The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Joyce easing back into River City role
Roisin is back in Shieldinch and making waves on Montego Street – and Aberdeen actor Joyce Falconer is loving every minute of it.
“It feels fantastic… like putting on an old pair of comfortable slippers,” she said about returning to River City and back into the shoes of the fiery Doric character she last played in 2008 in the popular BBC Scotland soap.
“I’m surprised how easy it was to slip back into it. I was thinking ‘will I remember all the protocol and terminology?’ but I am thoroughly enjoying myself.”
And Roisin McIntyre fans will enjoy it too – but this isn’t quite Roisin as they might remember her when she was part of the original ensemble of characters, with memorable story lines from winning the lottery to her reunion with secret love child Alanna. She’s no longer the loud, brash nail technician from the Lazy Rays tanning salon who left for a new life in the States with her new man, Sonny.
“She returned from America and went back to Aberdeen and retrained off her own back. Now she’s a counsellor,” said Joyce.
Some things, though, haven’t changed.
It’s a matter of mere minutes into her first episode before Roisin is having a fiery clash with her old foe, Scarlett O’Hara, who’s not happy the counsellor’s first client is her son, Stevie.
“I know Sally Howitt, the actress who plays Scarlett, so when we had that major ding-dong it was good fun to play.”
Before she has her set-to, the episode sees Roisin visiting old haunts, now changed, and meeting new faces who she doesn’t know – and who don’t know her.
The establishing trip down memory lane was pretty much like Joyce’s own return to the purposebuilt set in Dumbarton Studios where River City is filmed.
“It was interesting for me thinking ‘oh, that used to be this and this used to be that’ and trying to remember where everybody stayed,” she said.
While the exterior set hasn’t changed much – “it’s still typical Glasgow tenements” – Joyce said the studios where interior scenes are filmed are far larger to accommodate the many different characters now in play.
But she hasn’t lost her bearings as Roisin, despite the character’s gear change in career.
“Roisin, when she was in it originally, used to have a lot of people coming up to her and pouring their heart out,” said Joyce. “I don’t know if it’s her interest in the human condition or just nosiness.”
Folk pouring their heart out didn’t just happen on the telly. Joyce found people doing the same with her in real life.
“That’s the nature of soap. People feel like they have a personal relationship with you. But I always felt very loved by the public. But saying that, there’s still some folk that cannae stand you.”
It’s a measure of that affection and the impact of both Roisin and Joyce that she still gets fans of River City coming up and chatting to her, even in the intervening years as she has carved out a path as a stage actor and writer.
“I find it quite amusing when you are theatre acting and come out, thinking you have completely transformed yourself, that folk are still calling you Roisin. I just accept that and take it as a compliment.”
Joyce reckons it was fan power – Roisin is still a firm favourite with fan forums constantly asking when she is coming back — that led to her return.