Sofie Grabol as Sarah Lund in The Killing III. This is the “pre-jumper” jumper.

The last case for Sarah Lund.

There were a few gasps of surprise from the audience at the British Film Institute in London last Friday (Nov 9) night when “the third and final series of The Killing” was introduced.

Which just goes to show not everyone keeps up with the news.

We have, of course, known for a long time now that Denmark’s compelling television export would be no more after the end of series three.

It was confirmed when Sofie Grabol appeared at BAFTA in London this time last year.

Click here to read my transcript of that November 2011 Q&A.

But it’s still hard to come to terms with the fact that there are just 10 more episodes of this BAFTA award-winning production left.

The first part of my transcript of Friday’s fascinating BFI Q&A is below – check back later for the rest.

Chaired by Ben Preston, the editor of Radio Times, it featured Sofie Grabol, who plays Sarah Lund, creator, writer and showrunner Soren Sveistrup and producer Piv Bernth, who is now also Head of Drama at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.

As ever, their English puts me to shame – and you’ll have to watch out in the transcript for Soren’s very dry sense of humour.

The Q&A session followed a preview screening of episode one, introduced by the Danish Ambassador to London.

Perhaps just as well that I’d already seen it, as well as episode two, as the lady’s head in front of me mostly obscured the English subtitles.

I’ve since watched episodes three and four and am, of course, now desperate to see the rest.

The Killing III begins on BBC4 at 9pm next Saturday (Nov 17), starting a run of double episodes over the next five weeks.

With episode eight screened in Denmark tonight (Sunday Nov 11) and the tenth and final episode still being edited.

You will only find the very mildest of spoilers below.

It’s not giving too much away to say that a distracted Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Lund does not have her mind fully on the job when we meet her again.

She is trying to look after herself for a change, having applied for a job away from the police front line with the OPA – Operative, Planning and Analysis – department.

Also hoping to build broken bridges with her now grown up son.

As you can see from the photo at the top of this page, there is a pre-jumper, jumper before we meet the real new deal in episode four.

Sarah also appears in her police dress uniform, complete with tie – worn for an anniversary ceremony marking her – and others – 25 years of police service.

Soren has set the story of Forbrydelsen III against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and its domestic impact in Denmark.

With the Prime Minister involved in a bitter election campaign.

There is, of course, a killer. But with a twist.

Soren warned us not to risk our money betting on the identity of the murderer.

“We changed the story because we wanted to do something different,” he said.

This time around viewers are also, of course, desperate to know how Sarah Lund’s own story will end.

Copenhagen and surrounds still appear to have an acute shortage of mains electricity.

Leading to plenty of renewed use for police issue torches in dark and scary places, including a nod to the woods in series one.

While the opening scenes on the old freight ship Medea will have you gripped from the very start.

The Killing’s soundtrack is again hard wired to the hairs on the back of your neck.

Not least in the four episode ending cliffhangers I’ve seen so far, which absolutely demand that you watch the next hour immediately.

There’s a scene in episode three where some of the characters speak in English, which is a bit of a strange experience.

And the Danish Ambassador teased us that “we will see more” of Sarah in this series”, with speculation that the jumper may come off at some point.

It’s generally accepted that while The Killing series two was excellent, it did not match the 20 episode first series. How could it?

That classic first year will probably not be surpassed.

But from what I’ve watched so far, this finale aims to give it a very good run for its money.

The transcript is quite long but well worth reading in full.

Highlights include Sofie recalling how she filmed Sarah Lund’s final three key scenes on her very last day on set.

And how ending her role as Lund suddenly “hit me like a hammer” once she stopped work.

She revealed: “Well actually it has been much more emotional for me to finish this project than I really want to admit, because I think it’s pathetic…I mean, it is work.”

Sofie also reflected on the visit of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, to one of the locations during filming for this series.

Without, of course, revealing what they were, Soren spoke about the options for Sarah Lund’s end story.

Also maintaining that there will definitely not be a fourth series:

“It’s been a great party, this The Killing party. We had great fun and it’s been very, very hard. But we agreed from the start that it wasn’t going to be a never-ending story.

“I’d hate it to just be another show, another mass produced show, ongoing and not really reflecting anything.”

Soren, Piv and Sofie told us how the pressures of the “crazy pace” of filming and last minute delivery of scripts were part of what made The Killing such a success.

Along with relationships built up by those working on the drama for several years.

While Soren summed up how he viewed The Killing.

“Basically, it’s just a chase.”

Piv, Soren and Sofie spoke about the courage to end The Killing when it was still a huge success and avoid being one of those drama series that goes on for far too long with a subsequent drop in quality.

“Really I think that so much television stinks,” Soren told us.

“It doesn’t have to. It’s a perfect medium. Why not use it for something good? Why not use it for making cinema?”

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On stage at the BFI in London.

Q: (Ben Preston in the chair) Sofie – that’s a very different Sarah Lund in the first episode…what’s ahead in this series?

Sofie Grabol: “Well in my view, hopefully it is Sarah Lund. Of course we had a lot of discussions before starting off this third series. And we all agreed that the place we left her at the end of the second season…she’d lost everything. She’d lost her belief in people, in the system, in everything. She was totally stripped of innocence. So we had a lot of talks about…that it wouldn’t be realistic…and that’s the thing for me, luxury as an actor, that there is a continuity, it is one story. So we carry the past seasons with her and we talked about how many times can you as a person, if you live like that…and I identify with that a bit, actually…how many times can you throw yourself, risk everything, throw everything on the table and lose. And still the next time just risk it all. And we thought, well, she’s also reached an age where it’s hard to just every time go out there with your innocent belief in everything, so we thought well maybe she actually wants a life now, she wants what other people have – a home. She wants to get in touch with her son again, whom she’d lost. And maybe find love. Just the normal life. Is that too much to ask? And that is, of course, I mean because she turns down the volume in her work, it allows her to lead a more normal life. So that’s where we meet her. In heels also! Not dressed for practical work in dark alleys.”

Q: Sarah is not quite focused on work at the start of this series?

Sofie Grabol: “No. Certainly not. Everything has a price. You can’t be a hundred thousand per cent everywhere and so if you want to put some of your percentage in your private life, then of course you might miss some points at work, important details.”

Q: Lots of important details, which sounded like you talked for hours, days, weeks, months before you started about where this series three should begin?

Soren Sveistrup: “We usually do that, you know. (laughter) It’s a friendly conversation – it starts out like a friendly conversation. And then we get very stubborn. And then we start arguing. And then we start fighting. And then we go each, separate ways. and then we team up again. And usually we agree. And I get my way. (laughter) It’s been very quiet..”

Q: And with every series the canvas gets larger. Series one was Copenhagen, it was mayoral politics. Series two was Afghanistan, a conspiracy in the Ministry of Justice. And in series three, here we are the financial crisis, globalised capitalism, a prime minister…you love grappling with politics?

Soren Sveistrup: “Yes – I think it’s exciting to take part in some of the discussions from the newspapers and the medias. But it’s more like a carpet or a curtain behind the story, actually. Sometimes I think when I hear it myself, I think, ‘Wow, that sounds really clever.’ But I didn’t get it. (laughter) I know something about emotions and the feelings. But of course the issues are important, I think. And you mentioned before, Sarah Lund is in a different way now. I think that it has a good reflection because of the financial crisis. Because everybody – well not everybody, but the times are hard and we have to look after number one. And Sarah Lund is looking after number one…not minding all the maybe moral issues at work. Not burning her flame too much this time. Trying to avoid that, cultivating her own garden. For me it’s a picture on how we people…usually we act in a financial crisis, it’s tough and who can save Africa? So at that point, at that stage…and it’s provocative…when we are trying to isolate ourselves from society. We say, ‘OK, I really have to look after myself because of my job.’ And so I thought, she’s a survivor and this time she’s trying to look after herself.”

Q: And you’re looking also at how business has responded to the downturn?

Soren Sveistrup: “Yes. It’s my version of it, anyway. Money is important. But we’ll see what it ends up as.”

Sigurd Holmen le Dous as Sarah Lund’s new police partner Asbjorn Juncker. And as as we know, that always goes well.

Q: We always follow Danish politics. And we thought Cameron and Clegg meeting in The Rose Garden was good enough. But you have a Centre Party having a secret affair on the election trail?

Soren Sveistrup: “Yes. Actually I think – not to talk a lot about that, but I think politics is important. Important issues. But also I think it’s a sexy world because it has this glamorous side. Of course there’s a lot of backstabbing. It’s fighting arenas, like boxers doing rounds with each other and they’re just wearing suits. There’s a lot of hidden agendas and politics is just very good for the genre of a thriller. Because nobody’s talking the truth. So what’s your real agenda? Then, of course, the mix with the filthy side of society. It’s an upscale arena and it’s a good match with the docks and the dark side of society.”

Q: Piv, you presumably were very keen to get a bit more about Sarah’s hinterland. We’ve not known much about Sarah in the first two series, her personal side. And then suddenly this comes very much to the fore here. We’ve had on the authority of the Danish Ambassador that we may be seeing more of Sophie?

Piv Bernth: (laughs) “Yeah, well no. Actually no, not really because, I mean, one of the important things of the character is that she is still an enigma to everyone. So we all read different things into her. I know the Americans are really trying to work out her background story. But we’re not. We’ve talked about it and we know enough…so everybody has to read their own story into the character. That’s the fascinating thing about Sarah Lund. You never really know.”

Soren Sveistrup: “I’d say every time we’ve done a story, the real challenge has been to…the whole enigma, so to speak, it’s basically just to make a lot of stuff hard for Sophie. Because everytime – OK, we have to find a story that makes sure Sophie goes to dark places, basements and big…”

Q: Who needs a cellar when you’ve got the hull of a ship?

Piv Bernth: “She’s brave. She’s doing things that I wouldn’t do.”

Soren Sveistrup: “Yes. And then if you…concentrate on what it is. Basically it’s just a chase. At the very beginning it’s just a chase. It’s one long chase. It just takes 10 episodes. During the 10 episodes it’s my challenge and obligation, of course, to make a lot of hard work for Sophie and Piv, of course. And make sure that the challenges are different from series one and series two.”

Sofie Grabol: “You succeeded if that was the task. Giving us hard work.”

Piv Bernth: “Absolutely.”

Q: “And of course this chase is the last chase. When did you know what would happen in the last scene?”

