Coleraine-born Bronagh Waugh, who returns to our screens soon in the second series of crime thriller The Fall, tells Jenny Lee the personal reason why she is supporting this month's Macmillan coffee morning
WHAT'S it like being Jamie Dornan's wife? That's the question Bronagh Waugh has been asked many times since hugely popular BBC Two crime thriller The Fall hit our television screens last year.
In the Belfast-set series, which follows a PSNI investigation into a string of murders, Bronagh plays Sally-Ann Spector, the wife of serial killer Paul Spector (Dornan). "I get asked about Jamie all the time. He's a really nice guy and I'm really proud of him but it's just like working with any other actor," Bronagh says.
Former model Dornan is playing the lead in a much-anticipated screen adaptation of the steamy novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Will she be going to the premiere? "I'm sure we will all go and see it to support Jamie but I haven't read the books," the 31-year-old Northern Ireland actress admits. "I got to page 30 but it wasn't my cup of tea."
The Fall is rumoured to be returning to our screens early next month. So will Sally finally realise her husband is a murderer or will she be his next victim? "I'd have to kill you, Jenny, if I told you anything," Bronagh jokes. "We are totally under lock and key about it. All I can say is it's going to be fabulous."
The role of Sally couldn't be more different from loud, colourful, fiesty Cheryl Brady, whom she played in Hollyoaks. "I would consider going back for the right story," she says of a possible reprise of her part in the long-running Channel 4 soap. "Cheryl is off in Donegal living in this big castle with her prince. Maybe she could return some day with a clatter of kids, wearing designer outfits."
Bronagh has proved that there is life after soaps. "I always admired people like Sarah Lancashire and Suranne Jones. When I first left Hollyoaks offers were coming in for very similar characters. I had to be really wise and turn those down so I wasn't pigeon holed. The soap mould is difficult to break but now I've done my first big drama - long may it continue."
Bronagh, who says she would "love to be in Downton Abbey", says there's something special about being involved in a new, freshly written show. "Certainly with The Fall it felt like that - as if you were there at the birth of something brand new. It's very exciting."
She has had an international upbringing, spending much of her teenage years living in Thailand before moving back to Ireland and Britain. Fluent in Thai, she was a celebrity in the country, both as a soap star - she bagged a role which she was to play for three years after a casting director visited her high school - and a presenter on MTV Asia.
Bronagh regularly commutes between Belfast, London and Canada, where her dad is from, but she is proud of her Northern Ireland roots and enjoyed filming The Fall in Belfast. "It's just a fantastic time for Belfast with the success of The Fall and Games of Thrones - and all without a reference to The Troubles."
I caught up with her as she enjoyed a caramel and red velvet cupcake at London bakery Lola's Cupcakes while promoting Macmillan Cancer Support's World's Biggest Coffee Morning on September 26. It's a cause that is close to her heart. "So many people we know are affected by cancer. My little sister Katie has just got over cervical cancer.
"She had to go through three rounds of chemo and only just got the all clear last Thursday," she reveals about her 19-year-old sister.
Having had pre-cancerous cells in her cervix as a 19-year-old herself, it was Bronagh who effectively saved her sister's life by urging her to get checked because she was having similar symptoms to her, including severe pains and heavy and irregular bleeding. "It's only because of my personal experience I knew - only Katie had fully fledged cancer," she says. "I think a lot of people are naive, thinking that it won't happen to them. But cervical cancer affects people younger and younger and early detection is crucial."
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