I was first introduced to Marian Keyes’ novels as a teenager — likely too young for them — when my older sister began collecting them like religious texts. With the same sacred reverence, I started sneaking them off the shelves and devouring them cover to cover. They weren’t exactly age-appropriate: infidelity, Irishmen in sexy leather trousers, drug use and more all featured heavily. But from that moment on, an undying love affair began between me and those books.
So when the BBC announced it was adapting Keyes’ beloved Walsh family series for television, I felt something akin to older-sister-level protectiveness. All five novels — each centred on a different sibling — would be woven together to create The Walsh Sisters.
As one of three sisters, I instantly recognised the chaos and combustible love that defines the Walsh clan. Caroline Menton, who plays middle sister Rachel, knows it well too; she’s one of five sisters herself.
“I remember we were all just talking loads, and Ian [the director] was just sitting there watching us,” she explains of the cast meeting. “And he was like, ‘That was it. That’s literally it.’ The overlaps, the yapping. No one can… But everyone’s really giddy. And it was just really organic, really easy… any of those family scenes was really enjoyable, but also kind of triggering. It was like, no one’s listening to you.”
That familial ease translated off-screen, too. The cast formed a WhatsApp group that remains active to this day. Menton admits she’s the perennial “I’m sorry, I missed this” member of the chat — “very Rachel-coded,” I suggest — but she speaks glowingly about the experience of filming.
“I’ve learned now, having done a couple of jobs in Ireland, you’re always going to have so much craic because you’re just with loads of Irish people,” Menton says. “So you had an amazing crew that were so lovely, down to earth and funny. And then just the cast. We were really lucky, we had a week of rehearsals before we started shooting, which is quite rare, but such a luxury.”
Rachel’s story — told in Rachel’s Holiday — follows her being admitted to rehab. Convinced she doesn’t have a substance abuse problem, she imagines The Cloisters as a kind of luxury spa. She quickly discovers otherwise.
The novel draws heavily on Keyes’ own experiences with addiction, and it’s this confessional intimacy that makes Rachel such a convincing — and persuasive — narrator. On screen, however, that interior monologue disappears. Menton knew she’d have to work harder to convey Rachel’s denial without the book’s guiding voice.
“Obviously we’re getting the narrative from her perspective, and she’s in such a great sense of denial and that feeds into what we experience," Menton explains. "And then it’s not till she goes to the cloisters and it’s revealed the reality of her behaviour and how it’s impacted the people that love her. And so that was a really important thing for me going into filming, because obviously we didn’t have… In the book, we have her… We’re taken into her interior world because of the voiceover.”
“And so we didn’t have that in the series," she continues. "So it was just how do you portray that kind of denial in a convincing way? And there’s ways. Through my research before filming, I watched a lot of interviews with people who are in recovery and talked about their behavioural patterns while they were using. And a lot of it is like gaslighting, manipulation because ultimately they have to keep this thing going.”
I remember reading the novel and wholeheartedly falling for Rachel’s version of events, only to feel blindsided when other characters offered a starkly different perspective. When Keyes released the sequel, Again, Rachel — the first time she revisited one of her heroines — I found myself being fooled by her all over again.
While I haven’t struggled with addiction, I’m two and a half years sober. I wouldn’t describe my former relationship with alcohol as healthy; although I’m never quite sure how much of that was me, and how much was society’s approach to drinking.
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Menton and I briefly disagreed on whether Rachel could be considered “functioning” at the beginning of the series.
“She’s dysfunctional,” Menton argues. “Rachel does not function like your average high functioning, healthy human being.”
For me, part of Rachel’s complexity lies in how “high functioning” she appears. She’s the classic party girl we all know: capable of powering through full work days without a drop, yet unable to leave a night out before 6am. We’ve normalised that contradiction. Menton sees it differently — Rachel, she says, is clearly unravelling, but the people around her are invested in ignoring it.
“So I think you’re right, but I think when we meet Rachel in a series, her addiction has become unmanageable," she concedes. "It’s becoming a bit obvious. And I think for poor Luke, I think Luke is the only one who can recognise that this person is not looking after themselves. They’re neglecting their wellbeing. And then she still manages to hide stuff from him and gaslight him.”
One telling moment comes when Rachel’s sister Claire (played by Danielle Galligan of House of Guinness) insists she drinks more than Rachel does — a common defence mechanism. But addiction isn’t a numbers game. It isn’t about how much you drink, or how often. It’s about the role alcohol or drugs play in your life, and the reliance you build around certain situations.
“I think it hopefully will create a lot of conversation around our standards of the relationship we have to alcohol," Menton explains. "As in, I think as an Irish person in Irish society and in the UK, the drinking culture is quite similar. And I hope that people watch this and they can… Two things. The first thing is they can look at it and go, ‘I drink just as much as Rachel, and I’m not an alcoholic.’ And Claire says it. She’s like, ‘I drink way more than her and I’m not an alcoholic.’ I mean, maybe someone could look at Claire’s drinking and go, ‘Well, I don’t know, that’s kind of problematic too.’”
