'It's Every Parent's Worst Nightmare'

Anna Maxwell Martin and Vicky McClure on their emotional drama about the aftermath of the Warrington bombing…

- Caren Clark

On 20 March 1993, the Cheshire town of Warrington was packed with shoppers and children buying Mother’s Day cards for the following day.

But any sense of normality was shattered just before 12.30pm when two IRA bombs ripped through the town centre, leading to the deaths of 12-year-old Tim Parry and three-year-old Johnathan Ball, and injuring more than 50 others.

Now, 25 years on, BBC2’s emotional oneoff drama Mother’s Day looks at the devastating impact of the attack on Tim’s parents, Wendy and Colin (played by Motherland’s Anna Maxwell Martin and Mrs Biggs star Daniel Mays), and on Dublin mother Susan McHugh (Line of Duty’s Vicky McClure), who was so moved by news of the tragedy that she organised one of the largest peace rallies in Irish history, attended by around 20,000 people.

TV Times catches up with Anna, 41, and Vicky, 35, on the set of the drama in Belfast to learn more…

Can you tell us about the two mothers you play?

Anna: Wendy was outwardly stoic with the strength of a tiger so we see her keeping things held in until she can’t any more. She and Colin are a rock-solid couple but they had different reactions. Colin’s a brilliant speaker and was able to talk to the press – perhaps he drew comfort from it and felt he was keeping Tim’s memory alive. Wendy didn’t feel that need to speak and wanted to grieve privately, but she did go on The Late Late Show in Ireland and was very together.