Soren Sveistrup: “Actually, this time we talked a lot about how we would finish Lund. Not finish her off but finish Lund. And we didn’t talk that much about whodunit. We talked a lot about your (Sofie’s) character and what we wanted to say at the end. So actually what was going to happen to Sarah Lund in the end, we knew, I think, from the very beginning. But what the consequences were going to be, we had two options there…and I really can’t talk about that.” (laughter)

Q: When did you tell Sofie which of the options…?

Soren Sveistrup: “They were there from the very start.”

Sofie Grabol: “The only thing that Soren keeps as a national secret is the crime plot and the whodunit. And for this third season I personally…because in the first season I was completely obsessed with whodunit and I was a policeman when I was off acting every day. I was sitting discussing with Marie (Marie Askehave who played Rie Skovgaard) at our local cafe, ‘Who can it be?’ But this third season I really haven’t had my focus there. I mean I’ve had my theories. I was wrong. Again. For the third time. But, no, my main focus has been on the journey of Sarah Lund. We’ve been discussing that the whole way. All discussing. I’d say that I’ve been following Sarah, because it hadn’t been decided from the beginning – or there was a decision but you (Soren) changed it.”

Soren Sveistrup: “Yes.”

Sofie Grabol: “Yes. And yeah, that’s been my main focus.”

Soren Sveistrup: “But not because you said it.” (laughter)

Sofie Grabol: “No, no…”

Soren Sveistrup: “I changed it…because I run things.” (laughter)

Piv Bernth: “With a little bit of help from your friends.”

Nikolaj Lie Kaas plays Special Branch’s Matthias Borch, who is also a police partner of sorts for Lund and knows her from younger days.

Q: Piv, is it right that you insisted that on the last day of filming, that Sofie would be in the last day of filming?”

Piv Bernth: “Well, yes. And it didn’t work. Because she wasn’t. Sofie ended in the last week of filming and actually that first day of the last week of filming. But the very final shot, she wasn’t in that. No. And actually Sofie said that she would like not to be. So no.”

Sofie Grabol: “I said that it didn’t matter because you were like, ‘It’s very important that you are in the last..’ And it doesn’t fit with the production…”

Piv Bernth: “No, and it didn’t. And with your plans and all. But the reason why I thought it would be something special was because you were in the very first shot in the first season of the first episode. And I thought that would be very nice just to wrap up in that way.”

Sofie Grabol: “So we have to make a fourth season where I can be in the very, very, very last…” (Applause and laughter)

Piv Bernth: “In the end of the day it was not important. It was just a little curious thing for me. But you were in the first day of the last week. And we finished that…”

Soren Sveistrup: “Then the last scene was actually Sarah Lund’s last in the story.”

Piv Bernth: “It was.”

Q: Sofie, you’ve lived with Sarah for eight years. How did you prepare for the last day of shooting?

Sofie Grabol: “Well actually it has been much more emotional for me to finish this project than I really want to admit, because I think it’s pathetic…I mean, it is work. But one of the good things about our crazy pace on this series – because it really is a crazy working pace. The crazy pace, combined with very short time for preparation…and I’m so glad that you’re here Soren so you can (laughs)…no, but the scripts are delivered very late. (laughter) So everyone is busy, slash, in a panic because there’s no time to prepare. But there are actually a lot of good things about it. (laughter) As an actor, one of the good things…actually sometimes you can have too much time. I find if I get endless time, then I get lost in the…because I can see things from so many angles. And you could do it like this and like this…”

Soren Sveistrup: “That’s why the scripts are so late.” (laughter)

Sofie Grabol: “They’re actually finished but you keep them?”

Soren Sveistrup: “It’s much easier when you hear the director shout, ‘Action.’ OK, now I know how to finish it.”

Sofie Grabol: “No, but the good thing is, as an actor anyway, that it’s good for courage. Because it forces you to just go with your impulse and your thoughts and believe in them. Because there’s no time to say, ‘Wait, wait, wait. I think this might be the wrong way.’ You just have to go with your…and shoot, when something moves. And that’s actually, for me it has been good and it has made me more courageous. But to get back to your question, another thing that it does, this pace, is that, for me, I didn’t…we were so extremely busy. Especially the last three months were just crazy. And so I noticed that during the last episode, people from the crew would, from time to time, come up to me and say, ‘Isn’t it strange for you that this is the last…’ And I was like, ‘What, what? Yes, yes.’ I just didn’t…so consequently it hit me like a hammer when I finished. And the very last day of shooting was, for some reason, had the most, for me, for Lund, the three key scenes of the last episode, lots of dialogue which we changed last minute, as usual. So it was just very stressful. We went two hours late. Emotional scenes and it was just a hard day at work. But the very last scene for me was in a studio, a car scene where I was in a car. And I love doing those car scenes because it’s like there are four doors and they are closed. It’s dark outside, so you don’t really see the crew. It’s like you have your own little world in those car scenes. So I didn’t really pay attention to the people outside until they said, ‘That was it, that’s a wrap.’ And I opened the door and you (Piv) were there with a bottle of champagne and everyone had gathered around, staring at me. And then I feel, ‘I just can’t. I can’t’ So I just grabbed the bottle and ran off. (laughter) Pathetic to cry at work. But I cried all the way home. It was emotional. It was special.”

Sophie Grabol spent time meeting members of the audience after the Q&A, In this case posing with @Born_Spook

Q: Did you keep the jumper?

Sofie Grabol: “Yes.”

Q: We’ll come back to the jumper.

Sofie Grabol: “Oh, what a relief.” (laughter)

Q: I tweeted out last night and said, ‘You might have some questions.’ And so I got a lot of questions. But before we come to the jumpers, of which there are many…the first came from someone called Wizardry? who said, ‘Is there any way possible we can get a fourth series agreed. We can use UK taxes if necessary?’ Is it really the end? Is there a glimmer of a crack open for a return?

Soren Sveistrup: “Er, no. No, no. I think I’ve said it before, but it’s been a great party, this The Killing party. We had great fun and it’s been very, very hard. But we agreed from the start that it wasn’t going to be a never-ending story. We weren’t going to be rich, we agreed. We weren’t going to make any money. Actually, we’re very proud of what we did and these stories, they speak for themselves. And I’d hate it to just be another show, another mass produced show, ongoing and not really reflecting anything.”

Q: So that’s a no?”

Piv Bernth: “Yeah, but I think you should appreciate the courage to stop. I think that’s important. It takes courage to stop something which is a success in that way. I think that’s great.”

Soren Sveistrup: “Yeah, but also I think we could make another one thousand episodes of Sarah Lund cases. I think you could do that. But they wouldn’t be good ones. The problem with television – there’s no quality of television. It isn’t about quality. It’s about something…I don’t know what it is. Maybe only entertainment.”

Q: But that’s something that you came into this whole process thinking?

Soren Sveistrup: “Yes. Because I’m provoked. Really I think that so much television stinks. It doesn’t have to. It’s a perfect medium. Why not use it for something good? Why not use it for making cinema? Or something with just a little bit of content, exciting issues. The whole problem…when I started writing for television about 10 years ago, it was still…I think it talked down to people. You had to be stupid to look at some of those shows. That was a recipe. The recipe was a hospital, a good-looking doctor or…I’m sure you could write it now. You all know that kind of recipe. That’s the whole problem. If something gets to be a success, for example The Killing, then it just re-generates…it gets too big for itself. And then we are going to be the next recipe. It has to be smashed by some guy, maybe from Finald coming to…I think it’s very, very important to try to reinvent yourself because there are so many traps and compromises in our daily lives. If you can just do something and then be proud of it and then try not to…that would be fine.”

Helle Fagralid plays Maja Zeuthen.

Q: Because when you pitched the original story to DR (who make The Killing) you didn’t even tell them it was a police procedural, did you?

Soren Sveistrup: “No. There was another police show at the time. Piv told me, ‘Soren, please, don’t mention much about…the whole word police, please don’t.’ So we called it…?? investigation, destiny drama.”

Piv Bernth: “We actually called it, ‘The Story of a Murder.’ That was the working title at the beginning. So it was a story about people who were influenced by a murder that happens in a city. And then we slowly turned it into The Killing.”

Soren Sveistrup: “But nmy personal pleasure doing this has been to work with you guys (Piv and Sofie) because it has been very personal and built on relationships. All the opinions from Piv and from Sofie. I mean, of course, we’ve had our battles and I think a lot of people would say, from the whole crew, they’d say, ‘OK, they’re really fighting today.’ But for us it wasn’t a fight that bad. It was just opinions thrown by that person.”

Sofie Grabol: (Smiling) “We actually had one meeting, in this third season we had this female director called Natasha Arthy – and really great. The way it goes is that Soren writes the script and we all gather to read it together, the cast and the director, the writers and Piv. And then after that we have meetings…each plot, the main actors from the police plot, from the political plot and the third plot have meetings with the writers and the directors there. And it was like her first day at school. And we had a great meeting that day. And we had great discussions. And, yeah, I left the meeting and thought, ‘Whoo, that was…cheeks are burning but, you know, it was…”

Soren Sveistrup: “You slammed the door. I remember.”

Sofie Grabol: “No, no. That’s not true” (laughter)

Soren Sveistrup: “Actually, she slammed the door. And then from the outside I heard her, ‘Oh sorry!’” (laughter)

Sofie Grabol: “It was the draught! It slammed like that! It was really a good meeting. And then I got home and at first I had some strange texts from this woman, saying, ‘Do you want to talk?’ (laughter) And then she phoned me at the evening and said, ‘I’m so sorry. I think we should try to pick you up after this. You must really, really, really feel terrible.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ Oh the tone. She was just in shock. And I was like, ‘That was a GOOD meeting!’ So yeah. Maybe we just know each other so well. That’s another gift as an actor anyway, to work on a longer running project, is that I know that you (Soren and Piv) know me and I can behave…I didn’t slam the door. But I could slam the door and it would be OK. It’s like a family that you can fight and you can show all your not so flattering sights. And you know that we’ll be seeing each other next family birthday or Christmas. And that’s how I feel about it…yeah.”

Anders W Berthelsen as shipping boss Robert Zeuthen.

Q: It’s a very different way of working. You’re (Soren) producing a script at the last minute. You’re (Sofie) learning quickly and you’re doing 10 episodes of one story. It took the CSI model of…

Piv Bernth: “Yeah, but it is a matter of confidence as well. And that’s what you build from all these years we’ve been working together. Because we have the confidence, we know that it’s going to happen. I wouldn’t have the same confidence in other people as the one that we have built here. We’ve been working together ever since 2000 really, 2001. And it’s a lot of years and we’ve built that confidence in each other. And that’s why…it’s often a matter of timing and relations that makes things happen in this way, with the immense pressure we’ve all had. We’ve really had it in every department of the production, But, of course, very much on Soren because if he doesn’t deliver…so the pressure is very tough there. But it is confidence and relations that makes it work.”

