Merlin actor Colin Morgan has said the “dark humour” in new BBC drama Dead And Buried adds to the show’s “authenticity” as “there’s a lot of it in Northern Ireland”. The 38-year-old, from Armagh, plays Michael McAllister in the four-part psychological thriller while Walking On Sunshine’s Annabel Scholey stars as Cathy McDaid who bumps into Michael, the man responsible for killing her brother, unaware he has been released early from prison. Speaking about the humour in the series, Morgan said: “A very Northern Irish trait is the ability to ‘deal’ with pain with humour, often on the darker side – the greater the pain the greater the need to offset it in whatever way you can.
“It just so happens that Michael, and many of the characters in Dead And Buried, have dark humour as a coping mechanism. “I’m sure a psychologist could give the deep-dive on where it all stems from, all I know is that there’s a lot of it in Northern Ireland and there’s a lot of it in this show, which only adds to its twisted appeal as well as its authenticity.” Reflecting on what it was like to use his own accent, he said: “When an accent isn’t required there’s a definite shorthand with a new character, we speak a similar language already and so however I end up sounding in the end, we’ve got off to a good start.
” Scholey, 40, who is from West Yorkshire, said she “loved” learning a Northern Ireland accent for the show. “I worked hard. For weeks.
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