ONE of my earliest encounters with Brenda Blethyn was when she played Miriam Dervish in Outside Edge.

She gave full interview value then and has done so ever since.

While retaining that mischievous twinkle in her eye and ability to giggle.

We met up again earlier this year to talk all things Vera – ahead of the drama’s return to ITV1 at 9pm this Sunday night.

My feature was in last weekend’s Sunday Express – and is also below.

Followed by a few extra quotes from Brenda.

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Brenda Blethyn as DCI Vera Stanhope.

IT’S not unusual for Brenda Blethyn to put others at ease. From taxi drivers to knights of the realm.

A nervous Sir Tom Jones needed some gentle prompting from the Oscar-nominated actress when he arrived to play his first ever acting role.

Brenda recalls: “He came in the door and I said, ‘Shall we start rehearsing Tom? You start.’ And he says, ‘Ooh right, sorry, yes, right. You want me to start now? Sorry.’”

She smiles when telling the tale about filming her role as career woman Nina in Sky Arts drama King of the Teds, reunited through Facebook with old flame Ron, a redundant bottle factory worker played by the Welsh singing legend.

“He’s such a peach. Honestly. You see people throwing knickers and you think he might be a bit arrogant. Not a bit. He was such a gentleman,” explains Brenda, who co-stars with Alison Steadman portraying Ron’s wife Tina.

The Voice coach Tom eventually found his own and made quite an impression. “There’s nothing egotistical about him at all. He was adorable. It’s so refreshing for someone who is such a mega star to be so amenable and so down to earth. Lovely.”

Before that viewers will seen the Ramsgate-born Secrets and Lies star in the second series of ITV1 murder mystery thriller Vera, featuring Northumberland’s D.C.I. Vera Stanhope.

With leading light David Leon as DS Joe Ashworth.

Brenda revealed last year how she got the Why Aye Factor for the Geordie cop’s accent by listening to Cheryl Cole on The X Factor.

Did she have to re-visit her inner-Cheryl before playing Vera again? “People are so nice up there. I got into a taxi and the driver said to me, ‘You look just like that actress who plays Vera.’

“I said, ‘That is me.’ And he said, ‘They said that you’re a southerner? I thought Vera was from here?’ He got a tip. I do feel like an honourary Geordie. They’re so welcoming.

“They say, ‘We love that Vera.’ It’s never just Vera. It’s ‘That Vera’. Maybe it should be called that.”

In the first of four films – The Ghost Position – Vera has a health scare. That leads others to worry about her lifestyle and diet. “She doesn’t eat the right things, she drinks, she’s always working. And she doesn’t look in a mirror.”

Off screen Brenda likes to take care of herself. “I might not look like it but I do like natural food. Plainly-cooked, simple food. Green vegetables and fish.

“Having said that I have got into making old fashioned bread pudding lately. My mum used to make it but a bit of fag ash would fall in as well. My brother said that if I make it, I’ve got to have a fag in my mouth.

“It’s industrial supply portions. I stow it in the freezer and slice it up into slabs. A piece comes out every day. My husband Michael loves it.”

One scene features a mocked-up newspaper photo of a young Vera taking part in a charity run. It reminded Brenda of her own athletic record, completing three London Marathons between 2002 and 2004.

“I wanted to do the Great North Run but at the last minute the Vera producers said, ‘Brenda, please, we would respectfully ask you not to.’ Because I’m slouching around like Vera I think they’re convinced that’s what I’m really like. I’d trained for it but it was down to insurance.”

Vera sprang from the novels of author Ann Cleeves and the pace of the TV version is more marathon than sprint. “I like the fact that it’s not bombarded with music. It also allows viewers to get a real feel for where they are up on that north east coast. It’s so beautiful, almost like another character.

“There are lots of women of a certain age who applaud the fact that Vera is on because there aren’t many characters on television that are representative of certain women.

“When I look as an audience member, I think, ‘Ahh, I wish Vera had someone go to home to.’ But she doesn’t think that. She’s not lonely. She’s a loner.”

The youngest of nine children, Brenda, 66, went into acting relatively late in life at the age of 27, having worked as a secretary and bookeeper.

Maybe that is why she still has her feet firmly on the ground and is about as far from a showbiz diva as it is possible to get.

“Probably if you’ve spent more time in the real world than the pretend world, it’s got to enrich what you do in that pretend world,” she reflects.

Her advice to young actors? “To take chances. To never think of yourself as more important or more interesting than the character you’re playing. And don’t confuse success with stardom.”

“That Vera” was driven to the set during the first series by a former senior police officer who had left the force. “On the way to work we composed the perfect crime,” laughs the ever-mischievous Brenda. “I’d fox everybody.”

Vera, ITV1, Sunday 8pm.

King of the Teds, Sky Arts, Thursday May 3.

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On Tynemouth Pier.

Extras:

Returning to Vera?

“It was really nice because they managed to get most of the crew back again. It was like a bit of a family when we made the series last year. You can get on with the work straight away. You haven’t got to be bothered with all the rest of it, getting to know someone. And there was immediately trust with all of the crew. And so lovely working with David Leon. He’s a joy to work with. He’s such a nice bloke. He’s so supportive. He’s from the area so he helps with the accent.”

How is Vera’s relationship with his character developing this time?

“I wouldn’t say it’s developed any more. You find out a little bit more about each of them. But it was already well developed. They don’t become lovers or anything. (laughs) Mind you, that’s a good idea! They’ve already got a very good rapport. You learn more about their own individual circumstances.

“There’s a new character comes in on episode two, played by Cush Jumbo. (Plays D.C. Bethany Whelan) She’s great. She’s at the National Theatre at the moment.”

Vera has quite a fractious relationship in the first episode with Holly?

“She just thinks Holly could do better. She thinks she’s a good police officer and Vera thinks that Holly is too unsure of herself. She wants a pat on the back all the time. And gets focused on things that are not overly-important. It’s not a competition. We’re all here to do a job.”

She’s a bit of a bag woman?

“Well she is. But I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, you don’t get promoted in the police looking like that!’ Well I defy anybody…people who say that have obviously spent a lot of time in a police station to have come up with that knowledge. Or have gleaned all of that information from watching dramatised TV things, which as good as it may be doesn’t give you the full picture. It cannot. And there are people looking like Vera in superior positions in every job.”

Smartened up her act this series?

“It got so hot doing all that running with layer after layer on. So they’ve gone back on it a bit. It’s the same clothes.”

Is she more vulnerable because of the health stuff?

“You’ve already seen what causes that. She doesn’t eat the right things, she drinks, she’s always working, everything has got to be done now. And it’s just not good. You see her running all over the place. She just doesn’t take good care of herself. She doesn’t look in a mirror. She often sleeps in her clothes. That’s not to say she’s dirty. She’s not. But just sometimes she’ll find herself in a situation where she’s got spare things in the office that she can put on if she’s been there all night. She doesn’t follow the normal patterns.”

Lot of sadness for Vera?

“But she’s not a sad person. When I look as an audience member watching it, I think, ‘Ahh, I wish she had someone to go home to.’ But she doesn’t think that. She’s not lonely. She’s a loner. She grew up in that environment, in that messy house with her dad who was stuffing birds – taxidermy. In that wild environment where layers of clothes would be put on to stay warm. Because it’s so remote there. It’s just what she’s used to with her dad. Her mum wasn’t there. She died when she was young. And not really being appreciated by her father. She’s always felt he would think that she was a woman in a man’s job and would frown upon it. So she’s grown up with that. That’s why.”

Do you watch yourself on screen?

“I always watch the programme. I’ve seen it way before it’s finished. I’ve seen all the bits put together. Sometimes I see something and I think, ‘Oh, is that right?’ Or if I think it sounds odd, I say, ‘Can I alter that in the post-synch?’ They’ll either say, ‘Certainly,’ or, ‘It absolutely sounds right that.’ Because they have a vested interest, I believe them. They want it to be right too. I care. I don’t have to see it but I’m interested to see it. I see rough cuts and it gives you an idea of how the director is thinking. We’re fortunate to have two directors come back for the new series. So you know what their modus operandi is. But if you don’t it just gives you a little clue as to the way they’re thinking. It’s a learning curve, really.”

How different is it to return to a character?

“To have a sense of continuity is really nice, actually. I would quite like it if – when we get to season four, five, six or whatever – that it’s more focused on the crime. Because it’s still sort of in its infancy we’re still discovering more about the characters. I prefer a more enigmatic take on it. We are learning little things. But I don’t think you should know everything about somebody because in real life we don’t. We can all make up our minds, surmise about things. I used to do that as a hobby. I still do. You look at somebody on a bus and you wonder what they’ve got on their mind today. I wonder if they’ve got money to jingle in their pocket? I wonder if they’ve got friends? And then if you sometimes get to meet the person, really, after making all these assumptions, how wrong you are on nearly all of them. But it’s interesting.”

Guest stars?

“Quite often our paths have crossed before. And that’s nice. Julie Graham, who I’ve worked with, and Ron Cook, it was absolute heaven working with them. And she is mad. Such a tonic.”

Stunts / action scenes?

“I always do the driving. I nearly killed everybody in the last series. They said, ‘You’ve got to jump out of the Jeep quicker.’ I said, ‘I can’t. I’ve got to take it out of gear, put on the handbrake, turn it off, open the door, take off the seatbelt. I’ve got to do all those things.’ They said, ‘Don’t bother with the handbrake.’ And of course I jumped out but I’d left it in neutral. So it started rolling towards the camera crew. (laughs) There were these burly grips holding the thing like this.

“The cinematographer was with us again on this series and they said, ‘Just drive up as close as you can.’ And it literally was stopping that much in front of the camera. I said, ‘Are you sure? Remember last year?’”

Four new films include one called Silent Voices:

“There is a stuntwoman in that episode. She is fantastic. It was freezing. It was so cold. I’m swaddled up in duvets and if I had a packet of Polos in my hand they’d be rattling. I was so cold. She dived off the top of this rock into a freezing cold waterfall. Spectacularly shot. And then she proceeded to act out a scene. She was a character. She was so brilliant.