Q: Piv, you’re now in control of Danish drama, which is, Krona for Krona, probably the world’s biggest drama hit factory around – The Killing, Borgen, The Bridge and so on. What principles are you trying to take from The Killing and push out into other projects? What are the principles that make Danish drama so astonishingly successful at the moment?

Piv Bernth: “But it’s the people. It’s not the principles, it’s the people. As you know, we’ve got excellent writers and, of course, Soren is the most exquisite and excellent writer we have just now. Soren has a saying which is very, very special, which is, ‘The best idea will always win.’ Whoever or whenever it comes. Which is the challenge, really. Because it could come the day before shooting, or the night before, the same morning…you can keep working. They have a dialogue going on all the time about every scene you’re in. And you can’t transfer that as a principle to other productions. There’s no other production in Danish Broadcasting where they work the way we do. It’s very special for us. And I’m not sure as Head of Drama I would allow anyone to do that. (laughter) Because we need deliverance for…but this is the way this show had come out. And the confidence between the whole writing staff, the actors, directors, the whole crew. Everybody. We have a saying, which is, ‘There is The Killing feeling’ in the production and the same people on the crew has come back to work with us again. So we haven’t frightened them totally for the first seasons. And that is a big gift. Because that means that this is possible, You don’t have to talk that much. They just know.”

Sofie Grabol: “But that’s just like soldiers returning home and us go back…the hell.”

Piv Bernth: “Yes, yes, that’s true. They have to fight this war anyway. So that is very special. So we’ve been lucky in having a lot of people around us who have been with us ever since the first episode.”

Q: Because the success of the show has been absolutely astonishing. Camilla coming for an on set visit? You didn’t think that when you started out? What did she say to you?

Sofie Grabol: “No. What did she say? (smiles) Really she was much more a Camilla than a Duchess, to me. Maybe it’s because, I mean you’re starstruck with your own royalties because you know them so well. I’m not that familiar with…I mean, I know your royal people but it’s not like…and she was just extremely sweet. But it was extremely surreal. Because we were all working and we couldn’t afford to…I mean, I think there was, ‘We can spare half an hour for this theatre that is suddenly happening.’ It’s like an extra big layer of fiction. (laughter) And the funny thing was that we were shooting out in the countryside, in an automobile mechanic place, really scrabby and not very…I told her to wear flat shoes. That was exciting…she’s going to wear flat shoes! And we are walking around with our guns and being policemen and suddenly the real policemen came, all these security people. We felt a bit foolish. (laughter) Ours were plastic. And then they roll up and everything is like a crazy rollercoaster for half an hour. And then they leave…”

Piv Bernth: “They actually stayed a little longer. The visit was scheduled for 35 minutes, I think. But they actually stayed for 50 minutes, which was completely fantastic for us. And the whole Special Branch and all the planning – they were shaking and screaming. But they enjoyed it so much. So it was nice.”

Sofie Grabol: “Charles said…he actually said, he told us that it was the only television programme over which him and Camilla didn’t fight about the remote control. That was very flattering.”

Piv Bernth: “The Killing brings people together.” (laughter)

Q: Because in Denmark you’re getting 65 per cent of the total amount of audience…are watching The Killing at the moment, which is just astonishing figures. And it means that everyone wants to know what’s happening. Your (Sofie) children are trying to find out what happens at the end of this series?

Sofie Grabol: “They don’t even watch it. My son is 11 but he’s trying so hard on a daily basis to get me to tell him who the killer is. And it’s like, he doesn’t even know any of the characters’ names or anything. But he just smells that this information would be good…”

Piv Bernth: “But now it turns around. As we are close to the ending now, we are airing episode eight on Sunday (Nov 11) in Denmark. And the closer we get to the ending, in the beginning they all said, ‘Hey, tell me who the killer is?’ And now, if they ask, you say, ‘OK, I’ll give you five minutes now and then I’ll tell you.’ And they say, ‘No, no, no, no, don’t, don’t…’ So it changes as soon as you get half way through.”

Sofie Grabol: “People are betting again. With money. And there’s odds on all the characters.”

Soren Sveistrup: “But actually, this time it’s different because we try to…we changed the story because we wanted to do something different. So it’s, as you can imagine because of the ending of this episode one, it takes a slightly new turn in episode two and so it’s not as easy to see the structure of the story yet, actually. And it will be different from what you’ve seen before. The betting companies are realising that, so they have a lot of strange…so don’t bet. Wait until maybe episode two, three and so on…”

Ben Preston then opened the session up for questions from the audience.

Check back later for the second part of this transcript, which I’ll post tomorrow (Monday)

I’ll also add more photos when their embargoes expire on Tuesday.

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The Killing III BBC4 site

Spoilers warning: DR Forbrydelsen site

The British Film Institute

The Killing 2: Sofie Grabol at BAFTA

Borgen BBC4 site

Ben Preston on Twitter

Ian Wylie on Twitter

Hector, Bel and Freddie.

THE welcome clatter of typewriters is back in town tonight with the return of The Hour.

Set in 1957, the second BBC2 series is a step up from the acclaimed first season with the confidence to be even bigger and bolder in its storytelling and settings.

Presenter Hector Madden (Dominic West) is dining out – and more – on his national celebrity while producer Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) does all the work back at the BBC.

The deliciously dry Lix (Anna Chancellor) remains on the foreign beat and knows a lot more than she cares to tell, still clutching a glass of Scotch at all times of the day.

And just what is her link to the intriguing and ever so slightly OCD new Head of News Randall Brown, played by Peter Capaldi?

There’s a dramatic re-appearance for Freddie, played by new Bond star Ben Whishaw, who was fired in the first series.

And an unexpected new direction has been cooked up for Hector’s frustrated wife Marnie (Oona Chaplin).

While this six-part tale of London’s criminal underworld set against the backdrop of the Cold War and the space race also sees the arrival of Hannah Tointon as Soho club hostess Kiki.

Plus Tom Burke as producer Bill Kendall.

Back in the first few days of October I was among those lucky enough to be invited along to a preview screening of tonight’s first episode.

Followed by a showreel of highlights from the rest of the series and then a Q&A session involving award-winning writer Abi Morgan, producer Ruth Kenley-Letts, Dominic West and Hannah Tointon.

Part one of my transcript of that Q&A is below with the rest to follow as soon as my own non-clattering keyboard can manage.

But first, here’s one of my news stories from the event:

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Dominic West as Hector.

The Hour star Dominic West turned into a heavyweight TV presenter when filming the new series of the period drama.

Dominic plays BBC anchorman and hearthrob Hector Madden in the BBC2 series set in 1957.

“We had incredibly good caterers on the set and I put on about two stone,” he revealed.

“I remember having two lunches and everyone looking at me. My suits were made to measure with elastic seams.”

Writer Abi Morgan wrote the weight gain into the script.

“There were lines about how fat Hector was and how he should lose weight,” laughed Dominic.

The second BBC 2 series sees Hector being offered a job with a rival current affairs show on ITV.

And also facing the fallout from the Soho criminal underworld involved in sex, crime and intimidation.

Hannah Tointon – younger sister of Kara – joins the cast as clubland’s Kiki with The Thick of  It’s Peter Capaldi as new Head of News Randall Brown.

Former Hollyoaks star Hannah says: “Kiki just uses her sexuality to get what she wants. She thinks she’s untouchable.”

Now back to his fighting weight, Dominic played detective Jimmy McNulty in The Wire and won a BAFTA for his portrayal of serial killer Fred West in ITV1’s Appropriate Adult.

The Hour 2 also sees the return of Ben Whishaw – who plays Q in Skyfall – as BBC journalist Freddie Lyon.

The new series begins tonight (Wednesday Nov 14) on BBC2 at 9pm.

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Peter Capaldi as Randall.

The BBC’s Head of Drama Ben Stephenson introduced the screening:

“It’s the first series to come back on BBC2 in about a hundred years. So it was a brilliant moment for us on BBC2 to see that. We’re incredibly proud of the show. We loved series one. But, as ever, series one just gives you a springboard into series two and to build on all the things that we thought were so wonderful. Starting, of course, with Abi’s fabulous writing and the characters that she created. And I think what she’s done this year is really build it around those wonderful actors and those wonderful characters in a scintillating workplace against a fascinating backdrop. But this year it is all about the lives and loves of this group of characters – joined by some new stars, including the absolutely brilliant Peter Capaldi. I’m constantly amazed that we’ve got one of the country’s premier writers writing a series for us on BBC2. May it continue for many years. She’s written beautiful, sensitive, startling scripts filled with many layers. They are worth watching time and time again.”

Anna Chancellor as Lix.

The post-screening Q&A:

Q: (From me, as it happens): Abi – obviously we saw the themes in that first episode and the series showreel that will run throughout the series. Can you expand on why you chose those themes and how they develop. And what you were able to explore in this series that, perhaps, you couldn’t do in the first series?

Abi Morgan: “I always think with The Hour, I’m chasing history. And so I knew I didn’t want to be away from the group for too long but I had to come back. And basically there wasn’t a big Suez Crisis, there wasn’t The Bay of Pigs yet. And so in many ways it was good for me because I had to look at the eclectic themes that were going on at that time. What I loved about ’57 is that Macmillan has said, ‘Spend, spend, spend,’ and we were dealing with huge threats about immigration and concerns about immigration and we were very seduced by the rise of Hollywood and glamour and that was affecting us culturally in Britain. But also you could start to see the starts of this big gangland – families, infrastructures and a lot of those were also related to huge migrant families at that time. So there were a lot of themes that instantly appealed to me and I think what I got very excited about was the notion of two time bombs ticking. The literal time bomb of the nuclear arms race and certainly the space race but also the domestic time bomb. And what I loved about what I found in series two – series one is very much about post-war austerity, it’s about a kind of generation of men recovering. And I think series two is really about us preparing ourselves for the Sixites and a time where London was sort of feeling a sense of glamour but the counterpoint to that was a sort of dark, seedy underworld. And so it’s a kind of macro and micro in one series, really.”

Romola Garai as Bel.

Q: Was it in some ways easier to write the second series because you had your characters under your belt and you could get on with it?

