Hattie Morahan stars in WWII love story

Filming has begun in Northern Ireland on BBC One’s new five-part drama, My Mother And Other Strangers, starring Hattie Morahan (The Outcast).

Written by Barry Devlin (Ballykissangel, Darling Buds Of May), My Mother And Other Strangers follows the fortunes of the Coyne family and their neighbours as they struggle to maintain a normal life after a huge United States Army Air Force (USAAF) airfield with 4,000 service men and women lands in the middle of their rural parish in 1943.

Set in Northern Ireland, the heart of the story is an ongoing love story and dangerous love triangle that enfolds between Rose Coyne (Morahan), her husband Michael Coyne (Owen McDonnell) and a handsome and charming USAAF liaison officer, Captain Dreyfuss (played by Mad Men‘s Aaron Staton). Meanwhile, the Coyne’s children, 16-year-old Emma (Eileen O’Higgins, Brooklyn), Francis, 10, and Kate, seven, have no idea of the strains under which their parents’ marriage creaks.

Des McAleer (Hunger), Seamus O’Hara (6 Degrees) and Ryan McParland (The Survivalist) feature as the neighbouring Hanlon family, whose frustration at being displaced from their family home by the airfield is well vented. Kerr Logan (Game Of Thrones) plays Failey, local fisherman and boyfriend to Sally Quinn (Fiona O’Shaugnessy) who, along with her brother Barney (Gavin Drea), works on the Coyne’s farm. Charles Lawson (Coronation Street) plays the Parish doctor, Dr Black.

Barry Devlin, writer, says: “I’m really excited about the casting. I wrote the series around Hattie Morahan because she somehow manages to combine a magical serenity with a capacity to be daft as a brush: and Rose, our heroine, combines those two qualities in spades. Watching Hattie work that magic on screen is a true pleasure. Owen McDonnell, Eileen O’Higgins, Aaron Staton lead a cast who excite me more every time I see them.”

My Mother And Other Strangers is a co-production between BBC and Northern Ireland Screen. Adrian Shergold (Mad Dogs) will direct.