As the Sunday night drama Blackshore continues, RTÉ Entertainment's John Byrne meets Stanley Townsend, who plays the successful-but-shady Bill McGuire.
There’s a 'been there, done that, I’m going to enjoy myself’ buzz off Stanley Townsend that couldn’t but put a smile on your face. He’s clearly comfortable in his skin - and having fun in his latest role.
I’m on the set of Blackshore, the RTÉ drama starring Lisa Dwan as DI Fia Lucey, a Garda detective who returns to her home town of Blackwater. There she becomes involved in a missing person case, which is linked to her traumatic past and the town's dark history.
Townsend - whose lengthy CV ranges from Ballykissangel to Glenroe, In the Name of the Father to Call the Midwife - plays McGuire, the town’s self-made patriarch. A successful business man, he’s helped to reinvent the town and create much-needed employment. He’s also looks like a guy whose path you wouldn’t want to cross.
Taking a break from filming, Townsend is as happy to talk about his latest role as play him. Bill, you'd imagine, is the kind of meaty role every actor loves to play. There’s a whiff of cordite when he’s on-screen.
Over to you, Stanley.
"He’s done well, you know? He set up a whiskey business, he’s got a distillery and it’s done very well. So he’s an entrepreneur, he’s a businessman. He’s the front of it, really. The front man. His wife Deirdre, she kind of runs it."
When Blackwater was in a bit of a jocker 20 years ago, McGuire revived it with a major international investment into his distillery. So he’s not happy about the fact that Fia’s presence and the Garda investigation are attracting nosey media hacks to the town - as far as he’s concerned, it's bad for business and for Blackwater in general.
"There was a great tragedy 23, 24 years ago, and around that time he was determined he was going to do something," Townsend explains. "The town was on its knees. Empty and nothing happening. As far as he’s concerned he’s pulled it up out of the muck. And it is thriving now.
"It’s doing well on the back of the whiskey and the annual festival he’s built around it. The Japanese are coming now and it’s flying, really."
Townsend may be playing someone who’s quite hard-nosed, but in real life he’s clearly someone who’s quite happy with his lot. Certainly, judging by the good vibes he spreads - not just about the show and the story it’s telling - but about the cast he gets to work with on a daily basis, he's not the type who'd clear a pub with a cold stare.
"It’s brilliant," he smiles, before reflecting on his return to Ireland. His grin broadens as he adds: "Coming home as well." Based in London these days - that’s where the work is, really - what’s seldom is quite wonderful for him. Though he is starting to notice that faces are getting fresher.
"Every time you enter a cast you realise you’re that bit further up the age," admits the now 62-year-old. "I seem to be one of the most senior players. There’s loads of really young talent in this, which is fantastic. If slightly chastening.
"‘Okay, I’m the senior player again today.’ They’re all lively and seem to know what they’re doing - much more than I do. But no, it’s good. It’s a really wonderful experience."
As well as the draw of home - Townsend grew up in the lovely north Dublin coastal town of Howth - the script for Blackshore was also a massive magnet.
Considering the many great productions on stage, TV and the big screen that he’s been involved with, it’s a credit to the writers of Blackshore that Townsend signed up pretty much so he could find the answers to the mysteries at the heart of the series.
"The thing that drew me was I wanted to know . . . I only got the first four episodes and I was desperate to know what happens in five and six," he says, eyebrows raised as a reflection of his curiosity. "That’s what you’re looking for, something that’ll grab you and then it has a real social purpose.
"It’s a patriarchy, you know? This little town is a patriarchy and now, in a dressing its past, the women are trying to shake that up and say, ‘Listen, we need to acknowledge what’s been happening in our country and we need to acknowledge what’s been happening in our community. It’s only by doing that can we go forward."
As well as solving a mystery or two, the most interesting sidebar on the show is whether or not Bill McGuire is implicated in awfulness, or just a guy who wants to get stuff done. Wanting to be successful and being determined to maintain that status, how far would he go to serve his own purposes?
Naturally, Stanley Townsend’s not one for telling.
"I suppose I could be described as an antagonist," he offers. "Nobody ever thinks of themselves as a bad guy, so Bill McGuire looks at himself in the mirror every morning, and he’s a good guy. Because he’s in the middle of his story - and everything he’s achieved for the town.
"And he’s very clever, Bill, because he helps people. With money, with time, with effort, with energy. And he gathers the community to him because everybody owes Bill. So he’s done a lot of good things - maybe he’s done some bad things as well.
"But the balance, Bill reckons, is well on the good side."
As ever, only time - and three more episodes of Blackshore - will reveal all about Bill . . .
Blackshore, Sunday night at 9.30pm on RTÉ One
