé, while brother Ant is still in his dead-end estate agency job, but still together with his boyfriend Max.
Best of all, though, Shiv finally seems to have shaken off the feckless Jack, her former artist boyfriend who is as manipulative as can be, continuing to see her last time out even though his new girlfriend was pregnant.
Not only that, there is a new man on the scene, barista and restaurateur Alex, played by Sam Keeley with immense charm, and the 180-degree opposite of his crime drama character, Eric ‘Viking’ Kinahan.
Shiv is bruised, though, and slightly put out when Bernie attends one of her meetings and dazzles the room with a rousing speech about how women have been badly treated for centuries and she’s not standing for it any more. Even Shiv’s sponsor Karen (Janet Moran, the cuddly heart of the whole show) is in thrall.
Initially rejecting Alex’s advances, Shiv relents and goes on a few dates with him, but is surprised to find that he too has been a little bit damaged by life and wants to get to know her before they become fully intimate. In turn, Shiv tells him about her prior mishaps while drunk and why sobriety now is the most important thing in her life, which serves only to bring them closer together.
On paper, this might sound like heavy going, but writer Nancy Haris and director Paddy Breathnach are too clever to allow it ever become maudlin. There is tremendous comic mileage in people’s problems, and Bernie in particular is hilariously dry even when all around her are falling apart.
There is emotional heft though, not least when friends of Alex tell Ant that Alex has a history of trying to fix ‘broken birds’ who have no direction in life. The moment Ant realises this also is true of him is actor Adam John Richardson’s finest moment in either series.
Róisín Gallagher invests the character with such warmth, we can’t help but root for her. She is a luminous actress, with great comic timing, and an inner resilience she projects even when life isn’t going her way. The Dry is a towering achievement, never shying away from the lifelong struggle to stay sober, but also pointing out that even those with seemingly perfect lives have issues just as serious to deal with too. If you haven’t seen it, I strongly urge you to catch up with all episodes to date on the RTÉ Player.
Bridgerton retuned this week on Netflix for a third series. I’m not the demographic it is aimed at, and normally I would run a mile and then some from a costume drama, but there is enough intrigue, albeit some of it repetitive, here to engage even the sceptic.
Each series focuses on a different member of the Bridgerton clan, and in this third outing, it is Colin, played by Luke Newton. His will-they-won’t-they? relationship with Penelope Featherington has been bubbling since the series kicked off in 2020, and now it finally has got serious.
Penelope, of course, secretly is the gossipmonger Lady Whistledown who narrates the programme (Julie Andrews doing sterling voice work), but her waspish side now has melted in the face of the attention from a man she loves.
What this means is that Irish actress Nicola Coughlan, a long way from Derry Girls, has a lot of heavy lifting to do this time but her portrayal of Penelope’s vulnerability and wit already are the highlight of the first four episodes.
Somewhat peripheral in the past series, she is now front and centre, and it is Coughlan, and Penelope’s, turn to shine.