Channel 4's The Virtues caps off what's been a "crazy 18 months" for actress Niamh Algar, following roles in the broadcaster's The Bisexual and Pure, as well as in BBC Two's MotherFatherSon.
But the powerhouse drama from BAFTA-winning filmmaker Shane Meadows was actually the first of these projects that Algar shot.
"I'd just moved to London, and Shaheen Baig, who was the casting director on The Virtues, asked if I was able to attend a casting," she tells Digital Spy. "There was no script. I was just told it was a Shane Meadows project, and would I want to come in?
"I was like, 'Obviously, yes. That's a no-brainer.'"
Following a string of successful auditions, all of which – in Meadows' trademark style – involved improvisation, Algar was called to Sheffield to begin workshopping on what would eventually become The Virtues.
"Shane had the idea for the story, and he had a script, but I think he was trying to find the characters," she explains. "He developed the story around the characters, definitely. The characters grew and the stories grew, so it was a really exciting project to be on.
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"We took a couple of weeks off between episode three and four because Shane and Jack [Thorne, the series co-writer] were still figuring out the ending and how it was going to go. Because Shane shoots chronologically.
"While I was on a break, I was auditioning for Pure and The Bisexual. And by the time we came back to shoot the rest and last episode, I went onto those, and then afterwards I went and did MotherFatherSon."
The Virtues stars Stephen Graham as Joseph, a troubled man who, after his life in Sheffield falls apart, travels to Ireland where he reunites with his lost-long sister Anna (Helen Behan) and begins to unravel dark, forgotten secrets about his own past.
Algar's character Dinah is Helen's straight-talking, punch-throwing sister-in-law who forms a connection with Joseph in the second episode. Without spoiling where the story goes, Dinah very much comes to the fore in its third chapter.
Such was Meadows' commitment to authenticity that he sent Algar out on research trips, "to meet with different people who had a similar background to Dinah, or had experienced what she goes through in these stories," she recalls.
"Three-dimensionally, we were able to narratively work out where this character was going in the most truthful way. And I think that's what Shane does. He's always rooting for the truth. It's not always pretty, and it can be quite gritty and raw and emotional."
This ethos carried right through to the end of filming, with Algar and the production team taking a second stab at rounding off Dinah's story in the final episode after feeling dissatisfied with where they'd originally landed.
"We didn't plan for it – it was one of those where it could have gone either way," she says. "But when we shot the first ending, we all went to the pub, as you do, afterwards, and... something just didn't fit right.
"And Shane said, 'Do you mind if we come back and approach it again tomorrow? And I’ll let you know what we're going to do in the moment?' And that ended up being the ending that we went with."
Algar says that she'd "give anything" to work with Meadows again on another project in future. "It’s almost like an addiction," she says of his process. "You want to go back to that, and revisit that."
Next for the Irish actress, though, is a very different proposition: playing a combat medic in the sci-fi thriller series Raised by Wolves, executive produced by Ridley Scott, who also directs the first two episodes.
For Algar, filming on the show in Cape Town has been another invaluable opportunity to learn. "What Stephen Graham taught me is that you're never going to be an expert in everything, so don't switch yourself off from learning," she says. "You’re learning on every job – especially this job I'm on at the moment.
"It’s such a massive production, and you're working with Ridley Scott, who's a legend of cinema. Every day, I'm in awe. I'm like SpongeBob ActingPants, trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can!"
Though it's quite literally worlds away from The Virtues and her role as Dinah, Algar insists that being a part of "the Shane Meadows school of acting" still informs all the choices she makes as a performer.
"It allowed you to be completely open and honest within myself," she says. "You don't shut yourself down. You just let yourself learn. I think that's the best way."
The Virtues continues tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.
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