Details released of new BBC Titanic series featuring Athlone actor

The BBC has released new images of Titanic Sinks Tonight,  a dramatised documentary series which features Athlone actor Rhys Mannion among its cast.

The upcoming series details the sinking of the world’s most famous ship in real time. Its filming took place in Belfast at the beginning of this year.

It saw Rhys (23), a former Athlone Community College student from Kiltoom, play the role of one of the actual Titanic passengers, Jack Thayer, a 17-year-old American who managed to survive the ill-fated voyage across the Atlantic.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent earlier this year, Rhys spoke enthusiastically about his involvement with the project.

"I portray Jack Thayer, who was one of the youngest members to be in first class on the Titanic," he said.

"He travelled with his mother and father and unfortunately his father passed away on the Titanic. His mother survived, and Jack... jumped off the boat. He didn't get into a lifeboat, because after the age of about 14, they were all deemed men.

"He survived in the water on one of the collapsible boats, just clinging on, until he was picked up by the Carpathia."

The four-part series produced by Stellify Media for BBC Factual and BBC Northern Ireland, relives the Titanic story through the experiences and personal testimony of the passengers and crew who were there.

"The director was wonderful to work with, and the whole process (of making the series) was absolutely fantastic," said Rhys.

A son of Ciaran and Mary Mannion, Rhys has had roles in recent years in the Irish film It Is In Us All, the Anthony Hopkins movie Freud's Last Session, the Amazon Prime film, Silver and the Book of Dreams and upcoming Irish vampire film called Feed.

Sony Pictures Television is handling international sales for the Titanic Sinks Tonight series.

The BBC said the series is "coming soon" to our television screens, but the date when it will be broadcast has not yet been announced.