'Fair City' star: 'Abuse plot went too far'

Sarah McDowell has confessed that she believes her Fair City character Suzanne Doyle's recent domestic abuse storyline "went too far".

The actress - whose role called for Doyle to physically attack husband Damien Halpin (Maclean Burke) - told The Herald that she was shocked by many aspects of the plot, which she found to be physically and emotionally demanding.

"I think it went too far, she was constantly beating him. It was so exhausting. It was really horrible shooting the scenes. When I got the scripts and read the things I was saying, I couldn't believe it," she explained.

"The verbal abuse was nearly worse. I was kind of going, 'God she's become really evil', but I just had to go with it. I was really worried about it and my mum was really worried about it but actually everyone was really complimentary towards me so that was great."

However, she admitted that she was ultimately glad for the experience as she received positive feedback from many Fair City viewers.

"There were a few people kind of going, 'Oh good on you'. We got a lot of email reaction into the office and that was really positive," she said.

"We had a few men saying they had been there and that it was really good to give it a voice."