The Young Offenders cast on season four: 'It’s all about love this season'
Young Offenders cast members Hilary Rose, Dominic MacHale, Alex Murphy, Jennifer Barry and Shane Casey at the Montenotte Hotel, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan
Eight years on since The Young Offenders first made their way into our lives, the Cork-based comedy series is preparing to launch its fourth season in a prime-time slot on BBC One.
Created by Peter Foott, who is married to actress Hilary Rose, the successful franchise began with the 2016 film of the same name. In 2018, it became the sitcom that is now known and loved across Ireland and further afield.
Ahead of season four, some of the cast — Alex Murphy (Conor MacSweeney), Dominic McHale (Sergeant Healy), Hilary Rose (Mairéad MacSweeney), Jennifer Barry (Siobhán Walsh) and Shane Casey (Billy Murphy) — came together to look back on their favourite memories from filming and to reflect on the show’s success.
Conor, Jock, Mairead, Sergeant Healy, Billy Murphy, Siobhan, Linda Walsh and the rest of the show’s beloved characters will be back in action on BBC One from Friday, May 10 at 9.30pm.
I read [the script] and I was like, ‘This is fantastic.’ So, I went in with Peter [Foott, the creator] and we read some of the script together, we did a bit of improv. I had to kind of convince him that I was right for the role. I think he imagined the guard being a bit more from the lad’s world and I’m not from that world so I had to convince him.
The audition process — I just remember it so well. Sending in the five-minute video talking about yourself. That was the request. Looking back on it, it was obviously just to see if people could improvise or have any charisma because five minutes is a long time to just talk.
Then I went in for the second round of auditions and that’s where I met Chris [Walley] and that’s where we both were told we got the parts. It was exciting but we didn’t know what it was. There was no plan for what it would be — or a script even. The next few months were very exciting. Every day was such a learning experience. I’d never been on a film set before.
I remember vividly when Chris and Alex had both been cast and Peter brought us together in a small GAA hall in Ballincollig to do a bit of improv together. I was like, Jesus I can’t believe these guys only met about a week ago and second of all… they’re very effective at winding me up.
There’s nothing more fun.
When we finished the improv, I came out afterwards going, ‘Why am I agitated?’
I remember we did improv for season one in the old Marymount. We did improv for about an hour and a half, and I just remember running around chasing ye with a bottle of piss.
To this day, we still don’t know if that was your piss or was it orange dilute.
I think it was his piss.
Well, was it warm? Ye will never know. I’m never going to divulge that.
And then that’s when Jen came into the picture.
I remember the day that they told you guys that ye got the part.
I remember it too. I suppose it was a bit different in the sense that it had already been such a success and it was on Netflix, and I’d watched it.
I saw this thing on Facebook, and I just put up an audition tape not thinking anything.
I was on holidays at the time, so I did a Skype call with Peter and then when I came back, I had a second audition and that’s where I met Chris and Alex. We did a bit of improv with Peter directing us and I remember him stopping us and being like, ‘Thanks very much for coming in.’ I thought, ‘Right that’s it. I didn’t get it’ and [the casting director] caught me outside and said, ‘Will you come back up? We just want to get your details for anything in the future.’ I walked in and there was a camera, and they were all there.
Peter was just like, ‘Congratulations, you got the role of Siobhán.’ I told him to f**k off because I was in so much shock.
There’s been so many [pinch-me moments.] For the film, I remember it was two weeks into filming and we went into the offices in Penrose Wharf. I can’t remember who, but they just showed us some clips of what we had shot the previous weeks.
To see it on a screen in that film aspect ratio, it was like, ‘Oh it’s a proper movie.’ I don’t know what I was expecting. Then when it came out, we saw it for the first time at the Galway Film Fleadh, that was magic.
Sometimes you forget — I forget anyway because I’ve been living with it for so long and there through every single phase of it, and I suppose I’ve had to separate family life from work life. It’s a different scenario to what you guys have going on. Sometimes I forget all that we’ve done and all that we’ve achieved as a group. It’s huge.
Not much comes out of Cork or Ireland that has reached that level of success.
That’s my biggest regret that I didn’t see it in Cork. I was in Dublin. I was painting railings outside the cinema when it was in the cinema and people were going in and out. That was surreal.
I remember Peter sitting me and Demi [Isaac Oviawe] down. It was quite a serious talk at the time, and I still remember it very vividly. He sat us down and he was like, ‘You both need to understand that your life is never going to be the same after this.’
When you’re 16 years old and you hear that, it can kind of throw you, I think. I actually think about that often because it’s so true and we didn’t realise it at the time.
I was working on building sites until the end of season one. You have to make your money. You have to fill your pockets and feel happy. Whatever you need to do.
It’s true for a lot of us, I think. You have your different routes. It’s all about being an actor and it’s one thing I didn’t expect when I was 16 but I wouldn’t change it for the world now. I’m happy out having a couple jobs. Tipping away. I’m living on College Road, like. It’s very normal.
I think there’s a distinction to be made as well. There’s your normal working life as whatever you’re doing and then there’s the career work and you have to build your normal working life up to this career. One has to facilitate the other.
I’m a mum of two kids so that’s my normal life and then a gig comes in and I go, ‘Oh yeah okay, now I have to switch into the actor’s life’ which is so vastly different. It’s about trying to find that balance in between.
