I really wanted to play the part because Emma is such a complex soul

I really wanted to play the part because Emma is such a complex soul

16 November 2016

CASTLEWELLAN’S Eileen O’Higgins is among those starring in the BBC’s new Sunday primetime drama.

My Mother and Other Strangers, filmed on the unspoilt Ards Peninsula, is a five-part historical drama set in Northern Ireland during the Second World War. It tells the story of the Coyne family and their neighbours in the fictional village of Moybeg, for which Kearney village was the film set. 

The story charts how residents’ lives are turned upside down with the arrival of the United States Army Airforce and 4,000 personnel into the area. The main focus is the love that unfolds between Rose, played by Hattie Morahan (The Bletchley Circle) – who is married to Michael Coyne, portrayed by Owen McDonnell (Single-Handed) – and a handsome and charming USAAF liaison officer, Captain Dreyfuss, played by former Mad Men star Aaron Staton.

Eileen, who recently featured in the Hollywood blockbuster Brooklyn, plays the part of Emma Coyne, the eldest daughter in the family.

“I, like most people, studied the history of the Second World War at school,” said Eileen. “I thought that I had a pretty good knowledge of those events but yet I had no idea that so many American servicemen and women were based in Northern Ireland waiting to be sent to the front. 

“The fact that this story is set in a place so close to where I grew up made these events all the more real and relevant to me. I suddenly had more of a relationship to it — it wasn’t this far off thing that happened years ago in a place I’ve never been.”

In the series Emma is a fiercely intelligent 16 year-old with a scholarship to university— but who discovers she will be taking a gap year, much to her dismay. 

“When I read the I really wanted to play the part because she is such a complex soul,” said Eileen. “Even though she is a bit of a smarty pants, she wears her heart on her sleeve and I found her vulnerability endearing. She’s in that rocky period of her 

life where she is no longer one of the children but not quite one of the adults either. 

“She’s also in that awkward time when you suddenly start discovering boys and you just do not know what to do with yourself. She’s a great sister and she has a clear moral compass but in spite of this she does get herself into some very awkward situations.”

The scenic village of Kearney was one of a number of locations that impressed cast members from 

outside Northern Ireland, according to Eileen.

“In terms of the area, I think it’s beautiful,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of Americans over from New York and LA and they’re like, ‘Wow, this is unbelievable’. We think, ‘Yeah, it’s nice’ but then you have a look around where we are and where we live and you go, ‘Yeah, it is nice’.”

Kearney is a conservation village looked after by the National Trust since 1965, so special care was taken to protect both the place and its people while filming was underway.

Chosen for its unspoilt charm, very little needed to be done to the buildings to return them to the era of the Second World War. Handy to the film set were local residents who appeared as extras, including children from St Mary’s Primary School in Kircubbin.

Andrew Upton, Coast and Countryside Manager for the National Trust, explained some of the work involved.

“The set team arrived mid-February and the transformation of Kearney village into Moybeg began with the ‘dressing down’ of the buildings and the erection of a mock-pub ‘Coyne’s Bar’,” he said. “Filming itself began in mid-March and lasted around six weeks.

“The BBC were very helpful. Our visitors and supporters continued to access the site and the residents enjoyed being at the heart of the action with some of them even getting parts as extras during filming.

“To look after these historic buildings takes a lot of investment from us as a conservation charity, particularly in such an exposed coastal environment. The BBC returned the village to its original form, in fact it has never looked better, as some of the buildings hadn’t been painted for a while and benefitted from a fresh whitewash.”

Funds generated from the filming have also been put towards the maintenance of several miles of coastal paths, and the installation of new signs into the village. 

The drama was inspired by writer Barry Devlin’s own memories of growing up in Ardboe, which during the Second World War had a big American airbase – Station 328 – one of 26 set up in Northern Ireland during the war. Although Devlin -— the writer of Ballykissangel and The Darling Buds of May — was born after the war his memories of the base when owned by the RAF are still vivid.

“If you are a 10-year-old kid who is fascinated by aeroplanes and there is this place just in your peripheral vision that’s lit up at night, with aeroplanes going in and out of it, exotic servicemen and women driving around in Jeeps and so on, it would be odd if it didn’t stick in your mind,” he said.

My Mother and Other Strangers is on BBC One on Sunday evenings at 9pm.