Ireland’s Elaine Cassidy stars in Thursday’s contemporary take on the spiritually possessed in “Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale.”

We learn that the town of Sanctuary is England’s equivalent of Salem, Massachusetts. It is a place where witches and their spells and healing powers are respected and licensed, like doctors or pharmacists.

Cassidy’s Sarah Fenn becomes a suspect in a murder investigation that involves her teenage daughter Harper who has not inherited her mother’s abilities and is not a witch.

As for this twist on the traditional, Cassidy notes, “To me this feels like a world that we completely know. It’s the world we live in.

“The only difference is that the way you go to the chiropractor, to the herbalist, some people go to the witch. This is a world where witches have a place in society. There’s certain jobs that they’re not allowed to ever take. You can never be in government because of the fear of using your power to make change legally.  It’s a world that we recognize.”

Cassidy, 43, is an award-winning actor in both British (“No Offence”) and American (“Harper’s Island”) series.

Sarah’s seaside coastal town is, she said, “A tight-knit, warm community with good schools and opportunities. Life seems to be easy in Sanctuary. And then, it all unravels.

“We have to start off in a good place,” she explained, “because we don’t really end up in a good place.”

As the murder investigation engulfs her daughter, it capsizes Sarah’s world. “They become the object of scorn, suspicion, prejudice. It’s like people turn overnight — which is what we’re constantly seeing today.

“Because with social media we have access to visuals from anywhere in the world. And everyone has cameras on their phones, and it’s really sad and frightening to see how quickly people can turn. And that’s like the symptom of the problem.”

This anti-witch hysteria,” she said, “gets whipped up by a woman who’s grieving — and it’s OK to be angry, to be sad. It’s OK to feel lost. It’s OK to feel all these uncomfortable feelings that we have in life at times.

“But then it’s how we release those feelings — that’s the really important bit of this. Because it’s so much easier to blame, but it’s not right to do that.

“And you then see the ripple effect. Actually, it turns into a tsunami! It’s frightening because, like I said, we’re constantly seeing it and we don’t seem to be learning any lessons.

“That’s what makes ‘Sanctuary’ really potent. Because we know how this stuff happens — and how it’s so real.”

“Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale” (AMC+ and Sundance Now) streams Jan. 4