Abi Morgan: “Well I kind of hoped that I’d shaken off the Mad Men thing because I think inherently The Hour is…what possesses me is the notion of quest and slight thriller elements and I’m a huge fan of news, I love newspapers, I love The Newsroom, for example, and I love the idea of journalists being these noble creatures because I like good journalists, basically. So I was very possessed by those characters and I felt I really knew them. I think the brilliance of Dominic and Ben and Romola and Peter Capaldi and Anna Chancellor – as a writer you’re very enthused and you’re very driven by who you write for. They’re brilliant barometers of the work. But they also re-adopt those characters and own them. And so in many ways I felt very confident about listening to what they felt about the characters but also in many ways I didn’t have to work as hard, because I think they own them anyway. So I just responded to the brilliance of what they threw up in series one and I just tried to write the counterpoint of some of the things they did in series one. In the first series Dominic (Hector) is completely charming and invincible and strong and in many ways unbreakable. And I think series two is very much about this man being taken into a spiral and a catalyst of change. And so I was really inspired by Dominic and where he can go as an actor. So, yeah, it was easier series two in a way.”

Q: Dominic – you seem very comfortable in this role as Hector. Did you look at presenters of that time? Or did you look at the presenters of now? And did you get something from them or is it just somebody you have just made up in your own mind from a series of presenters you’ve watched?

Dominic West: “I felt I knew the period because I felt my dad – he wasn’t like Hector but he was a man of the Fifites, really, and dressed like that. And so I felt my affection towards the character and the period was, I suppose, because of my dad. But I did look at a lot of the presenters then and particularly the paternal or the avuncular Richard Dimblebys and, ‘Now then viewers, we’re all going to listen very carefuly to an expert, an academic. He’s going to teach you exactly what’s what.’ (laughter) I long for those days to return. Inevitably I did find you can’t get Paxman out of your head. And I suppose the more confrontational style of interviewing that I suppose only came about really with Robin Day after this period. So I think there’s may have been a bit of anachronism in the way one approaches the interviews that we did, anyway. But I have a great deal of affection for the BBC at that time. We had a character in series one who was an Egyptian man and I think he was involved in the Arab Section of the World Service. He worked in the BBC in the Fifites and he was telling us all about the guys who ran it then and he had a lot of affection for it as well.”

Q: Is there any historical evidence that in the Fifites ITV tried to poach BBC journalists?

Abi Morgan: “It could have happened. What was interesting, they weren’t doing viewing figures then, They weren’t so set on viewing figures. I think Britain was very influenced by the American style – the Ed Murrow, the Walter Cronkites and that slightly informal form of broadcasting. And certainly ITV copied that mould very early on. So there was very much a sense that the BBC was given a run for its money. And I played on that. But what we didn’t have then is how many people were tuning in every night because no-one had that black box in that small section of middle England that black boxes are in. But I liked the idea that it was a period where BBC wasn’t controlling – so there was more competition and it just felt like a rich vein. I liked that idea of a healthy sense of competition.”

Hannah Tointon as Kiki.

Q: Hannah – did you perhaps look at Diana Dors from the past?

Hannah Tointon: “I think Kiki’s idol is Marilyn Monroe…I think she aspires to be that. I looked at all her films and tried to get her wiggle, actually.”

Q: What was the hardest thing to put over in the second series?

Abi Morgan: It sounds like a cliche, but you raise your game and you surround yourself with good people. And so I think when you get the calibre of actor like Dominic and Hannah and Ben and Romola and Peter, you raise your game all the time to try and do things that tonally still feel real and yet I also feel that The Hour does have that ‘other’. It is meant to be entertainment. It is meant to be this slightly heightened world and yet I think the good stories are those stories where you feel very transported – at the same time you’re constantly trying to resonate back to the 21st century. That’s what’s interesting. In series one, Ben Whishaw’s characters says, ‘History repeats itself. The first is tragedy, second is farce.’ And I think there is a truth in that. That history keeps turning itself round and round. So a lot of the the things that resonated when I was looking back – certainly series one was about a Middle Eastern leader who gets above himself and wants to take over the world and I wrote that at the time of the Iraq invasion. What I loved about series two is that it is about the undercurrent of the Right, which I think is still very prevalent in 21st century Britain, certainly in Europe. And it is about capitalism out of war, which is still very relevant. So I think the challenge for me is to try and write something that transports you and you enjoy the glamour and the escapism of the Fifties but still feel it’s relevant and contemporary. And also just raise your game so that the actors will say your words without catching you in the corridor and saying, ‘I don’t believe in this.’ And so that’s what I do on a personal level.”

Ruth Kenley-Letts: “One of the exciting things for us making it was that Abi was writing in the building that we were shooting in and our studio. So she was writing later episodes as were shooting earlier episodes. Often Abi would just quietly go and watch some of the scenes that the actors were shooting and come back kind of inspired almost, thinking, ‘I know what I can do.’ And a whole new storyline would suddenly emerge.”

Ben Whishaw as Freddie.

Q: Surely isn’t the difference now we have this Peter Capaldi figure in? That’s surely the big difference? There’s a whole new sense of jeopardy in the newsroom?

Abi Morgan: “Yeah. Anton Lesser playing Clarence was a really hard ask. So they were big boots to fill. And the first day that Peter was on set, I met Ruth in the corridor and she went, ‘Come and have a look, come and have a look…’ I came very late to The Thick Of It and I’m really glad because I think I would have been incredibly intimidated had I seen how brilliant his performance was in that. I have to say it’s the greatest joy of being a writer. Most writers are frustrated egomaniacs who really want to act and just don’t have the talent or the charm to do it. And most writers want to give their words to brilliant people. I genuinely mean that. Most of writing is incredibly isolated. Most of you probably write on your own late at night having to file stories. So I always feel kindred spirits when I sit with other journalists. Most of the time I’m working at four, five in the morning and thinking, ‘Why bother going to bed? I might as well just have breakfast and get my kids up.’ And when I’m writing very late the thing that keeps me going is wanting to impress the actors that I work with. What I realise is actors are very intimidated by writers and I don’t think that what actors realise is that writers are incredibly intimidated by actors. And most of the time they’re desperately waiting for those moments when they say something good. Or they like something.”

Q: Did you know you were writing for Peter when you wrote the script?

Abi Morgan: “Yeah. Because I wanted Peter. I wrote that part specifically for Peter. Because I go to Gail’s in Crouch End and it’s a very small, middle class Guardian reader world and Peter goes there too. And Ruth lives in Crouch End…(laughter)

Q: Dominic – did life imitate art…did you get any fan mail after the first series that indicated that you’d become a matinee idol in the way that your character is?

Dominic West: “No, not in that way. But in terms of inspiring Abi’s writing, we had incredibly good caterers on the show and because it was very long hours and because filming can get…you look forward to lunch. I was talking to Romola about it and she’s pregnant so she’s alright now but I put on about two stone. And at the end of it Abi was writing lines like…first of all she put in – because I was always late – she always put in, ‘Hector was always late.’ And so lots of great speeches about being late and how rude that is and unprofessional is is. (laughter) Then it as how fat he was and how he’s got to lose weight. So it’s true, we do inspire our writers. I remember having two lunches and everybody looking at me. And I’m just looking down and thinking, ‘Crikey…they were made to measure those suits with elastic seams. Amazing caterers. Also it was freezing cold.”

Abi Morgan: “He’s a really intelligent actor. We were talking about more than the catering.”

Part two of the Q&A transcript will follow as soon as my keyboard allows.

The Hour BBC Site

The Hour Series One BAFTA Q&A

Ian Wylie on Twitter

“THIS town – it’s all secrets. Everyone knows something you don’t.”

Sherlock star Andrew Scott leads the cast of three-part ITV1 drama The Town.

A contemporary story also featuring Martin Clunes, Charlotte Riley, Julia McKenzie, Gerard Kearns, Kelly Adams and remarkable teenage newcomer Avigail Tlalim.

It’s Olivier-award winning writer Mike Bartlett’s first TV drama and begins on ITV1 at 9pm on Wednesday December 5.

Unlocking a mystery over three hours of a fresh and intriguing drama.

I had the pleasure of interviewing seven cast members for ITV1′s production notes / press pack.

Below are three of my news taster stories:

- Andrew Scott on why Sherlock’s Moriarty will not be coming back from the dead.

- Julia McKenzie speaking for the first time about her role alongside the Queen and Daniel Craig in THAT Olympic Opening Ceremony film.

- Gerard Kearns on being set on fire for a film stunt.

Click here to read the full ITV Production Notes, including my seven cast interviews.

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SHERLOCK star Andrew Scott has ruled out returning from the dead in the BBC1 crime drama.

The Dublin-born actor played arch-villain Moriarty who shot himself in the head at the end of the last series.

Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) also appeared to be killed after jumping from a roof in the conclusion to The Reichenbach Fall.

With the brilliant Baker Street detective known to have faked his own death, speculation has grown that his nemesis might also have survived.

Last month Benedict spoke about the forthcoming third series of Sherlock, due to begin filming in the spring of 2013.

He said: “It’s nothing without that dynamic between Holmes and Moriarty.”

But Andrew, who won a BAFTA this year for his portrayal of Jim Moriarty, insists there will be no resurrection for the evil genius.

“Moriarty is dead. I don’t think there could have been any better exit for a character like that,” he says.

“I feel very proud of Sherlock. Moriarty was a very potent character and one the audience really responded to.

“But it’s important to me that he doesn’t take over. You have to take risks and play as many different things as possible.”

For Andrew that includes the lead role in a new three-part ITV1 drama series called The Town.

He plays architect Mark, forced to return from London to his home town after a shocking family incident.

“It’s just nice to show a more human side,” he adds.

Sherlock has become a global hit since the modern day take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s consulting detective arrived on screen in 2010.

Created by Doctor Who supremo Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, it co-stars Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson.

Six feature length episodes have been broadcast so far with three more planned in the new series.

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MARPLE star Julia McKenzie has spoken for the first time about starring with the Queen and Daniel Craig in their show-stealing London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony film.

Julia, 71, doubled for the Queen, sitting next to Daniel as James Bond in the helicopter seen taking off from the back garden of Buckingham Palace.

It then flew over central London, through Tower Bridge and parachuted a stuntman, posing as Her Majesty, over the Olympic Stadium at Stratford.

But the former Cranford and Fresh Fields actress said she was glad the helicopter stayed on the ground during filming of the film called Happy & Glorious.

“Daniel Craig and I spent a lot of time sitting in the helicopter but it didn’t take off with us in it – it just looked as though it did. I’m not a very good flyer!”

Julia , who plays spinster sleuth Miss Marple, also stood in for the Queen during filming inside the Palace.

“I was contacted by somebody working on the film who had worked with me before,” she revealed

“They said, ‘We don’t just want a Queen double. We’d like an actress. Why don’t you do it?’ I don’t really look like the Queen but I was a physical match.

