Ciarán Hinds stars as post-grieving father in new Dublin-based comedy-drama The Dry

From the producers of Normal People, RTÉ’s The Dry follows Shiv Sheridan, the eldest daughter of Hinds’ character, Tom, as she returns to Ireland from London for her grandmother’s wake.

With a strong Irish cast, The Dry’s protagonist, Shiv, is also played by a Belfast native, Roisin Gallagher, who takes on her first big TV role.

The story further focuses on how the family has dealt — or not dealt — with the sudden death of brother and son Carl years earlier.

The NI actor described his new role as “a straightforward guy, but he has his own problems”.

“They lost a child, he and his wife, six or seven years ago. They both suffered terribly, but he [Tom] has managed to pull himself out of the grief,” Hinds explained.

“The problem is his wife is still stuck there. Tom is kind of worn out now trying to raise her back up, back into life sometimes. That is why he's having an open relationship with his acupuncturist.”

The Dry was shot in Dublin and Hinds noted that it was his first time filming in Ireland since 2009.

“I’ve done theatre and I know that the industry here has been building up very strongly, north and south,” he said.

“Weirdly, a lot of the work you do as a film actor is about going away. You go away to a location — and I’ve been all over the place.

“But for some reason, even though my home isn’t in Dublin, I felt like I was coming home to work on this.”

The 70-year-old has also since filmed in Donegal for the upcoming movie In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, which is due to be released later this year and will see him star alongside Ballymena A-lister Liam Neeson.

Hinds said he was attracted to work on The Dry as he knew the show’s director, Paddy Breathnach, and added that the writing by Nancy Harris “was fantastic”.

“There’s so much energy in it. There’s a delicate tone that we have to achieve between the humour and the truth and the issues, but the balance is perfect.”

His character meets his love interest during a Tai Chi class, involving yoga-style exercises that the Belfast native said he was somewhat familiar with beforehand.

“I do remember, about 40 years ago — in fact, I think it was the day the Pope came to Ireland, in 1980 — in St Stephen’s Green, early in the morning, taking some Tai Chi lessons from somebody who knew how to do it,” he said.

“But I think we had been up all night and we didn’t quite know what we were doing. So we were just having fun in St Stephen’s Green, pretending that we understood, and were very spiritually aware with the arrival of the Pope.”

The Dry was first released on RTÉ and the British television app BritBox, but will be available to stream on ITVX from March 23.