Josh Zetumer
You’re right that this jumping back and forth between characters who are young and idealistic and characters who are older and more disillusioned is something that we’ve seen in television shows before. You could compare it to a show like True Detective or something like that, using the interviews to inform the story. I was aware that it had been used before, but it felt so organic to the story, and the friction that it created immediately gave the story another level.
From the very beginning, the first episode ends with Dolours saying, “I believed in all these things about the IRA, and ultimately it was all lies.” You need that friction in order to tell the story of someone who’s young and idealistic. Without that friction, it could have felt like you were glorifying what the IRA was doing. But instead, you’re with the sense that this idealism ultimately does not end well. You know that it doesn’t end well, both because the series starts with the abduction of Jean McConville, but also because of your narrators.
This spine of going from idealism to disillusionment was always the key for me. Very early on, I knew it would be primarily the story of Dolours: she would be the gravitational center, and we were going to follow her from idealism to disillusionment. When it comes to the meta conceit of Stephen Rea, that was a sort of icing; in episode seven, we see her start the romance with Rea.
Very early on, I knew it would be primarily the story of Dolours Price: she would be the gravitational center.
I was attracted to the idea of star quality, more than anything, because Dolours was somebody who moved through her life feeling like a star from a very early age, frankly. As a Republican — she talked about this in interviews — she felt like she was part of an elite. She had a sort of secret knowledge that the rest of the kids…
Auteur: Josh Zetumer
