Sheridan Smith has revealed she “loved” reuniting with Pauline McLynn for Sky’s Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything, whom she previously worked with on her first ever television gig.
The duo play a mother and daughter in the new series, which follows the title character as she attempts to liberate herself from a vast number of harmful addictions.
It’s not the first time that Smith and McLynn have assumed these roles as they previously co-starred in short-lived ITV sitcom Dark Ages, which lampooned then-contemporary anxieties in a medieval setting.
“I particularly loved working with Pauline,” said Smith. “This is because she played my mum when I was 17 in my first ever TV job. We were reunited which was lovely.”
McLynn explained: “I was her TV mother in a show that only got one very short season. It was called Dark Ages for ITV. She will always be 17 to me, which kept me a little bit young in my heart as well while we were on the set.
“If they’re still the same joyous person they were when you met them first, then that’s who they’ll always be to you. So it was nice to pick up almost where we left off in a new, funny and touching series.”
Soon after Dark Ages aired on ITV, Smith would score roles in The Royle Family and Two Pints of Lager, which helped catapult her to comedy superstar status.
That’s not the only reunion happening on Rosie Molloy, however, as the show also brings McLynn back together with her Father Ted co-star Ardal O’Hanlon, with the duo playing husband and wife here.
“We’d say, ‘Is that who we are now? Someone’s elderly parents?’” added McLynn. “In our heads, we are still the youngsters from 25 plus years ago.
“It was wonderful; some good friends that you don’t see from one year to another, but we didn’t need to have much of a catch up. We continue from where we find ourselves and it was like that for us.”
Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything premieres on Sky Comedy and NOW on Wednesday 7th December 2022. Find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV.
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