“So I went and met the director Danny Boyle and we had a laugh. It was a couple of days at Buckingham Palace and huge fun meeting Daniel Craig. I mean, who wouldn’t do it?

“I didn’t meet the Queen, although I’ve met her several times before. But I did sit at her desk in her lovely sitting room.

“A lot of it was edited out but what was there was very funny.”

The Olivier award-winning actress, who has starred in several Stephen Sondheim musicals in the West End and Broadway, is known to be a favourite of the Queen.

Julia recently filmed a new Marple film – A Caribbean Mystery – on location in South Africa and is currently working on the first of two further ITV1 stories involving Agatha Christie’s spinster sleuth.

She also appears alongside Sherlock star Andrew Scott in new three-part ITV1 drama The Town.

The veteran actress plays retired psychotherapist Betty in the serial also starring Doc Martin star Martin Clunes and Hustle actress Kelly Adams.

“I’m rarely offered modern drama as I’ve got a bit of a bonnets and bustle face. So I jumped at this one when I was offered it.”

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FORMER Shameless star Gerard Kearns ended up in flames filming a stunt for a new movie.

“I play a character who gets beaten up by a gangster and set on fire,” he said.

“They put me in a suit, doused me in a load of white stuff which they said was fire repellent and told me to lie down.

“Then they lit up a petrol bomb and threw it at me,” revealed the actor who played the Chatsworth estate’s Ian Gallagher until his dramatic exit two years ago.

The film called Wasteland tells the story of a man recently released from prison who recruits his three best friends to rob the local drugs baron who put him behind bars.

Gerard, who plays Charlie, added: “I had to wait until someone shouted, ‘You’re on fire.’ And then I had to roll myself out.

“I should have said a line at the same time but I didn’t. I just went, ‘Oh my God!’

“I can’t deny that I was excited about doing it but I was also quite nervous. And we did it twice.

“But after I’d done it the first time I was like, ‘Come on, set me on fire again!’

“There were no burns or singes and the stuntmen were fantastic. They had to wear balaclavas and pretended to be thugs so they could be close by with fire extinguishers.”

The film, due out soon, is just one of several roles Gerard has starred in since leaving The Jockey regulars behind.

As one of the original characters, would he consider returning for a guest role in the last ever Shameless series, to be screened next year?

“No I wouldn’t. Shameless was a fantastic stepping stone – but I don’t think I could go back. You can only go forwards.”

Gerard also stars as trainee undertaker Daniel in new three-part ITV1 drama The Town, which begins at 9pm on Wednesday December 5.

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Martin Clunes as Mayor Len.

Charlotte Riley as Alice.

Kelly Adams as Lucy.

Avigail Tlalim as Jodie.

The Town Production Notes

ITV Drama

Big Talk Productions

Follow Ian Wylie on Twitter

“NOT my problem.”

Doctor Who: The Snowmen finds an apathetic and reclusive Time Lord (Matt Smith) living in Victorian isolation.

On a cloud, to be precise.

Still mourning the loss of Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), he has given up on helping anyone who might need him.

“The universe doesn’t care,” he maintains.

“Those were the days,” he tells Clara, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, when they first meet outside The Rose & Crown pub.

Having forgotten that they met once before…

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to a preview screening of the 2012 festive special, written by Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat.

The venue was studio TC8 at BBC TV Centre, the historic west London building enjoying its last Christmas before refurbishment and a BBC return in 2015.

Steven began with the usual plea not to reveal what happens, with particular scorn reserved for Twitter.

Many of you will know that he deleted his own Twitter account after being subjected to the sort of peculiar online nonsense that sadly rears its head from time to time.

You’ll certainly get only the mildest of spoilers below.

Acting BBC director general Tim Davie introduced the hour-long episode, shown on a big screen:

“This time you’re going to see a new companion, Clara, played by the wonderful Jenna-Louise Coleman, who’s brilliant in it, a new TARDIS, a new monster, a new costume and new titles and new music.”

The episode was followed by a showreel of what is to come in some of the eight new episodes next spring.

Then a post-screening Q&A involved Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman and “The Moff”.

It was chaired by Boyd Hilton who was given just 20 minutes to ask both his own questions and take others from the audience.

Quite rightly, all of the latter came from the younger age range among those packed into the studio.

An audience including The Hobbit director Peter Jackson, Culture Secretary Maria Miller and former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy.

My full transcript of the Q&A is below this report – edited to remove any potential spoilers.

We have, of course, met the Doctor’s new companion before in Asylum Of The Daleks, the first episode of this seventh series screened back on September 1.

In a surprise early appearance when she was called Oswin Oswald.

Set way into the future, it saw her as the sole survivor of a crashed spaceship and eventually revealed that she was trapped inside her own prison, having been converted into a Dalek.

One member of the audience asked last night: “How did Clara get out of the Dalek?”

Steven replied: “You will know eventually – you are going to get the answer but as ever on Doctor Who, we make you wait a little bit longer.”

Her formal introduction - BBC1 5:15pm Christmas Day - comes in a story set around Christmas Eve 1892.

She’s helping out as a barmaid at the pub but also has another job as a governess.

You will already know that this story involves killer snowmen.

Plus a guest appearance from Richard E Grant as Dr Simeon, who is as chilling a villain as you could wish to meet.

There’s been plenty of pre-publicity about the Doctor kissing Clara.

Or rather the other way around.

“It’s a hard life,” joked Matt Smith last night.

“It’s quite nice to see him on the backfoot.”

Clara’s “official” Doctor Who debut reveals some serious chemistry between the two, even at this early stage in their screen partnership.

Matt reflected: “I likened it to an arranged mariage – not that I know what an arranged marriage is like. But it’s like, ‘You’re married, have chemistry!’”

To which Jenna said: “I likened it to a blind date. I felt like I was on a blind date…”

Although some grown ups might quibble about a few points here and there, it’s a magical hour which will delight a family audience on Christmas Day.

The children in the studio audience laughed in all the right places and were also suitably scared in a tale to engage young minds of all ages.

Also featuring some typically clever and self-depreceating writing from Mr Moffat, including a nod to his other current series – Sherlock.

Richard E Grant as Dr Simeon.

The new TARDIS interior will be a welcome change for some.

Explained Steven: “I thought we’d been getting progressively whimsical with the interior of the TARDIS. And I started to think, ‘Well, why is that? It’s not a magical place. It’s actually a machine.’

“And actually potentially, as you’ll see more spectacularly later, quite a scary place sometimes. We make a lot of use of that.”

I think the majority of fans will like the new opening titles and version of the classic theme, just in time for next year’s 50th anniversary.

Steven was not being drawn on questions about the plans.

“They are immense, they are considerable. They will be full of tremendous surprises. But they wouldn’t be surprises if I accidentally said them now, would they?

“No, we’re not telling you. But I promise you, we’re going to take over television. Trust me.”

There was the usual question asking Matt how long he thought he’d play the Doctor for.

He replied: “For a infinity number of years…I can’t at this point see…we head into next year, into the 50th anniversary. So I’m coming back. Which is exciting.”

One of the questions of the night came from a young fan who asked: “Why does River and the Doctor have babies?”

To which Steven said: “Why don’t they? Well, who’s to say what goes on? We don’t see very chapter of the Doctor’s life.”

And another young viewer asked which companion Matt preferred between Amy and Clara?

“Both equally more than each other,” smiled the ever-diplomatic Mr Smith.

Jenna is exceptional in her new high profile role, with one scene in particular proving the perfect pairing of her acting talent and Steven’s words.

It’s always dangerous to judge something you see on a big screen with an enthsiastic preview audience.

But I reckon most will love Doctor Who: The Snowmen.

Proving yet again that there’s no business like snow business.

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Q&A transcript – edited to remove spoilers – with Boyd Hilton in the chair:

Q: I thought I’d start, Matt, by saying, a lot of kissing in that episode? I haven’t seen so much kissing with a Doctor Who companion…

Matt Smith: “It’s a hard life.”

Q: Are you happy with the kissing?

Matt Smith: “Yeah. I’m great friends with Richard, so…”

Boyd Hilton: “That’s Jemma-Louise’s partner…”

Matt Smith: “I think in the episode it’s quite a fun beat. Because it’s quite nice to see him on the backfoot, you know?”

Q: And Jenna-Louise, welcome to the world of Doctor Who, first of all… (applause). Steven sneaked you brilliantly into Asylum Of The Daleks, which is one of the great coups of recent TV history, I think. Now we all know, you don’t have to keep it a secret, now you’re here as the companion officially, how does it feel?

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “There’s always secrets in Doctor Who. I have millions of secrets. I always have a secret since I started this show. It’s great. It’s wonderful. And by the way, anybody who did see Asylum Of The Daleks, it was brilliant that we could keep it a surprise. So thank you. But yes, this is the first proper introduction to Clara, as opposed to Oswin.”

Q: Steven – when you first found Jenna-Louise for the role, did you come up with a character and then you found Jenna-Louise and you thought, right, perfect. Or have you changed the character – has it evolved since she got the role?

Steven Moffat: “It always changes a lot once you’ve got the actor acting in front of you. At the beginning, in theory, and usually not very clearly, you’re telling them what the part is. But when you cast successfully, they just start telling you and you start writing what they’re bringing. It happened with Matt, it’s happened with Jenna. Until you can’t really remember what you had in mind in the first place. So, yeah, absolutely. I’m completely writing as Jenna now. I don’t mean Jenna as she is in real life. I mean Jenna, the part she plays.”

Q: In terms of the chemistry between you two (Matt and Jenna)…that chemistry, does that take a while to work on or is it just there?

Matt Smith: “I think always with this show and always with this relationship in this show, it will constantly evolve. And it should. And hopefully over the course of the next eight or nine episodes that we see subsequently to this it will evolve even further. We’re excited about next year now and getting into that and actually going, ‘Well now we know what we know about each other and the way we work and who we are and all the rest of it…’ I kind of likened it, Steven, earlier, in an interview, to an arranged marriage. Not that I know what an arranged marriage is like. But it’s like, ‘You’re married, have chemistry.’ Do you know what I mean?”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “I likened it to a blind date. I felt like I was on a blind date…”

Matt Smith: “I’ve never been on a blind date, so…”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “It’s like putting two people together. Like, ‘Oh I know someone you’ll really get on with.’ And then go in to save the world.’”

Matt Smith: “And we’d met. So how was it a blind date? Like we’ve met twice.”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Not like…OK…”

Matt Smith: “The families would have met and all that…anyway.”

Q: The Sherlock reference in this episode..?

