Lola Petticrew's other 'masterpiece' drama about the Troubles and where you can watch it if you loved Trespasses
It's based on a true story
Lola Petticrew is currently breaking hearts as Cushla Lavery in Channel 4 Trespasses, but they are also famous for their role in another acclaimed drama about the Troubles.
Trespasses is a brilliantly moving four-parter about a “forbidden love affair” set in Belfast in 1975. It’s the best drama you’ll watch all week, and deserves to win all the awards.
The doomed relationship between Catholic teacher Cushla and Protestant barrister Michael Agnew plays out against a bruised and battered landscape of war and violence.
While not based on a true story, it is set in a very real time and place. The Troubles was a period of violent conflict in Northern Ireland between the late 60s and 1998.
Before Trespasses, though, Lola Petticrew starred in another huge drama about the conflicted time in Northern Ireland’s history. Here’s everything you need to know about Say Nothing, and how you can watch it.
Why you should watch Say Nothing on Disney+
Before Channel 4 adapted Louise Kennedy’s novel Trespasses, Lola Petticrew had already starred in a highly-acclaimed drama about the Troubles.
Say Nothing is a nine-part original series. It’s described as “a gripping story of murder and memory spanning four tumultuous decades during The Troubles in Northern Ireland”.
Starting in 1971, Lola portrays Dolours Price, a Catholic bought up in a “segregated society” where “joining the IRA was the noblest thing a person could do”.
Dolours and her sister Marian Price wanted to join the war and “do what the boys were doing”. In a now infamous soundbite, Dolours says: “My whole family has suffered. I would die for a united Ireland.”
As well as the gripping plot, the cast of Say Nothing was insanely good. Alongside Lola Petticrew was Kathleen Is Here star Hazel Doupe, Shardlake’s Anthony Boyle, and Blue Lights’ Seamus O’Hara. Lola’s Trespasses co-star Martin McCann also appeared in the drama playing Wee Pat McClure.
Maxine Peake starred as the older Dolours Price, alongside a fantastic ensemble cast including Rory Kinnear, Frank Blake – who is also in Trespasses – Damien Molony, Ian McElhinney, and Mirren Mack.
Is Say Nothing based on a true story?
Say Nothing is based on a true story and, like Trespasses, it’s based on a book. In this case, the bestselling non-fiction book Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe.
The series centred around the “cruel” disappearance of Jean McConville. She was a single mother of 10 who was abducted from her home in 1972 and never seen alive again. In fact, the Belfast woman was murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Although rumoured to be an informant, no evidence ever supported it.
Dolours Price was a real person. She was a prominent figure in Irish republicanism and a former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Dolours and her sister Marian joined the IRA in the early 1970s and were among the first female members to hold full membership. She was involved in multiple high-profile operations. These included the 1973 Old Bailey car bombing in London, which injured over 200 people.
Over her life, Dolours was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. While there, she took part in a 205-day hunger strike. She was married to the Irish actor Stephen Rea from 1983 to 2003, and they had two sons together.
Sadly, Dolours Price died in 2013 after mixing prescribed sedative and anti-depressant medication.
As well as the book Say Nothing, and the TV adaptation of the same name, her life was documented in the 2019 documentary film I, Dolours.
Reviews of Say Nothing
Decider called the drama “FX’s latest must-watch masterpiece”. Collider gave it 10/10, while The Telegraph gave it 5/5.
Vanity Fair described the drama as “revolutionary”, while Indiewire called it “powerful”. Esquire said it was “gripping”, and Vulture used the word “epic”.
Lucy Mangan of The Guardian said: “Say Nothing could so easily be absolute chaos. It comprises at least seven narratives, jumping back and forth over four decades, with different actors playing older and younger versions of the same characters. But it has such a firm grasp of those characters – and of all its stories and the history against which they unfold – that you are never confused, only gripped throughout.”
She continued: “It’s a terrible story – many terrible stories – of a terrible time that is barely over. And it is a beautifully acted interrogation of the power of silence, the loyalty it proves and the burden it brings.”
The Telegraph called the series “a superb drama [that] captures both the tragedy – and the thrills – of the Troubles”.
Trespasses star Lola Petticrew won the Irish Film and Television Awards for their part in the drama. The series was also nominated for Primetime Emmy Award and multiple BAFTA TV awards.
It currently has a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Who is Lola Petticrew and what TV shows and films have they been in?
Belfast-born Lola Petticrew, 29, identifies as queer and non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns.
They’ve been on our screens since 2017, when they were just a teenager. Early roles included Carla in the Jack Davenport series Next of Kin, and Laura Farrell in Christopher Ecclestone drama Come Home.
After playing Lucy in the comedy My Left Nut, they appeared in the hard-hitting true crime drama Three Families, and played Jane Seymour in Anne Boleyn.
Between 2021 and 2022, Lola played their biggest role to date as James Nesbitt’s on-screen daughter Izzy Brannick in Bloodlands. Say Nothing and Trespasses follows, cementing them as one of Northern Ireland’s rising talents.
Lola’s next project is the series Furious. It follows a determined FBI agent who delves into a female killer’s history while partnering with a seasoned investigator to track her down.
The series is inspired by the 1987 film Black Widow. Lola Petticrew plays a serial killer on the run!
Trespasses star Lola Petticrew on the Troubles
Like their character in Trespasses, Lola Petticrew grew up Catholic and in Northern Ireland. However, the series looks at the Troubles in a different way to what the actor was taught.
Speaking to The Independent, Lola – who still lives in Belfast – said: “Typically we view that period of history through a very masculine lens, so to see it through this romance was really interesting. It’s such recent history and we’re only now picking apart the threads and finding all these angles to tell that story.”
Although Lola was born after the ceasefire, they admitted: “But it permeates every part of my life and every part of my being. I still don’t think there is enough talk about the intergenerational trauma after the conflict: more people died post-ceasefire by suicide than died during the entire war.”
Talking about the term the Troubles, Lola concluded: “It minimises what was a war in a way that suits the British government who want to see it as a little trouble across the pond in a place they don’t care about.”