“And there’s some big, big stunts. And David in that episode has a mega stunt. I was so proud of him. He has to go and save someone out of this big lagoon. He was wonderful. He was under the water for ages. I thought, ‘Someone’s got to check him out.’ But up he came with the actress as well. She wasn’t a stunt person. Just fantastic. I was so proud.”

Battling the cold one of the harder things when filming?

“Yes. But it’s easier for me because I’ve got so many clothes on. It’s tougher for the rest of them. But, you see, when you play that scene and go back to the station…so we go back into the warm and I’ve still got all this on. So I am then dropping dead with the heat. So I started saying to the wardrobe people, ‘Can you just sew a sleeve on to that bit so it looks like I’m still wearing it.”” (Laughs)

Do you put on the accent when not filming?

“Sometimes. Not so much put it on but I’m just thinking of it and so it just comes out that way, especially if I’ve got a big scene the next day. You’re going through it when you’re walking along the street and then if you’re interrupted, yeah, that will come out.”

Feeback to Vera?

“Occasionally, when we’ve got the squad who come in and bash down the doors – they’re real policemen. And I get talking to them. They give me very useful and helpful advice. And there’s often policemen on set. In fact my driver in the first series, in a previous life was superior to Vera. And on the way to work we composed the perfect crime. It was great.

“I said, ‘Every time you see a detective at the scene of a crime, they’ve all got their hands in their pockets. Why? Are they trying to look cool?’ He said, ‘It’s so they don’t touch anything.’ Basic! Unless you’ve got gloves on. If you’re going to handle a piece of evidence the gloves go on. My hands are not always in the pockets but I’m aware, always.”

Solving crimes?

“A hobby of mine is solving puzzles. I’m with the Times Online Crossword Club and I race my brother every day. But we also send each other teasers, posers, to try and work them out. My sister too. We’re addicted to it. I’m not very quick. It’s the race the clock one. My quickest time is three minutes but the fastest is – I saw one on there the other day, it was less than one minute, which I think is physically impossible. I’m a fast typist so I might solve the puzzle slower than my brother but I can type it in quicker. So I get a faster score.”

ITV Drama

Outside Edge

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SOME TV dramas divide opinion more than most.

White Heat appears to have fallen into that category over the last six weeks.

I almost gave up on this BBC2 series after the second episode.

And am now very glad I didn’t.

Tonight’s (Thursday April 12) final hour repays the investment viewers have put in to the previous five.

Bringing to a close the story of seven friends from the 1960s to the present day.

We discover exactly what is inside that safe.

And the identity of the person who has died.

Created by Paula Milne, White Heat was far from perfect.

But is destined to live long in my memory.

In the end, I loved it.

Mainly due to the performances of Sam Claflin (Jack), Claire Foy (Charlotte), David Gyasi (Victor), MyAnna Buring (Lilly), Lee Ingleby (Alan), Reece Ritchie (Jay) and Jessica Gunning (Orla).

The characters played in the present day by Michael Kitchen (Jack), Juliet Stevenson (Charlotte), Hugh Quarshie (Victor), Lindsay Duncan (Lilly), Paul Copley (Alan), Ramon Tikaram (Jay) and Sorcha Cusack (Orla).

With a special mention for Tamsin Greig as Charlotte’s tortured mother Beth.

I’m not sure the obvious comparison with Our Friends In The North did the drama any favours.

Aside from ensuring plenty of publicity ahead of episode one.

Do the mixed reviews for White Heat mean we have lost our appetite for slow burn television drama?

With the story and characters given time to breathe, allowing viewers space to think for themselves?

Or did you just not rate this “epic” drama?

Whether you’re a fan of White Heat or not, I’d like to hear your opinion via the comment box at the bottom of this blog.

But first, let’s celebrate the final episode with a few pics.

Sam Claflin as Jack.

Claire Foy as Charlotte.

David Gyasi as Victor.

MyAnna Buring as Lilly.

Lee Ingleby as Alan.

Reece Ritchie as Jay.

Jessica Gunning as Orla.

Sam Claflin as Jack and Claire Foy as Charlotte.

Tamsin Greig as Beth.

White Heat BBC Site

White Heat BFI Q&A

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Billy Matthews as Alfie.

It began filming in east London last summer just before riots broke out in Britain’s cities.

A four-part BBC1 drama with something important to say about misconceptions, stereotypes, jumping to conclusions, gang culture, the consequences of our actions and the way we live today.

Screened this week, One Night was acclaimed by many who saw it as one of the best television dramas of 2012 to date, set to live long in the memory.

Including a stunning performance by young actor Billy Matthews as 13-year-old birthday boy Alfie – his first ever TV role.

So why did the schedulers relegate the haunting drama series from 9pm primetime to a 10:35pm graveyard slot?

It was a question asked by both TV critics and in countless online comments by viewers who believed One Night deserved better.

As writer Paul Smith explained: “A lot of our lives we build a completely false mental landscape.

“Sounds a bit grand. But that’s what it’s been about. How much of our vision, our experience, of our lives is partial.”

My story is in today’s Sunday Express with a fuller version below for those who want to read more.

Also check out the links at the bottom of the blog, including one to a report on my One Night location visit last July.

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Douglas Hodge as Ted.

A decision to relegate a £2m BBC1 drama to a late night graveyard slot has sparked anger among its cast and production team.

One Night was announced as “a gripping event drama set over one blistering hot summer night when nerves are frayed and tensions ride high”.

But both viewers and critics were left puzzled by the decision to schedule the four episodes across four nights at 10.35pm instead of the usual 9pm primetime slot.

Cast and crew members, who filmed One Night in east London over 11 weeks last summer, were said to be bemused and angry. Actor Neil Stuke, who plays company boss Kenny, described the BBC move as “nonsensical”.

Silk star Stuke added: “This is a huge mistake for the BBC. It’s a PR disaster but, more importantly, a piece of very relevant, beautifully written, tenderly crafted thought provoking drama has been lost to millions by a decision made by a scheduler.”

One Night was one of five new dramas announced by BBC1 controller Danny Cohen last year in his first raft of drama commissions.

It featured a stressed 50-year-old kitchen salesman called Ted (Douglas Hodge) who is involved in a row with a group of young girls after they refuse to pick up a crisp packet dropped outside his home.

Told from four different perspectives and co-starring Jessica Hynes and Georgina Campbell, it explored the tragic consequences that can result from confrontations and fear of crime in Britain’s cities.

The series, set on the fictional east London estate of Lakemead, also highlighted gang culture and the pressures it puts on young people, as well as challenging our perceptions of others.

Georgina Campbell as Rochelle.

In the first episode on Monday viewers saw a 13-year-old boy called Alfie (Billy Matthews) being questioned by police after handing in a gun used in a fatal council estate shooting where tensions were already high after the earlier stabbing of a young boy, killed by a gang – with others planning a revenge attack.

The Guardian’s review of the opening hour explained, “All – except why the BBC scheduled the series for the post-news graveyard slot of 10.35 – will probably be revealed over the next three episodes.”

The Telegraph said: “The best British dramatic offering of the evening, which the Beeb had dumped in an unpropitiously late slot. They seemed to have put One Night there because it’s ‘edgy’.”

While The Arts Desk was also puzzled as to why One Night had been “inexplicably buried in the late-night slot”.

Stuke said: “It was brave of Danny Cohen to commission this and we all joined in with the excitement of being involved in this project only to have the rug pulled from under us.

“Are licence fee payers really unable to ‘enjoy’ important drama? Perhaps not flashy or gimmicky but, touching and pertinent especially after the riots. Can we really not handle this? Clearly not, according to the schedulers.”

Posting on Twitter earlier, Silk star Stuke wrote: “The BBC have tried to sink it but One Night is getting great reviews.

“The BBC pulled it from its 9pm slot because it thought you lot would find it too controversial.

“It is a disgrace and everyone should complain to the BBC for treating the licence fee payers as if we have a low intelligence.”

Jessica Hynes as Carol.

A BBC spokesperson denied the drama had been moved from a 9pm slot because of its subject matter:

“We wanted to strip One Night over consecutive evenings on BBC1 but with so many new programmes launching at 9pm and the forthcoming summer of live events – from the Olympics to the Diamond Jubilee – we took the decision to play it out at 10.35pm.

“We’re delighted by the response from viewers.”

Asked about the late night scheduling, writer Paul Smith told thecustard tv blog: “It’s a difficult one this. The message came back that because of the stand alone nature of the episodes they were worried that it might not build an audience in quite the same way perhaps as a serial would do. So that was their main worry.

“Obviously I would have loved it to have been on at nine but people thought a long time about it and that’s where we ended up – and at the end of the day I’m hugely glad they commissioned it because I’ve not seen a lot like it.”

Producer Ewan Marshall said during filming that he was delighted the issues involved would reach a wide audience.

“It seems we have a growing fear of young people and the breakdown of social mores. Fear of kids has grown enormously. 

“People are far more scared of other people than they used to be – you have a lot more people living cheek by jowl who have different cultures, different norms.”

The audience in Wales had to wait until 11.15pm to see the first episode on Monday while in Scotland the drama has been screened as late as 11.35pm.

Last Friday’s concluding episode was again shown at 10.35pm following a New Tricks repeat at 9pm – One Night having made way for Question Time on Thursday evening.

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One Night’s title music was Daedalus by Errollyn Wallen.

UK readers can still (Sunday April 1) catch up with the series via the BBC site below.

All four episodes are also being repeated overnight on BBC1 between Monday (April 2) and Thursday next week.

One Night BBC

One Night Clips (UK readers only)

One Night DVD

One Night: Douglas Hodge

Billy Matthews

Georgina Campbell

Paul Smith

Douglas Hodge

Jessica Hynes

Neil Stuke

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Denise (Lorraine Bruce), Jamie (Matthew Lewis), Bob (Timothy Spall, Leanne (Joanna Page) and Stuart (Matthew McNulty).

