1 week Ago By [email protected] (Siobhan O'Connor)
Fair City actor Maclean Burke has teased an "explosive" plot for the 35th anniversary of the RTE soap. Maclean, 44, filmed scenes of bombing and bloodshed in the Tom Hanks war blockbuster Saving Private Ryan on a Wexford beach in 1997. But the Dublin actor, who began his career in Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father, said the storyline involving his character Damien Halpin rivals any Hollywood action movie.
READ MORE - RTE Fair City star opens up on explosive storyline as Carrigstown residents face billowing inferno READ MORE - Fair City star Una Crawford O’Brien gives heartfelt update on partner Bryan Murray's Alzheimer’s battle Damien is central to the soap’s dramatic anniversary plotline where someone sets fire to the site Con Rafferty sold to Hayley and James. Maclean, who has been on Fair City for 27 years, told us: "No doubt it’ll be an explosive episode. "There is somebody who is sleeping rough on the site which Damo informs Hayley and James about, and then it goes up alight.
"Hayley and James are suspect about the fire and they try to push the blame on Damien. Damien goes to prison. Once in prison, some very interesting things happen.
" He teased: "There are some great return characters who come back into it. You won’t guess who these characters are, they’re some stalwarts of yesteryear." Maclean said the intuitive acting skills he honed on Saving Private Ryan come in handy on the fictional Carrigstown set of Fair City.
He explained: "You go with your gut for these things. We’re having the set specifically built for it, it’s a bubble episode. "It will be quite intense, you have many of these original gangster characters who may be coming back into it.
"There’s so much on the line for Damo’s character now. "I remember when I did Private Ryan and people were like ‘how did you do the acting?’ "I didn’t have to act because there were feckin’ explosions going off. As an actor your biggest friend is your gut and you go with that unless otherwise told.
"We’ll just go to work and get the job done." Reminiscing on filming D-Day scenes for Saving Private Ryan at Curracloe beach, he said: "It was the summer I finished school, which was ‘97. "Andrew Scott was there, there were maybe six Irish actors that had a couple of lines.
"Victor Burke, who played Wayne in Fair City, I met him on that gig, that’s how we became buddies. "Tom Hanks was dead on, also [Stephen] Spielberg was dead on. But you had up-and-coming guys like Vin Diesel on it.
" The dad-of-four remarked how he’s grown up on the Fair City set and misses the characters who have left or died. He added: "I’ve been around for the 10th anniversary and the 4,000th episode. I’ve been around for the 20 and 25 year anniversary.
There’s been massive changes over the years; we’ve lost many of our peers. "There’s a lot of guys who I grew up with here in this show. "I was in my teens and I’m in my 40s now.
I socialised here and a lot of my youth was spent here. "I miss the Jim Bartleys and the Tom Jordans, I miss those guys. I miss Jean Costello, all of these old-school dudes.
"The system and the rhythm of the show has changed. When I came into the show first we shot two episodes a week, now we shoot three. Everything has changed.
"It’s the same as another job, you grow with it, even the style of acting has changed." And Maclean admitted being recognised on the street is part and parcel of being a soap star. He said: "I’m oblivious to it at this stage.
It’s the norm as I’ve grown up with it. "One of the funniest ones ever, I was doing a charity thing in Norway up in Tundra. "You’re talking 300,000 kilometres from Oslo, way up in the Arctic.
"Myself and former rugby player Shane Byrne were there. We’re doing this [video] and in the viking hut beside us there’s this massive viking boat. "I’m doing this piece to camera when out of nowhere this little woman steps out of the hut and says, ‘Damien what are you doing here, look it’s yourself’.
"This auld one from Dublin in the middle of nowhere in Norway. It was gas." Commenting on Fair City’s longevity, he said: "I often say soap is just about two rungs above reality.
"People can sit back and stuff might be happening in their lives but they can turn around and go ‘well we don’t have it as bad as them’. "I think that can be of benefit to people’s situations." Sign up to the Irish Mirror's daily newsletter here and get breaking news and top stories direct to your inbox.
