#anna areoye

Charlie Cox as Michael Kinsella in Kin (2021).

Firstly, it’d help a good deal if you’re a Crowbarrow fan to begin with.💗

Secondly, you’d need to have seen both Kin and Ackley Bridge to fully appreciate why the thought of Michael Kinsella (Charlie Cox) and Martin Evershed (Robert James-Collier) meeting is just sending me right now. 🤣❤️

Martin and Michael seem like such perfect opposites on the surface (one is a frequently surly yet comedic high school teacher and the other is an unexpectedly soft-spoken and sad Irish mobster) that I have a sudden perverse urge to see them forced to interact regularly. 😅 

(But if you haven’t seen both shows, a gif’s worth a 1000 words...)

And how are we getting these two in the same place? 

Anna, Michael’s daughter - whom he loves more than anyone - decides she wants to live with her dad even though he doesn’t have legal custody of her, and never will, thanks to his past. Though he tries to dissuade her, Anna is stubbornly resolved and eventually Michael gives in though it means having to leave his criminal family and Ireland behind to start a life somewhere else. 

They end up in the small Yorkshire mill town of Ackley Bridge, hoping to avoid too much notice since Anna was reported as having been abducted to the Irish authorities. Anna enrolls in the local high school, and, naturally, who should one of her new teachers be but Mr. Martin Evershed? 

Anna begins settling in but Michael is still hyper-vigilant about either of them being recognized, not only because Michael would be arrested for “abducting” Anna but because he knows the Kinsella family have enemies who’d like nothing more than to take Michael out now that he’s alone. He insists on escorting Anna to and from school every day, even though she keeps telling him he needs to chill out because he’s just making himself more conspicuous. 

Her words prove prophetic as one day Martin notices Michael following Anna at a distance and confronts him, thinking he’s a creep. Michael thankfully refrains from pulling a gun on him or just beating the shit out of him, though he’d been solely tempted at first, and explains that he’s Anna’s father - which she confirms and introduces Martin as her teacher. Michael is impressed by his willingness to protect his students and tells him so. The subject of an upcoming school dance is raised and Martin asks if he’s interested in attending, because they’re still short of chaperones. Michael agrees, much to Anna’s consternation. 

As they’re leaving Anna suggests Michael let her give him a bit of a makeover, because he still looks like an Irish mobster and they’re not in Dublin anymore. Michael reluctantly agrees, asking her not to go overboard with it. 

The makeover the night of the school dance: 

Me watching this scene right now: 🥺🥰💗