Monica Dolan, who starred in Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Sherwood, has admitted she "questions humanity all the time" as she takes on another harrowing real-life role. The 57-year-old actress, who played real-life sub-postmistress Jo Hamilton in the award-winning ITV show, is now on the big screen in The Lost Children of Tuam, playing Irish amateur historian and researcher Catherine Corless, who exposed the deaths of 796 infants and young children at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway, Ireland.
Speaking on the red carpet
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk on the red carpet for a gala screening of the Liam Neeson-produced film, she confessed: "I question humanity all the time. But I suppose what I'm heartened by is that there are stories about them, and that we're trying to tell them and telling them as well as we can. Hopefully, something people will take away from the film is that history is a tool for the future, and it can help us learn to live more creatively and positively if we take it seriously. And part of that's telling stories. So I don't really know how to manage it all apart from telling stories about it. To be honest, I don't know what I'd do with my view of humanity if I didn't try and do this," she smiled.
Daunting roles
Despite this, she admits it is nerve-wracking to take on the roles of real-life people. "It's always daunting," she nodded. "Most recently, I've played Linda Tolhurst, who works on the stage door at the National Theatre (in the film Elsinore, a biographical drama about Scottish actor Ian Charleson), and that's been very daunting and exciting because she's worked there since 1975."
"Any actor who's walked through the door of that theatre knows who she is. I think the thing is that if you're playing somebody who's a real person, there's an awful lot of information there that you've got to draw on, and if they're approachable, then there's an awful lot of help there for you as well. And also, sometimes there can be, with any person, quite profound contradictions in them. But because they're a real person, those are undeniable. And so there's a lot of interesting stuff to embrace if you're playing somebody real," she smiled.
A distressing latest role
Her latest role is possibly one of her most distressing. The investigative drama focuses on the true story of how one woman uncovered a massive state and religious cover-up in Ireland after she discovered 796 children died at the home, but there were absolutely no corresponding burial records. Acknowledging the sensitive subject matter, she said: "I mean, obviously, there are people connected with this film who've lived with a lot worse than I have, and I think when I read it, there are some things that you just can't say no to, and if you're asked to serve a piece like this. I don't know what kind of cowardice it would have been to say no. I didn't feel I could say no anyway."
The Lost Children of Tuam is in cinemas now.