Steven Moffat: “You can’t have a Sherlock and Doctor Who crossover just because the Doctor has always known about Sherlock Holmes as a fictional character. He can’t turn up as a real person. Also the Doctor would just be furious, because there would be somebody else cleverer and taller in the room. And that’s his job. Can you imagine it? They’d just stand there and sulk at each other.”

Q: Is there anything you can tell us about the 50th anniversary coming up? The plans?

Steven Moffat: “No.” (laughter) “They are immense, they are considerable, they will be full of tremendous surprises. But they wouldn’t be surprises if I accidentally said them now, would they? No, we’ve got big stuff coming.”

Q: I’m not asking you to give away surprises. But anything at all? Any hint about what’s going to happen?

Steven Moffat: “No, we’re not telling you. But I promise you, we’re going to take over television, trust me…”

Q: At what point do you (Matt and Jenna) get to find out what’s going to happen?

Matt Smith: (Playfully) “We have a sort of vague inkling as to what may or may not be happening…we’re the most boring people to interview, ever. This is the problem with us.”

Q: Do you (Jenna) get a talk about keeping secrets and advice on how to do all that?

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “No. It’s just in my contract.” (laughter)

Boyd then opened questions to the audience and, appropriately, in the face of a limited time period, chose those from younger members:

Q: “How do you get into a role? How do you get to understand it and become it?”

Matt Smith: “How old are you?”

Q: “Ten”

Matt Smith: “Ten. What’s your name?”

Q: “Jed” (or Ged)

Matt Smith: “Jed, Ten. Good question. Well, you…”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “I like to think around the scenes a lot. So I like to pretend…if I’ve just walked out of a door, like what I’ve been doing inside the door. And fill it out that way. I like to think around it a lot.”

Q: “So you never go out of character…?”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Oh yes, I do. I just like to think – say I’m coming out of the door with some glasses, I like to think what I’ve been doing inside the door with the glasses.”

Matt Smith: “You do a lot of research, you do a lot of practice on your lines and then you turn up on the day and you’re as courageous as possible. And you take a risk.”

Q: “How much say do you get for your costume and make-up?”

Matt Smith: “Well, it’s quite a collaborative experience. I just have to say, if you look at the costume on this…Howard Burden who is the new costume designer from The Asylum Of The Daleks onwards has done really marvellous work. So he brings you great fabrics and textures…”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “He made everything from scratch and cheese-grated everything down…he was brilliant.”

Q: (Boyd Hilton): Do you like the top hat?

Matt Smith: “It’s nice, isn’t it? And that purple. I’ve been hankering for something purple for a while.”

Q: (Boyd Hilton): Did you say how you want the new TARDIS look to be, or..?

Steven Moffat: “It was mainly saying to Michael Pickwoad (production designer), ‘What would you do with the TARDIS?’ But we had a notion because I thought we’d been getting progressively whimsical with the interior of the TARDIS. And I started to think, ‘Well, why is that? It’s not a magical place, it’s actually a machine.’ So we did say ‘machine’ and actually, potentially, as you’ll see more spectacularly later, quite a scary place sometimes. We make a lot of use of that. And it’s also a lot easier to shoot, I have to say.”

Q: “How long do you think you’ll play the role of the Doctor?”

Steven Moffat: “Forever.”

Matt Smith: “For a infinity number of years. I can’t at this point see…we head into next year, into the 50th anniversary. So I’m coming back. Which is exciting. Why? Do you want to be the Doctor?”

Q: “Maybe.” (laughter)

Q: “How long does it take to film one episode?”

Matt Smith: “That one’s a bit longer, the Christmas one. So that’s about three weeks. But generally anywhere from about 12 to 14 – 14 more likely – days. And that’s about an episode on your telly. And then you go straight into the next one.”

Q: “Why does River and the Doctor have babies?” (laughter)

Matt Smith: “That’s a very good question.”

Steven Moffat: “Why don’t they? Well, who’s to say what goes on? We don’t see every chapter of the Doctor’s life. But heaven knows what they’d be like. Can you imagine those two as parents?”

Q: “How did Clara get out of the Dalek?” (laughter)

Steven Moffat: “You will know eventually. You are going to get the answer. But as ever on Doctor Who, we make you wait a little bit longer.”

Q: “Doctor, which companion do you prefer, Clara or Amy?” (laughter)

Matt Smith: “I like them both equally more than each other.”

Q: “If the TARDIS was real and you could have one trip, where would you go?”

Matt Smith: “Moff, where would you go?”

Steven Moffat: “I’m a perfectly happy man. I’d go right here. I don’t want to go anywhere. I’m having too much fun to leave. I’d be terrified. Wouldn’t you? I mean, everyone runs in there and he says, ‘I’ll show you the wonder of the universe.’ And he sets them down a tunnel and they get attacked by mutant slugs. It would be terrifying out there. I was just say, no thanks. OK? I’m probably not his type, though.”

Matt Smith: “I’d do a few things. I’d go and pick up Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. I’d try and marry one of them. Get them to sing to me. And maybe one of them could do both. And then I’d go and see England win the World Cup in ’66. And I’d go and visit some sort of Jurassic age, I think.”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “I’d go back to ancient Egypt. I was watching a TV programme – where did the pyramids come from? I’d go find out where they came from. I’d go find out how they were built. And then other than that, maybe New York in the Twenties.”

Matt Smith: “Where would you (questioner) go?”

Q: “I’d probably want to go in the future, actually.”

Matt Smith: “Yeah. I mean, I’d do that as well…” (laughter)

The Doctor and another new assistant.

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BBC Television Centre in west London last night.

The post-screening and Q&A party in TC8.

“LIFE is strange, isn’t it?”

Downton Abbey series three, episode nine.

Otherwise known as the 2012 Christmas Special, just broadcast by ITV1 tonight – December 25 – in the UK.

If you have yet to watch it, do NOT read any further.

Come back later once you have viewed.

That obviously also goes for our American cousins waiting for series three to begin on PBS on Jan 6.

As well as other Downton fans across the globe who are not yet up to the UK series pace.

There are major spoilers below.

So unless you want to read them, stop now.

That’s STOP!

I’ve placed a photo of Mr Bates (Brendan Coyle) in the Christmas episode below.

To remind you that he still has friends of friends behind bars who will seek you out if you don’t do the right thing.

Followed by a treasured image of Mr Carson (Jim Carter).

And you don’t want to get on the wrong side of his silver service.

If you have any doubts whatsoever, please leave now!

For those still here who have seen the two-hour ITV1 episode, you will know that we have to begin at the end.

There has been much speculation about Dan Stevens’ future in the series.

But ITV, Carnival Films, the cast and crew, post-production team and everyone else involved deserve applause for keeping those final scenes a secret.

Whatever your view on the loss of Matthew Crawley from the show.

No preview tapes were made available to the media ahead of tonight’s screening.

As had been the case before the shock death of Lady Sybil earlier in this series.

A decision forced on writer Julian Fellowes by actress Jessica Brown Findlay’s choice to pursue other roles.

The killing off of Matthew in this high profile Christmas Special, however, involved much higher stakes.

Dan, like Jessica, no doubt felt the time had come to move on.

With no other realistic way to write him out aside from a dramatic death.

Perhaps we should have seen the clues, especially in the way Julian has positioned the series this year to bring in new regular characters, as well as retaining the old.

There was also a quote from Hugh Bonneville (Robert, Lord Grantham) during an appearance on Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show back in November.

Although I don’t think it was reported elsewhere, I made a note of his reply when asked if this year’s Christmas episode would make viewers cry.

“That’s the wonderful thing about the show,” he said.

“It tugs you in so many directions in the space of one episode or even one scene.

“But there’s plenty of everything in this episode, I can assure you.”

As the forward-thinking heir to Downton and married to Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), Matthew was a cornerstone of the series.

A position cemented by the arrival in the final part of tonight’s episode by the birth of his own son and heir.

I suspect many viewers would have been happy to go to bed on Christmas night having seen the future of Downton assured in a Yorkshire hospital.

“Hello my dearest little chap,” said Matthew as he held his son for the first time.

“I wonder if he has any idea how much joy he brings with him?”

To which Mary replied: “We have done our duty. Downton is safe.”

In the light of what happened next, repeat viewings of Matthew and Mary’s final moments together – and that last kiss – will take on extra poignancy.

The rest of the family are gathered in the Downton library. Robert and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) have a grandson.

All is well. Roll the closing titles?

But what’s this?

Cut to an overjoyed Matthew driving his sports car back from the hospital, through the Downton woods on a single track road.

Then back to Robert in the library, remarking, “Life is strange, isn’t it?”

Time for alarm bells to start ringing.

Is this a new father motoring into a wonderful future?

Or a man actually driving towards his death?

A small lorry is seen coming up the rise of a hill towards Matthew’s car.

We don’t see the actual accident or hear the noise.

Just the aftermath plus soundtrack.

The car is off the road, upside down among the trees.

With Matthew, eyes open, trapped under the car. Clearly dead.

Back to Mary in her hospital bed with Anna (Joanne Froggatt) at the bedside.

So happy.

The camera goes back to the accident scene and the blood from Matthew’s fatal injuries.

And then a final shot – a slow zoom, held for just that little bit longer than might be usual – of Mary with her baby son.

Yet to learn the terrible news that will cast a long shadow over them both.

A truly memorable television moment.

I know fans will be upset that Dan has left the series.

Some very upset indeed.

But Julian and all involved certainly gave him a classic exit.

Of course it’s sad that a favourite character is killed off on Christmas night.

But let’s remember that he is just that – a character in a fictional drama.

It leaves Dan free to, hopefully, enjoy other major successes on stage and screen.

While also giving Downton a serious kick-start into series four.

That begins filming in February for UK broadcast next autumn.

A year ago today the final scene of Downton Abbey’s 2011 Christmas episode ended in the most romantic of festive ways.

Matthew proposing to Mary as the snow fell.

This year we were reminded that, in life, not all endings can be happy.

And that none of us have all the time in the world.

No-one in the Downton team wants the show to outstay its welcome.

Some observers have predicted that Julian and co may be planning to end on a high in 2014 after a total of five series and perhaps one last special.

Whatever the truth, you could argue there wasn’t much fresh ground for Dan to explore in Matthew in future series.

But his departure certainly opens up more avenues for Mary’s storylines and the series as a whole.

So what of the rest of this visit to Downton?

The episode began “one year later” from the last time we visited the estate.

Placing it in the summer of 1921.

We learned that the high point of his Lordship’s calendar was nigh.

An annual trip to see family in Scotland….the Flintshires – Shrimpie (Peter Egan) and Susan (Phoebe Nichols) – at Duneagle Castle.

