Irish actress Elaine Cassidy has called for a positive response to age inequality in film and TV.
The 37-year-old, whose CV includes the lead on US TV drama Harper's Island, returns to the small screen tonight (Wed Jan 4) for the second season of Channel 4's cop drama No Offence.
That BAFTA-nominated show is headed up by three strong female leads, headed by Elaine Cassidy as no-nonsense cop Dinah Kowalska, and the Dublin-born star feels that writers need to start creating greater parts for older actors.
"Everyone's going on about [equality for] women, and I feel that's been heard and there's been a response to that - a positive one," she told Digital Spy. "It's happening in diversity of cultures [too], but it also needs to happen with age as well."
Cassidy noted that, from her experience, a lack of strong parts for women has "not been a problem in the last few years," whether she was working on stage or screen.
"My last three jobs - including No Offence and the one I'm currently doing - there's more women than men," she explained. "The play I did last year, there were seven women and four men - and that was written 30 years ago.
"From what I've experienced, that's not been a problem in the last few years. Everyone's making a fuss about it at the moment and I'm wondering if some of it's because they think they need to make a fuss about it."
As for the returning No Offence, Cassidy promises more of the same type of unflinching storylines as before, which included her character helping her boss to cover up the murder of her husband.
"The story from the first series isn't forgotten," Cassidy insists. "But I think what's clever about this second series is that you can come to it fresh . . . though it's richer for the viewer if you've watched the first one.
"You can always binge on the first one and then watch the second one!"
No Offence returns to Channel 4 tonight (Wed) at 9pm
