15 Unlikely British TV Shows To Spawn Hollywood Stars

7. Ballykissangel €“ Colin Farrell

http://youtu.be/sDZvq7uSYSc Ballykissangel was a BBC Northern Ireland production that was broadcast on BBC One between 1996 and 2001. The series followed a new priest on arrival to a parish in Ireland. During the course of the show the cast were pretty much reset a couple of times and for seasons four and five it featured a young Irish actor called Colin Farrell as Danny Byrne. Prior to appearing in the show he had relatively few credits and like actors there doesn't seem to be any clear indication of a breakout role. I wouldn't have thought that a BBC Northern Ireland production would be a normal indication of a potential Hollywood star. After Ballykissangel, he just suddenly stars appearing in Hollywood films. For example, a year after the series he was in Tigerland. The war films continued, as a year after that he was in Hart's War €“ the same year he was in Minority Report and was effectively a one man film in Phone Booth. But you have to remember that Farrell wasn't one of the main characters in Ballykissangel, just a recurring character. Other actors in the series were already well known before the series, such as Dervla Kirwan who had been in Goodnight Sweetheart before and Stephen Tompkinson was in All Quiet on the Western Front. Both have been had ongoing careers in British television, but no one else from the show has even come close to Farrell's level of success. In 2009, Farrell won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical in the movie In Bruges. That's one award that no one else from Ballykissangel can ever claim to have won.