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Beauty beasts and the
Jamie Dornan and Matthew Rhys on playing a naive young woman’s brutish lover and lascivious father in gripping new drama Death And Nightingales
Yes, it has Jamie Dornan who plays the handsome mi l l ionaire in Fifty Shades. Yes, it has Emmywinning The Americans actor Matthew Rhys – another heartthrob. And yes, Irish newcomer Ann Skelly, as the girl stuck between the two of them, is stunning too. But the actors aren’t the most beautiful thing about riveting new three-part costume drama Death And Nightingales.
Set in what is now Northern Ireland in 1885 – a time of rebellion, spies, double- dealing, murder plots and menace – it’s filmed amid some of the most hauntingly mystical scenery in the British Isles. This is Game Of Thrones land – the hit series is filmed just up the road – and Death And Nightingales has just as much intrigue and romance. No dragons required.
‘It’s a complicated story with lots of twists and turns that will alter how the viewers think about the characters,’ says Jamie, 36, who also starred in The Fall TV series. ‘I liked my character, Liam Ward, because there’s a mystery to him. It’s always interesting playing characters who you don’t instantly have an understanding of, you don’t know what their intentions are.’
The story, based on the 1992 bestseller by Eugene McCabe, focuses on the 24 hours of the 23rd birthday of Beth Winters, the stepdaughter of Protestant landowner Billy Winters, played by Matthew. In flashback we see how Billy married Beth’s Catholic mother, not knowing she was pregnant with another man’s child, which has led to a love-hate relationship between Beth, who’s been brought up a Catholic, and Billy. He raised her as his daughter, despite knowing he was not her father, and looked after her once her mother died. But now she’s grown into a beautiful woman, he’s beginning to harbour distinctly unpaternal feelings towards her. For her part, Beth is resentful about the violent way he treated her mother, and worried about his growing affection towards her when he’s drunk.
‘There’s a lot of love there, but also disdain,’ says Ann, 21, whose biggest role to date has been in the Irish crime drama Red Rock. ‘What I love about these characters is they’re not black and white. There’s no character who’s only good, skipping through meadows, or only bad, scheming in the corner. Every one is full, human.’
Matthew, 44, says he didn’t hesitate to take on the role of Billy, although it meant temporarily relocating his family (he has a son with his girlfriend Keri Russell, who’s also his co-star in The Americans) to Northern Ireland. ‘Billy is misunderstood, as most villains are. He’s a fair man, level-headed, and he doesn’t let religion or politics cloud his judgement; he married a Catholic lady, after all. But he’s battling conflicting feelings that raise their ugly head. I’ve relished the darker elements of him enormously, he’s interesting to play.’
Everything changes when handsome Liam Ward enters their lives. He’s taken over the tenancy of some land on the Winters estate after his uncle’s death and begins working at Billy’s stone quarry. He meets Beth when he comes to Billy’s house asking for help in get- ting a cow out of a bog. As her father isn’t around, she agrees to help him.
Soon they’re in love and, knowing Billy would never approve of their marriage, they plot to run away together on Beth’s 23rd birthday. Liam hates Billy, for both political and religious reasons. He’s convinced the Protestant landlord is spying on his Catholic neighbours. Not only does he want Beth to elope with him, but he encourages her to steal Billy’s money. ‘Beth’s totally infatuated with him,’ says Ann. ‘She’s very sheltered, she’s lived quite a privileged life. But in Liam she sees this romanticism and perhaps she doesn’t grasp how brutal it can be. I don’t think she gets the full gist of how strongly one can feel, the violence. It’s the first time she’s been exposed to it.’
For Jamie, who grew up a Protestant in Northern Ireland, the show was a return home. Although its main draw was writer and director Allan Cubitt, who pushed for Jamie to win the role of serial killer Paul Spector in his creation The Fall, Jamie says he was interested in returning to the politics he grew up with. ‘I’m not religious but this part of the world has a very particular history and it’s had a massive impact on every person who has chosen to live here – who has been born here – and I think it would be wrong to run away from it,’ he says. ‘You could tell so many different stories from different points of the history of this country – the conflict goes back hundreds of years – but what we aren’t doing is leaning towards one aspect of the history, the sectarianism, the division.
‘The character I play doesn’t say anything about what my beliefs are. It’s just a good role, an interesting drama, and that’s all I see it as. It’s educated me about a time I didn’t know much about. There are aspects about the division and rule which I didn’t understand, and it delves into people’s anger at the English. It’s fascinating.
‘In my era we’ve grown up not wanting to talk about those things and most of my mates aren’t religious. I went to a school that had a healthy mix of Protestant and Catholic, and many of my friends don’t feel they belong to either. We knew what trouble it could get you into if you were the wrong religion. I will always want to work in Northern Ireland, I love people from here. It’s also nice not to have to repeat yourself the whole time or make a joke that nobody gets – that happens a lot in America. It’s nice to be understood.’
After Fifty Shades – the films earned millions at the box office while also being roundly derided by critics – Jamie’s keen not to be typecast as hot male totty and had to think hard about taking on a role that had another sex scene. ‘I have so much faith in Allan not wanting to sell me up the river, I trust him implicitly. Allan changed my life. There were a lot of people saying he was mad to cast me in The Fall but he was persistent, and for that I am eternally grateful – without The Fall there’s nothing.
‘This is not a raunchy story but there is romance and there’s love. I’ve done some pretty raunchy films, like Fifty Shades, but most of what I’ve done hasn’t been like that. I’m not seeking more of that. Sometimes it’s just gratuitous. You think, “Why is that person cooking naked?” Nobody cooks naked – it’s such a risk! There’s definitely no naked cooking in this show.’
‘I relish playing the darker elements of him enormously’
Death And Nightingales, Wednesday, 9pm, BBC2.