After starring in The Night Manager, Tom Hollander plays another villainous character with shady motives in The Iris Affair, sharing the spotlight with a Malpractice star.
Niamh Algar is no stranger to shaking things up. After gripping viewers as Dr Lucinda Edwards in Malpractice, she’s stepping into even higher-octane territory as Iris Nixon in Sky Atlantic’s new thriller, The Iris Affair.
“I’ve loved playing Iris – she’s so many characters in one,” Niamh Algar says. “Then there’s the adrenaline side: gunfights, jumping off boats, leaping from buildings, blowing up things. Racing a Ferrari at high speed was the absolute highlight.”
Created by Neil Cross and filmed in Italy, the eight-part series sees Iris as a brilliant codebreaker, living life on the run with a bounty on her head.
“She is obsessive, manipulative and unpredictable,” Niamh says. “She’s not motivated by romance or defined by trauma, but shaped by her intelligence and curiosity.”
She’s recruited by Cameron Beck (Tom Hollander), a charismatic tech billionaire who believes he needs her to relaunch a quantum computer nicknamed Charlie Big Potatoes. Cameron believes the machine could change – even save – the world, but Iris is convinced it could destroy it.
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The quantum computer was originally launched by Jensen Lind, a Norwegian scientist played by Game Of Thrones alumni Kristofer Hivju. Jensen and Cameron once worked together on the project, until Jensen stopped it.
“Something makes Jensen try to destroy 10-15 years of working in this compound making the biggest revolutionary device in history,” Kristofer says. “That’s the mystery – why?”
Kristofer admits the science was a challenge, saying, “My Chat GPT has overheated. I have had to go into Hindu cosmology and quantum physics just to understand my lines.”
Meanwhile, Tom Hollander insists his character isn’t the villain audiences might expect. “He’s not a bad guy. He wants good outcomes,” Tom says. “He thinks it’s capable of curing climate change.
What’s really motivating Cameron is he’s in fear for his own life. He’s a rich man who has over-borrowed, so effectively he actually doesn’t have anything.”
Cameron faces a shadowy organisation called The Money, with Harry Lloyd joining the cast as the cryptic Hugo Pym. “He is this guy who is somewhat psychotic and deranged,” Harry says.
“The Money are this ‘Intra Group Committee’ and Hugo is someone who has recently been made head of it.” Caught up in the middle is Joy Baxter, played by Meréana Tomlinson, with whom Iris forms a connection.
“Iris sees something of herself in Joy,” Niamh says. “Joy is essentially a token child in a wealthy household that doesn’t really notice her, and Iris has always felt like she didn’t belong in any system or structure.”
When Cameron kidnaps Joy to pressure Iris into working for him, the stakes become terrifyingly personal. “It becomes a real test for her,” Niamh says. “It also highlights how much she cares for Joy.”
Joy is loyal to Iris but this is tested when she meets Cameron. “Cameron is more alike with her in terms of her emotional wellbeing and her emotional state,” says Meréana. “She latches on to him for survival and then that turns into companionship.”
Meréana bonded quickly with the team, saying, “I have a quote book in my Notes app. It’s just funny things that people have said.” And Neil Cross’s reaction to the book was priceless, she adds. “He sat there giggling at it for five minutes.”
The Iris Affair airs on Thursday, October 16th on Sky Atlantic and NOW.
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