A former nurse turned actress who helped treat Covid-19 patients in an Irish hospital has landed a top part in a new ITV medical thriller.
Helen Behan, who lives in Laytown, East Meath, is to become a doctor in the new five part series Malpractice, which will be screened next year.
It tells the story of a damaged doctor caught up in a dangerous conspiracy.
Read More: Irish actress Niamh Algar to star in new medical drama Malpractice
The lead is played by another Irish actress, her friend, Niamh Algar as Dr Lucinda Edwards, a smart, battle hardened medic who has a nightmare shift which ends in the death of an opiod overdose victim.
Helen plays Dr Norma Callahan who leads the whole medical investigation. Both actresses previously worked together in the series The Virtues.
But Helen also appeared in the ITV drama series Holding, based on Graham Norton's best selling book and filmed in west Cork last summer.
Mum of four Helen got her first break when she met director Shane Meadows by chance in a local pub Morans, in Mornington village, Co Meath in 2011. He gave her a part as a nurse in the series This is England 88.
She then gave up nursing and went acting full time.
However during the Covid pandemic she returned to nursing and went to work at her local Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
Helen said: "The reason I went back to work during the pandemic is that when a national call was put out for staff I felt compelled to help because I could.
"They were and are frightening times and I was in a position to do something positive , to help in some way, and so all the health care professionals I know put themselves forward."
Malpractice is being produced and made by World Productions which also made the award winning smash hit crime series Line of Duty.
Filming will take place in Leeds, in the north of England.
Niamh Algar said: "I'm thrilled to be part of this project. I was blown away by Grace Ofori-Attah's script and the team attached to creating Malpractice.
"I'm a huge fan of director Phil Barantini's work, his movie Boiling Point, is an astonishing piece of work and I'm so excited to see how he approaches Malpractice.
"I'm absolutely over the moon that we are working together on this special series."
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
