THE WALSH SISTERS - sat 9.15pm bbc 1 - TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

New series 6 which is mean to be ace !!

was shown originally in Ireland last year and now bbc have it

Enter The Walsh Sisters, which has been adapted from several of Marian Keyes' beloved novels and introduces us to the dysfunctional but deeply loveable Walsh family.

Featuring five sisters, a devout mother and a bemused father, every family will find something to relate to in the chaos that surrounds them.

Billed as a "comedy about serious things — a pacy, brutally honest and uncompromisingly funny exposé of the realities of being an Irish sister", we meet the five sisters as they’re drifting through adulthood in Dublin and supporting each other as they cope with heartbreak, grief, addiction and parenthood.

And if it's as good as Marian's books, it's going to be a truly outstanding piece of TV.

The six-part series is part based on two of Marian Keyes’ novels, Rachel’s Holiday and Anybody Out There and introduces us to a group of five loveable but chaotic sisters living in Dublin - Anna (Louisa Harland), Rachel (Caroline Menton), Maggie (Stefanie Preissner), Claire (Danielle Galligan) and Helen (Máiréad Tyers) – as they navigate the peaks and troughs of their late 20s and 30s.

It's 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.

The cast of The Walsh Sisters includes:
• Louisa Harland (Derry Girls, Renegade Nell) as Anna
• Caroline Menton (Oddity) as Rachel
• Danielle Galligan (Kin, Shadow and Bone)

•	Máiréad Tyers (My Lady Jane, Belfast) as Helen
•	Stefanie Preissner (How to Adult) as Maggie
•	Aidan Quinn (Legends of the Fall) as Jack ‘Daddy’ Walsh
•	Carrie Crowley (Hope Street) as Mammy Walsh
•	Debi Mazar (Younger) as Chaquie
•	Gina Moxley (The Patient Gloria, Here Before) as Josephine 
•	Jay Duffy (Wheel of Time, Northern Lights) as Luke Costello
•	Samuel Anderson (Amandaland (<a class="break-all" href="https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/lifestyle/a69662742/jennifer-saunders-amandaland-christmas-special/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/lifestyle/a69662742/jennifer-saunders-amandaland-christmas-special/))</a> as Aidan

”Who on earth thought thus bolloc*s was a worthy dramatisation of such fantastic books ? asks @Sweetiedarling.
Ask Marian Keyes the author and an executive producer on the show. 😀

So those who didn’t like does that mean you aren’t going to watch 23456

I watched it all as having a sofa day unwell. I love the books and have a big fondness for Rachel’s Holiday. Mammy was woefully miscast. It was entertaining enough for an adaptation.

thanks to pp with the kindle rec for Rachel's Holiday, I think it's one of my favourites- nice to have a kindley bargain :)

Carrie Crowley who played Mammy is a versatile actress and I blame the director for getting Mammy so wrong. @NorthernLass50
Carrie was great in An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl ) which was nominated for an Oscar - Best International Feature Film. She was the “leading lady”.

I love Marian Keyes and Rachel’s holiday is my favourite book and go to comfort read.

I knew that it was never going to match up to the version in my head, but I was very underwhelmed. I’m trying to look past the differences to the book but none of the humour and warmth is there and the characters aren’t very likeable.

im going to watch the whole thing and view it as separate to the book.

This is what MK said about it in her recent newsletter:

“Hello there!
On February 21st, The Walsh Sisters is due to start on BBC1, 6 episodes of absolute loveliness which I’m so PROUD of and so delighted you’ll be getting to see.
So let me tell you EVERYTHING!
Okay! Over the many public events I’ve done over the past quarter of a century, there is usually an audience Q & A at the end, where I am asked TSQs (The Seven Questions.) Which go as follows…

