The Young Offenders are back!
Yes after a little bit of a break away, well almost five years, the show is returning to BBC One this week.
We caught up with Hilary Rose who plays the long-suffering Mairead MacSweeney, mother to Conor and adopted mam to Jock…
Hi Hilary! Let’s chat Young Offenders. What was it like getting back into the character of Mairead?
Once I get into a certain pair of jeans and a certain fleece and a pair of trainers, I’m set! It’s Mairead’s uniform. It’s that casual working mam look but they’re not nice clothes! It’s definitely not a nice fleece. They’re pretty rubbish-looking. But as soon as I put that on, Mairead has arrived.
As a mother yourself, do you ever feel like taking Mairead away on holidays away from Conor and Jock?
I think Mairead is always trying to get away from those characters. She’s always trying to find her peace, like any mother. But whether she successfully does that or not is another story!
The Young Offenders hasn’t been on air since 2019, but there was such excitement for the show to return. How does it feel to know there’s still such an appetite for the show?
It’s been nine years since we did the film and just to have that fanbase and that loyalty means an awful lot. The last time we filmed was 2019 and then we got to come back to it last year. It was really brilliant because you get to be with your friends again. Some people grew up with The Young Offenders, that was their iconic TV show! To have that legacy is so interesting, it’s not something you can plan for.
We love Alex Murphy and Chris Walley, but they’re a bit older than the cheeky characters they play. How long do you think it’ll be before they can’t pull off the dodgy fades and dodgier tracksuits?
As long as they want to do it! Alex always feels like his character when he gets his head shaved. He steps back into it. How long is a piece of string? These stories can go on forever. Even this season we explored loads of different aspects of the characters. And I still feel like there’s more we can do.
Pic: Miki Barlok
The show is absolutely gas! But it also has really sweet moments. Is that something that appealed to you?
It’s one of the things about the character of Mairead that appealed to me. She has so many layers, she’s not the typical female role you would have seen on Irish screens for a really long time. That massively interested me as well. I just feel like a lot of people can relate to her as well, not just as a mother, but as a woman trying to get by in the world. She’s really well written character and that’s what really spoke to me.
When you think back to when The Young Offenders film came out to now, the uptake in Irish made movies and telly has shot up exponentially. What does that feel like for you as an actor?
It’s incredible. The amount of talent that comes out of Ireland is amazing. I mean just look at Cillian Murphy alone and what he has done this year. Cillian has been in the game for a long time. So it’s so well deserved! It felt like the pride of the nation was on Cillian when he won the Oscar. When somebody does something like that it opens doors for others. I think with The Young Offenders, it feels like we opened a door to make a TV show outside of Dublin. That’s what it’s always felt like. We were able to show different parts of the country. Equally it could have been made in Dublin. The writing could be dropped in any part of Ireland and it would have worked. But I think it is a part of what we achieved with Young Offenders.
It is so Irish, so Cork! But it’s been shown around the world. Is that mad to think?
It travels really well! That is always quite surprising. I always think when I go to the UK I am anonymous and I am absolutely not! It’s really interesting and it showcases Ireland in a different way.
What can viewers expect from season four?
Personally, I am going to go out of my way and say it’s the best season yet. I had the most fun filming it. But what can we expect as an audience? Well, time has passed, but the world is still the same. It’s still The Young Offenders. It’s on BBC One, it’s a bigger show, but die-hard fans will walk right back in and know exactly what is going on. It’s really, really funny. I was watching it the other day and I found myself laughing out loud. And it’s not because I was thinking of what happened on set, but it’s because it’s so funny. I’m really, really enjoying it. I’m actually going to sit down every week, every Friday and watch it. When season two and three came out, my kids were really small so I was in bed at that point! I didn’t get a chance to watch it live but I will this time. I’m making a point of it!
Obviously, you’re children are too young to watch, but will you show it to them some day?
They’ll watch it when it’s age-appropriate. They are well aware of what we do, their friends talk to them in the schoolyard! But when they’re old enough, yes.
Chris Walley said before that people shout quotes at him from the show. Do you ever get shouted at?
Yes! Just this morning I was down randomly in Mitchellstown Caves and a school tour came in. Of course, it did. Full of teenagers! I had to take class photos with them! They shouted random lines from the TV series at me. Sometimes I don’t even remember what they’re talking about. They have some quote or sing some song and I don’t remember! But it’s lovely. We all appreciate it.
We won’t say mam, but are you the big sister of the cast?
I think when they were younger there was a bit of a mam vibe, because I was literally playing their mam! But now we’re all good mates at this stage. An older sister? Not really. They don’t need to be mothered anymore. If they want to come to me about something, they can. Be they’re my friends.
Outside of The Young Offenders, you have your podcast, Live Wild, which is coming back soon, tell us about that.
Season two! My finger is on the trigger, it’s about to come out. I’m so excited. And season three is almost finished. I’m going to release a flurry of them back to back. It’s a total passion project. I love doing it, I love chatting to people, I love the topics we get to talk about. It’s culture, it’s society, it’s spirituality. It’s like 50 per cent celebrities and 50 per cent experts in a field. I love chatting to people, especially in a podcast form. I don’t edit it either. It’s just an hour of a chat and you can really get into things. I’ve done so much press over the years and you might get 10 minutes, you don’t get the full sense of who people are in that time period.
The Young Offenders returns on BBC One Fridays at 9:30pm
