.jpg)
Irish TV star Niamh Algar has played a sex worker who seduces a Countess (played by Julianne Moore) in period drama Mary & George and an NHS doctor accused of negligence in ITV's Malpractice. Now, she will play an equally compelling role – a stigmatised mother in crisis.
GLAMOUR catches up with Niamh as she is wrapping up an exciting project with screenwriter Claire Wilson – writer for Rocks and feminist novel-turned-TV-series The Power – named Weeks and Months and filmed in Belfast. It's Wilson's directorial debut, and Niamh has loved working alongside her, and on a female-led set. “I think that maybe there's a shorthand sometimes that you have with a female director, that sometimes you don't have with with a male director,” she explains.
Her new ITV series Playing Nice – starring Happy Valley and Joy star James Norton, Jessica Brown Findlay (The Flatshare) and James McArdle – is also helmed by a female director, Netflix hit One Day's Kate Hewitt. The show's premise centres around two couples who discover that their babies were swapped at birth, and that they have been raising someone else's child. “Their whole world just explodes and they're thrown into a parent's worst nightmare,” Niamh says.
The star sat down with GLAMOUR to talk rom-com snobbery, the show's stories of sisterhood and male friendship and tackling a nuanced sexual harassment storyline.
Norton also produced the series, the story adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name by JP Delaney. While the book was set in London, the series is based in Cornwall – partially to add to the isolation and atmosphere of the story, and the beautiful oceanic scenery admittedly doesn't hurt a visual adaptation.
While the baby swap plotline is the dominant one, between the lines Playing Nice deftly interrogates themes of coercive control, the stigma and aftermath surrounding postpartum depression and the deeply-ingrained sexist attitudes that surround parenting. So as well as being a very addictive winter watch, it brings important issues around violence against women and girls (VAWG) and post-natal mental health to the screen.
For Niamh, navigating and portraying these storylines is part of her explorative cathartic process while acting. “What I love so much about what I do for a living is that it's cathartic," she says. "You get to explore emotions. And it's almost like leaving your problems down and picking up someone else's. It's complete escapism.”
She sat down with GLAMOUR to talk the formation of sisterhood between herself and co-star Jessica, the research she did to portray postpartum depression and why Irish female actors are having such a moment.
You guys filmed on the Cornish coast, which is such a gorgeous part of the world. What was that like? Did you go surfing as a cast?
Yes, the first weekend we got down there the two Jameses [Norton and McArdle] had a surf lesson. All four of us were in the water and we were completely out of our depth, none of us knew what we were doing. Literally taking yourself out of your comfort zone, you bond together as a cast. Every weekend we went surfing together and I went sea swimming before work.
You made a heartbreaking portrayal of your character’s postpartum issues and the stigma and shame around depression and the other resulting problems. Why was this important to portray?
It's interesting that we talk about stigma and shame relating to something that is beyond someone's control. You don't choose to have postpartum depression. It's a temporary mental illness that happens more frequently than people are willing to talk about and I think it's important, that we do talk about it. It's hormones that are completely messed around within your brain, within your body, and can be misdiagnosed.
Also regaining the power and strength and getting through something like that, I think that's something that should be championed… I consulted with psychiatrists on this and women who had experienced it and for me, it was just a gift for it to be put in.
There are also portrayals of coercive control and abuse, why are these nuanced behaviours so crucial to show on screen as well?
I feel like I don't want to be to speak on Jessie of James's point of view… The way in which they performed that relationship, I think it's the subtlety in how he controls her, down to, I suppose, the physical threat… Because of the ranging variance of severity [with coercive control], some people don't realise that they are in that situation. From the outside, it's easy to judge, but when you're in it, it's very hard to see that.
We see your character subjected to sexist attitudes towards parenting, as she is the breadwinner, why is this shame important to show?
We don't see portrayals of the father who stays at home [like James Norton's character Pete] and is the primary caretaker for their child. It's always the mother who does that, and suddenly, when you've got that role reversal, [Niamh's character] Maddie is being judged for the fact [she works, being called] this career-seeking workaholic.
I hope that the audiences sit there and are grinding their jaw, going, 'Why is this an argument? Why is it a problem that she's the one who's the breadwinner? Why do we think that this is the structure of a family, the father who works and the mother who stays at home and cooks and cleans and looks after the kids. That's what I feel like is important when you take on a script, it's always about challenging the narrative and societal norms and questioning why they become societal norms.
It felt like a core message of the series, eventually, was two women, two mothers, supporting each other – how did you go about creating the complicated bond your character has with Jessica Brown Findlay?
I've fallen in love with Jessie. We became so close throughout the whole shoot. She's the warmest, kindest human you'll ever encounter. And she is a mother. She's got these two beautiful kids and obviously she has gone through childbirth, so she was able to share stories. We spoke about how there is almost an ingrained resilience that mothers have… having to set aside your own needs in order to raise your child to look after them. I think women are incredible, they go through so much.
You've also starred in upcoming TV series Iris, where you play the title character, who is something of an enigmatic genius…
It was a blast. I travelled all around Italy in Sardinia with Tom Hollander, who is an acting hero of mine. To work with him was just extraordinary, he's a scene stealer, and I learned so much from him.
With the success of shows like Bad Sisters, it feels like now is the time for Irish female talent – how are you guys so funny, what is it with Irish female humour?
I think the funny bones are ingrained in us… I feel like we take the work seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously. I don't know how humour gets you. Can you can win a room over with humour? I think we always shy away from seriousness. I fan girl over Sharon Horgan all the time, she's just immense, one of those quadruple threats – actor, writer, producer, director. She has it all.
Playing Nice is available to watch on ITV now.
She sat down with GLAMOUR to talk portraying abuse on screen, imperfect relationships and writing as therapy.
