Culture

Charlene McKenna: ‘I am not shy and retiring when it comes to hard work. I was laying floors with my daddy when I was 16’

At 21, the Monaghan actor became a household name as Jennifer Jackson in Pure Mule. Now starring in Bloodlands and the final season of the acclaimed Peaky Blinders, she talks marriage, lockdown and hitting new careers highs

Charlene McKenna wears cream crochet sweater, €1,195, Colin Burke; cream silk and tulle embroidered skirt, €995, initial letter hoop earrings, €110 each, embroidered socks, €40, and shoes, €835, all Simone Rocha at Havana; gold plated spacer sphere ring, €35, Sorcha O’Raghallaigh; pearl ring, €249, Charlotte Lebeck at Loulerie

Watching Charlene McKenna beaming into camera, it’s not her delicate features that hit you most, it’s the clear blue eyes that shoot into the photographer’s lens that captivate. A useful quality to have, not least because as one of the newest additions to the highly anticipated final season of the BBC’s acclaimed Peaky Blinders, the producers have finally found someone whose penetrating stare can match that of its main star, Cillian Murphy.

Playing Captain Swing ...