“THERE’S a lot of worries about at the moment.

“I can look at poverty and wealth. That’s what this series gives me the ability to be able to do.”

Can money bring you happiness?

Writer Kay Mellor has something to say about that in BBC1 drama The Syndicate, which begins at 9pm tonight (Tuesday March 27).

The five-part series focuses on a group of five workers at a small local supermarket which is about to be closed down.

Money worries spark a drastic course of action for some.

And then they win £18m in the Mercury Millions lottery, giving them more cash than they ever dreamed of.

It’s a drama very much for our time, with a cast including Timothy Spall, Joanna Page, Lorraine Bruce, Matthew McNulty and Matthew Lewis.

I’ve been a fan of Kay’s writing ever since Band of Gold.

First interviewing her when I attended the launch for the very first series of Playing The Field in 1998.

And, along with other members of the media, spoke to Kay again at a recent London post-screening question and answer session.

My transcript is below.

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The big cheque.

Kay Mellor Q&A:

What inspired you to write this series and what themes do you explore?

“I think the thing that really inspired me to write it – the phrase kept coming up over and over again…it was a bit like with Fat Friends, people started talking about weight constantly…everybody I spoke to would be saying things like, ‘Well you never know, I might win the Lottery this week.’ I had a friend who works for a small dance group and they were funded by the Arts Council. There was that week when the Arts Council grants were going to be cut. And I remember looking at her and I could see she was worried. She said, ‘I’ll probably be made redundant at the end of next week.’ And I went, ‘What are you going to do Linda?’ And she said, ‘Well I’m either going to win the Lottery or I’m going to take up bungee jumping.’ And I looked at her and could see that she passes it off lightly, because that’s who she is. But actually she was really worried. She’s a woman in her fifties, where’s she going to get another job? There are a lot of worries about at the moment. And so I’m hearing that phrase more and more. So I thought, ‘I wonder what it would be like if a group of people win the Lottery? Ordinary working class people in this present climate.’”

Why did you choose that particular figure as the winning amount?

“Because I didn’t want it to be so much that it was ridiculous. I wanted it to be enough to get them out of a situation but also so that you could see an end to it, perhaps. So it was quite difficult because it could have been £40m, it could have been £8m. But I wanted it just to be enough – £3.6m (each) is life-changing but at the same time if you’re reckless with it, it can go. So it seemed like a perfect amount.”

Timothy Spall as Bob.

Filmed in Leeds? Locations?

“This particular one is very near Armley jail. They’re dotted around Leeds. You don’t have to search that hard. There are a lot of people living like that. That’s not far away from my background, how I was brought up in a prefabricated council estate. So that’s how they are. I know that territory.”

Did you talk to anyone who’s had a life-changing win?

“Yeah. I spoke to quite a few people. About six winners in all I spoke to.”

What surprised you most about what they said?

“I think the biggest thing that shocked me, actually, was how long the euphoria lasts. Which is actually not very long. Six days, somebody said to me. They felt euphoric for six days until other problems started to happen. It’s not all a rosy story. That’s what I found out very quickly. Because when I read around it, around Lottery winners, a lot of it was books that had been put out by Camelot and by Lottery companies. And they’re all wonderful stories of people that have had the most fantastic time since winning the Lottery. But actually it’s not always true.”

Joanna Page as Leanne.

Did you hear from anyone who wished they hadn’t won?

“Yes I did. It was quite a fine balance. One woman said to me, ‘I wish I’d not gone public.’ A lot of people said. ‘And I wish I’d given it all away straight away. Paid my mortgage and given the rest away.’ Everybody wanted to pay their mortgage off and get rid of their debts. But then after that a lot of people talked about the responsibility of money. About who to give the money to. And these are themes that I explore within the piece about money, new-found wealth.”

Why did she want to give it all away?

“It caused problems within her family. She gave some money to her son because he was having financial problems and they were going to repossess his house. The daughter had found out and said, ‘Why?‘ She tried to be duplicitous. The whole family had become fractured. And she hadn’t seen her grandchildren. It caused a massive fracture within the family and tensions.”

What are the most common problems that people talked about?

“Not knowing how much to give. Are they going to be over-generous or stingy? How do you give somebody £100 when you’ve won £4m. But yet £100 is a lot of money. All your references change.”

Should people that have committed crimes be eligible to win such huge amounts of money?

“How would you monitor it? If you follow this series you’ll see what I do feel about it. About comeuppance…I think in the scheme of things, if you believe in a law of karma or whatever, you’ll get it. You don’t need to be forbidden to buy a Lottery ticket to do that. That’s what I would say. You reap what you sow. But that’s just a personal feeling.”

Leanne (Joanna Page) and Denise (Lorraine Bruce).

Did you discuss what you’d do – you and fellow cast members – with a Lottery win?

“I know the crew were suddenly doing the Lottery and picking all my numbers. And I was going, ‘Hey, I’m not responsible if you don’t win.’”

Did they win anything?

“No. I would have wanted a part share if they had.”

What would you do if you did win £4m, say, on the Lottery?

“I’d probably pay a lot of my friends and my daughters’ mortgages off. And get them out of debt. There’s a lot of people around me, friends of mine, that are in debt and in worry. So I’d have loved to have been able to give Linda, my friend, I’d love to be able to say, ‘Hey, you’ve got no mortgage, no debts.’ That must be a lovely thing to do.”

What would you buy for yourself?

“I’d probably take a world cruise or something like that. I feel like I’ve won the Lottery. I do a job which I absolutely love. That’s why I don’t do it. Because if I did win the Lottery I really wouldn’t know what to do other than give it away, give it to people that mattered. I feel every day like I’ve won the Lottery because I paid for doing what I’d do for free.”

Matthew McNulty as Stuart and Amy Beth Hayes as Amy.

What do you think about the current obsession with period dramas?

“I think there needs to be a balance. That’s what I feel. We are leaning a lot towards bonnets and period. As long as there is a happy balance then there’s room for everything. I’d like to explore Charlotte Bronte, what her real life was like in Haworth back then. Because I think it would be interesting to look at that. But I think I come at it from a slightly different perspective, that’s all. But I don’t think it’s always good to have your head in the sand. I think that’s what we as a society have had – our head in the sand for a long time. And I think it’s quite good to kind of go, ‘This is a different type of a drama and this is a kind of bring your head up a bit. This is what’s going on.’ At the same time it has an element of escapism to it because they win the Lottery. Only it’s different because I can look at poverty and wealth. That’s what this series gives me the ability to be able to do.”

It’s been a long time since Band of Gold, Fat Friends and Playing The Field? It’s as if we haven’t seen this kind of drama from you in particular for a decade?

“I’ve been doing quite a bit of theatre. I did A Passionate Woman, which was in the Fifites. I just felt I had something to say now. It’s no good just writing for the sake of it. I just felt that I really wanted to say this. It was a bit like with Band of Gold – it (The Syndicate) was inside me…rather than somebody asking me to write something about it.”

What’s your view of the Lottery?

“I think it can be a good thing, particularly when money is channelled into things like the arts and parks and working with disabled people. I know lots of organisations that are partially funded by the Lottery money – and films. Historically films have been – and still are, I think – partially funded. And that’s a good thing. I think when you get people, though, on a low income spending £20 of their money – maybe they get £100 a week if they’re lucky – on the Lottery…that’s a worry for me. So it doesn’t always sit comfortably with me, to be honest.”

Do you think more people will buy Lottery tickets when they watch this?

“Probably. There lies the irony.”

Bob (Timothy Spall) and Stuart (Matthew McNulty).

Have you had any interaction with Camelot at all? Have they given you any feedback on what they think about the drama?

“I did initially contact Camelot. But then very quickly I backed away from them because I realised that, obviously, they want me to tell huge positive stories about people that have won the Lottery. And as a dramatist I’ve got to be able to tell what I want to tell. So I backed off really quickly and then went my own routes trying to find people to talk to. And just employing my own imagination and also devising my own Lottery company – Mercury Millions – which doesn’t exist. But then I spoke to people who had won the Lottery.”

But Camelot will be pleased?

“They may be pleased now…ask me again when episode five’s done.”

Have they been back in touch with you at all?

“They did send me books and try to get back in touch but…I backed off. I suddenly realised when they sent me this book and I went, ‘Oh great, I’ve got a book from them.’ And then I looked in it and thought…six fantastically positive stories about winning the Lottery. Which is great. Obviously they’re not going to send me a book that says, ‘Six awful things happened to me after I won the Lottery.’ But that’s not to say there isn’t some wonderful things…in this it looks at light and shade and there’s humour and there’s some positive things that happen from winning the Lottery. There’s also some negative things.”

The supermarket in the drama. A real supermarket?

“Yes. Round the corner from where I live. Right Buy U is our company. So we changed it all. The only day that they could close was on a Sunday, so we worked Sundays. I didn’t want it to be a big supermarket. I thought it was really important that it was like a small local supermarket, like a Spar or a Co-op or something like that. Because I wanted all the workers to be in the syndicate. So I thought five. I went round various shops asking how many people worked there. And then I thought I knew where to pitch it.”

Lottery wins can bring out skeletons and people from the past?

“I think money does, doesn’t it? If you’ve got a load of money, who’s going to come crawling out of the woodwork? There is that. But also I thought, ‘Well, what if you wanted to be anonymous? What if you didn’t want publicity? Because that was quite interesting talking to people – why they’d gone public. And it seemed to me the most natural and sensible thing to do was not to go public. But yet they do. For all sorts of reasons, largely to do with the fact that the Lottery company want them too, of course. So they’re under a lot of pressure to go public.”

How do they try to encourage them to go public?

“They say things to them like, ‘You can share it with all your friends and family and share the good news.’ Rather than telling people. And you can also go out and buy a new car. You can really enjoy it. And they say things like, ‘No, you won’t get begging letters,’ and, ‘No, this won’t happen.’ All this sort of thing. ‘Celebrate with all your friends and family.’ Some people believe it.”