You keep the working life alive to be able to pursue your dream.
I had the funniest exchange. I went to Brighton a couple of weeks ago. I flew into Gatwick, got the train to Brighton and was like cool, nobody is going to know me, I’ll have a nice little quiet weekend in Brighton.
I got on the train and there was this young guy and he’s like: ‘Oh my God, oh my God. It’s you init?’ And I [said]: ‘Who do you think I am?’. He was like, ‘The Young Offenders? All of my mates love it.’ He was just going off on one and he was this kid in his 20s — a complete Londoner.
Our reach is quite large here [in Ireland] but in the UK, it’s millions more and you forget that and then you go there, and you have interactions like that and it’s like, wow. We kind of live in our own little bubble.
Even the audience here is like that little bubble. It feels much more like a community when you’re in Cork and it’s happening because they can relate, but even for instance if you go to Dublin or London and you see that response — that’s so crazy.
It’s always strange outside of Ireland. You just don’t expect it, but [the fans] range between seven-year-olds and ninety-year-olds.
The show is not too bold for kids to enjoy — maybe — you decide as a parent. But then it’s just bold enough that 90-year-olds can go, 'It’s very cheeky' but it’s not too much for them.
I’ve had mothers bring over their kids who are just vertical. ‘Go on, say the line’ and they go: ‘F**k you Healy’. The child’s like, two.
I got chased around a waterpark in Tenerife.
Shane loves waterparks.
They’re my favourite thing, right. I should have a television show for the BBC or RTÉ where we just tour waterparks. Fundmyholiday.ie. I want to go to all of the water parks across America and I’ll rate them for you.
You proposed in a waterpark, didn’t you?
I think I did, yeah. In fairness, I proposed in a few places. All to the same person.
The water park sealed the deal.
She kept losing my engagement rings.
What happened in the water park in Tenerife?
I got chased in a waterpark in Tenerife by some young fella and it’s the strangest thing when you’re in your trunks.
‘Yeah I’ll give you a photograph, but can I get a t-shirt?’
Since filming the movie, it’s coming up to ten years. I was 17 when we made the film. I’m 26 now.
I was pregnant with Jake and Jake is going to be nine in November.
Personally, I’ve gotten so much from the show. So many friends, that’s the most important thing.
I got a mortgage which let’s be fair, probably wasn’t happening until this show came around and came back and back again. I got a house, I got a wife, I got a family and I think a big part of that is because of the show. I don’t know where I’d be if the show didn’t come around so, I owe Hilary and Peter an awful lot.
17 to now – there’s so many stages along the way of life. I’ve grown up with the show as a constant in my life from fifth year to now.
The entirety of our adult lives has been this show.
Wow. God, yeah. When you put it like that.
Which is just a dream. The highs are high, and the lows are — you know, because it’s feast or famine. Looking at us from the outside, it looks like God, you’re doing so well and you’re so busy and it’s like, yeah, we’re doing great, this is a dream but we’re not filming it every year.
It’s one of the highs right now. The show is coming out and we’re really excited.
Everybody was so sound to us when we were out filming and that’s a big part of it because we’re in housing estates, we’re in people’s houses and gardens and we’re climbing over walls.
It is amazing filming in your own city. All of those people have been really so kind to us, so I think we want to say thanks back to them.
For myself and Peter, it has become such a huge part of our lives that happened to coincide with when we started our family as well so it was like this massive expansion of our family and work — the busiest periods of our lives.
It’s been such a rollercoaster even for me personally. Such a roller coaster having gone through major, major life events throughout this process as well and ye have all supported me in many different ways through those events, so I really appreciate that.
It’s a great cast in that sense. There are definitely no egos.
We’re lucky.
We were forced to fast forward a few years this season.
It’s three years later. I’m just out of prison and I have to assimilate back into society and there are new dynamics going about. Everyone else has maybe grown up but Conor is stunted, and he needs to grow up.
At the start of this year, Conor is trying to be a straight-A citizen. That’s a lot of fun because he has no idea how to do that.
You get to see a bit more about Healy and where he comes from and why he is the way he is. Just from my own personal perspective, it’s great to have that kind of depth added into the character.
It was great to be able to, at one side, show a softer side to him and then a tougher side to him and maybe give the audience a bit more understanding as to his background. From my perspective, to play that was beautiful.
I think it’s all about love this season really, isn’t it? The love that the gang have for each other. Missing loves and lost loves and all of this kind of craic is going on as this kind of subtext so that’s all very gentle but it’s still more of the same. It’s great craic. Billy is the same. He hasn’t grown up.
There are always the tearjerkers thrown in for good measure. Just to keep us all grounded and then the redemption that comes with that.
Every single character has that moment. That moment of reality and that moment of depth which is what’s so nice about it.
It’s such a pleasure as an actor to work with a character over a prolonged period of time. You grow with them, but you get to explore them in so many different ways and you get to explore all the relationships and all the ways that they can be in the world. It’s an honour. It’s a joy to be able to do.
And it’s funny. It’s very funny. Dare I say the funniest?
I think it’s the best season we’ve done so far.
- Season Four of the Young Offenders airs at 9.30pm on BBC One on Friday, May 10
