Chris O’Dowd says Small Town, Big Story gave filming locations ’emotional boost’

By Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Entertainment Reporter

Small Town, Big Story creator Chris O’Dowd has said the show’s filming locations were given an “emotional boost” by the programme.

The upcoming six-part Sky series is set in the fictional Irish town of Drumban, where the arrival of a film crew puts a “spotlight on a secret that’s been kept hidden since the eve of the millennium”.

Speaking about the impact the show’s production had on the real-life Irish towns in which the show was filmed, the Irish actor, 45, told the PA news agency: “Obviously, (it can) be beneficial to them in a financial way, and also just giving the place a bit of an emotional boost.

“If you want any kind of authenticity, it’s great to be able to film on location.

“So it’s more the chemistry that can go on, I know from experience, people love when you arrive, (but a) couple of years in, they’re like, ‘that’s another f***** truck in my drive.”

American star Christina Hendricks, who plays Wendy Patterson in the series, added: “When they want to get home at the end of the day, and we’re making them stop the traffic, they’re not happy.”

In the comedy drama, Wendy returns to her hometown from Los Angeles with a US production crew.

The Mad Men actress, 49, said: “I think she goes back thinking she’s coming in big.

“I mean, she comes in with an entourage and a caravan of trucks and equipment, and material, and then it’s pissing down rain on her first day, and a bird falls on her windshield, and it’s just chipping away right from the beginning, chip by chip by chip.

“And this confidence of coming in with my big Hollywood production is like, well, that was embarrassing, and that didn’t go well, that speech wasn’t good, and that was, you know, humiliating.

“It just sort of starts to just take her back down, kick her down a little.”

O’Dowd, who is best known for his role in Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd, said Drumban was based on his mother’s hometown, 10 miles outside Boyle.

He said: “It’s essentially the same size, same feel, same number of people, I would have thought.

“And then geographically, I just moved it around an hour north because I wanted it to be on the border.

“So it’s between the towns beside Lough MacNean, which is a real place and a real lake.”

Small Town, Big Story will air on Sky Atlantic and Now on February 27th.