People give up their jobs?

“That’s the difficult thing. What do you do if you give up work and you’re a young man or a young woman?”

BBC The Syndicate

Kay Mellor

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Douglas Hodge as Ted.

HOW is your blood pressure today?

You only have to watch BBC2’s current documentary series The Tube to discover how stressed many London commuters are.

And then there’s kitchen salesman Ted, played by Douglas Hodge, in new TV drama One Night.

When we first meet him he’s having a bad day and fears he’s about to be made redundant.

Ted, 50, is then involved in a row with a teenage girl called Rochelle and a gang of girls who refuse to pick up their litter outside his house.

The four-part BBC1 serial charts the tragic consequences that can result from confrontations and fear of crime in Britain’s cities.

Georgina Campbell as Rochelle.

Writer Paul Smith wanted to challenge our perceptions of other people and the misunderstandings that can result.

As well as highlighting gang culture and the pressures it puts on young people.

It’s an excellent, thought-provoking drama series originally made for a 9pm primetime slot.

So why has it been moved by the schedulers to 10:35pm?

I met up with Douglas and other members of the cast on location in a very hot east London last July.

When the Olivier and Tony-award winning actor revealed his fears after a real life confrontation nearby.

“A guy stopped and scratched my car with a nail,” said Douglas, who saw the incident from the window of a nearby building.

“I shouted, ‘Oi, get off!’ And he just stood there and looked at me. I thought, ‘He seriously is going to just wait until I arrive and kill me.’

“I phoned the police but I don’t think they ever turned up.”

Jessica Hynes as Carol.

Devon-born Douglas appeared with Frasier star Kelsey Grammer in Broadway musical La Cage aux Folles and was best man at his wedding to British flight attendant Kayte Walsh.

He recently starred on the London stage alongside Doctor Who actress Karen Gillan in Inadmissable Evidence. 

“Having spent a year in New York, I’d say it’s much safer there now than London, which is much more dangerous than it was.

“I don’t know if I would confront anyone in London now. I keep thinking I’d be knifed if I did.”

The drama – which tells the story from four different perspectives – also stars Georgina Campbell as Rochelle, Jessica Hynes as her mother Carol, Saskia Reeves as Ted’s wife Sally, Neil Stuke as his boss Kenny, Kellie Bright as Kenny’s wife Dawn and Don Gilet as DC Hutton.

Plus a remarkable performance from Billy Matthews as 13-year-old Alfie.

One Night begins on BBC1 at 10:35pm next Monday (March 26) and continues on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. 

********************************************************************

Douglas Hodge as Ted.

Extras:

Douglas Hodge on Ted and One Night:

“I just thought he was fantastically familiar. Living on this high blood pressure. Moaning about what’s wrong with Britain and picking up litter. A have-a-go hero. He keeps going, ‘Oh everything is so bloody uphill, isn’t it?’ Everything seems to be against him. He’s constantly saying, ‘Someone’s got to stand up and do something, otherwise Britain is going down the drain.’

“Everything is against him, whatever happens. The whole of life is this trudge through treacle.

“There is this fantastic butterfly effect in the drama. I look at this girl who drops this crisp packet and immediately assume she’s a criminal reprobate ruining people’s lives. That’s clearly wrong. It’s about the way that you perceive people. Especially about children and mixed race, where people leap to assume that someone’s dangerous. You have these pre-conceived prejudices and then you just act on them. And you’re completely wrong. It’s a great thing to write a series about. It has a knock-on effect.”

Billy Matthews as Alfie.

Winning his Tony Award in New York for his role as Albin in La Cage aux Folles alongside Kelsey Grammer as Georges:

“I think it was probably the most thrilling professional year in my life. There’s no better city to have a success in. They just open the doors to you. It was fantastic.

“But I’m relieved to be rid of her. It was killing me. It was eight shows a week. So on matinee days it was six hours in high heels and corset and wigs. So it was quite a relief that there are people here who still remember me as a man.”

“I came back for a week and then I went back to New York and did two weeks at the Cafe Carlyle – doing music. They put you up in a suite and I just had to sing for an hour. I had a jazz trio. And the money is phenomenal. They phone you in your room at 8:45pm and say, ‘Mr Hodge, come down.’ Then you swan down in your DJ and you go into the dining room, this beautiful room, and then sing. I played the piano and sang for an hour. And then more or less the whole audience joins you in your suite afterwards. It’s a very small room to play. That was something I’d never done before and a dream come true and was my sort of holiday.”

Does winning the Tony open doors in New York?

“You only have one day off a week but immediately I was invited to the opening game of the Yankees or the first game of the Jets. Elton John playing for 50 people. It was quite incredible. It matters so much to them and it clearly translates into dollars. So the day you win your box office goes off the scale. It’s incredible. We had even bookings and then I won and then we were sold out for three or four months. It means cash to them. The whole Tony season is like running for Senate or something. Every morning you get up at eight, you have focus groups of, say, 300 people and someone will say, ‘OK, there’s 300 Tony voters here and there’s you and four other guys from a show and I’m going to ask you questions.’ And you have to woo them. It’s big business. The producers know. It’s because it translates into ticket sales. So they know that you can get their show to keep running for a year or whatever, instead of four months. I could have been home within a month if it had been a failure. They’ll take you off. Enron opened when we there. I think it lasted three days and they went home. And when I went to New York I was expecting – I didn’t know if I’d be there for a month or a year. And then it turned into a year and a month.”

Not having a good day: Douglas Hodge as Ted.

How does Broadway compare with London’s West End?

“It’s very different. Because the community is much closer. You know everyone in every other show. They all meet after the shows. Like winning the Olivier, it wasn’t even televised. The Tonys, you go down a red carpet, there’s probably 6000 people in the audience, it’s televised worldwide, all the movie stars turn up. It’s a very different thing. Whereas the Oliviers we just turned up, got the award and went home. I think we should take a leaf out of their book. We’re the greatest in the world at theatre. You could see that in New York. There’s a band of about five English actors who are winning all their awards. That’s the other thing. They’re not trying to give them to Americans. They’re saying – this is the best or that’s the best and it doesn’t matter where it’s from. They’re celebrating theatre. I think it’s one of the greatest exports we have. One of the greatest skills we have. We lead the world in it. And there aren’t many things we do lead the world in. They’re amazed that we don’t make much of it.”

What was it like playing opposite Kelsey Grammer?

“It was just wonderful. I met him in England for a week and we had a week of doing publicity and I glimpsed his life, which is extraordinary. He’s an extraordinary guy. Very humble, very generous, hilariously funny, great theatre actor, loved the theatre, loves England. He loves England to distraction. He knows all about the English theatre shows and the English actors. So it was great fun.”

Kelsey got married in the theatre?

“He did. He met the girl, Kayte, on the flight over to meet me in England. And then he asked me to be his best man at the wedding. He was married on stage. Or best woman. No high heels.”

Being back in Britain after all that?

“It’s fantastic to be with my family. It was the most testing time. They came out every six weeks but my daughter was doing her A-levels. So they couldn’t move there. And I was going for six months and it ended up being a year. So there were times when I was just completely on my own for a year. It’s a long time. So that feels lovely to be back with them. That was quite a test, for my 11-year-old especially. He came out every six weeks and stayed with me for three weeks until the school started to complain. And it’s nice to be doing some TV. I’ve hardly done anything on TV since I last worked with this director in Unforgiven. That’s the last thing I did.”

As father of two children, does he worry about them in today’s world?

“They live in Oxford. I think it’s that constant balance. If you give them enough moral tools you just have to sit back and hope that they’ll survive and know to say yes or no to whatever they do. But certainly they’re more innocent in Oxford. I’ve noticed that with my daughter. Than friends of our kids who live in London. Which is a good thing, I think. But at some point they’re going to have to grow up and realise it’s a tougher world.”

You’ve got so many different careers – acting, directing, songwriting?

“In America it was quite a relief that people didn’t have a problem about it. Here it’s fine directing and acting. In New York suddenly I was able to go and play with a band and sing. It was like going on a little holiday. Here there are less places you could play. There’s just Ronnie Scott’s here really. But I might do that show at The Chocolate Factory. I don’t know if I’ve got the nerve to do that here. I doubt it. They’ve asked me. So we’ll see.”

He’s spoken about doing another musical?

“I’d love to do Barnum. That’s been talked about but I don’t know when. I’ve seen the film of Michael Crawford doing it.”

One Night BBC

Doug Hodge Music

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Production shot of Titanic at Harland and Wolff in Belfast.

“THE truth will surface.”

Titanic is about to set sail on screen in 86 countries.

ITV1 viewers in the UK will see the new £11m production as a four part serial, starting at 9pm on Sunday March 25.

With the final episode broadcast on Sunday April 15 – exactly 100 years to the day that Titanic sank in the Atlantic.

It begins in Canada on Wed March 21.

While ABC viewers in America have to wait until April 14.

My studio pass.

Last summer I spent a week on the Titanic set at Stern Studios in Budapest.

Stepping aboard a replica of the doomed liner and talking to all those involved in bringing this drama to the screen.

Click on the link below to read my 25 exclusive one-to-one interviews with the cast of Titanic for ITV’s production notes.

Including Linus Roache, Geraldine Somerville, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Toby Jones, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Celia Imrie, Perdita Weeks, Sophie Winkleman, Lee Ross, Lyndsey Marshal and James Wilby.

Plus writer Julian Fellowes, producer Nigel Stafford-Clark, director Jon Jones, costume designer James Keast and more.

Titanic Wylie Production Notes pdf

If you are unable to access, you can download a PDF reader here.

ITV Titanic Production Notes cover.

I’ve now seen the entire drama – which also features a superb score by Jonathan Goldsmith – several times.

There’s much more to say about Titanic.

But I’ll save that for another day.

