Niamh Algar on The Iris Affair: "It’s unusual to have a female character who, instead of romance or trauma in her life, is driven by the desire to work things out that other people can’t"

If you think you’re having a bad day, spare a thought for the assassin in The Iris Affair who in the space of a few hours gets caught in a bear trap; is threatened with having his penis cut off; has his head caved in with a boulder; is set on fire and, by now extremely dead, is pushed over a cliff in a Fiat 500.

Meting out this rough justice is Iris Nixon, a rootless genius who wins an online puzzle-solving competition run by mysterious tech entrepreneur Cameron Beck.

It all appears to be a bit of harmless nerdy fun but travelling to Florence to receive her prize, Iris discovers that the competition is Beck’s Machavelian way of finding a code-breaker with the wherewithal to awaken a dormant AI computer called ‘Charlie Big Potatoes’ from its slumbers.

She accepts the gig, not realising the cyber-kinetic hell that will rain down on her and her new employer as a result.

Played respectively by Niamh Algar who for once gets to use her own Mullingar accent and English actor Tom Hollander, the pair’s life expectancy shortens by the episode, hence Iris’ need to eliminate the bad guys.

“She doesn’t start out as a badass but has to become one fast in order to survive,” Niamh reflects. “It’s not a Jason Bourne-type thing where straight away she’s doing a whole fight sequence. She’s figuring it out as she goes along, watching self-defence videos on her phone several times and then applying the learning. She’s not a superhero or an action character – it’s somebody who’s thrown into these circumstances and somehow keeps defying the odds.”

The Iris Affair

An old friend of Hot Press’, Algar agrees that the bear trap scene is one of the most ouch-y things you’re likely to see this or any other year.

“Yeah, the prosthetics were good!” she smiles. “A shout out as well to the Sound Department for getting the ‘thwack!!!’ just right when the guy gets hit with the boulder. She’s got some aim, that girl!”

Meanwhile, The Iris Affair stunt crew took full advantage of Niamh wherever possible wanting to do her own daredevil-ing.

“I was blown away by the action scenes and was like, ‘Cool, let me do that!’ which wanting everything to look as real as possible they were delighted about,” she enthuses. “We had two stunt teams who trained me up. I also worked extensively with a strength and conditioning coach beforehand, so those muscles are real!”

And constantly flexed as Iris’ adversaries become increasingly murderous in their intent.

“The most hair-rising moment was when Iris pushes the Fiat 500 she’s stolen over a cliff and it blows up with her would-be killer inside. We had three Fiats with their engines removed to make them a bit less lethal. Terry McDonough, the co-director who’d previously done Breaking Bad, wanted the one shot where Iris has doused the car in petrol and is pushing it towards a fire on the cliff edge so it’s blazing away as it plummets down. He said to me, ‘Iris has a brain the size of a planet, is always three steps ahead of herself and knows what’s going to happen, so don’t react to the explosion. And if we can get it in one, brilliant!’ There was also a mark I couldn’t go beyond for fear of me being hit by these pyrotechnics, so my mind was racing. I think we did manage to do it in one take, although all three Fiats got blown up just in case!”

Wise. Unlike a lot of actors who get scripts with headings like ‘Project X’ and zero background, the 33-year-old knew from the get-go that her name was being put forward for the new six-parter from Luther creator Neil Cross.

“I read the script and the same day taped a scene from it, which is the one where Iris meets Cameron for the first time,” Niamh recalls. “There was no character description, so it was my own interpretation of her and her back story. Pretty much straight away Neil said, ‘That’s it, you’re Iris’ which believe me is not how it’s usually done. I was like, ‘Are you joking?!’ but, nah, he was deadly serious. I was a big fan of Luther, so knew the capability he has to create a character of immense range. When something’s that gritty and at the same time entertaining and full of wit, it’s a no-brainer.”

Asked whether she shares her character’s intuitive grasp of maths and theoretical science, Algar shoots back, “No, I count on my fingers! I excelled in art and drama, so I just had to trust that what’s in the script is right.”

Cinephiles will have fun picking out the nods to some of Neil Cross’ favourite TV shows and films.

“There’s a lot of Alfred Hitchcock in there – things like North By Northwest and To Catch A Thief,” he’s admitted. “There’s quite a bit of Patricia Highsmith too, particularly her later Ripley novels. And you can throw in some romantic mysteries like Charade, and definitely some of those Technicolor adventure shows of the 1970s: Department S or The Persuaders.”

