Interview with Sarah Greene

Who is Cassie?
Cassie is the partner of Detective Rob. She's quite a young detective for her ranking, and has risen pretty quickly because of a stint in undercover. She's determined and headstrong and is also a very manipulative person, which is kind of integral to going undercover. It's the toughest acting job you'll do. Cassie knows who she is and has suffered a huge trauma in her past. So, there's two sides of her personality and she is fighting with her darker side as the story evolves.

I had a great time playing her, it was a gift as a part, one which I think is pretty interesting.

What story is Dublin Murders telling?
It's a psychological thriller following these two detectives on the case of the murders of a young ballerina and a young woman roughly around the same area in Ireland. They need to figure out if the cases are connected. At the same time, it follows Rob and Cassie running away from their past - but their past inevitably catches up with them. It looks at how that affects them, their relationship and their cases.

What is Cassie and Rob’s relationship as we begin the?
They're thick as thieves. They’re really good partners who finish each other’s sentences. But I think they have a shared guilt of surviving. They both survived traumas in their pasts and that binds them together. They're each other's keeper of secrets and I think it might not be the healthiest of relationships between the two of them.

What did you make of the scripts when you received them?
The fear is always that it's going to be another procedural. Procedurals are interesting to watch, but they’re not as interesting to play because there isn’t an opportunity to delve into any backstories. You're instead supporting the story week by week. Whereas, Dublin Murders follows two murders for the entire series, and therefore it gives us lots of space to delve into who the detectives are. I read the first two episodes and I couldn't stop reading. I just wanted to know more. I was really gunning for the part.

I also think Sarah Phelps is an incredible writer. I went on to read the books, and the way she's married the first two books and has weaved them together is incredible, she's a genius. Her writing for every character is so well formed, everyone has their own voice. Sometimes in a procedural it doesn't really matter which character says what. But in this, every single person has their own rhythms and the characters leap off the page. It meant we didn't have to do much work other than just tell her truth, which was a joy. It makes my job very easy when the writing is that good.

Does Dublin Murders depict an Ireland that you recognise, as an Irish woman?
Definitely. It's set in 2006, which was the height of the Celtic Tiger, when there were estates being built and motorways being put in. We saw how corrupt that all became and now we're witnessing the aftermath of all of that. Sarah found an Irish voice and Saul [Dibb - Director] and the producers pretty much cast an entirely Irish cast, which typically never happens.

The series shines a spotlight on some incredible talent that we haven’t seen before in the UK. Like Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, who’s just mind-blowingly good, and Moe Dunford and Leah McNamara, who are also amazing talents. Sarah and Saul and the producers all felt very strongly about not casting people who were putting on an accent. You do have a different sensibility to the role coming from an Irish background. Moe Dunford’s character, for example, Sam is described as country boy - I would say only Moe could play that part. He's such a country bumpkin and I think his description in the script said, 'the type of man who could birth calves in force nine gales'. It's so perfect and very Sarah Phelps.

To people who don’t know what the time of the Celtic Tiger economy was, what was Ireland like?
Well, what you could see was a lot of wealth and a lot of builders borrowing huge amounts of money off the banks. People were buying two, three and four houses to be sold on and rented out. Then the money ran out. To this day you see a lot of what we call ghost estates around Ireland, which have not been finished. It was an absolute shitshow and we're still recovering from it.

Is Dublin Murders primarily an Irish story?
I think it's a universal story really. We have all suffered at the hands of the banks and the builders. Ireland more so than most maybe.

Has Ireland been romanticised in some storytelling do you think?
I would say partly yes, especially for an American audience. I remember being in Boston when I was 17 and someone asked me if we had running water in Ireland. This is not that Ireland. Saul Dibb comes from a documentary-making background and he brought what he loves, which is realism. Every prop we used was actually workable, which is handy as actors, but it also gives you some idea of the level of realism we were going for.

Related Programme Information

• Episode one