A new TV series, written, produced and starring Irish women in their 30s, is less about cappuccino, clubbing and canoodling than the trials of monogamy, marriage and mortgages, writes Louise East.

A few years ago, it was almost impossible to sit in a Dublin pub without overhearing someone discussing her great idea for a film project.

Thankfully, most of those projects didn't make it beyond the fifth pint, but if you were sitting in the Front Lounge on Parliament Street five years ago, you might have heard a gaggle of young women cooking up a project that survived closing time.

Any Time Now, a six-part romantic comedy airing on RTÉ this month, and BBC later this year, started life as a film idea put together by three well-known Irish actresses looking for better parts: Ali White, Deirdre O'Kane and Kathy Downes.

"We were just frustrated because at that time there were lots of television and film projects coming into Ireland but all the main parts for women were already taken. There'd be parts for secretaries and "nurse at back of room" but there was very little with good girl parts," says Ali White.

White seems to have emerged as the writer of a major new drama series almost by accident. "It came to the point of deciding who wanted to write it. I'd written a few wee plays in Edinburgh when I was a student and I'd always written diaries.

"Basically, nobody else said 'I'll do it'."

Five years later in a film lot in Cabra, three different actors - Susan Lynch, Angeline Ball and Zara Turner - are curled up in bed at the end of four months filming in and around Dublin. "Urgh, horrible, horrible hangover" mutters Stevie McCutcheon (aka Susan Lynch), jumping out of bed and running to the bathroom. The script has undergone a lot of development with BBC storyliners and script editors since those early days in the Front Lounge and White is anxious to point out that although there's "a little essence of each of us in each of the characters", Any Time Now is not a strictly biographical account of herself, O'Kane and Downes.

Ironically, as the film became a television series and attracted substantial funding, White says, "We realised that for a prime time BBC slot, none of us are big enough names to actually secure the parts", and as it turned out, each was busy with other projects when the series finally got the green light. White couldn't be more pleased with the final cast.

Both the subject of and the motivation for the script remain true to the original impulse to provide a more accurate portrayal of women on screen and more satisfying parts for the 30-something actor.

A gifted member of a gifted family (her brother is singer Andy White; her sister Cathy is also an actor), White herself has never been short of good roles, starring in the Abbey production of Tom Murphy's The House, and the Beckett festival in London, but she points out that "A lot of the parts you play, you're somebody's sister, somebody's wife, or somebody's mother. You define yourself in your relationship to the male characters. Very often you react to the ideas of the play, rather than have them as lines or actions of your own to perform. But in this, there's not only the three women but also Ruth McCabe, who plays Susan Lynch's mother, and Brid Brennan . . . I don't think you'd easily define any of them by their relationship with whatever bloke they're closest to."

Still and all, there seems to be rather a lot about relationships in Any Time Now, which doesn't claim to be breaking new ground in subject matter - men, kids, weddings and careers all feature prominently. Producer Lesley McKimm, the driving force behind RTÉ dramas such as Relative Strangers and No Tears, has been involved with developing the project since the early days and is cheerfully unapologetic.

"In some ways, I don't mind if it's considered women's drama because there just isn't enough women's drama out there. Of course, we don't want to alienate people, and I think there's enough humour and strong characters and drama in there to keep everybody's interest, female or not. But I didn't mind doing a drama about three girls - I had no qualms about that."

With regard to the romantic nature of many of the story lines, White herself pragmatically points out "The thing is that when you're with your girl friends, your main concerns do become the state of whatever love affair you're having, trying to find the right love affair, and how getting work that doesn't quite suit you affects you. So they are female concerns but hopefully there's enough variation in them. They're not purely about love affairs or purely about bringing up kids singlehandedly. It's not Sex and the City . . . and it's not Cold Feet, it's different."

It may be different, but there's little doubt that Any Time Now is hoping to reach a similar constituency to these television series, whose success proved that 30-somethings are the new 20-somethings. The lucrative audience who grew up with with Friends, Bridget Jones and This Life, are now ready to move on to programmes that are less about cappuccino, clubbing and canoodling and more about the trials of monogamy, marriage and mortgages.

Television executives keen to reap the success and the massive ratings of Cold Feet must have been delighted with Any Time Now, which talks to the same audience but has an oh-so-trendy Irish setting. One can almost imagine the pitch: "Think Bridget Jones gets Cold Feet in Ireland." "I think what made things easier is that Ireland and Dublin have changed in the eyes of other countries," says McKimm.

Interestingly, the BBC commissioning editor gave them a fairly free hand regarding the Irishness or otherwise of the script, only coming back to them with one query. "They pointed out that was that there was no religion in it. To be honest, we just hadn't thought about it. All they said was 'Is there room for it?' and we went back and said no, it just isn't something that's part of the lives of these characters."

For White, at least, being a 30-something is less about what you do and more about how you feel. "The whole idea of Any Time Now is that you're hitting your 30s and you're trying to gauge yourself against what you think you should have achieved . . .You've still got loads of chances left but you've used up quite a few in your 20s, so the pressure is slightly heightened."

According to the three actors who are playing the roles of Nora, Stevie and Kate, White has been successful in capturing a 30-something moment they recognise themselves. "I think the whole piece really is about breaking your patterns which is something that is very specific to being in your 30s," says Susan Lynch (Nora, Amongst Women). "I've just turned 30 and I know it's starting to happen . . ."

Angeline Ball (The Commitments, Randall and Hopkirk Deceased) agrees and points out "I think you do get a bit more intellectual about what you've done. In your 20s you make all these plans to do things by the time you're 30. It's a watermark in your life."

All three are convinced that there's room for another show in this already crowded market. "This is a bit more raw, to be honest." Or as Lynch would have it: "It's a bit more Dunnes Stores than Dolce e Gabbana."

Any Time Now starts on RTÉ One on May 13th at 9.30 pm