Southside actors rock top TV drama

SOUTHSIDE actors have been playing starring roles in TV3’s hit soap drama

‘Red Rock’.

The show that has proved extremely popular since it was launched earlier this year is set in a fictional Dublin seaside town.

It features an ongoing feud between two warring families in the town, the Keilys and the Hennessys, in a typical middle-class Dublin area, and their interactions with the local Garda station.

In recent weeks former

‘Fair City’ actor Frank Melia has been a guest star on the show.

Frank, from Ballyfermot, played Ray Fagan, the father of Angela’s old friend who went missing some years ago.

The grim discovery of the girl’s remains leaves Angela extremely upset and to add to her anguish, she is the bearer of bad news for Ray, who is distraught with grief all over again when she delivers the devastating confirmation of his daughter’s death.

Frank is probably best known to television viewers as Sean McCann, the seedy politician in RTÃ?’s

‘Fair City’.

No stranger to the big screen, Frank has worked on many notable films including

‘The General’ and

‘The Tailor Of Panama’, and appeared with Anjelica Huston in

‘Agnes Browne’.

Frank played Mr Thorpe alongside Jonathan Pryce and Paul Bettany in the TV film

‘The Suicide Club’ and was also seen in many television productions such as

‘Titanic: Blood & Steel’,

‘The Clinic’, and

‘Mattie, Marú, and Eamonn’.

He made his professional stage debut in 1973 playing Young Behan in

‘Borstal Boy’ by Brendan Behan at the Cork Opera House.

Since then, he has appeared in all major theatres in Ireland and abroad, from the Abbey and the Gate in Dublin, to the Lyric in Belfast and the Royal Court in London.

Frank’s latest screen role was Fr Harrington in critically acclaimed costume drama

‘Ripper Street’ on the BBC.

Speaking about his time on

‘Red Rock’, Frank said:

“Going into

‘Red Rock’ was a really nice experience for me. A lovely well written part. A director who really cared. And to top it all, Andrea Irvine to act opposite. We’d never met and she was so welcoming and great in it.

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Frank’s appearance followed that of a fellow Southside actor, Siraj Zaidi, from Terenure, who played an Indian father who has come to the attention of the gardaí in a controversial story about an arranged marriage.

His character, Hakam Gulati, was looking for his 18-year-old daughter, Sai, played by Saikumari Janapereddy, from Clonsilla, who has gone missing.

Hakam is met by officers Adrijan (Boyko Krastanov) and Sean (David Crowley) down at Red Rock station, but their search soon turns into an interrogation when they discover a wedding dress in the man’s home, leading them to believe he isn’t giving them the full story.

It transpires that the father had an arranged marriage set up for his daughter, and it now looks like she may have run away with her boyfriend to escape the unwanted wedding.

Hakam is adamant that this is not the case and that she was fine with the arranged marriage, but either way, the race is on to find the truth and bring his daughter back home safely.

Siraj is an actor and movie producer who has been a distributor of Bollywood films in Ireland for the past 15 years. No stranger to Irish television, Siraj has also appeared in

‘Fair City’, where he played an Indian professor for 12 episodes, and in 2000, in the

‘Clinic’, he played a pharmacist and in

‘Glenroe’, he played a restaurant owner.

Siraj also recently featured in the highly acclaimed ten part TV drama,

‘Samvidhaan’, which portrays the making of the constitution of India.

Speaking about his part in

‘Red Rock’, Siraj Zaidi said:

“Indian and Anglo-Indian storylines have been very popular in many British soaps over the years so it’s fantastic to see

‘Red Rock’ reflecting the changing demographic here.

“The story really highlights the emerging multi-cultural issues of today’s Ireland. It was an
exciting challenge to be involved in such a controversial storyline and I hope that it will develop further.

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‘Red Rock’ airs every Wednesday and Thursday at 8.30pm on TV3.