She continues, “But it’s not about how much they’re both drinking, it’s why? Why, why, why? And also a massive thing is alcoholism and addiction doesn’t discriminate. It can impact anyone. It doesn’t matter your economic situation, it doesn’t matter your background or where you’ve come from. It can literally affect anyone. So I think that’s really important because I think we get fed this BS narrative of addiction that these images that we’re shown of people in an alleyway with a needle, and then you have someone who’s drinking a whole bottle of wine to themselves. But that’s acceptable. And I’m not judging that by the way, but I’m just saying… And alcohol is the worst drug. It’s the most harmful, which is mad, which I discovered through my research.”
Rachel is, undeniably, a divisive character, something Menton clearly feels fiercely protective about. She speaks of Rachel with the affection and loyalty of someone describing a best friend or a little sister she would bury a body for, or shield from the inevitable fury of social media.
“But I think fundamentally, and I hope when people watch it, they can have some compassion for Rachel because the reason this is happening, the reason this behaviour is unfolding the way it is because ultimately there’s so much self-loathing going on," Menton says. "There’s like a source of pain that is so profound that she can’t cope with it on her own, so she uses drugs and alcohol. And so I think that’s what was really important to start with her, like why is she in so much pain and why is she being so self-destructive and such a self-saboteur? So yeah, I hope that’s, when people watch, they don’t just write her off and think, ‘Oh, she’s such a nuisance. She’s such a burden.’ No, she’s suffering and she’s in pain.”
She continues, “I’m so protective of her because I could see why it would be easy not to like Rachel because she creates a lot of chaos, but no one wants to be like that. No one chooses that. She is. She’s like my little sister and I just want to protect her and mind her. Oh my God. Honestly, anytime anyone said anything about her to me, I’m like, ‘Well…’ Yeah, I feel like I have a responsibility for her. And also to the book and to Marian and to the world that Marian created that’s so beloved. It is such a big responsibility.”
Despite that, Menton insists she’s far more Anna than Rachel; the steady, empathetic sister played by Louisa Harland, of Derry Girls.
“I always feel as though if I had a friend like Rachel, I’d be like Anna," Menton laughs. "And I’m such an empath, to my detriment sometimes because it’s so exhausting being an empath. And I think that’s why when I read the scripts, you should never judge your characters, you should always love them. And I fucking love her to bits.”
She lights up when speaking about Harland.
“I’ve admired her work for years," she gushes. "So I remember my agent rang me and he was like, ‘You’re doing your chemistry test with Louisa Harland.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, do you know her? Are you mates?’ And I was like, ‘No, I don’t know her personally, but I’m a huge fan of her work.’ And she was so lovely. I was really nervous that day. She’s amazing. She’s so cool. And she was so down to earth and cool. And we were having the chats and we came in to the room to do the chemistry test, and our producer Dixie was like, ‘Oh, did you guys know, you’ve met before?’ And we were like, ‘No, well we met five minutes ago.’ And she’s like, ‘I totally would’ve bought that you guys were mates.’ So yeah. So yeah, that was my first time meeting Lou.”
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As for nerves around public reception? Her biggest concern is the loyal readers.
“There might be some Marian Keyes fans that don’t think the show represents the books," Menton says. "It is an adaptation. I think that’s always really important to factor in because the adaptation is never the book. It just never is. And so I think we’ve taken the essence of the books really well. Well, Stefanie [Preissner] has, to her credit. I like to think it will be received well. And also each sister represents a very different personality, so I feel like it could take on that kind of Sex and the City, which sister are you kind of thing.”
Unfortunately, and perhaps inevitably, I suspect I might be a Rachel.
Menton laughs when I tell her. She agrees that the Irish-ness of the show will be well received in the UK.
“Maybe I’m biased, but I do think the Irish are amazing, beautiful storytellers who do that very well," Menton grins.
She’d happily return to Rachel’s world — whether for a second season or a 20-years-later take on Again, Rachel.
“Whenever she’s needed, just give me a shout," she offers. "Just hit me up. We could do one of those cool things where we could do that 20 years later.” What if we called the BBC up…?
But what she hopes viewers ultimately take from the series mirrors my own experience of reading it.
“So I hope people can have a more nuanced, insightful opinion of addiction rather than this black and white story that we’re sold," Menton explains. "And it happens in film and TV and stuff like that. So it’s so nuanced and it’s so personal to each person and their journey.”
As someone still asked to defend their sobriety on a weekly basis, I couldn’t agree more.
The Walsh Sisters is available to stream now on iPlayer.
