RUPERT PENRY-JONES, DERVLA KIRWAN

I’ve seen things no mother should ever see! Dervla Kirwan's  children want for nothing, but her new series will show them how lucky they are

By Marianne Power
Last updated at 10:30 PM on 29th July 2011

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It can’t be easy for Dervla Kirwan. After a 25-year career, roles seem harder to come by these days for the former Ballykissangel star. Add the fact that her husband’s acting career is starting to eclipse her own, and you can see why she might feel slightly aggrieved.
‘I said to my friend Sarah Parish [star of Mistresses and Cutting It], let’s get T-shirts made that say, “I used to have a career but then I turned 40”. We joke about it but it’s a worrying reflection of how women are viewed in society.’
Meanwhile, her husband, ex-Spooks star Rupert Penry-Jones, 40, is enjoying huge success, most recently as a barrister in BBC legal drama Silk. Does it cause jealousy? ‘We keep our egos under wraps. I’m grateful my husband is working,’ insists Dervla, who celebrates her 40th birthday later this year.

Disheartening: Dervla is best known for a role from 15 years ago

Now Dervla and Sarah are looking at getting writers and actors together and starting their own projects. ‘We were very impressed by a series called Mad Dogs, in which Philip Glenister, Max Beesley, and John Simm did a wonderful drama about a reunion of old friends that goes badly wrong. Surely the girls can do something like that?’

 

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She has her eye on a crime drama she’s working on with Murphy’s Law writer Colin Bateman. She can’t say much other than, ‘Colin is doing all the writing and we’re doing a lot of begging with the BBC. Hopefully they’ll green-light it one day.’
Until then, Dervla satisfies herself with regular calls from her parents, who are her biggest fans. ‘They’ll ring up and say, “I saw you on the box tonight”, and I’ll say, “But I wasn’t on”. And then it turns out Bally kissangel is on some digital channel,’ she laughs.

Dervla with her actor husband Rupert Penry-Jones

It must be annoying to be best remembered for a role you played 15 years ago, but if so, Dervla isn’t letting on. Instead, she insists she’s too busy counting her blessings to moan. ‘I’m extremely grateful to have the life I have.’
That life, in the depths of rural Hampshire, is a remarkably low-key one for such a high-profile couple. ‘It grounds us and unites us,’ says Dervla. ‘Kids are the best thing I’ve ever done. We’re very into family. We love acting but when it spills over into the whole celebrity thing it makes us very uncomfortable. It just doesn’t suit us.’ She says their routine, and that of their children – Florence, seven, and Peter, five – couldn’t be more ordinary. ‘We’re just like anyone else, wondering how to entertain the kids for eight weeks over the summer holidays.’
However, she’s about to put their policy of shielding their children from the world of showbusiness on hold. For her new ITV series Born To Shine – in which talented youngsters teach celebrities including broadcaster Jennie Bond and actor Joe Swash a new skill – Dervla spent three days in Liberia, West Africa, witnessing the work of charity Save The Children, funding vital clinics and vaccination programmes.

Dervla satisfies herself with regular calls from her parents, who are her biggest fans

The series will feature her reports from the poverty-stricken country and culminates in a fundraising grand finale. Dervla plans to take her children along to show them first-hand how privileged their lives are. I’m still trying to get my children to share and to not pick fights – you couldn’t possibly explain to them why some people have so much and others have so little. I think in this case it might be important for them to come along.’
One gets the impression Dervla Kirwan is not the kind of woman who is often lost for words. But today she is faltering. The trip to Africa has had a profound effect on her, and now it’s her job to tell the world what she’s seen. But it’s a tall order. ‘You imagine these things, but to actually experience it… it’s very hard to put into words. I haven’t really spoken about it since I got back,’ says Dervla. ‘It’s hard not to just collapse emotionally.
‘Of course, Rupert has asked, but sometimes you just can’t… All I’ve said is, “Honey, it was very tough and I can’t really talk about it.”’ Dervla warns that some of the footage, in which she discovers children are dying for lack of a simple net that can prevent malaria, for example, will be harrowing. ‘On the day we arrived, a young boy had just been brought in to the clinic from a village more than three hours’ drive away. He’d contracted the disease and his parents had paid more than a month’s salary to hire a motorcycle to get him to the clinic.
‘When he arrived, he was very sick. The doctors gave him a blood transfusion and they thought he was getting better, but three hours later we came back and he’d just died. He was only 19 months old. ‘The boy’s mother said, “I don’t want to have any more children because I can’t cope with this grief.” She’d already lost another child.
‘She was only 29 but she looked 50. These people had survived the civil war, they were living in a village with no electricity, no water, no sewage system… and now this. I knew it was going to be a very challenging trip, but nothing prepares you for that. It never leaves you.
‘As we left Liberia, a wonderful healthcare worker in the clinic was helping a woman give birth. She told me they were going to call the baby Dervla. Then she said, “Whatever you do, don’t forget about us. Go away and tell people about our plight.”’
Born To Shine, ITV1, Sundays, 8pm. Visit www.savethechildren.org.uk


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