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Dervla's latest role is ambitious Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Claire Maxwell in 55 Degrees North, starring alongside Don Gilet. She's also recently been seen in Casanova, playing the mother of David Tennant's famous lothario.
Another recent role was Terri Leonard in one-off political drama The Deputy, with Warren Clarke and Jack Dee. She also appeared in Newcastle-set Brit Flick School for Seduction.
In 2000 she played love-sick wife Emma Rose in Hearts and Bones with Hugo Speer and Amanda Holden, and Kate Green in Happy Birthday Shakespeare with Neil Morrissey.
By far the best known of Dervla's many TV roles is that of Assumpta Fitzgerald, the spirited bar owner in Ballykissangel, a whimsical drama centring around an English priest, Father Peter Clifford (Stephen Tompkinson), sent to a small Irish village. Ballykissangel was so popular that it was referenced by episodes of The Vicar of Dibley and Father Ted, in both of which Dervla appeared.
Dervla's first role was as Viola O'Neil in Troubles, back in 1988 when she was just fifteen. Other early roles included Bernadette Kennedy, the 18-year-old girlfriend of 50-year-old Andrew Powell, played by Ronald Pickup, in a TV adaptation of Melvyn Bragg's novel A Time To Dance. She also had parts in Billy Roche's Wexford Trilogy of plays, both on stage and in TV adaptations.
Between 1993 and 1996, Dervla played 1940's landlady Phoebe Bamford in Goodnight Sweetheart, with Nicholas Lyndhurst, finally leaving to concentrate on Ballykissangel.
Playing against the cheerful, girl-next-door image of her Ballykissangel and Goodnight Sweetheart characters, Dervla has appeared in some rather darker programmes, notably controversial drama The Bombmaker and psychological drama The Dark Room.
Programmes Dervla has guest-starred on include Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Dalziel and Pascoe.
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She went out with Ballykissangel co-star Stephen Tompkinson for several years, and the pair of them were engaged in 1998. They split up, citing work pressures, in 1999.
Dervla's performance in Ballykissangel won her the National TV Award for Best Actress in 1996, and the Irish Post Award for Best Irish Entertainer, 1997.
She supports the Terrence Higgins Trust*, and has raised money for them by running in a ten kilometre race.
She is the sultry voice of the M&S food TV ads.
Dervla co-owns a production company, Aphra Productions, with actress Sarah Parish.
* The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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| Personal Details |
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She was born on 24 October 1971, in Churchtown, Ireland.
She is the youngest of three daughters.
Her partner is actor Rupert Penry-Jones, with whom she has a daughter, named Florence, and a son, called Peter. Rupert has starred in Cambridge Spies and Spooks.
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Dervla Kirwan
