Marian Keyes book girlies, rejoice — new drama The Walsh Sisters arrives on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on February 21.
Instead of faithfully adapting one of the Irish author’s hit novels, the new TV show is a broader cross-section of multiple novels. We meet sisters Anna (Louisa Harland), Rachel (Caroline Menton), Maggie (Stefanie Preissner), Claire (Danielle Galligan), and Helen (Máiréad Tyers) as they navigate the peaks and troughs of their 20s and 30s.
“It was a heavy load for actors and the crew”
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“There was a comfort and release in those emotional, high-stakes scenes… it’s a very Irish way of telling a story, and it’s very Marian Keyes,” Preissner tells me, who was also a writer on the show.
“Life is never genre pure. It’s never just a comedy or drama, and all of the girls are never just a monolith of an emotion. So within the scenes, I would try to have a release valve. So I also believe that how you get an audience to engage is to get them really close by laughing, and then you stab them in the heart with something sad.”
Frankly, The Walsh Sisters effect is just as brutal as it sounds. It feels even more brutal than visualizing it through Keyes’ words because you’re seeing comedy-trauma play out in front of your eyes, and you may well need a breather or two while you binge.
“I think Louise had the hardest role, for sure,” she adds as the others nod. “Within that, and there were some scenes that were just pure grief, particularly whenever she was on her own. There are so many actors that I’ve met that would not have been able to do what she did.
“In the scenes where she was emotional, our script editor, who’s sitting off camera, is crying. Everybody was weeping because she brought it full-on. It’s a heavy load for actors and crew.”
Don’t let the emotions put you off, though – in true Irish storytelling style, The Walsh Sisters is full of heart and laughs too. To me, this feels like a group of women who are going to stay bonded forever.
“People have gone off, and they’re filming different things, but we still have the WhatsApp group. It’s certainly quieter, but we’re still there, like, cheering each other on,” Galligan adds.
“The nature of our jobs…can be so transient, sometimes you get so tight-knit for such a strong or such a specific period of time,” Harland agrees. “But then, like, there’s always a sense of knowing that if I needed anything, or I was in trouble, I could just pick up the phone to any of them at any time, and there will be no questions asked. I think that’s a really beautiful feeling that I’ve taken away from this.”
SOBBING. Menton sums it up best: “I do think that we have our family. We’ll always have the Walsh sisters.”
All the feelings and all the tears, then. So what should we stream after our binge to decompress? The awesome foursome almost immediately agree on The Traitors (Irish or British, so feel free to take your pick).
“That was what got me through the edit,” Preissnet admits. “I loved being in both of those bubbles.”
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