1. When Will Mammy Walsh Get Her Own Book?
2. What Advice Have You For The Aspiring Author?
3. Is Luke Costello Real?
4. Yes, but are you SURE he isn’t?
5. Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?
6. Where Did You Get Your Shoes?
7. Why Have You Not Made Your Books Into TV Series Or Movies? I jest, of course, but those questions comes up a lot, especially the last one. So let’s focus on it. People seem to think I simply needed to do a shoutout, saying, “Send me over a director, eight actor ladies, a couple of mens and a clapperboard. Camera? Ah no need, I’ll do it on my phone. Lighting? We’ll just stick a filter on it.” But see, ‘creating content’ for screen is up to movie or TV production companies. I’m a mere novelist with no power- zero, like - to transfer a book from words to visuals. What happens is that one of these production companies ‘option’ a book - that means they pay you a few quid so they can own the book for a year or eighteen months, while they cast around to see if anyone is interested in financing the production or if any actors or directors are interested in ‘attaching themselves’. And now that one has been made, the the question that comes up again and again, is: Why did it take so long? Well, I’ll tell you! Why it took so long. [tldr: I haven’t a rashers] In the last twenty-seven years lots of my books were optioned, sometimes several times over, by different companies – but never got made. And honestly, I haven’t much of a clue why not. Sometimes the person who optioned the book left for another production company (this seems to happen a lot) while the book has to stay behind with the first company, do you get me? With people who didn’t option it and aren’t interested in it. And other times, there’s no obvious reason. But very early on, I learnt to protect myself. For example, in 1998, myself and Himself were flown first class to Los Angeles because Hollywood mens had optioned Rachel’s Holiday. Himself and I were billeted in a fancy gaff on Sunset Boulevard and met many, many toothy, tanned types who almost knocked us over with their enthusiasm for the book, we were brought to several restaurants where people ordered and admired food but ate none of it. Three glorious days later, we bid a sad farewell to our gorgeous new friends, returned to Dublin… and never heard from them again. Lol, as they say. But even while I was getting love-bombed my soul was erecting crash barriers. Delightful as my new pals were I suspected they weren’t entirely… would we say sincere? I’m not saying they were bad people, ah no, nothing like that, the phrase ‘shower of lying fecks’ is a harsh one, I think that in the moment, they genuinely thought they loved me and they truly intended to come to Lahinch on their holidays and have bacon and cabbage in The Cornerstone and they genuinely believed their great-grandmother had been a McCarthy from Macroom. Nevertheless my inner voice counselled, Proceed with caution. Do not buy your dress for the premier just yet. And I was right because when, a year later, the option ran out and wasn’t renewed, I wasn’t devastated. Not delighted, either, I wasn’t dancing around, flinging my hat in the air, singing Oh Happy Day. But I remembered how much I love writing books, that books are enough on their own and don’t require the validation of existing in another format. (I have been saying this for a long time, in ever more passive-aggressive tones, my emphasis shifting away from passive and in favour of aggressive...) In 2018, yet another production company (Cuba Productions) optioned some of the books about the Walsh sisters, proposing a different approach – instead of a show focusing on a lone sister, say, Rachel, or Helen, or Maggie, it would feature ALL of them, at the same time. And instead of setting it in the year the books were in, they’d be bang right up to date! (To 2018, as it was then.) (It’s now set in 2025.) My approval was sought and I believe my gracious response was, “You can set it in 1066 and on the surface of the moon, for all I care. Or how about the Stone Age where the sisters are played by otters – c’mon, everyone loves otters! - and I recommend the dialogue be early Icelandic verse.” Because what did it matter? I’d had so many conversations with production companies over the years and nothing had ever come of any of them. The one thing I did do was recommend a writer (the fabaliss Stefanie Preissner) to adapt the books. I knew her, I was immensely fond of her and loved and respected her work. But apart from that I put the whole idea into a small, tightly locked box in my head, slammed the door shut and got on with things. Life happened, my dad died, I wrote Grown Ups, the pandemic began, I wrote Again, Rachel, the pandemic came to an end, I wrote My Favourite Mistake. During this time, I had to have occasional meetings with the producer (the magnificent Dixie Linder, who kept the faith when lesser mortals may not have), Stef and other ‘attached’ executives. Every couple of years a script or two would be sent for my comments but I never let myself consider that the show would actually be made because it’s the hope that kills you. Sometime in 2024, Dixie asked for a meeting, she even said she’d come to Dublin (from London) and I thought, Ah lads! Do I have to get dressed and go into town and sit upright just to listen to more time-wasting sweet nothings? Reluctantly I agreed to a Zoom call. So Stef and Dixie were on screen, chatting away enthusiastically about the finance they’d raised and the wonderful reception the scripts had received and I was smiling hard and wishing they’d hurry up because I had bins to wash, bikini-lines to pluck and other important jobs. THEN!!!! Yes, THEN!!!!! Stef says, “Lookit, I’ve to go, I’ve got a roomful of Rachels out there, waiting to audition.” And I sat bolt upright like a meerkat who’s had an electric shock. “Wait now!” sez I. “AUDITION? FOR WHAT? Do you mean, it’s actually happening?????????” And yes, it was! Suddenly things began to move very quickly: actors, a director, locations, chemistry reads, costume fittings, loads of stuff. It transpired I was an ‘executive producer’ which meant that I was kept apprised of all casting decisions etc but had no actual power, which suited me grand. Let me explain. I know nothing about how good or not actors are. If it were down to me, I’d have only cast actresses with black hair for Anna and Helen because that’s how I ‘saw’ them in my head. But now I get that this is only a skin-deep understanding of characterisation and as it happens, the AMAZING Louisa Harland who plays Anna has the precise emotional intelligence and warmth of ‘my’ Anna. And the WONDERFUL Mairead Tyers has so internalised the wildly dissatisfied Helen, that even the way she stood was ‘my’ Helen. Every one of the actors is brilliant. Caroline Menton who plays Rachel so BEAUTIFULLY avoided every yawn-y cliche of an active addict and instead captured the nuances that are rarely depicted on screen – the denial, the normalisation, the manipulation and the unexpected charm. I’ll never forget the first time Himself and myself went to see the filming. There was an army of people running around with ipads, walkie-talkies, light-gaugers. Massive cameras stood on trolleys, hair and make-up was hovering, the director was in intense conversation. In the scene, Claire, Maggie and Helen were going to visit Rachel in rehab and the building chosen looked uncannily similar to the place where I’d gone for treatment. Then someone yelled, “Action!” And we’re off! Here comes Claire, strutting along in her gold-rimmed sunglasses, clutch bag and oversized blazer. Then Helen, who definitely looks ‘off’: her trousers were slightly too short, her angry little fists were shoved into the pockets of her bomber jacket, her knuckles visible through the fabric, every inch of her radiating disgust and disdain. And poor Maggie, in her navy suit and invisible clipboard, chivvying them along, pleading for good behaviour. It was as if these women had walked straight out of my head and into real life. I felt confused, proud, tearful, elated. Behind me, very quietly, Himself said, “I feel really emotional.” Both of us have lived with these characters for over thirty years and honestly, seeing them personified was huge. The structure of each book has been altered to fit into this new medium but what I appreciate is that the feel of the show is the same as the books. There’s a great warmth. The five sisters and Mammy Walsh live in a state of bickery enmeshment, insults are used to convey affection and sorrow is hidden inside humour. There are so many details I love – the relationship between Maggie (played by Stef) and her husband Garv (played by Stephen Mullan) is hugely touching, sweet and very funny. I pure adore Daddy Walsh, played by absolute legend Aidan Quinn!!! (Shoutout to every woman who fell in love with him in Desperately Seeking Susan, Legends of the Fall or Practical Magic.) (I can also confirm he is one of the nicest men I’ve ever met.) He and beloved Irish actor Carrie Crowley, who plays Mammy Walsh, are brilliant together. Rachel’s rehab roommate is played by another legend, the hilarious and slightly terrifying Debi Mazar. But they’re all great. And it’s really funny. The new dialogue Stefanie has introduced is tonally in keeping with the books. (There’s a scene in episode 6 that I’ve watched countless times and I laugh myself sick on every go. All I will say is ‘Vaping’.) As I said, it features all the sisters, but this season focuses on Rachel and Anna. Season 2 (fingers crossed) plans to highlight Helen and Maggie. And I can’t tell you how proud I am of it all. It gets better with each new episode and I really really hope you enjoy it. PS Stef and I recorded a companion podcast for each episode, featuring Jay Duffy who plays Luke Costello so beautifully, all the sisters and Daddy Walsh. Available on BBC Sounds”

