How did you separate yourself from the show’s dark subject matter?

My character is not personally affected; she’s professionally affected. She’s still a human being, but she’s a professional and knows to leave some of her heart behind.

For me personally, it was a very intense shoot in terms of weather, location, time – we had a lot to get through every day, and were up against some extreme weather conditions. We were blessed to have roundtable rehearsals before we started shooting, so we got to air out a lot of stuff there and talk about the darkness then. I could take it home and indulge in it properly. But, when we started filming, I had to just sleep; I had to take care of my body in that weather. Once I’d done my work and my research, I put it in the back of my head and got on with the job at hand.

And we still had great laughs on set. Me and Jimmy had so many giggles… we do have great craic, and we slam the absolute shit out of each other. It helped us find the levity, and I think our friendship translates really well to the screen, too.

How did you cope with those extreme filming conditions?

It was easily the hardest weather shoot I’ve ever done in my career. The exposure was phenomenal, because we spent over a week on an island in the middle of a lake with nothing on it; no facilities, no shelter, no shed. It was literally a grass mound in the middle of a huge lake, and we had to take speedboats to get to the toilet.

The upside of it was that it prompted a lot of bonding between cast and crew, but it was so cold. I look like I’m overacting, like I’m way too intense, but I was like, ‘my face is frozen. I can’t move my face.’”

Bloodlands’ Charlene McKenna talks Jed Mercurio, tortuous cliffhangers, and DS Niamh McGovern