If you couldn't get enough of the sensationally salacious ride that was House of Guinness, you've come to the right place. Digital Spy sat down with its creator Steven Knight, as well as the cast, to bring you a detailed, gritty breakdown of all the punchy moments that sprawl out across your screens, courtesy of the 19th-century period drama.
Find out who fell in love with their portraying their hedonist character, what scene gave one key actor goosebumps, and the forbidden thing Rafferty actor James Norton and on-screen love interest Danielle Galligan did before their big scene to build that electric chemistry.
How Danielle Galligan was inspired by her character Lady Olivia
Throughout the process of filming House of Guinness, Lady Olivia actress Danielle Galligan fell in love with her "hedonistic" character. Speaking on her approach to taking on the role, Galligan said: "Initially I just felt at the start, don't get in the way.
"Olivia was so electric on the page and so well drawn and well observed, and the writing was so delicious and is very rare that I would feel her sense of strength and self-assuredness and tenacious doggedness to go after what she wants. So living vicariously through her was really, really delicious.
"Also she's just hedonist to the core. She really lives life to the fullest and I definitely learned that I probably wasn't living to the fullest through her."
Galligan was not the only one who grew from the experience of portraying their House of Guinness character. Emily Fairn, who plays Anne Plunket, revealed that carrying out the role of the oldest Guinness sibling made her stronger and emboldened her to "speak up" for herself.
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"Through her finding her own strength, [Anne] helps a lot of the other women in the family find power and strength as well… even for myself too. I really grew up a lot while we were doing the show.
"I always really saw myself as a girl [but] throughout filming the show I really found myself taking up space a lot more. Being a woman sometimes it's hard to do that, but actually when you have a bit of a practice run as a character, it helps you do it more as a person."
James Norton reveals what made 'a huge difference' to his scenes with Danielle Galligan
Anyone whose seen House of Guinness can attest to the sizzling chemistry between the characters of Olivia and Rafferty. Norton shared how he and Galligan broke the rules to achieve that level of intense on-screen passion.
"The night before we had our first scene. We went for a swim. We went and jumped in the lake [behind the hotel].
"We weren't meant to jump in… The hotel reception was like 'you don't swim in that lake. No one ever swims in that lake', and Danny and I were like, 'f**k it, we're gonna do it.' We just sort of traipsed off down the hill."
"Climbing over fences and through the rush," Galligan added.
"It makes a huge difference,' said James. "Because the next day, when you've been through something even as small as that, you look each other in the eye and you just know each other."
Emily Fairn (Anne) shares the scene that gave her goosebumps
There are many scenes in House of Guinness that are punchy and vibrant, and that drive the action, however the scene between Anne and The Sultan (Hilda Fay) is equally impactful, loaded by the quiet weight of grief.
"It's so silly because it's my own scene, but I do get goosebumps," said Fairn of the bitterly sombre scene.
"Doing a scene like that with someone like Hilda Fay, this incredible Irish actress, I think it's really beautiful because [the character] just experienced me losing a child and she's telling me about losing her children.
"It's such a beautiful scene of two women, from different sides of the world, holding each other in this one thing they actually have in common. It is really, really special and I'm so glad I got to do that scene. I'm really, I'm really proud of that scene."
Niamh McCormack praises creator Steven Knight's bravery
During a conversation about why she took on the role of Ellen, Irish actor Niamh McCormack praised Knight for his creation of her character.
"On the first line of her character description was, 'Ellen has Irish Republicanism running through veins,' and I thought that was so brave of Steven to write a character at the heart of the national fight for freedom," she said.
"I think what surprised me was how attached I got to her. I think I found a lot of myself in her and also Ellen is a very masculine presenting woman for that time...
"She flip-flops between having to hide her emotions, because she wants to be taken seriously and in a male dominated world. She would've had to work twice as hard as any other man and also then having that strength in being vulnerable. Towards the end of the series you do see her show more emotion and I think it's empowering for her."
Fionn O'Shea hints at the root of Benjamin Guinness' trauma
Benjamin Guinness spends a lot of the series fleeting between different states of being lost, but the show never goes into depth about how he reached rock bottom. Benjamin actor Fionn O'Shea shared his thoughts on where he thinks his character's trauma comes from.
"I think when Benjamin started drinking [it was] because he didn't really know where his place was within the whole family. He probably got quite a lot of attention and any attention was better than, than none. And then I think it got to a point where he just is universally accepted as 'the f**k up', and the person who's not gonna amount to anything...
"When we meet him in the show, he's kind of like a ghost in the Guinness House. The servants move around him and they don't really give him any attention, no matter what he's doing. So I think we meet him at his lowest point in terms of his journey of descending into the worst parts of his mind."
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