For the moment, as well as those 25 interviews, here’s one of the UK trailers:

A short behind the scenes video of the Titanic promo shoot at Pinewood Studios in February 2012:

And some more production photos:

Glen Blackhall as Paolo Sandrini and Jenna-Louise Coleman as Annie Desmond.

Toby Jones and Maria Doyle Kennedy as John and Muriel Bates.

Production shot of Titanic at night.

Steven Waddington as Second Officer Lightoller, David Calder as Captain Smith and Will Keen as Chief Officer Wilde.

Geraldine Somerville and Linus Roache as the Mantons.

Production shot of Titanic leaving Southampton bound for New York.

Noah Reid as Harry Widener and Perdita Weeks as Georgiana Grex.

Sophie Winkleman as Dorothy Gibson.

Jenna-Louise Coleman as Annie Desmond and Glen Blackhall as Paolo Sandrini.

Ruth Bradley and Peter McDonald as Mary and Jim Maloney.

Dragos Bucur as Peter Lubov.

Production shot of Titanic as the lifeboats are lowered.

In make-up: Celia Imrie as Grace Rushton.

Filming in the water tank.

Lyndsey Marshal as Watson.

Lee Ross as Barnes.

Production shot of Titanic being loaded at Southampton.

Cast and crew rehearsing a deck scene.

Production shot of Titanic at Harland and Wolff in Belfast.

Production shot of Titanic at sea.

Jenna-Louise Coleman as Annie Desmond.

Brian McCardie as First Officer Murdoch.

Who lives? Who dies? Peter McDonald as Jim Maloney.

Titanic Wylie Production Notes pdf

Titanic ITV Site

Titanic ABC Site

Global TV Canada

Interactive tour of Titanic narrated by Linus Roache

Titanic ZDF

Titanic BBC Entertainment South Africa

Titanic BAFTA Q&A

Titanic: First Photos

Titanic: Set Visit

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Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones as Scott & Bailey.

IT was acclaimed as one of the best drama series of last year.

Becoming the highest rated new British TV drama of 2011 with 9.4 million viewers.

And returns next week for a second series, this time of eight episodes.

I’m pleased to report that Scott & Bailey 2012 is on fine form with an extra spring in its step.

Not least thanks to the performances of leading ladies Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp.

Plus Amelia Bullmore as their boss Gill Murray.

With scripts carefully crafted by Sally Wainwright along with co-creator Diane Taylor.

Regular readers will know that I interviewed all of them for ITV’s series two production notes.

Together with Nicholas Gleaves, Sean Maguire. Lisa Riley and Kevin Doyle.

You can read all nine interviews by clicking on the PDF link below:

Scott & Bailey Series 2 Ian Wylie Interviews

If you are unable to access, you can download a PDF reader here.

Scott & Bailey returns to ITV1 at 9pm next Monday (March 12).

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Amelia Bullmore as DCI Gill Murray and Delroy Brown as DC Lee Broadhurst.

As with all interviews, there was material that I couldn’t fit into the main features.

For example, as you’ll read, I asked Amelia Bullmore about her writing career – including her script for episode seven of this new series.

But there wasn’t room to include her thoughts on the future of her latest acclaimed play – Di And Viv And Rose.

Which I saw at the Hampstead Theatre in London last year when it starred Tamzin Outhwaite, Nicola Walker and Claudie Blakley.

Is there a chance it might be staged elsewhere in the future?

“Well, there was a lot of talk about it. I don’t know,” Amelia replied.

“I hope so. But it’s a really hard thing to do to move a play.

“I thought they were perfect those three. Absolutely brilliant. And, of course, they’re very busy.

“I think if you’re lucky enough to be able to move something quickly while it’s warm, you stand a chance of doing it.

“But when it comes to a stop I think it’s quite hard to get it going.

“You never know. There was lots of talk about it but it’s all gone quite quiet.

“But they did it so well that it’s fine by me.”

Suranne Jones as Rachel Bailey.

A bad day at the office. Ben Batt as DC Kevin Lumb, Lisa Riley as Nadia Hicks and Suranne Jones as DC Rachel Bailey.

Nicholas Gleaves as DS Andy Roper.

Lisa Riley as Nadia Hicks.

Lesley Sharp as DC Janet Scott.

Sean Maguire as PC Sean McCartney.

Amelia Bullmore as DCI Gill Murray and Nicholas Gleaves as DS Andy Roper.

Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp.

Gill Murray checks her Godzilla app.

OK. Can we get on and fight some crime now?.

ITV Scott & Bailey

Red Production Company

Scott & Bailey 2

Scott and Bailey 1: Amelia Bullmore

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Charmian and Sheridan

CHARMIAN Brent is a remarkable woman with quite a story to tell.

She’s known to the world as Charmian Biggs, the wife of Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs.

The couple divorced in 1976 and she has continued to live in Australia.

But to many their lives remain entwined.

Now ITV are to tell the story in detail from Charmian’s perspective for the first time.

Today it was officially confirmed that Sheridan Smith will play the title role in five-part drama Mrs Biggs.

With Daniel Mays cast as Ronnie Biggs.

I’ll have a lot more to say about Mrs Biggs when it is filmed and ready to be broadcast.

But for now here’s ITV’s casting release and accompanying photos of Charmian with Sheridan and Danny – before the transformation into their two characters:

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Danny Mays and Sheridan Smith.

ITV is delighted to announce SHERIDAN SMITH (The Scapegoat, Little Crackers, Gavin and Stacey) is to play the title role of Charmian Biggs in the five part ITV drama Mrs Biggs produced by ITV Studios.
 
She will be joined by DANNY MAYS (Public Enemies, Ashes to Ashes, Made in Dagenham) who assumes the iconic role of Charmian’s infamous ex-husband Ronnie Biggs.  
 
Written by award-winning writer and Executive Producer Jeff Pope (The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, See No Evil: The Moors Murders, Appropriate Adult as executive producer), Mrs Biggs, will chronicle Charmian’s life from the fateful moment that, as a teenager on a train, she first met and fell in love with the flirtatious and worldly Biggs.
 
Sheridan and Danny will be joined by ADRIAN SCARBOROUGH (Upstairs Downstairs, Cranford) and CAROLINE GOODALL (The Good Wife, Schindler’s List) who will be playing Bernard and Muriel Powell, Charmian’s parents.

 
Sheridan commented: “When I received the call to say that I’d got this job I burst into tears.  Charmian is an incredible woman, and I’m so lucky that she’ll be on hand to support me and give me advice during the shoot.  I hope that I can do her story justice”.
 
Mrs Biggs will recount the story of their struggle to stay together in the face of fierce opposition from Charmian’s family – aghast at Biggs’ criminal record – and their idyllic life as the parents of young children before money worries forced Biggs to ask for a loan from an old friend to pay the deposit on a house they wanted to buy for their growing family. That friend was Bruce Reynolds, at that moment planning on of the most famous crimes in British history – the Great Train Robbery of August 1963. 
 
The consequences of the robbery were to devastate Charmian’s life. Blissfully ignorant of what her husband was up to – he told her he was on a tree felling job in Wiltshire whilst away on the robbery – she nonetheless went on the run with her husband and children after he’d dramatically skipped over the wall of Wandsworth prison.

Shunned by her parents and desperate to keep her own family together, she secretly emigrated with her sons to Australia on false passports. Biggs had already quietly slipped out there and she now managed to help her husband, one of the world’s most wanted men, to avoid capture for more than four years.

 
But she was never to find any real peace and when – at her insistence – Biggs skipped the country for Rio, only hours before Melbourne Police discovered where they were living, Charmian and her three boys were on their own, facing an uncertain future in a foreign country.

Tragedy was to follow with the death in a car accident of her eldest son Nicky and she threw herself into building a life for her other two sons, studying for a degree and taking on a job as she pleaded to be allowed to stay in Australia.

Then, when Biggs was discovered by Scotland Yard living under an assumed name in Rio, she flew out for an emotional reunion. Biggs broke the news to her that that he had a chance of evading extradition as the father of an unborn child by a local night club dancer, Raimunda Nascimento De Castro – and then asked her for a divorce. He told his loyal wife that it would give him a better chance of persuading the Brazilian authorities that he intended to bring up his baby with Raimunda – and therefore be allowed to stay. Although utterly heartbroken, Charmian agreed.

Set on location in London, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Adelaide and Melbourne Mrs Biggs is a co-production with Melbourne based December Media for Seven Network in Australia. 
 
Charmian, who was allowed to remain in Australia, has acted as consultant to the production. She said: “If my story were to be dramatized I wanted it to be done as accurately as possible. It seemed to me this was an opportunity to convey the rollercoaster of emotions involved, rather than just the bare facts.’

 
Jeff Pope has been developing the drama for four years.
 
He said: “Charmian’s is one of the great untold stories of the 20th Century, set against the backdrop of one of the greatest crimes of all times. But at the heart of it is a simple love story between Charmian and Ron.”
 
Jeff also commented on the fact the drama will be a co-production:
 
“The story is, on one level, about a young family coming to Australia in the 60s, when it was a land of opportunity and discovery. We always knew we were going to need an Australian partner and Seven Network were committed and supportive right from the word go. We are looking forward to working with Seven on this great adventure.”
 
Mrs Biggs will be produced by Kwadjo Dajan (Appropriate Adult as co- producer) and directed by Paul Whittington (Vera, DCI Banks).
 
Mrs Biggs has been commissioned for ITV by Director of Drama Commissioning, Laura Mackie and Controller of Drama Commissioning Sally Haynes.
 
“Mrs Biggs is the heartbreaking story of Charmian’s enduring love for Ron Biggs.  It’s a very moving and emotional narrative, which Jeff has written beautifully,” said Laura. “We are delighted to have commissioned five episodes from ITV Studios.”
 
Filming has now begun in Manchester for five weeks and will then move to Australia, where it will continue for another five weeks.

