Dearbhla Walsh takes the people in a comedy seriously, and gives actors room to make complicated families convincing. We value that care, with one reservation: a welcoming tone can make hardship look rather too comfortable.
Fi1m perspective
In Margo's Got Money Troubles (2026), the directors leave room for family complications to be funny even when the subject is sex work. We warmed to it because the characters' difficulties were allowed to matter, without the sex work becoming a spectacle. Dearbhla Walsh shares directing duties with Alice Seabright and Kate Herron, so that tact cannot be credited to her alone. She did, however, direct the pilot and four episodes in all. It is a useful introduction to a director who takes the people in a comedy seriously.
She began in Irish television in the mid-1990s, working on soaps and dramas including Ros na Rún, EastEnders and Shameless. Wider recognition came with Little Dorrit (2008), before international work that included two episodes of the third series of Fargo (2017). Bad Sisters (2022) makes good use of her handling of overlapping family conversation and coastal Irish settings. Her preparation there used rehearsals, music and location photographs to help actors build the family relationships. The colour-coded scripts she uses to plan shots suggest care, but she also allows improvisation.
That attention to actors is the strongest reason to follow Margo's Got Money Troubles. Elle Fanning is worth staying with, helped by a production that gives the actors space and keeps the comedy approachable. Cinematographers Tari Segal and Carl Herse keep the presentation lively, while Richard Bloom's production design makes the programme feel welcoming. Nathan Micay's music keeps that buoyancy going.
There is a cost to making the programme so welcoming. Its financial pressures sometimes feel too comfortable, and the heavier drama asks for more attention than it earns. It remains a warm, funny comedy, but a little more discomfort would make the family's difficulties easier to believe. Start with Margo's Got Money Troubles, provided the title does not lead you to expect a harsher account of getting by.
Biography
Dearbhla Walsh is an Irish television director. She holds a degree from Dublin City University and began her career working in children's programming and on Irish and British television dramas, including episodes of EastEnders and Shameless.
Walsh has directed episodes of series including The Tudors (2007), Fargo (2017), The Handmaid's Tale (2019), The Punisher (2017), Penny Dreadful (2014), Tales from the Loop (2020) and Bad Sisters (2022). She directed four episodes, including the pilot, of the Apple TV+ series Margo's Got Money Troubles (2026), on which she also served as executive producer. She directed the television film Roald Dahl's Esio Trot (2015).
In 2009 she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special for her work on the BBC serial Little Dorrit. She has received multiple Irish Film and Television Awards and a BAFTA Television Award.
