From The Virtues to Raised By Wolves, the Irish actor has a knack for complex roles. As she stars in a new British horror and a TV drama, she discusses working with Shane Meadows and boxing her way on to Ridley Scott’s radar
Niamh Algar is sitting in front of a stunning, world-famous view. “Look at that,” she says, sweeping her arm away from her camera, towards a massive vista of Buckingham Palace. The Irish actor, 29, is holed up in a hotel in London, and the royal residence is in fact a spectacular bit of wallpaper. She is halfway through compulsory quarantine, having just returned from filming the sci-fi series Raised By Wolves in South Africa. She’s had a bright and busy few years, bouncing from acclaimed dramas to blockbusters, via indie films and a Guy Ritchie caper, so it’s little wonder she’s happy to have a few days off. “I was saying to a friend last night, it’s kind of nice because no one’s able to get to you. It’s actually a nice decompression time.”
She has recently finished work on two particularly intense roles. In new four-part TV drama Deceit she plays the undercover officer known as “Lizzie James”, who took part in the doomed honeytrap Operation Edzell in an attempt to ensnare the killer of Rachel Nickell, the 23-year-old woman who was murdered on Wimbledon Common in 1992. “I wasn’t aware of the story, so I had to educate myself on that,” says Algar. The real “Lizzie James” has lifelong anonymity, but Algar talked to other undercover officers about their work, and spent a lot of time researching police in the early 90s.