Pierce Brosnan has revealed that he prepared for the part of MobLand’s villainous Irish gangster Conrad Harrigan by listening to “tapes of an Irish politician” – though he has declined to name names. The goal, he explained, was to resurrect the Irish accent, which he had abandoned upon leaving Navan for London at age 12. As he admitted in a recent interview, “I had to assimilate and fit in, so the accent very quickly got buried.”
All his hard work has sadly been in vain, as Brosnan’s mangled stab at sounding Irish may well count as the biggest indignity heaped on Meath since Dublin put three goals past them in the 2020 Leinster final. Bejaysus, it is a horror for the ages – though Brosnan certainly is not alone when it comes to phonetic fumbles in MobLand (Paramount +). Helen Mirren goes above and beyond playing Conrad’s scheming wife, Maeve, with an accent that makes Tom Cruise in Far and Away sound like Colm Meaney swearing up a streak. And it isn’t even Mirren’s worst Irish accent: that honour continues to lie with her turn as an émigré from the old country in prohibition era western 1923.
Brosnan isn’t the only big Irish name to feature in MobLand. It is written by Ronan Bennett, a former Republican prisoner from Belfast who has gone on to have a starry second act to his life as a novelist and screenwriter. He’s best known for Top Boy – a thrilling tale of London drug dealers which memorably featured Barry Keoghan as a Dublin gangland figure who liked to drive around listening to the Wolfe Tones at full volume.
If Top Boy was a triumph, MobLand is a damp squib by comparison. It lacks anything resembling a sense of fun – a surprise considering the involvement of once and future king of Mockney criminal larks, Guy Ritchie, an executive producer and director of the first two episodes. The Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels man has always brought an endearing cartoonish zing to his work – a quality entirely lacking from this dour drama, which suffers from universally dislikable characters and a bland story about mobsters trying to expand their criminal empire.
The empire belongs to Brosnan’s Conrad – an Irishman abroad who has found success through old-fashioned hard work. In this case, the hard work has largely involved selling Class A drugs and executing his rivals – alongside his allies if he suspects them of having done wrong. He is assisted in all this by wife Maeve (Mirren, seemingly auditioning for the thick Irish builders episode of Fawlty Towers) and by his fixer Harry – played by a typically glum Tom Hardy.
Helen Mirren in Mobland. Photograph: Luke Varley/Paramount+
Then there is Conrad’s criminal rival, Richie Stevenson (Geoff Bell) – gearing up to declare all-out war on Conrad after his grandson goes missing, having last been seen in the company of Eddie. Look out for Westmeath’s Lisa Dwan as the Harrigan family lawyer – who breaks the mould by having an actual Irish accent. What will they think of next?
While there’s always something going on in MobLand, the series nonetheless struggles for momentum. As the harassed Harry, Hardy is a perpetually fun-killer. Yet for the Irish viewer, Hardy’s charisma-deficient turn is thoroughly eclipsed by Brosnan – who seems determined to scupper his national treasure status with that terrible accent. As a former James Bond, he should know a thing or two about pulling off a tricky mission. But with MobLand, this brogue agent comes badly unstuck. Forget licence to kill. Here, he has a licence to Darby O’Gill, and he milks it for all it is worth.
