The Irish drama Paula is climbing the Paula BBC iPlayer chart, sitting at number two behind EastEnders after previously landing at number four in the platform’s top ten most popular list.
The three-part thriller stars Denise Gough as an emotionally detached teacher who ends an affair with a colleague, then embarks on a one-night stand with her handyman, only for things to take a very dark turn when he pursues something more. The twist, for those who haven’t seen it, is very much worth discovering without spoilers.
A 2017 drama with a sharp new audience
According to Wikipedia, Paula was first broadcast on RTÉ One on 24 May 2017 in Ireland and on BBC Two on 25 May 2017 in the UK. It was created by screenwriter Conor McPherson and directed by Alex Holmes, with the production filmed on location in Dublin and Belfast. The series has now returned to BBC iPlayer, where it is finding a substantial new audience years after its original run.
McPherson’s script sets a claustrophobic, pressurised tone from the outset. Writing about the first episode on its original broadcast, The Guardian described it as a series where ‘every scene is dark, claustrophobic and menacing, and the whole thing has a slight air of suppressed insanity about it.’ That atmosphere, it turns out, has aged well.
What viewers and critics made of Paula
Audience response on IMDb has been warm. One user called it an ‘excellent, tense miniseries’, writing: ‘It starts off quite well and has what some may call a dubious ending, but as a whole it’s brilliant. The second episode in particular is loaded with tension, featuring some really nasty moments.’
Gough, speaking to Stylist around the time of the original broadcast, was candid about why the role appealed to her. ‘I’ve been in [TV shows] with women getting mutilated and the guy who’s doing the killing, although unlikeable, is hot,’ she said. ‘I wanted to be part of a similar type of thing but with a woman in that position. The first reaction is always “she’s not very likeable”, and isn’t that funny? You wouldn’t say that about Jamie Dornan [in The Fall].’
It is a point the series makes quietly but insistently throughout its three episodes, letting the genre mechanics do the work rather than spelling it out.
Where Denise Gough has gone since Paula BBC iPlayer first aired
For viewers discovering Paula now via the Paula BBC iPlayer chart, Gough’s trajectory since 2017 adds an extra layer of interest. She went on to appear in period romance Colette, biographical drama H Is for Hawk, and fronted series including Under the Banner of Heaven, Who is Erin Carter? and The Stolen Girl.
Her profile rose further with the critically beloved Star Wars series Andor, which brought her to a considerably wider global audience. And there is more to come: Gough is set to appear in Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, though it is not currently clear which role she will be playing in the film.
For now, the renewed attention on the Paula BBC iPlayer listing suggests plenty of viewers are catching up on what they missed the first time around. Given where Gough’s career has taken her, the timing feels apt.
Paula is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer. With all three episodes on the platform, it is the kind of series that tends to disappear in a single weekend sitting, which may well explain how it got to number two in the first place.
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