Smiling, Niamh says, “Neil was also our showrunner and acted like an excited kid on set. He was still writing while we were there and would come up to me and say things like, ‘How are you with insects?’ I’d be like, ‘Why?’ and he’d say, ‘No reason…’ Of course, there was a reason. Another time he asked me, ‘Have you driven supercars?’ Even though I said, ‘No, I haven’t’, Iris ends up speeding around the place in a Ferrari.”

How did Niamh get on with Tom Hollander who fans of The White Lotus will recognise as the suave, charming and full of secrets Quentin from Series 2.

“It was my first time working with Tom and I hope to do so again because he’s such a witty, intelligent actor,” she says. “He finds interesting nuances in every scene, which he routinely steals. The dynamic between Cameron and Iris isn’t the stereotypical ‘damsel in distress who needs a man to rescue her’ thing you see on TV. It’s unusual to have a female character who, instead of romance or trauma in her life, is driven by the desire to work things out that other people can’t. That opens up a whole world of where the character can go.”

The Iris Affair

Resplendent in an oversized adidas Superstar hoodie – “I’m looking very Britpop today!” she laughs – Niamh is sat on the sofa in her North London living-room, which is decorated with framed album covers. Among them is Sinéad O’Connor’s Faith And Courage, mention of which prompts some fond reminiscences.

“I was doing acting classes and needed to pay for them so I got a job as a personal shopper in an expensive Dublin department store,” she resumes. “I wasn’t a big fan of working there but one day Sinéad walked in and I was assigned to her for two hours as she went clothes shopping. She was like, ‘I don’t want to try any of these on, will you do it for me?’ so I was her model!

“After Virtues was on, she reached out to me. I told her, ‘We’ve actually met once before. I was the girl who let you use my staff member discount.’ We met a few times and, yeah, she had this huge, huge heart. I think what people really loved about Sinéad was her humanity.

“I have a lot of her songs on playlists and would listen to them on set. Even though she’s gone, she continues to inspire and will do for a long, long time.”

There’s been industry talk of Niamh playing Sinéad in a new biopic. Would she be up for it?

“Of course I would!” she nods vigorously. “I don’t think anyone would turn that role down.”

While there’s no Sinéad, The Iris Affair gets extra marks for having Siouxsie Sioux’s’ ‘Here Comes That Day’ as its theme music and using The Cardigans’ ‘My Favourite Waste Of Time’ to soundtrack the trailer.

Along with starring roles in Malpractice, Culprits, Mary & George and Playing Nice, recent additions to Algar’s IMDB include Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Pointless’ video.

“My agent rang me just before Christmas to say that his team had reached out and asked whether I’d do it,” she says. “I absolutely said ‘Yes’ because I love Lewis Capaldi’s music and the song is gorgeous. Two days’ work and then it gets millions and millions of views on YouTube and the other streamers.”

Would she get to many gigs?

“I saw CMAT when she was in London, which was brilliant, and was really annoyed that I didn’t get to Kneecap and Fontaines D.C. in Finsbury Park because the film I was working on was late wrapping. Their tracks keep popping up on favourite shows of mine like Black Rabbit and MobLand, and someone was telling me they’re all over House Of Guinness as well.”

Niamh had previously died and thought she’d gone to heaven in 2020 when she was cast as Sue in Ridley Scott’s Raised By Wolves. Is it true they bonded over boxing?

“Yeah, when I auditioned for the role he told me how physical it was going to be and I said, ‘Don’t worry, I do a lot of boxing’,” she confirms. “He boxes too and is a huge Katie Taylor fan. He got me a boxing coach when we were in South Africa and kept checking in to see how the training was going.”

Does Niamh just box in the gym or has she done proper bouts?

“Gosh, no, I need the face to earn money, Stuart,” she deadpans.

Algar was in Dublin recently shooting the film adaptation of Anna McPartlin’s The Last Days Of Rabbit Hayes with a cast that also includes Sam Claflin, Ruth Bradley, Sinéad Cusack and Colm Meaney, AKA The Nicest Man In Acting.

“While I was filming The Iris Affair, Anna, who adapted her own novel into a screenplay, reached out and asked if I’d play Mia who’s known as Rabbit Hayes. I hadn’t at that point read the book but when I did, I just fell in love with it. It’s a love letter about life and very personal to Anna.

“Colm plays my dad and, as you say, is a national treasure. It’s impossible to go out for dinner or a drink with him because every second person wants to come up and tell him how great he is. The scenes we had together aren’t something I’ve seen Colm do before. The emotional depth that man has is immense. My daughter is played by Ireland’s next big Oscar winner Alisha Weir who starred in Matilda The Musical. She’s amazing and the whole film is just really special.”

The Iris Affair can be watched now on Sky Atlantic