The Bombmaker (2001)

Expert IRA bomb-maker turned police informant Andrea Hayes retires and starts a new life after four school-children are killed by one of her bombs. Ten years later, her blissful home life shattered when her daughter, Katie, is abducted from her bedroom in the dead of night. Andrea later discovers a ransom note, instructing her to leave her husband Martin and fly to London by herself. It also states that if the police are contacted, she and Martin will never see Katie again. In the hope of being reunited with Katie, Andrea obeys orders and follows instructions to meet with the kidnappers. Back in Dublin, Martin is powerless to help and becomes frantic with worry when he learns from Andrea that no ransom demand has been made, and that the kidnappers' request is something much more dangerous.

Date of release
2001-04-08
TMDB
9.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
2h 24m
Director
Graham Theakston

Casting

Interesting facts

The Bombmaker is a two-part British television drama serial, written and created by Stephen Leather, and directed by Graham Theakston. It first broadcast on Sky One on 8 April 2001, with the second and final episode following a week later on 15 April. The series, based upon Leather's novel of the same name, stars Dervla Kirwan as Andrea Hayes, a former IRA bombmaker who is forced to come out of retirement when her daughter is kidnapped and held to ransom.

Production

Dervla Kirwan said of her role as Andrea Hayes; "Graham Theakston, with whom I worked on The Dark Room (a BBC1 adaptation of the Minette Walters novel), was directing The Bombmaker and asked me if I was interested. I could see all the pitfalls in the script, but female characters who dominate like Andrea are few and far between. Whatever flaws there are, you owe it to yourself to do it.

Stephen Leather said of writing the series; "There are several major twists the audience won't see coming...it's not a run-of-the-mill kidnapping, but you don't find out until the end why the kidnappers have taken the little girl. You think it's an IRA story, but... it constantly keeps you guessing."

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