Family affair

Author Marian Keyes reveals what inspired her BBC drama and how it felt to have a Hollywood star join the cast

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When Marian Keyes wrote her bestselling novels about The Walsh Sisters 30 years ago, she drew on her own traumatic experience of being an alcoholic. But she was still shocked to see the extent of her addiction laid bare in this new BBC series, which follows the chaotic lives of five female siblings in Ireland.

"I'm very comfortable with the fact that I’m a recovering alcoholic, but it was hard to see it expressed visually," Marian says. "I found it really shocking and even now I find it quite tearful because of the careless way I treated other people, the careless way I treated myself."

Caroline Menton plays Rachel, whose story is inspired by Marian's addictions, while Derry Girls star Louisa Harland plays her sister Anna, a PR executive who gets engaged after a whirlwind romance. Danielle Galligan plays divorced single mum Claire, Mairéad Tyers stars as older sister Helen, who suffers with depression, and actress and writer Stefanie Preissner plays Maggie, who is struggling to conceive a baby.

Carrie Crowley and Hollywood star Aidan Quinn round out the cast playing Mammy and Daddy Walsh respectively.

The scene that left Marian tearful is in episode one. A pallid Rachel is in bed unconscious, with her boyfriend Luke fearing she's dead. When she is finally revived, Rachel mocks Luke for thinking the worst.