Remember how I’ve said umpteen times that we don’t need anymore book-to-TV adaptations? Well, I take it all back – new Channel 4 drama Trespasses, based on the novel by Louise Kennedy, has knocked it out of the park.
The series is set in 1970s Ireland, a country deep in the grip of The Troubles. Cushla (Lola Petticrew) is a primary school teacher who picks up shifts in her family pub on the side. One night while working, she meets Michael (Tom Cullen), a married lawyer who advocates for both nationalists and unionists.
Trespasses on Channel 4 will break your heart, but Gillian Anderson shines
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For all intents and purposes, I am Gillian Anderson’s self-proclaimed biggest fan. I’ve been there since the X-Files days, following her through her sultry police detective in The Fall to her unnervingly uncanny portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Crown. As a general rule, if Anderson is in it, I’m there.
Granted, Tron: Ares wasn’t the blockbuster I wanted her to be involved in this year, but her turn in Trespasses might just be Anderson’s best performance in years. From the minute we meet Gina, it’s clear she is troubled, marinating in cigarette smoke and alcohol while sat in a dark living room. She’s barely coherent, putting immense strain on Cushla in her limited free time.
But when Gina is on form, she’s dazzling. She’s one of the few people unafraid to bridge the nationalist-unionist gap, helping the family of Davy McGeown (Daithí Ó Haragáin), a vulnerable child Cushla teaches, when his dad is attacked by unionists. Why? He married and had a family with a Protestant woman.
Anderson beautifully toes the line between damaged and self-assured, creating and effortless portrayal of just how complex us humans can be. Layer this with the social-political context and you get something much more multi-dimensional than typical UK channels (Channel 4 is one of the three biggest in the country) care to show us.
What’s also clear is how much Anderson loves what she’s involved in. She’s also an executive producer on the show, originally having a meeting with Kennedy after falling in love with the book. If her performance doesn’t make this admiration clear, a quick search of her Instagram profile brings it all to the surface.
Perhaps I’m just saying all of this because I’m such a big fan, or perhaps I’m just saying all of this because I watched the first episode with Anderson herself, who was happily scoffing popcorn two rows in front of me.
But I know it’s really because of Anderson’s collaboration with an astonishing debut author and two up-and-coming talents in Petticrew and Cullen. Put all the elements of Trespasses together, and it’s truly something special.
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