A rather grander family home than Downton. But then as we were to learn later, appearances can be deceptive.

Rather more importantly, it was very quickly revealed that Mary is eight months pregnant.

Hence the episode’s time shift after some expectant “child imminent” signposting in the previous episode.

Former chauffeur Tom with now toddler “Sybbie” in his arms, is staying behind at Downton.

Along with most of the below stairs cast.

With just John and Anna Bates, O’Brien (Siobhan Finneran) and Molesley (Kevin Doyle) accompanying the family north.

One of the highlights of this episode was the performance of the superb Allen Leech as widowed and still grieving Tom.

All alone but rejecting the approaches of new maid Edna (MyAnna Buring).

Finally breaking down in a library scene of real tenderness with the always pitch perfect Phyllis Logan as Mrs Hughes.

The wise housekeeper helping him both take his new place in the world and cope with his loss:

“You must bear it. And one day I hope – and so would she – you’ll find someone to bear it with you. But until then, be your own master and call your own tune.”

Not hard to imagine that Julian might have big series four plans for the Downton land agent?

With the rest of the family away, Mr Carson’s efforts to keep his staff on the straight and narrow provided some light among the shade.

“I don’t understand,” he ventured when asked about giving the servants a break.

“Has someone forgotten to pay your wages?”

Among other things I liked / noted about this visit to Downton:

- The continuing glimpse of possible happiness for unlucky in love Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael).

And why wouldn’t Daily Sketch editor Michael Gregson (Charles Edwards) happen to be in Scotland at the very same time as she is..?

- John Henshaw as Joss “I love to be in love” Tufton, a man with plans in store for Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol).

- The twist in Mrs Patmore’s tale.

- Simone Lahbib given the O’Brien look as kindred spirit Wilkins.

- The 8 o’clock bagpiper. Also playing all through breakfast to ensure no lie-ins.

- Mr Carson reading The Yorkshire Observer.

- Violet (Maggie Smith), remembering Sybil, telling Cora: “We all miss her every single day.”

- Robert commenting on his pregnant daughter: “I’m worried about Mary bumping through the Glen.”

- The exchange between Daisy (Sophie McShera) and Thomas (Rob James-Collier) about Mrs Patmore’s decision to buy a new dress:

Daisy: “Why not? She’s a woman, isn’t she?”

Thomas: “Only technically…”

- Julian rewarding viewers after all those prison episodes with lots of shining love between John and Anna Bates. It surely can’t bode well for the next series?

- Edith and Violet discussing Scotland:

Edith: “How tiny the Glens make one feel.”

Violet: “That is the thing about nature. There’s so much of it.”

- Alfred (Matt Milne) and Jimmy (Ed Speleers) taking a break from work in the drawing room.

- The swings and roundabouts of life at Thirsk Country Fair – Thomas later making his peace with Jimmy.

- Back in the Highlands, Matthew telling the lovestruck Mr Gregson: “You have been misled by our surroundings. We’re not in a novel by Walter Scott.”

- Lady Rose (Lily James) coming down to dinner in the latest fashion – ahead of her full-time move to Downton for the next series.

Her mother Susan telling her to change, saying: “She looks like a slut.”

Prompting Violet to remark: “Heavens, that’s not a word you often hear among the heather.”

- Molesley reeling at the Gillies’ Ball.

- Old softie Mr Carson taking Sybbie out of her cot – and later breathless and flustered after taking the phone call from the hospital where Mary has just given birth.

- And Shrimpie asking Cora to remind Rose that family can be a loving one:

“Love is like riding or speaking French. If you don’t learn it young, it’s hard to get the trick of it later.”

Update: Dan Stevens: Why I left Downton Abbey

Dec 26 Update: ITV statement: “After three successful series and two Christmas editions of Downton Abbey, Dan Stevens decided not to renew his contract beyond the initial three years he had been contracted.

We wish him every success for the future. Michelle Dockery will be returning to her role as Lady Mary in series four which begins production in February.

Over the last three years, audiences across the world have been captivated by the ups and downs of Mary and Matthew’s relationship, culminating in their wedding.

Fans have enjoyed what has become a solid and loving marriage. It is for this reason that the Producers decided Matthew and Mary could not simply be estranged or parted, resulting in his untimely and tragic death at the end of the Christmas episode.

In the next series, alongside all the usual drama, comedy and romance involving the much loved cast of characters, viewers will see Mary adjusting to her life and attempting to move on without the man she loved.”

Dec 28 Update: Julian Fellowes: “Didn’t really have an option.”

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Jeremy Piven as Harry Selfridge.

“IT’S just wonderful.”

Oxford Street, London, 1909. Then one year before.

Mr Selfridge opens its doors for business on ITV1 at 9pm on Sunday (January 6).

The beginning of a 10-part series with plenty of drama, romance and sheer fun in store.

American actor Jeremy Piven plays the lead role of Harry Gordon Selfridge, the flamboyant Chicago visionary who invented modern shopping.

Fans of his Golden Globe and Emmy-award winning performance as Ari Gold in Entourage will be familiar with Jeremy’s extraordinary talent and energy.

Displayed in every department of this new series together with a strong ensemble cast.

Including former Coronation Street actress Katherine Kelly as society hostess Lady Mae.

Those of us who have seen her in other roles – including the acclaimed She Stoops To Conquer at London’s National Theatre – already know there is far more to Katherine than Weatherfield’s Becky McDonald.

And she all but steals every Mr Selfridge scene she is in.

As does Aisling Loftus as young Agnes Towler.

Created by the masterful Andrew Davies, Mr Selfridge has more pizzazz than any drama could wish for in 2013.

I visited the incredible Selfridges interior set in north London last summer.

Now that the embargo has expired, you can read my interviews with cast members Jeremy Piven, Katherine Kelly, Frances O’Connor, Aisling Loftus, Zoe Tapper, Amanda Abbington, Gregory Fitoussi, Samuel West, Nick Moran plus executive producer Kate Lewis in the ITV Production Notes / Press Pack – click on the link below to open the PDF document.

Mr Selfridge Production Notes

I also had the privilege of hosting the on-stage Q&A at BAFTA in London after the September 2012 premiere screening of the first 90-minute episode.

That involved Andrew Davies, Kate Lewis, Jeremy Piven, Katherine Kelly, Amanda Abbington, Zoe Tapper and Aisling Loftus.

There has been a lot of nonsense written about Mr Selfridge versus BBC1’s The Paradise.

Even though the series was ready to screen, ITV decided to wait until the New Year of 2013 to broadcast Mr Selfridge.

So as not to clash with The Paradise, which the BBC had brought forward in their own schedules.

My advice is to watch Mr Selfridge and make your own mind up.

This is one Sunday night treat you do not want to miss.

Screened in America on PBS Masterpiece Classic from Sunday March 31.

Also scroll down to see a selection of cast photos plus Mr Selfridge links.

Katherine Kelly as Lady Mae.

Aisling Loftus as Agnes Towler.

Gregory Fitoussi as Henri Leclair.

Zoe Tapper as Ellen Love.

Amanda Abbington as Miss Mardle.

Trystan Gravelle as Victor.

Frances O’Connor as Mrs (Rose) Selfridge.

Samuel West as Frank Edwards.

The queue for a job at Selfridges.

Aisling Loftus as Agnes Towler.

Jeremy Piven as Harry Selfridge.

ITV Drama

Mr Selfridge Production Notes

PBS

Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge

Selfridges & Co

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Kingsbridge, England, 1327.

All is well. But not for long.

World Without End arrives on Channel 4 at 9pm tomorrow (Saturday Jan 12).

An epic six-part TV adaptation of author Ken Follett’s equally epic novel.

The sequel to The Pillars of the Earth.

Already broadcast in America, I attended a London preview screening for the opening feature-length episode in early December.

That was followed by a Q&A involving Ken Follett, Peter Firth (Roland), Miranda Richardson (Mother Cecilia), Blake Ritson (King Edward III), Rupert Evans (Brother Godwyn) and Tom Weston-Jones (Merthin).

I also took the chance to catch up with Peter after the press conference.

Where he happily confirmed – for all you Spooks fans out there – that he is still in touch with Nicola Walker.

Peter Firth as Sir Roland.

In truth, I’m not a huge fan of these sort of historical dramas.

But I know many are.

Some of the script lines really jarred.

Such as a priest telling a bridegroom: “You may kiss the bride.”

Really? At a 14th century wedding?

There’s also quite a lot of what feels like script dumbing down to cater for a wide international audience.

And bloody medieval arm amputations are just not my idea of a good Saturday night.

Otherwise I’d be seeking out the classic 1293 first series of Ye Olde Casualty.

Having said that, no-one can deny that this is spectacular escapist entertainment which will be appreciated by millions.

Drawing them into an involving story that you have to stick with right to the end.

Ken Follett goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure his novels are historically accurate.

Including paying expert researchers to check his work before it goes into print.

World Without End is actually about the Black Death.

Even though it doesn’t feature in the first episode.

The cast also includes Cynthia Nixon, Charlotte Riley, Ben Chaplin and Oliver Jackson-Cohen.

And the sight of Mr Firth playing Sir Roland, a ruthless nasty piece of work.

Although his full story may be a little more complex once we really get to know him.

“There are few redeeming features that are evident on screen,” explained Peter, with a dash of his usual dry wit.

“But I assure you there are many hidden away.

“This is a man who is aspirational and misunderstood. Those two things put together are a receipe for disaster.

“We’re surrounded by examples of that in modern life. So I didn’t have to look far for inspiration. But I couldn’t possibly say who…

“Playing people without redeeming features is actually a lot of fun because it’s a relatively straightforward task.”

We also get to see Peter ride a horse, something he learned to do rather expertly earlier in his career for an Oscar nominated role.

“I did the film of Equus and I learned to ride for that.

“I went to circus school to ride bareback. So I’ve done quite a lot of riding over the years.

“It’s always a bit of a struggle getting back on if you haven’t been on for a while.”

Tom Weston-Jones as Merthin.

A contrast to playing Harry in Spooks?

“Yes. Harry’s a hero and Roland isn’t. It’s chalk and cheese, isn’t it?”

One scene sees Peter and his horse plunge into a river when a bridge collapses.

“They planted scuba equipment on the river bed because I had to emerge out of the water.

“But invariably they’d take ages to get going so I’d be down there sucking on air, waiting for this pull up which was my cue.

“So my scuba skills came in useful there. But no visibility, of course. Thick mud.”

The five month Hungarian shoot included all sorts of weather, including scorching summer heat.

