THE PARENT TRAP
JIM HOGAN: PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY, OR A MAN HIDING A DARK SECRET? WE ASK ADRIAN DUNBAR…
Homegrown dramas on Channel 5 are a rare thing indeed, so all the more reason to treasure this compelling new psychological serial set in rural Ireland, which airs this week. Following the apparently accidental death of her mother, Cat Hogan returns to the family home she’s kept a considered distance from for many years, and tries to put the past behind her so she can pay her respects. But she starts to suspect that her father Jim may have been involved in her mother’s death…
“All kinds of different things happen within families, and there are often secrets within them,” muses Adrian Dunbar, who plays Jim. “Basically, Jim’s trying to keep a lid on his own personal secret, but there are other ghosts from the past, so the return of a daughter and a buried mystery stimulates a series of happenings – and in every episode, just as one thing appears to be absolutely rock solid, it gets knocked down by something else!”
Jim has a near-faultless reputation in the community as the trusted local GP, but as Cat returns home, it’s clear that she and Jim haven’t always seen eye to eye – so could there be a darker side lurking behind this seemingly respectable man?
“He’s got a very difficult relationship with his daughter that goes back many years,” reveals Adrian. “Something that happened between them, and this secret that the family has kept, has led her to the place where she doesn’t trust her dad, which is unfortunate, to say the least. And when she comes back after the death of her mother, a series of small incidents – and then some rather bigger bits of information – lead her to be even more suspicious of her father and his part in the death of her mother.”
Adrian’s best-known role on TV in recent years is of course Superintendent Ted Hastings in BBC drama Line Of Duty, where he plays one of the few seemingly clear-cut good guys battling against police corruption. That contrast with Jim’s more enigmatic motivations is why this role proved irresistible.
“I think it was very good casting to cast me,” says the actor, with a grin. “I’ve already established another character that I play, ol’ Ted, and the nation wants to believe that Ted’s a good guy – but that could all unravel, of course, because there’s a new series of Line Of Duty about to happen! So I think placing me in the middle of
this was a clever thing to do, insofar as the audience won’t want me to be a bad guy.”
Adrian’s certainly being kept busy, filming Blood near Dublin, then heading back to Belfast to begin work on Line
Of Duty again. But while he’s enjoying these roles, he has a request for his next project…
“I’d like to work in London sometime!” chuckles Adrian. “It’s where I live. Line Of Duty means four months in Belfast, and, much as I love Belfast, I do like my own bed!”