'I SAY YES TO AS MUCH AS I CAN'

Lisa Dwan tells us about going from drug dealer to detective for her new drama, ditching make-up to be a role model, and fibbing on her CV.

Lisa Dwan is best known for playing hard-nosed drug dealer Lizzie in Top Boy, but now she's switching sides to star as a detective in new crime drama Blackshore.

The series follows Fia Lucey, a no-nonsense cop sent back to her small home town after breaking the nose of a sexually aggressive thug. Forced to confront her family trauma to solve her latest case, Fia soon discovers everything is connected to a historic murder in the area.

Lisa, 46, signed up for the role after seeing a great deal of herself in Fia.

"I showed the script to my partner Paul and he went, 'Jesus, that's you,"" says Lisa, who grew up in Coosan, County Westmeath. "I'm somebody who left my home town at a very young age, and it's a very similar type of town it's on a lake in the centre of Ireland.

"That idea of being in exile and coming back, revisiting relationships that are frozen in time and having to reevaluate them I thought that would! be very interesting to play." However, Lisa's one request for the character was that she didn't want "lip gloss getting in the way" of the drama.

"I love how unapologetic Fia is about her lack of charm, and I think it's important for girls to see role models like that. We don't have to be all smiley and lovely - that would have been totally inappropriate, given the subject matter," she says.