Talk about getting under your skin. The most recent episode was great.
Despite the fact that Conor (Alex Murphy) and Jock (Chris Walley) steal bikes, act the blaggard and annoy every single person that they come into contact with, there’s still something incredibly loveable about Cork’s most dynamic duo.
The same could be said about every single character in The Young Offenders.
Mairead (Hilary Rose) might swear at her son, be rude to customers and have a zero tolerance approach to dickheads, but she’s incredibly loyal, brave and caring too.
Hell, you could argue that every single person in Peter Foott’s beloved comedy has a few redeeming qualities. There are times when you might even think that Principal Walsh (P.J. Gallagher) is in the right. After all, he’s only trying to look out for his daughters and what man would like somebody tha pees on their leg?
It looks like fans of the show are going to have to contend with some villains from now on, however, as the most recent episode of The Young Offenders introduced us to the two most loathsome characters in the show’s history to date: Nancy and Gavin Madigan.
Clip via BBC Three
After returning to Cork from Kilkenny, Gavin instantly went about undermining Conor and Jock’s friendship by any means possible.
Deliberately calling Conor by the name of Tom, sitting next to Jock in class, kissing Linda, getting into the most shambolic fight imaginable and ultimately, lying to get Conor expelled.
As PJ Gallagher told JOE when we had the chance to sit down with him: “He’s a rat…and so is his ma!”
“Oh yeah, he’s a little rat. A rat! He’s a rat and so is his ma! They’re rats!” joked Gallagher.
“There are a couple of characters that come into this series and like, there are endearing qualities in all of The Young Offenders characters and you can see the human side of them, but there are a couple of rats in this series!”
Nancy Madigan wasn’t much better than her son but at least Mairead got to beat the crap out of her, something that Hilary Rose absolutely loved filming.
“That was great, just to cut loose because in Season 1, you’re really establishing the family unit and how Mairead really ash to keep it all together,” Rose said.
“But you know, she has to have her time to fall apart too and she really does. She really starts to fall apart in Season 2. There’s loads more scope to do have more fun when you’re doing that sort of stuff but that scene was so much fun to film.”
Despite the fact that Gavin was trying to drive a wedge into their friendship, Chris Walley (Jock) and Alex Murphy (Conor) told JOE that they absolutely loved filming the scenes with Danny Power (Gavin).
“That was really funny, yeah,” said Murphy.
“He’s sort of like a nemesis of mine. I don’t know, there’s just something about him. He got the character just perfect, he’s a little weasel! He’s kind of driving our friendship apart a bit but he just found this perfect balance. You can’t figure out why you just don’t like him but he’s also very likeable at the same time,” said Murphy.
The next episode in Season 2 of The Young Offenders airs next Monday (25 November).
We can’t wait.
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