Louisa Harland on 'challenging' scenes for The Walsh Sisters

Louisa Harland cut out image alongside the rest of the cast for The Walsh Sisters. — (Image credit: Getty Images / BBC / Future)

Best known for playing Orla McCool in the beloved comedy, Derry Girls, Louisa Harland is returning to screens as part of the BBC’s new six-part drama, The Walsh Sisters.

Following five Dublin siblings through heartbreak, grief, addiction, and parenthood, the series is based on two of the Walsh family books by Marian Keyes, Rachel's Holiday and Anybody Out There.

Louisa Harland stars alongside Caroline Menton (All Creatures Great and Small), Danielle Galligan (House of Guinness), Máiréad Tyers (My Lady Jane) and writer/actress Stefanie Preissner as the Walsh sisters.

Louisa shares that "playing Anna Walsh is probably the closest I’ve got to playing myself. She is the most empathetic of all the sisters and likely goes through the most harrowing time out of all them."

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Opening up on the "challenging" aspects of the role, Louisa talks about the blend of humour and tragedy throughout.

"One thing Marian Keyes does so well is the blend of humour and tragedy. I think, as Irish people, we use humour to get through tragedy, and that’s apparent both in the books and in our show."

Describing the scenes of all five sisters together as her "favourite scenes to film" Louisa describes the Walsh sisters as "chaotic, and we were chaotic playing them."

"I think our hardest challenge was trying to avoid the craic as much as possible, because the sisters are going through real issues."

She continued, "I think everyone can relate to them. You recognise so much of your own family in this particular family. It’s intense because everybody cares for each other so deeply."

"My upbringing was very similar. The house that we lived in was smaller, but some of the conversations - even the filming locations - are scarily similar to those I’ve experienced in real life with my own sisters."

The six-part series, which airs in the UK on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from February 21, is based on just two of the Walsh family stories. In total, there are currently seven books that follow the lives of the sisters. These include:

Watermelon (1995)
Rachel’s Holiday (1997)
Angels (2002)
Anybody Out There? (2006)
The Mystery of Mercy Close (2012)
Again, Rachel (2022)
My Favourite Mistake (2024).

Woman magazine

This article first appeared in a February 2026 issue in our sister magazine, Woman. Buy a copy or subscribe today.

Jack Slater is not the Last Action Hero, but that's what comes up first when you Google him. Preferring a much more sedentary life, Jack gets his thrills by covering news, entertainment, celebrity, film and culture for woman&home, and other digital publications.

Having written for various print and online publications—ranging from national syndicates to niche magazines—Jack has written about nearly everything there is to write about, covering LGBTQ+ news, celebrity features, TV and film scoops, reviewing the latest theatre shows lighting up London’s West End and the most pressing of SEO based stories.

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