Wildfire is streaming on Channel 4 free of charge right now, giving UK audiences the chance to catch the acclaimed Irish drama that stars Nora-Jane Noone and the late Nika McGuigan. The film is available to watch with ads until 26 September.
Written and directed by Cathy Brady, Wildfire was released in 2020 and marked her first feature film. The story follows two sisters, Lauren and Kelly, who are reunited after one of them vanishes from home without warning. Set in post-Troubles Northern Ireland, the pair begin digging into their late mother’s past, uncovering long-buried secrets that push their relationship to breaking point.
A cast that includes a Blue Lights star and a Game of Thrones favourite
Alongside Noone and McGuigan, the film features Martin McCann and Kate Dickie. The cast brings considerable weight to Brady’s debut: Dickie is known to many from her work on Game of Thrones, while McCann appears in Blue Lights.
McGuigan, who plays Kelly, had already made her mark on Irish television before Wildfire arrived. According to Wikipedia, she was known for her role as Danielle Mullane in Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, which ran from 2016 to 2018. Born on 4 January 1986, she was also the daughter of Olympic boxer Barry McGuigan, as the Impartial Reporter has reported.
Tragically, McGuigan did not live to see the film’s release. She died on 23 July 2019 in Dublin, according to IMDb, having been diagnosed with bowel cancer. She was 33. At the 2021 IFTA Awards, she was posthumously awarded Best Actress for her performance in Wildfire, a recognition that many felt was long overdue.
What critics said about Wildfire streaming Channel 4’s latest addition
Wildfire currently holds a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 43 reviews, making it one of the better-received Irish films of recent years. Critics have been consistent in their praise, both for Brady’s direction and for the performances at the film’s core.
Common Sense Media called it ‘a powerful 85 minutes filled with great complexity and some potent visual flourishes that emerge from the understated direction.’ Mark Kermode described it as ‘haunting, ambient and very impressive,’ while The Observer went further: ‘Savagely powerful, directed with an unshowy but acute eye, this is a terrific feature debut from the writer and director Cathy Brady.’
Film Ireland Magazine praised McGuigan and Noone directly, writing that Wildfire ‘burns and melts with incredible performances and establishes Cathy Brady as a visionary feature director.’ IndieWire noted that ‘Brady makes her story feel fresh, alive, and specific, simmering with just-out-of-reach dread,’ and Sight and Sound concluded that the film was ‘carried by the performances of its leads.’
The consensus is clear: this is not a film carried by its plot twists or its production scale. It works because Brady trusts her two leads, and they deliver. McGuigan’s posthumous IFTA win speaks to how fully she inhabited a role that required her to carry enormous emotional weight across what is, at 85 minutes, a tightly constructed piece of storytelling.
Brady’s debut has taken its time to reach a wider audience, but its arrival on Channel 4‘s free streaming platform means the barrier to entry is now as low as it gets. Wildfire is available to stream now, with ads, until 26 September.
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