A fascinating Irish series billed as a "noir thriller" will be arriving on our screens next month.
With all of the TV and movie production shut-downs around Ireland and everywhere else in the past year, it's exciting to see some fresh content beginning to seep through to us. 'Smother', RTÉ's brand new drama series, is one such title that has caught our attention.
Filmed around Lahinch, County Clare in 2020, the series will be a six-part investigative "noir thriller" about the secrets families keep from each other.
The series will star a number of well-known Irish actors, including Dervla Kirwan from Netflix's 'The Stranger' and Amazon Prime's 'Strangers'. Kirwan will play Val, a mother who is suffering from the loss of her husband Denis (Stuart Graham from 'The Cure' and 'Hunger').
Val is determined to protect her family and particularly her three daughters Jenny (Niamh Walsh from 'Good Omens', 'Jamestown'), Anna (Gemma-Leah Devereux from 'Judy' and 'The Tudors') and Grace (Seána Kerslake from 'Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope' and 'The Hole in the Ground'), at any cost. Thomas Levin ('Borgen'), Hilary Rose ('The Young Offenders') and Justine Mitchell ('Cheat') will also make appearances.
'Smother' was written by Kate O’Riordan, who previously wrote episodes of 'Mr Selfridge', 'The Bay', and 'Penance'. The series was produced by Treasure Entertainment ('Finding Joy', 'Handsome Devil') with BBC Studios.
Here's the synopsis for the series:
When Val Ahern’s husband Denis is found dead at a foot of a cliff close to their home the morning after a family party, Val begins to interrogate the events that unfolded the night before. Val explores Denis’s relationships with his children, step-children and his siblings in order to find out who might have been responsible for his brutal, shocking death. The deeper Val delves into her family’s secrets the more she realises how her late husband’s controlling, manipulative behaviour had a deep effect on each member of the family.
And here's the first sneak peek trailer for the new series.
'Smother' begins on RTÉ One Sunday, March 7 at 9.30 pm. It'll also be available to stream on the RTÉ Player.