The complex mystery continues for Marcella

They say that behind every great man, there’s a great woman.

But in the case of the Maguire family, the great woman is standing front and centre, having taken over her dead husband’s crime organisation, expanded it and covered its tracks by developing legitimate businesses and becoming a charity benefactor.

Yes, Katherine Maguire is one very smart cookie.

Playing her is Amanda Burton who, despite once being one of the most familiar faces on TV, has taken a back seat in recent years.

However, she really is back with a bang courtesy of Marcella.

As she was born in Londonderry, she was thrilled to return to her home patch during filming, which took place in Belfast.

“It was an enormous factor and it was so wonderful that I was going to have this big family of Irish actors to work with; just fantastic,” explains Burton when asked if the chance to return to Northern Ireland had inspired her decision to take the role.

“I hadn’t worked with any of the cast beforehand and it’s always exciting to work with new people.

“It was fascinating for me to go back as it was about 17 years or so ago that I last filmed there and the change was immense. This time we were filming in places where it just wouldn’t have been possible to film back then. It was quite extraordinary and evoked a lot of emotional memories for me being there.”

Another factor in her appearing in the drama was Hans Rosenfeldt, its creator, whose work she admires.

“I loved his series The Bridge and the characters he created. There’s a sort of a loneliness to Hans’ lead roles and I think that’s something I’ve always found really interesting.

“Hans is such an interesting writer and he doesn’t shy away from really difficult subjects. The viewer definitely saw this during the second series of Marcella which was a very difficult topic to cover; hard hitting, definitely on the dark side but written and handled so well.”

She adds: “The same goes for this series; there’s a shocking parallel with a couple of our storylines that are quite horrific and unfortunately also happen in real life. That is the very sober side of being in a drama like Marcella, some of these things actually do take place.”

We’re now five weeks into the current run, and it’s fair to say that Burton’s character is making her presence felt; she claims she drew inspiration from both The Godfather and Succession, and was desperate to ensure that Katherine had a presence.

“On a new series, you’re setting a tone, you’ve got a blank canvas but when you’re coming into an already established series you just hope you can do the best and not mess it up!” she laughs.

We can confirm she hasn’t done that – and here’s hoping it won’t be long before she’s back on our screens again; after seeing her take control as Katherine, Burton should be a woman in demand.

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