ITV Drama

Ronnie Biggs Official Site

Ronnie Biggs Wikipedia

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Keeley Hawes and Ed Stoppard as Lady Agnes and Sir Hallam.

“THIS is London…”

A BBC Radio announcer and the chimes of Big Ben herald the return of Upstairs Downstairs.

Its first full BBC1 series following the three episodes screened at Christmas 2010.

Keeley Hawes (Lady Agnes Holland) and Ed Stoppard (Sir Hallam Holland) again lead the line upstairs at 165 Eaton Place.

With Alex Kingston arriving in episode one as Dr Blanche Mottershead, the younger sister of Lady Holland.

Dame Eileen Atkins, who played Lady Holland, having decided not to continue in her role.

New faces later in the series include Emilia Fox and Sarah Lancashire.

Alex Kingston as Dr Blanche Mottershead.

I attended the London press launch for the new series last month.

Where we were shown the first episode, which begins in September 1938 with Sir Hallam worried about events in Hitler’s Germany.

Writer and executive producer Heidi Thomas then took part in two Q&A sessions with fellow executive producer Faith Penhale, who is also Head of Drama at BBC Wales.

The first included the Upstairs cast and the second the Downstairs.

My edited transcript is below with spoilers, including a spot of monkey business in episode one.

But I’ve left out some of the more major revelations related to the main characters.

So hopefully what you read won’t spoil your enjoyment of the series.

Certain sections of the media are still determined to push the line of Upstairs Downstairs versus Downton Abbey.

When it’s clear from the viewing figures that there is ample room for both shows.

Cranford writer Heidi is also responsible for current Sunday night hit Call The Midwife.

And knows exactly what is required to draw us into the world of 165 and pre-war Britain.

We learned, for example, that episode two contains both violet macaroons and a teenage JFK.

What other television drama can give you that?

Upstairs Downstairs returns to BBC1 at 9:30pm on Sunday (Feb 19).

**********************************************************************

The 2012 cast.

Heidi Thomas – writer / Faith Penhale – executive producer and Head of Drama BBC Wales / Upstairs cast:

Q: Heidi – what did you want to achieve with this first full series?

Heidi Thomas: “I think the vision I had has been achieved for it by the production team. What I really wanted – it was so fantastic to have…when we did our Christmas pilot, or our Christmas special, which is really all that we set out to do then, we had three hours to tell the story of a year in the life of these two families who inhabit 165 Eaton Place. This time around we had twice as long. So I really wanted to make it at once more intimate and more epic. And that involved a certain amount of what I used to think of as breaking out of the doll’s house. I wanted everything to feel very immediate and real and connected to London and Europe and the big things that were going on in the world. And I think that has been delivered by the production team.”

Q: You lost Eileen Atkins (Lady Holland), who left, and Jean Marsh (Rose Buck) was very ill. How disruptive was that?

Heidi Thomas: “Those events were of two halves really. With Eileen it was all very mutual and not acrimonious in any way. And we did have almost three months before we started filming, which is a hell of a long time in modern television. So that didn’t present us with any practical difficulties, really. Obviously Jean is exceptionally dear to us and when we found out that she was unwell…that was different. That was an emotional experience for all of us as well because we just adore Jean. And I remember saying to Annie (Reid), ‘Rose cannot leave us. It would be like the ravens leaving the Tower. She’s so integral to 165.’ But in fact what we did…Jean’s recovery was our main priority. We had three plans of action and we waited to see how rapid her recovery was going to be and then we implemented one of those. So with a bit of forward planning and lots of tender loving care I think we got through that OK. She makes her first appearance in episode three and then we see her again before the end of the series. But I’m not giving anything away.”

Claire Foy as Lady Persie

Q: Why did you choose this time period?

Heidi Thomas: “Initially I think I first came to it in research terms because it reflected the amount of time that would have passed between that series going out – the Christmas special – and this one going out, which we knew would be for roughly a year later. But I became captivated by the politics and the the Home Front, if you will, in 1938. I hadn’t realised how close the people of Britain felt they were to war. I was amazed to find out that gas masks were being issued, that they were digging trenches. They were beginning to rehearse the evacuation of children. I found that fascinating and I think I thought the audience would find that amazing as well. We often talk in drama about, ‘Things will never be the same again,’ and ‘Big change is going to happen.’ But I thought it was rather interesting to be there at the very beginning point of that change. In some ways socially, I think the Second World War began in 1938 – and it just gave us a wonderful framework for the year. This series goes through from September 1938 to September 1939 and the outbreak of war itself.”

Q: We understand that Lady Persie is rather naughty in this series. How naughty does she become?

Claire Foy (Ladie Persie): “As naughty as it’s possible to get, I think.”

Heidi Thomas: “Whilst never perceiving herself as anything other than good, I think.”

Claire Foy: “Oh yeah. She loves herself. And I love her too very dearly. Apart from fascism. She just does what makes her happy and doesn’t really see why everyone else has a problem with it. But people have lots of problems with lots of things that she does in this series. Literally she does everything that’s possible to do, wrong.”

Faith Penhale: “She very much has her own moral code that she lives by. Not shared by others.”

Keeley Hawes as Lady Agnes.

Q: How does what happens affect her relationship with older sister Agnes (Keeley Hawes)?

Faith Penhale: “There are consequences when that is then played out. It’s a very complicated sisterly relationship.”

Claire Foy: “They’ve got a really difficult relationship anyway. Not difficult, but there’s so much history to it. There’s so much jealousy.”

Keeley Hawes: “But Agnes still loves that little Nazi (Persie).” (laughter)

Q: The Downton Abbey issue?

Faith Penhale: “The shows are so different. And I think the settings are so different and the worlds are so different. There’s absolutely space for both shows. It’s never about, ‘In what way are we similar to Downton?’ We see ourselves as very much like we do our own thing. So they really are different. The fact is we’re London 1938 – I don’t even know what year they’re set. But it’s way before that. And it’s not London. A very different set of characters, worlds and themes.”

Heidi Thomas: “It hasn’t been part of our thinking while we make the show at all. We’re so centred on what we do and I think we’re all so passionate about these two families at this time in history. That’s our story.”

Claire Foy: “I don’t think anyone who ever writes any TV programme ever would ever say…someone who was writing Corrie would ever say, ‘Oh in EastEnders they did this, so we’ll do that.’ It’s not really how it works.”

Heidi Thomas: “No, it just isn’t.”

Michael Landes (Caspar Landry): “Except for in America. They do that all the time!” (laughter)

Michael Landes as Caspar Landry.

Q: How saucy does Upstairs Downstairs get this series?

Heidi Thomas: “Oh, I don’t know. I suppose it depends where your baseline is, really. All I can say without giving away any games is – we are more intimate and more epic than last time. So you’ll see more politics and you’ll see more of people’s private lives.”

Faith Penhale: “I think it’s also just worth saying that there’s a lot of romance as well in this series.”

Heidi Thomas: “You have to remember it’s 1939 so there are some areas where a lot of nice people wouldn’t go. There’s moral codes in place. It’s one of the reasons why I like writing period drama because even a kiss can have consequences. The brush of two hands on the stairs can have consequences. It’s not like the modern world where you have to be jumping in and out of bed every five minutes to make any impact on anybody’s lives. We do always adhere to that code. So by modern standards it’s not very saucy at all in actual fact.”

Faith Penhale: “There’s obvious betrayal as well. But that’s a different thing, isn’t it? I think what’s really interesting about 165 is that every character in the house has their own emotional story to play out and they all, in their own way, have their hearts broken, their hopes are dashes, their ideas are challenged. So it’s very emotional.”

Heidi Thomas: “A lot of people get pushed to the edge. And whether that’s in terms of what experience ladles upon them or what choices they are forced to make. I like to take all the characters on a journey and that’s what was lovely about having time to do that this year.”

Sarah Lancashire as Miss Violet Whisset.

Emilia Fox as Lady Portia Alresford.

Q: The characters that Sarah Lancashire and Emilia Fox are going to play?

Heidi Thomas: “You’ll meet Emilia first and Sarah comes in later. Emilia connects with the upstairs world of 165 and Miss Whisset connects with the downstairs world. Emilia plays a character called Portia, Lady Alresford and Sarah Lancashire plays a character called Miss Violet Whisset. Emilia plays a character in her thirties and…I really don’t want to give the game away because it lets you know things about other characters in the show ahead of time and I think it will spoil it for the audience.”

Faith Penhale: “It’s also worth saying that they both connect with characters in the house who have space in their hearts for these characters to come into their lives. Portia – Emilia Fox – makes a connection with Blanche and Miss Whisset makes a connection with Mr Pritchard.”

Q: Michael – can you tell us about Caspar?

Michael Landes: “I have a relationship with Lady Agnes. I’m an American entrepreneur, a wealthy businessman, that comes over and strikes up a relationship that evolves and grows over the six episodes. I balance out her naughty sister’s behaviour. I think I represent something very liberating or refreshing to Lady Agnes.”

Keeley Hawes: “It’s very difficult.” (laughter)

Ed Stoppard as Sir Hallam.

Q: Killing off Soloman the monkey – any qualms about doing that?

Heidi Thomas: “Not really. The thing is, Maud (Lady Holland) and Soloman were such kindred spirits. The idea of a poor lost soul of a monkey wandering through six episodes with nobody to love him was just unbearable. So I thought we’d do the kindest thing. No monkeys were harmed in any way. It’s all handled very delicately. And one of the things that you do find with wildlife on set is they are often looked after better than the human actors. They are so well taken care of and well trained and their welfare is always there to the fore. We did have a little flag up from health and safety who said they didn’t like seeing his corpse on the kitchen table because that was a surface where food was normally prepared.”

Q: Alex – Blanche made a big impact in the first episode. What can we see coming up for her?

Alex Kingston (Dr Blanche Mottershead): “She gradually roots herself into 165 Eaton Place. I think initially you’ll see Agnes and Hallam (Ed Stoppard) being rather frustrated by her presence. But she certainly, towards the end of the series I think, becomes somewhat of an ally to Agnes. And is quite instrumental in encouraging Agnes to find herself, gain confidence in herself. She’s not a fly in the ointment but she certainly stirs things up and she has her secrets as well, which are revealed.”

