Queen. Detective. Enchantress. Calendar girl. Mob wife. Mobster. Is there any role Helen Mirren has not tackled with aplomb? She's trod the boards portraying Shakespeare’s greats and played them on the screen too. She’s won BAFTAs, Emmys, Golden Globes, and an Oscar, Olivier, and Tony award. In 2003, she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to drama, hence her snazzy title.
Mirren is well known for having played a queen or two or three, but one of her earliest claims to fame was as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in the crime drama series Prime Suspect, a role she played for seven seasons. She’s also had (and continues to have) a distinguished career on the big screen, becoming something of an action star in recent years with roles in RED and the Fast & Furious franchise. But she’s also still having fun on multiple series from playing Catherine the Great to joining the Dutton family in the Yellowstone prequel series 1923, as Cara Dutton. Season 2 is currently airing on M-Net, and you can stream season 1 on Showmax.
Now Mirren is set to appear in a new series on M-Net, MobLand. It also features an influential family, this one a London crime family called the Harrigans. Mirren plays the matriarch of the family to Pierce Brosnan’s patriarch. Starring alongside them as their fixer Harry Da Souza, is Tom Hardy. The series also features Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt, as well as Paddy Considine, whom M-Net viewers will most recently have watched as King Viserys I Targaryen in House of the Dragon.
MobLand was created by Ronan Bennett, who also created the thrilling new adaptation of The Day of the Jackal and wrote several of its episodes. It aired on M-Net earlier this year. If you missed it, it’s still available to stream on Showmax here. But wait, that’s not all! Fans of films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and Sherlock Holmes will be happy to hear that the director of these crime capers, Guy Ritchie, directed the first two episodes of MobLand.
If you want more Mirren while you’re watching 1923 and waiting for MobLand to start, you can watch her take on the role of former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir in Golda, and as an assassin handler in Anna, both on DStv Stream; or watch her flex her action chops as Queenie Shaw in Hobbs & Shaw and F9 on Showmax.
Watch 1923 season 2 on Thursdays at 21:00 on M-Net channel 101 or catch up on DStv Stream here. MobLand starts in July on M-Net. Join the conversation on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok using #MNet101 and #MobLand.
Feature image: Getty