In soapland there’s very rarely a silver lining to the tales of scandal and death, but River City’s ‘Roisin' has revealed there was light at the end of the tunnel in the show’s latest tear-jerking plot.
Last week Joyce Falconer’s character returned to Shieldinch to attend the funeral of her on-screen sister ‘Shona’ who died from an aneurysm she had kept secret from all who knew her.
The storyline has sent shockwaves through the soap’s faithful followers however Falconer told STV’s The Hour that in fact some good had come out of the heartache.
Falconer said: “She’s a wonderful actress (Julie Duncanson, who played Shona) and it was very sad for us. But as they say it’s often a death and a birth. Although it’s a death in soapland there’s been very beautiful news. Claire who plays Iona has had a very beautiful baby girl, Maisie, who we actually spent a lot of time filming hiding the bump.”
Falconer is renowned in the show for her thick north east accent, something which she admits has led to a following from that part of the country.
“I don't know if it's because I'm in the central belt if you like,” she said. “I sort of represent the northerners or something. Particularly wee towns I went to. It's just very strange folks reactions sometimes.
"A lot of folk just go, ‘It’s you, you’re the big mad bird, are you the big mad bird?’ and then you sort of go, ‘Aye, I’m the big mad bird.’”
Joyce has just finished touring with the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, the best-known and most critically acclaimed of Liz Lochhead’s dramas.
