Did Byron Hedges really work with his cousins in the Guinness family?

House of Guinness is on Netflix and the historical drama, which tells thetrue story of the Guinness siblings, has stolen the top spot on the streamer's most-watched list.

The Steven Knight series stars Game of Thrones actor Jack Gleeson as Byron Hedges, and the star recently opened up about transforming his look for the role.

In the series, Byron is the son of a wealthy Protestant mother and a Catholic rebel, who has plenty ofdealings with Edward Guinness (Louis Partridge).

When Byron learns Edward is planning to expand his beer empire to America, he offers himself as a Guinness representative in the USA.

Actor Gleeson explained to Netflix's Tudum: "Byron knows, through his connections, that the Fenian Brotherhood runs the ports - and if Guinness wants to be sold and imported, they’ll need the Irish Brotherhood on their side.

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"That’s a group who would [traditionally] never go near the Guinnesses; they’re Protestant, upper class, and from a completely different world.

"Byron is someone with a foot in both camps. His father was an Irish rebel who died for the cause.

"His mother was a wealthy Protestant. He uses that to make himself valuable to the Guinnesses.

"He’s able to use his smooth-talking ability to convince both sides to come together and make a profitable enterprise."

Did Byron Hedges really work with the Guinness family?

Despite his connections to the Guinness family in the series, Byron is actually a fictional character created specifically for the show.

The character is used as a plot device to follow the Guinness story across the Atlantic.

In reality, Guinness expansion into the US had already started, with the first shipments arriving in South Carolina from 1817.

But it was not until Arthur and Edward took over that the expansion flourished.

House of Guinness is on Netflix