The IFTA winning shows to add to your watch list

Kin

Kin was one of the big winners at the 2024 IFTA awards taking home the gold for Best Drama, Lead Actress in a Drama for Clare Dunne, Supporting Actress in a Drama for Maria Doyle Kennedy, Best Director Drama for Kate Dolan, and Best Script Drama for Peter McKenna. Set to land on Netflix next month, the RTÉ drama is centred on the Kinsellas, a fictional Dublin family embroiled in gangland war, and stars Aidan Gillen and Ciarán Hinds as rival gang leaders Frank Kinsella and Eamon Cunningham.

The Sixth Commandment 

Cork man Éanna Hardwicke picked up the award for Actor in a Leading Role – Drama for his chilling performance in The Sixth Commandment. A four-part British true crime television drama series, it’s explores the deaths of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin in the village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, and the extraordinary events that unfolded over the following years. Hardwicke plays charismatic student Ben Field whose meeting of an inspirational teacher (played by Timothy Spall) set the stage for one of the most complex and confounding criminal cases in recent memory.

Blue Lights

The Belfast-based police drama, co-created and written by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, launched to more than seven million viewers last year. It follows three probationary PSNI officers assigned to the fictional Blackthorn Station in Belfast. Facing criminal gangs and divided communities, they don’t know who to trust and the pressure is immense. The odds are, they won’t all make it. Nabbing the IFTA for Actor in a Supporting Role – Drama, Richard Dormer said he was “honoured” to receive the award. “This [award] is really for the producers and writers of a beautiful show. I am just so proud to be part of it and I’m proud to be part of such a beautiful bunch of people.” The highly anticipated second series premiered on BBC One just last week.

Obituary

Rising Star went to Siobhán Cullen, who was commended for her roles in both Obituary and The Dry. A darkly comic RTÉ series Obituary, Cullen said she’d never read a script like it, telling IMAGE.ie she was impressed by how “unique and fresh” it was. In it, Cullen plays an obituarist who, when her editor informs her that she will be paid per article, begins murdering people to avoid going broke. The Irish actor is in high demand these days with her new series, Bodkin, also landing on Netflix early next month. In it, Cullen stars alongside Will Forte and Robyn Cara as a motley crew of podcasters investigating the nefarious goings-on that swirl beneath the seemingly idyllic veneer of the titular small town in Ireland, where several mysterious disappearances occurred 25 years ago. 

The Dry 

Another Irish series starring Siobhán Cullen, The Dry follows Shiv Sheridan who returns to Dublin after years of partying in London. Trying to stay sober, her family are less than supportive of her sobriety and the usual chaos ensues. Speaking to IMAGE about the series last year, Nancy Harris, the award-winning Irish playwright and screenwriter who created the show, described the show as “very personal” to her. “The whole project was six years in development – I pitched it in 2016. I had been working with Element Pictures and had a strong relationship with them, particularly Emma Norton, the producer, so I pitched the idea to them and they were just amazing … they never gave up on it.”

Imagery courtesy of RTÉ