As the past rushes up to corner Shelly Mohan like a searchlight in a prison yard, things are about to get even more dangerous for the homemaker with a dark secret in new crime drama Clean Sweep.
We've already seen Shelly, played by Monaghan star Charlene McKenna, go to drastic and murderous extremes to protect herself as she literally tries to get away with murder - but soon she’s going to have a whole new world of pain to deal with.
It comes in the tenacious form of a Scotland Yard detective who is a driven woman and will stop at nothing to solve the cold case that only Shelly can unlock.
Meet DCI ("That’s higher than a DI") Crichett.
She’s played by Galway actress Cathy Belton and speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, she says, "DCI Crichett has been on this case for a long time. She lost her informer all those years ago and it’s become her lifelong mission to find and bring to justice the people who murdered him and track down Shelly from her previous life.
"In Clean Sweep we know that Shelly has murdered someone and now the past is back to bite her and to make matters worse, DCI Crichett is willing to risk everything to finish the job. It’s become an obsession for her."
Crichett arrives in episode three of the series and along with her posh boy sidekick Eames, she asserts herself in the suburban community where Shelly, who just happens to be married to a detective herself, is trying to hide in plain sight.
"Crichett is the moral centre of the show," says Cathy, a perennially busy actress, who is currently finishing a run of Mark Mark O'Rowe's new production of Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Abbey Theatre.
"She appears and says, `no, you can’t escape the past.’ You have to be brought to justice. I don’t want to say too much because there are twists and turns. There is police corruption involved as well, but DCI Crichett is prepared to sacrifice everything."
Renmore-born Belton has had a long and varied career, appearing in movies such as Intermission, Philomena, The Delinquent Season (also by O'Rowe), and TV dramas such as Red Rock.
But you can tell she really relished playing Crichett, the gumshoe who will not quit.
"It’s an amazing character to play, it really is," she says. "She has a wonderful sidekick as well, a public school educated young man called Eames, who is her DI, and there is a wonderful, quirky relationship between the two of them. She’s been there, done that . . . she’s like Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect.
"It was just a joy to play such a well-formed character and it’s a big surprise once she appears. Clean Sweep’s writer Gary Tieche has a great dry, black sense of humour and Crichett’s bounce-off with Eames will hopefully come across. It’s that lethal combination of a domestic drama with a thriller and a police drama as well."
Asked if she reckons TV’s on-going golden age of long, nuanced story arcs means that the small screen is beating cinema into second place, Belton is in two minds.
"I love the long unravelling of storylines and that’s really exciting to play as an actor," she says. "I think there is a golden age for TV but then there is nothing like being in the cinema with an audience and collectively transcending together looking at a movie.
"Both are vital. I think as well that after being locked down for so long it’s lovely to be back in the cinemas again. It’s lovely to be back in theatre again and have audiences in front of you.
"But whatever the medium is, it’s about writing, writing, writing. If it’s a flawed, well-written, emotionally complex character, I’m all in."
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Clean Sweep continues this Sunday on RTÉ One at 9.30pm or watch all six episodes now on the RTÉ Player.
