Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); 7/31/2004
Byline: By Thomas Quinn
SHE is starring in another BBC hit show,has just given birth to her first child and is revelling in her relationship with heart-throb actor Rupert Penry-Jones.
No wonder Irish beauty Dervla Kirwan, 32, has never been so happy.
Not long ago, an actress of her vintage would be starting to worry - fearing that her wrinkles were going to catch upon her, that directors don't want their leading ladies to beover the hill. But the actress belongs to a new generation of women determined to show that growing old doesn't mean losing any sex appeal, and that experience counts.
Looking back on her early days, Dervla recalled the high-profile romance she enjoyed with Ballykissangel co-star Stephen Tompkinson, and what she learned as part of that 'machine'.
She said: 'I don't appear in the gossip columns any more, and for a couple of years I was out of it completely as far as publicity was concerned.
'I think that is because I amnow in a very happy relationship with Rupert. And when you are happy there's b****r all to pregnant dog about so there's no story. But I've also grown up a lot. 'I've been able to make the realisation about what celebrity is, and what work is.
'There has been a recent spate of celebrity casting on TV and there will always bean element of that. But you hope that in 15 or 20 years people will be working with you because of your work, not because you have a nice bottom. 'And because of having mybaby daughter, Florence, I don't have those right now anyway. This is not going to last you know,' she laughed, gesturing at her appearance.
Experience has underlined to Dervla how important it is just to enjoy work and not worry about the fame game.
She said: 'When my relationship with Stephen started off, it was before all those celebrity magazines came out.
'The celebrity culture wasn't quite as intense then. It's a fine line, a very difficult subject to talk about, because on the one hand you use it but on the other it is deeply offensive and vulgar and hollow.Yet I'm addicted to watching I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, so you could say I'm a sucker like everyone else.'
The celebrity life, which peaked during her years on Ballykissangel, was something she clearly felt uncomfortable with.
'Working on that show was like being part of a big machine, it was hugely successful. It would be the same scenario if a soap star went out with another soap actor - it's what is popular,' she said.
'Of course it hadan negative impact on our relationship. I hadno resources to deal with what was going on - with being known but no one knowing who I really was. And I hadno ability to guide myself or my partner at that time through a period that was totally unreal.
'I'm sure if I'd gone to a shrink it would have been a lot more healthy,but on reflection, because I'm now with Rupert, I'm very glad it didn't work out.'
After leaving Ballykissangel - her character, Assumpta, was famously electrocuted while changing a lightbulb, leaving her soul mate, Father Peter, devastated - both Dervla and Tompkinson were flooded with work offers. As a result the pair barely saw each other, and the relationship faltered.
When she met Rupert, who is to star in BBC1's new series of Spooks in the autumn,Dervla knew that things had to bedone differently. 'I met Rupert when we did a play in the west end together. Afterwards hehad to go to America and I thought f*** it, I'm going to go too. 'I'd never taken a year out or even gone to university or college. I had solely worked, and out of necessity not just out of blind ambition. 'So for the first time I took a break and went to America andhad a ball. It was so beneficial.
'He was over there working, meeting people, but I was just in LA having a laugh, hanging out by the pool and shopping. I had a great time.'
As a result, Dervla and Rupert cemented their relationship and decided to have a baby - though when she discovered she was pregnant it was sooner than she expected.
'It was a hell of a shock but really exciting,' she said. 'I found being pregnant so interesting because I'd always been aware of keeping myself a certain way so to allow yourself to get bigger.
'I found myself apologising for eating so much, but the upside of that is you get loads of close-ups. So for an actress it's actually a great tactic, suddenly you get to dominate the whole thing.' Pregnancy also clashed with her role in 55 Degrees North, the acclaimed police drama in which she stars with Don Gilet. At first she assumed it might mean losing the role, but the producers surprised her with a novel plot twist. Dervla's character, lawyer Sarah Maxwell, was to have hadan on-off relationship with night detective Nicky Cole, played by Gilet.
TO ensure this storyline could still go ahead if she was heavily pregnant, writer Tim Prager decided to make Maxwell pregnant too - by another man,a married lover.
Now viewers are confronted with a highly uncomfortable, but quite modern situation as Dervla's character is clearly falling in love with Nicky while being pregnant by someone else. The actress said: 'Things are rarely clear cut. Sarah has compartmentalised her emotional life. She has been going out with a much older man and enjoys the no-strings-attached nature of it. 'Then when Nicky comes along she is confronted with someone more emotional and idealistic than any of the men around her, and this activates something inside her.'
But Dervla was far from convinced when she first heard of the pregnancy storyline.
She said: 'I certainly hadmy doubts. I was questioning it because I thought a lot of people would have a problem with it morally.
'But because she is not in love with the man who is the father of her child, I think it works. 'It's great that we have a situation where the television company said 'we won't just hide this woman's bump behind some files, we'll pick up on the idea and run with it'.
'This way it is more realistic. If people want to escape and watch TV because it represents nothing they can relate to, then fair enough. 'But if they want something that stimulates discussion, which this will because it is about how people messup their lives but still make a success out of what they've created.'
In 55 Degrees North, Dervla's character seems determined to be a single mum - a prospect that horrifies the actress.
'I couldn't imagine being a mother on my own, without someone there to support me,' she said. 'It would just be too hard. Apart from Rupert, I'm hoping my mum and sisters, who have children of their own, will help.
'There's a bit of a conspiracy though isn't there? People who have kids don't tell people about to have them how hard it is going to be,' she said. 'I know why they've done that in my case, if they'd told me the truth I'd never have had a baby. 'But I know that support is there when I need it. So despite the flaccid bottom and the cracked nipples, being a mum is just great.'
# 55 Degrees North, Tuesdays, BBC1, 9pm.
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