Dervla: 'Each episode really twists and turns'

Dervla: 'Each episode really twists and turns'
Dervla: 'Each episode really twists and turns' (Image credit: des willie)

Can a wife not know her husband is living with a dark secret? Dervla Kirwan, star of ITV1's new crime drama Injustice, certainly thinks so... Tell us a bit about Jane Travers, the character you play in Injustice? "Jane was a very successful publisher when her husband William (James Purefoy), a lawyer, had a massive nervous breakdown after a court case goes horribly wrong. So the family decide to up sticks and move to Suffolk in the hope that he can rebuild his life." What does this mean for Jane, professionally? "Jane's given up her job and is now teaching creative writing to young offenders - what else would an ex-publisher do? I suppose it's serving some kind of middle-class guilt. She's putting on a very brave face, but she doesn't know how to relate to these young men at all." Sounds like Jane's willing to do anything to support her husband? "When someone you love suffers something as catastrophic as a breakdown you do everything you can to get them well again. We don't really know how dark this depression was for Will, but he's still incredibly fragile and very damaged." William's work is less stressful until he gets one particular call... "He's taking on very small cases, that are not very challenging, then suddenly a case comes into their world that blows that out of the water. Martin Newall (Nathaniel Parker), an old friend from university, has been accused of murder and William feels he has a loyalty to him. Jane had been dating Martin, then that fell apart and she went off with Will, which is where his guilt comes from." Injustice is being shown over five consecutive nights. What does this add to the drama? "I think it allows viewers to connect to it much more deeply and builds the momentum and the suspense that you don't get if you're seeing it with a seven-day gap. Each episode really twists and turns and delivers. If we've done our jobs properly the twists will be totally unexpected, for both the viewers and everyone in Will's life." William is keeping a dark secret. Do you really think a woman can live with someone who's hiding something and not know? "Nobody ever really knows what's going on inside someone's head. Unlike other legal dramas, Injustice shows how the decisions that lawyers make can affect them and eat away at their humanity. It is possible to live with someone and not know they have a dark secret." *Injustice starts on Monday, June 6 at 9pm on ITV1 and runs until Friday

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.