Holly goes lightly

Having just watched two episodes of RTRs new mockumentary Dan And Becs back to back, I feel terribly guilty about disturbing Holly White’s Sunday night. After all, the show’s publicity makes much of how close the characters of Dan And Becs are to the actors that play them.

And Becs is sweet and innocent and lovably naïve in the way that spoilt girls in their early 20s seem to have perfected. No wonder I hate calling her at a time of the week when she should be settling down in front of Time Team with a nice cuppa and a stack of newspaper supplements.
But Holly’s quick to point out that she’s a very different person to her model/actress (or as Becs puts it, actress/model) alter-ego. “Becs as a character is incredibly exaggerated,” says White, on the phone from her London apartment, “she’s the product of a very sheltered upbringing. She’s never worked before, she’s only conscious of her immediate social group. Some of the things she comes out with, I kind of think ‘Oh my God’.
“Becs and me, if we were in school together, she’s the cool girl, the popular one, I was always a bit of a geek on the outside.” Not that it took much for Holly to at least start to look like the type of girl who thinks that schools, rugby, Arts in UCD, and scoring at Club 92 is the alpha and omega of life.
“It amazes me that there was this sort of jock girl uniform that you can put on. You do your hair, you do your make-up, you dress in a certain sort of way, and suddenly you become that sort of girl. And what I realised is that these girls aren’t born like that, they’re making themselves up like that.”
Holly readily admits that David Coffey, who plays Dan, but also writes and directs the series, is the one whose hard work makes the show a success. But improvisation sessions allowed White her input into the scripts too, including one scene which is taken almost exactly from the days when she was trying to launch her acting career. In Carrigstown of all places.
“We see Becs coming home from Fair City, and initially she’s incredibly exhilarated, and then she realises she just had one line, it was pretty crap. And I know exactly what that feels like, and it gives her depth as a character.” A quick search on IMDB reveals that Holly means what she says, her entire online CV consisting of a single entry as Nurse #2 in Man About Dog. IMDB misses the one-line roles in soaps and the fruit juice advert, which is cleverly attributed to Becs in the show.
But the glorified extra roles that Holly refers to as “silly things like that” had an impact – Coffey already had the idea for the show, already knew White to see, but it was seeing the ad that provided the eureka moment in the casting of Becs. So he dropped into the shop in Dalkey where Holly worked, and cut straight to the chase.
“He said ‘I see you’ve got experience in front of the camera, I’ve got an idea for a pilot, would you be interested?’ And of course I said yes.” That was two years ago, and Holly self-effacingly emphasises the role luck played in the whole affair. “It’s one of those things that fate decided, because I’m sure if I hadn’t been there he would have found someone else.”
That’s unlikely. Perhaps it’s the blurred line between her and the character, but White makes for a very natural and affable Becs from the get-go. Even in early episodes though, there are a few hints of the ego and sense of entitlement that suggest a character with more depth. There are ten episodes, each lasting ten minutes, with Coffey writing the green-lit second series already.
“They really do have strengths and weaknesses,” Holly says of the two characters, the only people we see on screen, “we’re really hoping people will stick with it, there is an evolution in their characters. And I really don’t want to give away secrets, but a lot does happen, and she’s not that nice, and he’s a lot sweeter than he seems.”
The video diary format helps add to the sense of young people with nothing better to think about than themselves. “If it was just us on screen it would get incredibly boring… it’s not supposed to be anything serious, it’s a snip to get you from five to eleven to five past eleven, it’s not meant to be anything big.”
Some critics have read something big into it though; a critique of the Celtic cubs, with their dreams of fame and lust for cash, and lack of focus on anything but themselves.
But that misses the point. The show isn’t harshly attacking that generation or its attitudes, it’s rather more simplistically celebrating that time in life when lots of Irish 20-somethings feel content to simply drift.
Now that she’s based in London, studying fashion journalism, Holly is even more keen on her hometown, and making a programme that shows it in a positive light. “It’s celebrating the city, it’s saying this is brilliant… I think we should have programmes made in Dublin that are about Dublin.”
Holly was back in Ireland a few weeks ago, when she and Coffey gathered their friends and family to watch the pilot in the Dalkey club where Dave used to work. The reception was predictably good, as it has been with many critics, and, probably more importantly, with many of the characters’ peers, even those outsiders who haven’t kissed someone called Iseult or Donnacha outside Club 92.
“I was incredibly nervous,” says White of the screening. “I was thinking there are so many jobs where you work and you come home, and nobody sees what you’ve done, whereas now I’m very open for judgment and criticism.”
Still, it probably beats being Nurse #2.
Dan And Becs airs on RTE2, Mondays and Tuesdays, 10.50pm