This week's episode of Kin sees Brendan Kinsella causing more chaos. The show's writer Peter McKenna and actor Francis Magee - who plays Kinsella - discuss his gangland return.
Brendan 'Bren' Kinsella was first spotted in a short but explosive prison scene towards the tail end of season one on Kin and has since received early release from his sentence.
Father to Michael and Jimmy and brother to Frank and Birdy, Bren's return spells only fresh disaster and reawakened trauma for all in his wake.
Kin writer Peter McKenna acknowledges that Bren will have a major impact on the rest of season two.
"He is really like the monster out of the closet," he says. "He's this guy who has been locked up. And now he's back in the middle of it. And what it really gives us is a character that is unlike any external body in a show."
"He changes everything," McKenna adds. "He's within the family. He's inside the family. All the people who had alliances and allegiances and enemies, that's all shaken up or in the air and that's all changed.
"Suddenly, people who are at each other's throats are joined together against him, and other people who had very close relationships, they've been kind of severed by Bren's presence. He's a charming, bullying sociopath."
Despite having just one short scene in the initial season of the show, Bren has cast a huge shadow over the arcs and characters within Kin. Peter McKenna reckons that the recognisability of Francis Magee in the role has played in his favour.
"Sometimes when an actor is more well known, you can't see beyond the actor to the character, but with Bren and with Francis, they're almost fused together - that you believe Francis is Bren - and that’s something really, really powerful, and it adds so much to the story."
Irish actor Magee (whose CV includes Layer Cake and Game of Thrones) was attracted to the show based on Peter McKenna's script alone and is excited for the world to see more of Bren, as "the audience met Bren only very briefly" in season one.
Despite years as an acclaimed actor, Francis was anxious about having a much more sizable role in this season and wanted "to do justice to such a good show, such a good piece of writing".
"To be in the company of such esteemed fellow cast members, and not just the cast members. Everybody on this production has worked so hard and cares for the show and is so conscientious . . . you want to do a good job for all of them."
Episode 4 of Kin airs on RTÉ One & RTÉ Player, Easter Sunday at 9.30pm
