Screenwriter Steven Knight, best known for creating Peaky Blinders, is returning to family power struggles with his latest drama, House of Guinness. The series, launching on Netflix this Thursday, tells the story of Ireland’s most famous brewing dynasty at a moment of crisis.
The drama begins with the death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, leaving his four children — each hiding dark secrets — to fight for control of the family business.
Knight says the inspiration came from researching the real Guinness family. “It was immediate that I realised this is an incredible drama and story,” he explains, adding that many of the historical events were “so amazing and unexpected you wouldn’t make them up yourself.”
While rooted in real history, the show blends fact and fiction. One imagined figure is brewery foreman Sean Rafferty, played by Happy Valley star James Norton. The actor describes Rafferty as “an amalgamation of lots of different people” and says he was captivated after reading the first four scripts in one sitting.
Norton admits his biggest challenge was mastering the Irish accent, especially while working alongside a largely Irish cast. “I was terrified on the first day,” he says. His first scene — a violent clash with disloyal workers — helped him find his rhythm.
Irish actress Danielle Galligan plays Lady Olivia, an aristocrat who marries into the Guinness family and was once the richest woman in Britain and Ireland after the monarch. Galligan says portraying her was a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience: “She had everything, yet still seemed unfulfilled.”
The cast also includes Niamh McCormack as a member of the Fenian Brotherhood and Game of Thrones star Jack Gleeson, returning to screens as Byron Hedges. Both say they feel pride in representing Irish stories on a global stage, though acknowledge the pressure of how audiences at home may react.
Comparisons with Succession, The Crown, and Peaky Blinders have already surfaced. Norton welcomes the parallels: “To be in the same breath as those dynasty shows is great.” Knight, however, insists the series stands on its own. “If you worry what people are going to think, you can’t really do anything,” he says.
Knight, who has just finished the script for the upcoming Peaky Blinders film The Immortal Man and is also writing the next James Bond movie, believes House of Guinness has the same “energy, humour and swagger” as his past work.
With Netflix backing and a cast mixing established names with rising Irish talent, Knight hopes his latest dynasty saga will pour as deeply into popular culture as his Birmingham gangsters once did.
Source: BBC
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.