Molony Moments of 2015: ‘Year of the DaMo’

Way back in January we declared 2015 ‘The Year Of The Damo‘ and how right we turned out to be! Our favourite actor has kept us fans endlessly and dazzlingly entertained in every arena, with incredible projects in TV, theatre, radio and film.

The months of 2015 have been filled with anticipation, excitement, entertainment, appreciation and myriad ‘Molony Moments’ – take a look back at the year with us, as we celebrate our favourites.

The National Theatre, 2015, © Johan Persson

Our favourite actor returned to the stage at London’s National Theatre for five whole months in The Hard Problem, Sir Tom Stoppard’s first play in years and Sir Nicolas Hytner’s last as director at the National.

From 21 January to 17 May, Damien brought the witty, intellectual Spike, often in ‘a state of undress’, to life, in sizzling and vivid performance alongside Olivia Vinal. It was vibrant, energetic, stimulating and quite frankly brilliant.

The play was also broadcast simultaneously to cinemas worldwide 16 April with National Theatre Live, making it accessible to more fans and giving international fans a precious opportunity to see our fave actor perform on stage ‘live’.

Our Molony Moments? Nothing to do with the silky robe or toplessness, at. all.

© Channel 5

Damien returned to UK TV screens as DS Jack Weston in not one but two series ofSuspects in 2015, beginning and ending the year with more of our favourite TV detective in our favourite crime drama.

Series 3 aired 13 – 20 January Series 4 25 November – 16 December on Channel 5 and Jack was totally back, fighting crime, chasing down and grilling the suspects in the interview room with that compelling mix of Jack Sass and sensitivity.

This year Suspects showed it had established itself in the field of crime drama and that its unique format puts it in a class of its own. With gripping and gritty storylines, Damien and co-stars Fay Ripley and Clare-Hope Ashitey demonstrated increasingly impressive improv skills and delivered top-notch performances across both series.

Damien was deservedly nominated for best drama performance for his portrayal of Jack Weston in the 2016 National Television Awards, with Suspects nominated in the drama category. The show was also nominated for Best Drama Series in the TV Choice Awards.

Our only complaint about Suspects this year? It always ends too soon and Jack always leaves us wanting more!

Our Molony Moments:
  

In 2015 we were thrilled to meet brand new Damien character Danny Dempsey in Clean Break, which arrived on RTÉ One in October for a 4 episode series.
In the run up to the premiere, we enjoyed new cast interviews and our first glimpse of DaMo as Danny a thrilling new trailer.

We were excited for this one from the moment Damien was announced as cast, and were not disappointed. Our fave actor delivered a knockout performance when he made his Danny Dempsey debut. The beautifully shot drama and masterfully woven story showcased Damien’s hallmark talent in conveying conflicted and angsty characters as he brought Danny to life.

Our Molony Moments:
  

This year was a momentous one for fans and Damien alike as he appeared as the character Ross in his first feature film Kill Your Friends. The movie toured the world in film festivals including Cannes and TIFF and opened in cinemas in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Thailand, Switzerland.

Our first glimpse of Damien in the official trailer came in August and we were treated to awesome photos and interviews with Damien on the red carpet at the UK premiere 22 October. On the UK theatrical release day 5 November, Damien also gifted fans a killer behind the scenes photo.

Our Molony Moments:
  

Poetry Please May 2015
© BBC Radio 4

If Damien had not already established himself as Mr Radio 4 in previous years, 2015 confirmed it – appearing no less than five times on BBC Radio 4.

Damien delivered magical, beguiling readings in an impressive range of accents as the actor reader on renowned BBC Poetry Please in four separate programmes: ‘Bubble and Squeak’ 15 February, ‘Bloomsday’ 14 June, ‘June Miscellany’ 21 June and ‘Pot Luck’ 25 October. He gave voice to a (staggering) total of 19 poems, including Joyce, Yeats, Rossetti and Keats.

Damien also appeared on a programme celebrating New Irish Writing reading Eimear Mcbride’s short story ‘Me and the Devil‘.

This much voice talent alone was enough to declare 2015 ‘Year Of The DaMo’.

Our Molony Moments:

© Story Film

We may not have a date for the Tiger Raid film festival premiere yet, but oh my did we have some awesome, awesome treats and teasers for the film this year.

Our first look at Damien in Tiger Raid came in February when Story Film released the first promo images and the DaMo fandom could hardly be contained when we glimpsed Damien’s bandit-like blacked out eyes as his character Paddy in the film.

In May Story Film shared an exciting exclusive post production photo with DMF. In October, spectacular unseen behind-the-scenes TIGER RAID photos were released. And, just in time for Christmas, Story Film kindly gifted DMF with an Exclusive Damien Character Photo.

We cannot wait for the film’s release and hope to be back here this time next year with our favourite big screen Damien moments.

Our Molony Moments:
  

© Channel 4

We can hardly contain ourselves for this one! In August, Damien revealed in an interviewthat he was about to begin filming for a new comedy drama project. This month Channel 4 announced he will be appearing in Crashing, a “comedy drama that crashes straight into the lives and loves of six twenty-something adults living together as Property Guardians in a disused hospital.”

Just 2 days ago the first explosive trailer aired on Channel 4 and if this wasn’t exciting enough Crashing premieres in under 3 weeks time, 11 January 2016!

We cannot wait to be here this time next year with more Crashing Molony Moments!

Our Molony Moments:
  

© Damien Molony

Some of our top Molony Moments of 2015 came from Damien himself, who provided fans with many DaMo delights throughout the year.

At the beginning of the year Damien personalised Suspects prizes for our DMF charity fundraiser. His generosity helped us raise £580 for Embrace CVOC, a charity offering support to child victims of crime.

This year Damien has also continued to make a difference with his blood donationcampaign, inspiring fans to give blood and reaching his own personal donation milestone when he donated his tenth pint in December.

And finally.. we are truly grateful to Damien for continuing to share exclusive behind the scenes treats for us fans to enjoy, via his Twitter and Instagram pages (not following him yet? Make this your first New Years resolution*).

We couldn’t do justice to them all without writing a book, (*plus you really should be following him on Twitter and Instagram to see for yourselves). But standouts (of many, honestly, *go and look) were his adorkable Twitter profile selfie from his dressing room during The Hard Problem, his hilarious Danny Dempsey photo from behind the scenes of Clean Break and his revealing Jack Weston unzipped Suspects behind the scenes video.

Our top Molony, Molony moments:

Thank you to Damien for continuing to let his talent shine and for sharing it with the world.

And thank you to all our fellow Molonians for continuing to support him and the Damien Molony Forum!

We can feel another Year of the DaMo coming on in 2016 and hope you will all be there to share it with us.