Having read one of her fb posts it seems she had her doubts about Helen and Anna and it didn’t seem she is 100% thrilled at all.

What I want to know, Marian, is when will the deep freezer full to the brim with magnums and other choc ices make an appearance?

I’d forgotten Stephanie Preissner (Maggie) was so involved as a writer and actor on the show

Think MK might have watched a totally different one to the episode I saw last night 😭the names of the sisters were the same....and that was about it.

Guess she was so happy her book finally made tv

Yes sounds like production companies have been giving her the run around for years.

I do remember Lucy Sullivan is getting married being axed! Not sure why . I didn’t watch it , but people said it was a bit bizarre why they didn’t show it all.

i have watched it all (don’t worry, no spoilers although I guess if you’ve read the books you have an idea of what unfolds?!). I read the books years ago, loved them.
i agree some of the characters felt miscast, particularly mammy Walsh and Anna but genuinely I don’t really remember a lot of the finer details so was able to just watch it for an adaptation rather than an accurate retelling of books.
Oh, and Luke is definitely NOT as much of a ride as he was made out to be 🫠

This along with Watermelon were my absolute faves and I did read these again in the last couple of years. Never realised they made Lucy Sullivan into tv, gutted to have missed it.

There’s episodes of Lucy Sullivan on YouTube. I think it’s all there but can’t be sure (and each episode seems to be split into two).

Why on earth have they made chaqui American???????

I remember an article in the Irish Times where Marion talked about being "educated" on modern language round mental health and tackling her "heteronormitivity" for the show. It was a bit sad really.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/feb/21/the-walsh-sisters-review-marian-keyes-tv-adaptation-bbc

I love all her books and I also really enjoyed the show. Some characters have been altered but they're not worse, just different.

The only thing I disliked about it was all the smoking. Maybe it's just the places I go and the circles I move in ( in Ireland as well as London) in but I'm not used to seeing so many people smoke nowadays. Lots of vaping but not so much smokers.

Thank you! Will be my bedtime watching tonight 🙌🏾

I’ve only ever read one Marian Keyes book (grown-ups?), so I wasn’t coming to this series with any preconceptions but I think it’s absolutely dire. Who are these awful people?!

No spoilers from me but on episode 5. I’ve just decided to treat as loosely based on the books. That’s being generous. I’ll be back in 5 weeks.

Ugh. I love the books, was excited to watch The Walsh Sisters and reread lots of the books before watching, i really disliked it. It just doesnt capture the essence of the books, lacks any kind of humour and too many changes. It just made me grumpy. Back to rereading the books