‘You get a bit tense’ – The Dry’s Pom Boyd speaks on how actors deal with intimate scenes

She is reprising her role as Bernie Sheridan – the mum of Shiv Sheridan, played by Roisin Gallagher, who returns to Dublin after years of partying in London.

The Dry follows Shiv trying to navigate her new life and staying sober while being back with her family.

The second season marks changes in Bernie’s life, as she has a new boyfriend Finbar, played by Michael McElhatton, known for his role in Game of Thrones.

"Bernie met Finbar when she started going to the AA meetings and he's a very dedicated AA-er,” she told the Irish Independent.

“So he has essentially moved in to the family home, which doesn't go down too well with the rest of the family. But she's happy, she's not on her own”.

She praised her co-star Michael McElhatton who is a “funny guy”.

"He's done a lot of comedy, so we really clicked. We had a common language around all that.

"Nancy Harris has just written a brilliant character, but Michael has brought [Finbar] to the screen hilariously in his inimitable fashion,” she said.

A Dublin native revealed viewers can expect “lots of drama and lots of comedy as well” in season two of the ITV series.

She was “thrilled” to hear The Dry is coming back for the second season.

"We all know each other so well now at this stage. It was a joy from beginning to end,” she said.

The house of Sheridans in the new season has become a “little crowded”, Pom added.

“Bernie has been there with her new boyfriend, and all the kids have moved back home. So everybody's there, which I can relate to because I live here with my two adult children, my husband and a dog. And we live in a two-bedroom flat.

“In the first episode, you see everybody running for the bathroom at the same time. I totally relate,” she said.

Irish actress and writer revealed how actors deal with intimate scenes on set, such as kissing or sex scenes.

“I think every actress and actor has had the fear,” she said, adding she had “this fear” herself.

"Nowadays, you also have intimacy coordinators on set. Because you get a bit tense talking about it, and some actors respond well to it and some don't. But it does give a space where you can go: ‘Are you okay with this?

"And it's literally choreographed – it’s ‘you do this, you do this’. There's no sort of sudden diving in when action is called because the old way was the director would look the other way, they'd be mortified, and you just be told to get on with it,” she added.

Pom has noticed a change in seeing more characters being created that break out of the stereotypical roles of “Irish mammies”.

"Mother is not a character description, neither is granny. We all have grandmothers, and they could not be more different, same as mothers.

“I was cast as a granny back in November and one of the descriptions in the script was that she was knitting in the chair, and I said: ‘I will accept the part, thank you very much for offering, but I won't have her knitting, and can you make her a little bit younger?’.

"And they were totally up for that, and delighted to bring that on board – so that's what's changed.

"Whereas before, if I had said that, it would have been: ‘Sorry, next’. But I feel there is an openness now. It's brilliant,” she said.

The Dry stars Ciarán Hinds, Adam John Richardson, Siobhán Cullen, Eoin Duffy and Moe Dunford, and is produced by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe who recently worked on the Oscar-winning Poor Things.

The Dry returns to RTÉ One on Wednesday at 9:35pm.