Faith Penhale: “And she has a very liberal approach to life which I think is one of her key qualities in the Upstairs dynamic, is that she’s quite a radical. She’s quite out there with some of her ideas, from the carrot juice to the seaweed, kelp or whatever to rather bigger ideas.”

Alex Kingston: “She’s what I suppose in those days one would call an adventuress and she’s been to university, she’s lived in North Africa, she’s worked alongside archeologists and is very much part of that world. A sort of Gertrude Bell-type character. I’m sure she would have looked up to someone like Gertrude Bell. And so to come from a rather free existence into the relative constraints of 165, she doesn’t understand why she necessarily would have to conform to the very beautifully kept world that they’ve created for themselves. She shakes it up a bit.”

Faith Penhale: “And has quite a lot of influence.”

Alex Kingston as Blanche Mottershead and Keeley Hawes as Lady Agnes.

Q: There’s a strong sense of 1938 and the fear of war that was coming. Did any of you in your research or in any of scenes find anything particularly striking or reflect on anything about that period of history?

Blake Ritson (Duke of Kent): “I was very assiduous in my research for the Duke of Kent where he has to give a masterclass on how to make the perfect Manhattan. I toured round mainline Europe…”

Alex Kingston: “I find the choice that Heidi’s made in terms of when to set this, I actually think it’s quite clever. Personally, I feel that at the moment we are on the verge of something that we don’t really know. There’s the whole predictions – 2012 is the end of the world…in a funny sort of way the world is going to change very radically and I think there is a lot fear because we do not know what’s going to happen but it is going to change. And I think it’s actually quite clever that this television show…you’re seeing it’s reflecting that and you’re seeing people on the very edge of something that they just don’t know what’s going to happen. They’ve lived through the First World War, that was horrendous. But they know that with all the advances in technology at that time, weaponary and everything, that this could be the end of the world potentially in terms of their imagination. So I think it’s a very good idea. People will identify with the fears of the characters, in a way.”

Art Malik as Mr Amanjit

Heidi Thomas: “One of the things I love about writing period drama is that there is an inherent dramatic engine in it, in that we all know more than our characters about how their world is going to turn out. And the note I always give myself is – 1938, or as we move on to 1939, is the present. These characters at this point don’t really know – Hallam has a pretty good idea, I think, because he’s a very perspicacious diplomat. But our characters can’t fully see the extent to which their world is going to be torn open by this. It’s a great trope in drama to say, ‘And nothing is ever going to be the same again.’ But come 1945, this world will end. Belgravia will end. That house cannot exist in this form and this society can no longer exist in this form. And that’s very exciting.”

Alex Kingston: “This is the beginning, really, of the modern world as we know it and everything that you have seen prior to that will no longer exist. Women’s lives changed forever and here is a society, a group of people that are clinging on to what they know, their past. And it is absolutely going to change irrevocably.”

Q: What sort of change to do you think we’re on the cusp of now?

Alex Kingston: “Oh, I don’t want to think about it. I don’t know. It is going to change, isn’t it? In a way, 2012 will be the end of the world as we know it.”

Art Malik (Mr Amanjit): “You arrive. You go into make-up. Suddenly make-up are changing you. They’re bringing you into the period. Then you go into your trailer. You put on your costumes which have been sourced. And suddenly you’re in the period. And then you go on to these sets – whether they’re actually the ones that have been built in Wales or whether we go to a park and convert it or go to a side of a building and make it look as if you’re inside the Albert Hall…the art department and the production team’s values are there. Mark as the director was wonderful in the way that he shot it. The way he’s used his visual narrative makes our job so much easier.”

Jean Marsh as Rose Buck.

Q: Where did you go for your research? And did you discover things you didn’t know?

Heidi Thomas: “Oh absolutely. And that was one of the things that wedded me to 1938. For example, I didn’t know that the King had drafted a letter to Hitler begging him to consider an alternative view. I thought that was quite fascinating. But I began as I do with everything. I do quite serious reading and certainly in the serious history structuring of the series I was greatly helped by Laura Lancaster, who’s my script executive. We had a little library of books that we were both completely across. And then when our script editor joined later, she would be forensically across everything. I do like to do my own research but then we run it all past an academic historian when the scripts are polished, just to make sure that we’ve got everything spot on. That helped me to structure the political world. And I also collect ephemera, particularly old housekeeping manuals and medical books. And they’re very good when I’m doing downstairs. So I do actually have an upstairs library and a downstairs library. I just think God is in the detail, really. I think you can find as much social history sometimes in an old lady’s magazine as you can in a book that’s this thick, full of historical facts. Anything to do with the heavyweight political history of the day I found invaluable this time around. Because essentially we’re telling personal stories and I just found that the more historically heavyweight the material I was using, the better I felt able to pinion these smaller moments. Because we are seeing it from people’s personal perspective.”

*********************************************************************

Adrian Scarborough as Mr Pritchard.

Q&A 2.

The “Downstairs” cast then joined Heidi and Faith:

Q: Humour an important part of the writing process for downstairs?

Heidi Thomas: “Yes. I think it seems to come through very naturally. When you’re downstairs you’re in a working environment and obviously there’s always banter in any working environment. And oddly I often feel as though the downstairs characters know each other better than the upstairs characters do. They’re quite communicative and you’ve got a larger group of people living in one room, essentially. Living cheek by jowl. I think the humour does rise up naturally. But I think that’s life though, isn’t it? Laughing one minute and grumpy or crying the next. The more of that you can get into the mix, the more it reminds us I think that these are real people leading…well they’re not real are they, they’re imaginary. (laughter) You have to try and reflect real life and that, to me, is what real life is all about.”

Jean Marsh (Rose Buck): “It’s business, isn’t it, downstairs? It’s so tough that you have humour as well, or you’d be a pain.”

Anne Reid (Mrs Thackeray): “And we’re more uninhibited than they are upstairs.”

Faith Penhale: “There’s a formality to upstairs. A lot of scandal, a lot of formality. Whereas downstairs it’s all a bit more open – hearts are worn on their sleeves. Which is great but does provide a very different atmosphere.”

Anne Reid as Mrs Thackeray.

Q: A lot of tensions downstairs in the first episode. Does that carry on?

Heidi Thomas: “Yes it does. It’s like with any close-knit community, especially within a workplace, there are fissures and there are cracks and they paper over those cracks and they carry on. There are quarrels and fallings out. I always enjoy writing a good row, actually. Because I’m quite sort of compliant in life. I’m not a grew rower and it all comes out when I’m writing for this lot. They have arguments much, much better than I ever could.”

Anne Reid: “There’s a lot of humour to be got out of our characters, isn’t there? Particularly downstairs.”

Heidi Thomas: “I do think Upstairs Downstairs is probably the only series where you can have Anne Reid and Adrian Scarborough (Mr Pritchard) going at it hammer and tongs over some violet macaroons. That’s to come. That’s just to whet your appetite for episode two.”

Laura Haddock as Beryl Ballard.

Q: Jean – were you just determined to get back?

Jean Marsh: “I was absolutely determined. Three weeks after the first episode I had a stroke and a heart attack. And in three weeks’ time I’d thrown myself out of the hospital. And I said, ‘I will be alright.’ The main doctor said, ‘Well alright, you can work again but you’ll only work four hours a day.’ And I said, ‘Terrific.’ (laughter) Everybody was so wonderful to me and so helpful that it was comparitively easy to get better. Really extraordinary – the support of everybody.”

Q: Does Mr Pritchard have more run-ins as the series develops?

Adrian Scarborough: “Continually, yes. He really does. He has run-ins practically every episode. Bless him. From the best of motives, he’s a bit of a pompous arse. But he has quite a strong moral code and he likes other people to live up to it too. He doesn’t shy away from confrontation, which is really lovely to play. Because I do. I run a mile. So it’s been quite good to exercise that limb.”

Faith Penhale: “But there is a heartbreaking story to come.”

Anne Reid: “He’s got really up himself actually. (laughter) No, not Adrian, I mean the character. Since Miss Buck wasn’t well he’s taken over the kitchen and it’s gone totally to his head. It’s a wonderful character. Having been on the ships with Errol Flynn and done James Cagney’s birthday party.”

Neil Jackson as Harry Spargo.

Q: Over the course of the year that we are about to see on screen, do we see any shift in the relationship between downstairs and upstairs?

Heidi Thomas: “Yes. I think when people are looking at their own lives changing they start to question what’s going on in the world as a whole. And I think the thing that is most apparent – certainly it was to me when I was writing – is this idea that the downstairs characters no longer accept the status quo to quite the same extent. I’ve always been very careful in 165 Eaton Place to keep the barricades up, if you like, between upstairs and down. There aren’t personal relationships per se between upstairs and down, even though they’re being thrown together by circumstances. But by the end of the year, by the time war breaks out, they really have begun to question the status quo. Especially the younger characters.”

Q: Setting for possible next series?

Heidi Thomas: “You do hope that we get to tell the story of 165 during the Blitz. Nothing’s ever a given in television.”

Jean Marsh: “Not too far…”

Heidi Thomas: “Not too far. No, no. I was in the office the other day and there was a big book just called, ‘The Blitz,’ and I thought, ‘Well someone’s planning ahead.’ They had lots of photographs of rubble and things like that. So we shall see. But very much this has always been my hope, that we would go on from this one and follow these characters through the war. Because we’ve got a young man who would be of enlisting age, we’ve got women who are going to have to find new roles from themselves and the very physical fabric of the house will be threatened by air raids. I was always very fascinated by the idea that during the Second World War the rich people went and slept in the basement of The Dorchester and the poor people went down into the tube stations. I’m starting to mull over those scenaria at the moment. But we’ll see.”

Ami Metcalf as Eunice.

