“I’m in Sheffield rehearsing a show for a major TV channel, but other than that I’m sworn to secrecy!”
Niamh Algar had to keep schtum about her latest role when Hot Press spoke to her a few months ago, but now the casting cat is out of the bag!
The Mullingar actress is one of the stars of The Virtues, the new four-parter from This Is England man Shane Meadows.
“BAFTA-nominated Stephen Graham stars as Joseph, a moral yet troubled man who’s lost everything he ever held dear and who finds himself compelled to travel to Ireland to confront the demons from a childhood spent in the care system that continue to haunt him, with savage and brutal consequences,” we’re told. “His path soon crosses that of Dinah, played by newcomer Niamh Algar. She’s fiery and more than able to stand up for herself, but like Joseph she’s also deeply guarded, holding close a secret she’s hiding from all those around her.”
In addition to her TV work, Algar received rave reviews – not least from Hot Press! – for her turn in independent Irish horror flick, Without Name, and returns to the big screen in September courtesy of Nick Kelly’s The Drummer And The Keeper.
Reflecting on his latest project, Meadows says: “The Virtues reunites me with the peerless Stephen Graham, whilst also allowing me the chance to work with a host of supremely gifted actors and some incredible new talent. It takes the biblical, almost apocalyptic levels of revenge witnessed in Dead Man’s Shoes, along with the bittersweet humour from This is England and creates a landscape like nothing else I've ever worked on.”
Also shot in Liverpool and Belfast, The Virtues will air in 2019.