Niamh Algar on how her turf-cutting past helped her in Netflix film, The Wonder

After a short cinema run for The Wonder, the 19th-century Irish thriller will be released on Netflix 

Niamh Algar in The Wonder, coming to cinemas and Netflix.   

In an airport hanger outside Celbridge, Co Kildare, Niamh Algar is reflecting on the indignities of 19th-century female fashion. “I understand now why women used to pass out unpredictably,” says the Mullingar actress with a laugh. “The outfits are restraining. There’s a scene where I’m in the bog with my petticoat on, in my bonnet. I’m leading a donkey down the road. In the middle of the Wicklow Mountains. And you kind of go — this is what people did? You’re so exposed to the elements. Of course, I used to cut turf at the weekends. I felt like I was in training for this for years.” 

Algar has blazed a thoughtful trail across the large and small screen since her breakthrough role opposite Stephen Graham in Channel 4’s The Virtues in 2019. She’s worked with Ridley Scott on under-rated HBO sci-fi series Raised By Wolves. And she’s appeared opposite Jason Statham in hard-knuckle action romp Wrath of Man.