Q: When you write the series, do you ask Jean’s opinion?

Jean Marsh: “Well, actually, I was born in 1934, so I remember it all. Yes, of course, I’m aware of everything because I was a Londoner and I was of normal working class people. And so the whole development…odd things…I was very aware, even when I was five, six, seven, of appeasement. And then Stalin was suddenly the hero. Everything happened constantly. And we didn’t know a lot of things and still don’t know maybe 50 years later.”

Heidi Thomas: “Also Jean, as a rights holder, as indeed does Eileen, reads all the scripts and has approval over everything. We always look forward to Jean’s feedback. Indeed the feedback of all of the rights holders because those are the people who looked after the series in its original incarnation. I think the longer I’ve spent working on the show, the better able I am to intuit, perhaps, what’s required. Because it is a brand and a world that you get to know very well, even when you’re in the act of bringing it forward in time. But Jean’s opinion is always very valuable to me. And she has a wonderful eye for the kind of things that fire me up, like the tiny details. So that’s always a huge help when she gives us some of that.”

Q: Heidi – is there a danger of too much focus in this country on period drama from the past?

Heidi Thomas: “I don’t think so. If you look, the BBC has got two contemporary series starting this week – Prisoners’ Wives and Inside Men. So I think the contemporary world is very well represented. To be quite honest, what I’ve noticed – I do rather specialise in period drama but I often find that the things that people really connect to in the period dramas are the timeless things. In Call The Midwife, yes it’s Fifties set and I think there is surface pleasure to be gained from the beautiful way that world is realised by people other than myself or people working on the scripts. But I think ultimately the big star of Call The Midwife is childbirth. Is there anything more timeless? One thinks not. And in Upstairs Downstairs, again, we’ve got the politics, we’ve got the exquisite costumes and sets which take my breath away every time I see the rushes. But ultimately I think what’s at the heart of it is human relationships. Jealousy, having a crush on someone, falling out of love with someone that you thought was going to be at the centre of your world forever. And those things are timeless. So I don’t think there’s any danger that we’re going to wear ourselves out at the moment.”

Laura Haddock as Beryl Ballard.

Q: Laura – you’re coming in (as a nursery maid) and going to shake things up. How is that going to develop?

Laura Haddock (Beryl Ballard): “Beryl comes into 165 having never worked in a household before. She’s there to save money to go and apprentice in a (hair) salon. So that’s her big dream. Her whole goal is to save this money up in her money pot and then leave. I suppose it’s not that easy once you get in. She becomes, quite quickly…because she’s very strong and quite intelligent and quite savvy, streetwise…she very quickly becomes part of the household. Lots of different things happen. There is a romance. What’s really exciting about her is that she’s very outspoken and she’s such a modern girl living in 1938 and she’s not bothered about what she says and whom she says it too. And it doesn’t really matter whether they’re upstairs or downstairs in her mind. If it’s her opinion she’s allowed to express it.”

Faith Penhale: “Which does get her into a little bit of trouble.”

Laura Haddock: “The downstairs staff just really don’t understand why she is the way that she is. They can’t believe that she says some of the things that she says.”

Heidi Thomas: “Beryl’s got a vision. I was partly inspired of writing Beryl by my own grandmother who was apprenticed to a court hairdresser and changed her own circumstances quite dramatically by marrying a businessman. And I just think Beryl has this vision, this sense of trajectory. She can see ahead to what she wants and she’s going to go out and get it. Whereas a lot of – not all – the downstairs characters are very much within the moment. They’re enjoying their jobs. They consider themselves privileged to have them. But they’re not necessarily thinking about working their way out of that house or up any sort of social ladder. But Beryl is. And I found that quite stimulating for me as a writer. And I think Laura plays that part beautifully. She does bring this wonderful mix of Thirties’ glamour and modern savvieness to the screen which I think is fabulous.”

Faith Penhale: “And, of course, she’s turned Harry Spargo’s head.”

Heidi Thomas: “Like that. It took her about five seconds.”

Neil Jackson (Harry Spargo): “What are you going to do?” (laughter)

Heidi Thomas: “It takes you (Neil / Harry) a bit longer than five seconds though, doesn’t it?”

Laura Haddock: “Much longer.” (laughter)

Neil Jackson: “She spurns any advances he has. She puts him down and doesn’t go for him as quickly as he thinks other girls would have gone. Which is really intriguing to him. Which is part of the allure of her. The fact that she closes the door very quickly at every single time time he tries to open it.”

Laura Haddock: “Because she has such a strong focus on bettering herself. She’s not necessarily in competition with anybody else. It’s herself that she competes with. She wants to better her position all the time. So she’s so focused on that when this handsome chap starts looking at her and starts making advances, it kind of throws her off a little bit. But then she gets back on track and then…”

Neil Jackson: “Because she’s so driven she doesn’t want anything to derail her from that. That sense of drive and focus infects several people in the house. Particularly Harry as he starts to look at other things that might be outside of the job, and the place, that he’s doing. So she helps my character broaden his horizons by virtue of her perspective.”

Heidi Thomas: “Yes, she’s a good catalyst, Beryl.”

Nico Mirallegro as Johnny Proude.

Q: The food at Eaton Place?

Anne Reid: “I put on 10lbs in the last series because we had so many bowls of cream which I kept sticking my finger in. And this time I was absolutely determined not to do it. So I brought my scale to Cardiff and weighed myself. I only put on 4lbs this time.”

Q: What do you enjoy about putting real people like the Duke of Kent and Neville Chamberlain in the series?

Heidi Thomas: “It’s just something that Upstairs Downstairs demanded, initially, I think. Because this household, as with the long ago series, they’re very, very close to the corridors of power. It wasn’t something I think I’d fully anticipated when I wrote the Christmas short series, the idea that Hallam as a diplomat was going to very close to Chamberlain and Munich. And the characters themselves are absolutely fascinating. I love the Duke of Kent. I became very interested in Lord Halifax who did himself have a change of conscience half way through this very epoch-making month of September. I just think it’s very interesting to re-visit these characters, albeit often in cameo roles, who maybe haven’t had the light of history shone on them very much. I absolutely loved the idea, for example, in episode two – the Kennedys come to dinner because Joseph Kennedy, senior, was the American Ambassador. Of course there would have been some sort of social discourse with a gentleman of Hallam’s calibre. I also found out that Jack Kennedy came to London in that precise month, literally to research his dissertation which was about European politics. So that gave me little building blocks that I could put into those scenes to give them some structure. And it was lovely to introduce a callow JFK. He’s 19 and can’t really keep his end up in conversation. He’s very shy and a bit withdrawn. That was just a nice moment. I think it helps to enrich that world and give us a sense of the scale that this household was living on, really.”

Q: Does Johnny carry any amount of guilt because of what happens in the first episode?

Nico Mirallegro (Johnny Proude): “Yeah. He does. He’s very naive. At the end of the day he just wants to try and help Lady Agnes because he’s worried that she’s worried about her baby. He does feel very guilty.”

BBC Upstairs Downstairs

Gertrude Bell

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IT was the highest rated new British TV drama of 2011.

And is due to return to our screens next month (March).

I spent several days last month interviewing the cast of Scott & Bailey series two.

Nine interviews in total for the new series ITV Press Pack.

Including Suranne Jones (D.C. Rachel Bailey), Lesley Sharp (D.C. Janet Scott), Amelia Bullmore (D.C.I. Gill Murray) and Nicholas Gleaves (D.S. Andy Roper).

Plus new arrival Sean Maguire as P.C. Sean McCartney, Lisa Riley, who guest stars as Nadia Hicks in the first two episodes, and Downton Abbey star Kevin Doyle, making his return as serial killer Geoff Hastings in episode five.

As well as writer Sally Wainwright and co-creator Diane Taylor.

My early taster for the new series ran in the M.E.N. yesterday.

And here it is online:

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Series two press pack.

TV detectives stumbled on a real life police drama while filming scenes in Manchester.

Former Coronation Street star Suranne Jones was among cast members on location for hit ITV1 series Scott & Bailey, set in and around the city, when life began to imitate art.

Chadderton-raised Suranne, who plays D.C. Rachel Bailey, was filming a scene with Bury-based former Emmerdale star Lisa Riley, who guest stars as suspect Nadia Hicks.

“We were in a place where a real raid was happening on the same street that we were filming,” she explained.

“So we are in the places where these stories are actually taking place.

“That’s how real it is – and frightening for us as well.

“You could see real police vans around but the crew just ushered us to get on with filming as we had our own job to do,” added Suranne.

Made by Manchester’s Red Production Company, Scott & Bailey was the highest rated new British television drama of 2011 with 9.4 million viewers.

It earned Suranne a Best Performance accolade at the Royal Television Society North West Awards and a nomination at last month’s National TV Awards.

The second eight-part series, due on screen next month, includes a violent scene between Lisa and Suranne’s characters.

“She punches me in the face and then tries to throttle me. We filmed that for about a day and a half,” explained Suranne, who last acted with Lisa when they were teenagers at Oldham Theatre Workshop.

Writer Sally Wainwright again worked with co-creator Diane Taylor, a now retired former Detective Inspector with Greater Manchester Police’s Major Incident Team who helps ensure the scripts are authentic and accurate.

Said Sally: “Diane’s just massively experienced, both as a Senior Investigating Officer at Greater Manchester and working at the National Crime Faculty, helping to solve murders all over the country.”

Lesley Sharp, who plays Manchester Metropolitan Police detective Janet Scott, said the setting for the drama was an important factor in its success.

“The locations for Scott & Bailet are very evocative. It’s not the sanitised version of Manchester. It’s north Manchester, Oldham, Whitefield and Chadderton.

“They don’t run around in glass buildings these cops. They’re out and about in back alleys, in windswept avenues – it really adds to the show,” added the Manchester-born actress.

The drama was originally devised by Suranne and former Weatherfield co-star Sally Lindsay, who plays her screen sister Alison.

ITV Drama

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