If we’ve fallen in love with Dame Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan’s tempestuous MobLand screen couple, Maeve and Conrad Harrigan, then the actors themselves are equally enthralled by their diabolical alter-egos. Separately, Helen and Pierce are two of the world’s most accomplished actors. Together, they have created a married couple who are both terrifying and completely unpredictable.
As season two unfolds, their on-screen marriage will be tested even further following an epic bloodbath at the dog track and Conrad’s medical diagnosis of dwindling impulse control.
“You find Conrad at this point as really a fractured man; a man dealing with his own mortality,” says former 007 star Pierce, 73. “Mortality is circling the wagons. His mind is beginning to be affected by something unknown that he doesn’t really want to deal with.
“And he has to deal with Maeve, who he loves. But he’s dealing with the fear of death, the fear of losing everything. There’s a frailty, and he’s venomous. He’s like a trapped spider in a bottle – trying to find his way out, and each way he turns there’s no exit.”
Maeve and Conrad are like an “old married couple”
The two actors relish bringing parts of themselves to the Harrigans: “I think the great thing about their relationship is that, yes, they can go out and commit murder and mayhem, but when they’re at home they’re like an old married couple,” says Oscar-winning actress Helen, 81.
“It’s like, ‘Why are you leaving your socks in the middle of the bedroom? I’m tripping over them. Put your bloody socks away!’ Or, ‘You know where your belt is. It’s been in the same spot for 20 years!’
© Paramount“So they are an absolutely mundane, ordinary, old-time married couple, and I think it’s the juxtapositioning of those two elements that people find so interesting.
“And when you see Maeve and Conrad at home – in the bedroom, in the bathroom, there’s always one of them on the loo and the other one’s shouting into the bedroom – they are so identifiable.”
Pierce agrees: “It’s so familiar. It’s almost like their own little play within this madcap world, and that’s what grounds it – very much the mum and dad at home trying to run this empire of violence and mayhem.
© Getty Images“And the violence and the mayhem and the subterfuge and the backstabbing [are part of] the mangled warped lives of these people who really have been joined at the hip since they were very young in the bogs and backwaters of Ireland and on the streets of Dublin.”
In real life, Pierce has been married for 26 years to journalist and filmmaker Keely Shaye Smith, having lost his first wife, Cassandra Harris, to ovarian cancer in 1991.
Pierce and Helen’s professional relationship
It’s no secret that Helen was dying to work with Pierce, and her dream came true in 2024 with both The Thursday Murder Club and MobLand, which is now about to start shooting season three
“I’ve been quoted as saying I would pay a lot of money to work with Pierce Brosnan for the rest of my life,” laughs Helen, who celebrates her 30th wedding anniversary with filmmaker Taylor Hackford, 81, next year – having famously dated Liam Neeson in the early Eighties.
© Giles Keyte/NetflixAnd if she and Pierce make the most perfect screen couple, then it’s surprising to learn they don’t see each other off-screen.
“Honestly, we don’t hang; we don’t go out for dinner,” she says.
“No, but we send the odd text: ‘How are you doing?’, ‘How’s the summer going?'” adds Pierce.
© Samir Hussein/^WireImageSitting down with the pair, their mutual appreciation is evident. “I recognised a fellow professional,” says Helen.
Pierce describes Helen as, “A fellow actor of the same cloth. We’re both from the theatre.”
Filming in London
They both enjoy filming in London. “London is a very interesting city in this moment in time, awash with money and criminality and crypto and dodgy, dodgy stuff going on – but I do love London,” says Helen.
She has been trying to sell her Hollywood Hills home for five years, while Pierce recently put his own $100m Malibu estate on the market.
© Luke Varley/Paramount+“We also film in the Cotswolds every other week,” adds Pierce.
“Yes, and Meghan and Harry will be our neighbours soon, won’t they?” teases Helen.
“It’s lovely, the thought of Meghan, Harry, and Maeve and Conrad at a cocktail party together.”
“Oh dear! Bring it on,” smiles Pierce.
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