Derry Girls Star Ian McElhinney To Star In New Australian Drama Series

Northern Ireland actor Ian McElhinney is to star in a new drama in Australia.

McElhinney known for his roles in Game of Thrones and Derry Girls, will play the role of a police officer in a new mystery series based Down Under, called High Country.

The crime thriller which first aired last month, will star Leah Purcell as Detective Andrea 'Andie' Whitford, who is transferred to the Victoria High Country, to solve a complex case involving five missing people, who have disappeared without a trace in the wilderness.

Executive producer Purcell will star in the thriller alongside Ian McElhinney, who will play police officer Sam Dyson, who becomes just as obsessed with the investigation. Andie had been brought into to replace Dyson, who is retiring from the force after 40 years service. 

Andie is determined to solve the case, as she is desperate to escape her personal trauma that she suffered in Melbourne. She later tells Sam Dyson during a row between the pair,  “In the city we call that a pattern".  He replies: “Up here, it’s a fact of life". 

The series will also see Australian actor Henry Nixon play Damien, a former school teacher, claiming that he is psychic.

High Country was co-directed by Beck Cole, and Kevin Carlin, as well as co-created by Marcia Gardiner, and John Ridley. Production for this series which runs for eight episodes, began in April last year in the regional Victorian town of Jamieson, and was created by video streaming subscription service, Binge. 

"putting it mildly" 

With the pair playing implacable foes on the set for High Country, Henry Nixon joked that being afraid of Ian McElhinney was not that difficult to imagine.

"That's putting it mildly", Nixon told Australian publication, The Herald Sun. "He wants to kill me". 

“He had just got in and we shook hands and he said ‘this is the last time I’m going to be nice to you’,” Nixon added. “But he did it in such a relaxed, offhand way. And I was like ‘f--- man, is he sassing me?’ He was joking around but he has that casual menace and that gravitas that I didn’t have to do much acting in those scenes. He’s scary". 

Ian McElhinney had previously starred as swordsman maestro Ser Berristan Selmy for five seasons of award winning HBO Fantasy epic, Game of Thrones, starring in 25 episodes in total. 

He has recently worked with Hollywood actor George Clooney on The Boys In The Boat, which tells the true story of the University of Washington rowing team and their pursuit of Gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Clooney will star and direct this film.