This was worth waiting for

MARION MCMULLEN DISCOVERS BESTSELLING IRISH WRITER MARIAN KEYES IS THRILLED TO SEE HER TALES OF FIVE DUBLIN SISTERS FINALLY ON TV AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

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The celebrated Irish author and global bestseller says: "The first time Rachel's Holiday was optioned was 27 years ago, and Titanic had just come out, and it was a big US studio involved. Kate Winslet was in the news a lot at the time and she was the person they wanted because she was so current.

ton), Maggie (Stefanie Preissner), Claire (Danielle Galligan) and Helen (Máiréad Tyers) as they navigate the peaks and troughs of their 20s and 30s.

Marian says: “I am so thrilled with the cast. It feels to me like this was worth waiting for. Everyone is brilliant.

“I cannot put words on it. It’s so weird to think that these people that came from my head are now embodied by actual humans. Seeing the filming, I felt so emotional, and so has my husband, because the actors that are playing the sisters are so fully realised. Everything from their accents to the clothes they wear to their body language is unique.

"It's a strange and overwhelmingly wonderful feeling. It's just lovely. It is like magic. The words were in my head, and now they are actual people. It's mad and gorgeous.”

The BBC1 drama offers a sisterhood full of in-jokes, hand-me-down resentments and more than a few old wounds. But their DNA, history and shared love of power ballads keep the Walsh sisters together in the face of heartbreak, grief, addiction and parenthood.

Marian has published more than 20 books, which have sold more than 39 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 36 languages.