“It was ridiculous. It was 49 degrees and we had four layers on and chain mail.

“It was completely debilitating.”

Charlotte Riley as Caris.

Peter is also due to be seen in BBC1 thriller Mayday.

“It’s a mystery to me. I don’t know why I’m cast. But I quite enjoyed both. And it’s good to do different things and not just do the one performance.

“I’ve got at least two in there,” he smiled.

World Without End reunited Peter with former Spooks co-star Tom Weston-Jones.

Was Peter recognised while based in Budapest?

“Yes. It’s funny about Spooks. It’s worldwide.

“Wherever I’ve been I get, ‘Seneor Pearce’ shouted across the street.

Or, ‘Allo ‘Arry.”

“Everywhere I go.”

The early medieval origins of Strictly.

I also wrote this for the Sunday Express last month:

Channel 4 World Without End

World Without End Sunday Express

Mayday

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Cynthia Nixon as Petranilla.

Rupert Evans as Godwyn.

Miranda Richardson as Cecilia.

The marketplace.

“I think this is going to be a day that nobody forgets.”

Kirsty Soames makes a prediction on the morning of her wedding to Tyrone Dobbs.

She’s not wrong.

I was at ITV’s London launch yesterday for next Monday’s two wedding day episodes.

Always a treat to see Coronation Street on a big screen with an audience.

And then a showreel of what is to come in the weeks and months ahead.

Including some delicious scenes involving Gail (Helen Worth) and Lewis (Nigel Havers).

Plus the return of Roy’s mother Sylvia, played by the wonderful Stephanie Cole.

Along with the twists and turns ahead involving Tyrone, who has suffered months of abuse at Kirsty’s hands.

All but three of his Weatherfield neighbours unaware of what has gone on behind closed doors.

The screening was followed by a Q&A involving Alan Halsall (Tyrone), Natalie Gumede (Kirsty), Jennie McAlpine (Fiz) and Michelle Keegan (Tina McIntyre).

You can read my full transcript further down the page.

There are spoilers below. So if you don’t want to read them, stop now.

Without them knowing, Kirsty discovers Tyrone and Fiz’s secret affair on the eve of her wedding.

Scenes which you can see during this Friday’s (Jan 18) episodes at 7:30pm and 8:30pm.

A moment that left me almost feeling sorry for Kirsty – a testament to Natalie’s acting skills.

But as you can see from the photos, she turns up for her Grawley Lane Chapel wedding to Tyrone.

With viewers finding out next Monday if they marry or not.

Later next week Kirsty tumbles down the stairs during a row with Tyrone.

And then accuses him of a campaign of physical violence and psychological abuse against her.

Which leads to Tyrone’s arrest and, eventually, the prospect of a trial.

Producer Phil Collinson introduced the screening.

“This storyline has been a very important one for us,” he said.

“It really seems to have captured the imagination of our audience.

“That’s because of the performance of the company of actors. But, in particular, Jennie and Michelle and Natalie and Alan.

“The joy of a show like Coronation Street sometimes is, when you find a storyline that you can really burn slowly. That you can really unpick.

“And just try and understand human nature and what makes us tick.

“I think this story has been a perfect example of that.

“A real chance to get inside not just the mind of a victim of domestic violence but also the perpetrator.

“Natalie has done a wonderful job helping us see why this person has turned into the woman that she is.”

Natalie is nominated for Newcomer in next Wednesday’s National TV Awards.

With Alan and Michelle both nominated for Serial Drama Performance.

Plus Coronation Street itself is nominated in the Serial Drama category.

You can vote online here.

My Q&A transcript:

Q: What’s going through Kirsty’s head when she turns the tables on Tyrone and accuses him of domestic violence?

Natalie Gumede: “I think something has really died inside of Kirsty. Tyrone was the love of her life and that’s the one piece of happiness she thought she had. And I think throughout their relationship, despite all of her mistakes, he has at least appeared to forgive her. So I think she thought she had a new start. And her world has fallen apart. She had a very unhappy childhood and a lot of unhappy relationships. And just when she thought everything was going to go right, it all goes wrong. She’s so in love with Tyrone and she hates him for what he’s done. If she can’t have him then nobody can. It’s that thing of trying to still get their attention. While she’s doing this to him, she still has him, she still has a hold over him. She’s not willing just to walk away and let him be happy. No way.”

Q: What was that like to play?

Alan Halsall: “To be honest, for me, it’s just been another twist in what’s been such a great story. I think it’s run for the best part of a year, the whole domestic violence thing. It’s nice to have a long-running story and it was just another twist along the way. It’s been brilliant because it’s been a bit like that for us. We’ve received the scripts and gone, ‘Ooh, we’re doing that now?’ So it’s been really good in terms of that and it’s been a great story to tell from the very beginning. And there’s more to come, as you can see.”

Q: Just how far will Kirsty go now? Are there any limits?

Natalie Gumede: “That’s a great question. I don’t think there are. I don’t think it’s as calculated as planning far ahead. But she’s an intelligent girl and she knows how to manipulate. So whenever she’s given a set of circumstances she knows how to turn them into her favour. I think there’s definitely a pang of guilt there. When you love someone, no matter how much you want to take revenge on them, you don’t really want to see them unhappy. She still wants to be with him. She’s clever enough to dream up in the moment, toss a pebble in the water and see what ripples, what comes from it.”

Q: How long does it take you to calm down after filming those scenes?

Natalie Gumede: “It gets quicker now because we’re so used to doing it and we film so quickly, we have so many scenes to do in succession that there’s not really time to indulge in de-stressing, to be honest. It’s straight on to the next one. We can be straight on to a quite happy scene straight away. So there’s not much to be done in that sense.”

Q: Obviously the abuse is her own responsibility – she must realise that’s why this has all happened? She seems to be a bit like the wrong woman. She’s not taking any responsibility?

Natalie Gumede: “Sure. I think that’s the difficulty with her character at this stage. There was a point where she had an opportunity to learn from her mistakes. She talked with Tyrone at length about the abuse that she suffered. And she had the opportunity to make it right. But I think pride and a denial of being like her father…I don’t think she can face the fact that she’s so like her father. That means that she’s not learning from it and she’s really on a downward spiral now.”

Q: We’ve seen some reasons for Kirsty acting the way she does, if not excuses. Do the cast think that she’s an out and out villain? And can she be redeemed?

Alan Halsall: “I personally think, what’s been great about the character is, there’s a real depth there. Once we got to find out about her childhood, with her father and stuff, there’s a real depth to the character. I don’t know how far she can go…a character is always redeemable because this is a soap opera, we’re always telling a story. There’s a lot that goes with that. We’ve gone very far in terms of it’s changed once there’s a child involved, the tables have turned as you’ve just seen. So it’s not whether she is redeemable anymore. It’s what people will believe. So, again, it’s just a great twist in the story. It kind of takes it away from whether she’s redeemable or not. There’s a story now that branches off from that, as you can see, with the twist. I don’t know, really.”

Q: Is there guilt on Tina and Fiz’s part, that they have effectively stood by and not forced Tyrone to speak up and gone along with it?

Michelle Keegan: “I think Tina wanted him to speak up from day one. But he never did. So I don’t think she’d feel guilty because she’s always stood by him as a friend and she’s been there for him and she’s tried to help him and try and make him speak out to people and tell them what Kirsty did.”

Jennie McAlpine: “You can’t force someone to do something…if it’s a true friend, I don’t think you’d force them because it’s his choice to say it. It’s such a complicated thing and it’s something that two young girls like Fiz and Tina, they’ve never dealt with any of this before. It’s like, ‘How the hell do we help a friend who’s going through…’ We’re used to just having normal problems, like, ‘Should he sell the garage or not?’ This is a really serious, adult, grown-up, scary problem. I don’t think they know what the hell to advise him. They’ve advised him as best they could…”

Michelle Keegan: “I think it’s with the child involved as well. Obviously Tyrone had a child taken off him. He didn’t want that to happen again. So you can’t really force him.”

Q: Does Fiz now become the villain of the Street?

Jennie McAlpine: “Yes! She does. I became the villain last time and it wasn’t my fault. Yes. (laughter) Yes, is the answer.”

Q: (From me as it happens) What sort of reactions and feedback have you had from the public and others to this storyline?

Alan Halsall: “For me, personally, I’ve never had a reaction like I have to this storyline. I’ve been in the show now for quite a while and this story has definitely been my favourite story to be part of. And the reaction that we’ve had – I think it’s difficult at times for people to watch because it’s a serious issue. This is something that happens a lot more than people think. So it’s difficult at times. But I think people have appreciated the story. And there’s a lot of depth to the story. This is my first year on Twitter, so you get an immediate feedback from the fans. Which has been fantastic, actually, to realise how passionate the fans are of Coronation Street and, in particular, this story. So I’ve loved it. Even though it can be tough at times for people to watch – I get that – I found out that the charity that we work with along the way (ManKind), their calls have gone up by 300 per cent since Coronation Street took this story on, which I didn’t know until today. So it does affect people. It makes you feel proud to be part of a story like this.”

Natalie Gumede: “Very much the same. Obviously there’s an element of worrying for your own safety. There’s warnings given to you along the way. But for the most part people have been hugely supportive and just really intrigued to see what happens next. I certainly expected a lot of negative feedback because Kirsty’s not the most likeable character. But it’s been lovely that people have seen past it and I feel really lucky for that because I think Coronation Street as a whole has told a really important story. So I’m glad that I haven’t had too much negativity.”

Q: Do you feel like you’ve done your job right if people hate you?

Natalie Gumede: “It’s my first experience of something so huge. It’s hard to really take that concept in. We just work on a TV set and we don’t really think about the wider impact. We just work day to day and do our best to tell a good story. But the fact that people have responded well to it has been really gratifying. It’s been lovely.”

Q: Alan – I wondered how the storyline has affected you personally? Is it one of those where when you clock off at the end of the day you’re still carrying Tyrone’s turmoil around?

Alan Halsall: “I don’t know why or how this came about, but when I finish work I’m home – and my personal life is obviously very different. So I can leave it at work and go home to my own personal life. I’ve not found that so much an issue. The storyline was a challenge in itself to get into because, obviously, it’s so different. I’ve no personal reference to start with in a story like this, I’ve never experienced it. I’ve never even spoken about this kind of subject before we got the story. So it was hard in that way. But no, I go home and I have my own personal life and I leave all Tyrone’s angst over Kirsty at work.”

Q: When they were researching it, is it accurate that this is what happens? If people are in this situation in real life, do people have to have weddings or could you do a DNA test or something?

Natalie Gumede: “There’s been an awful lot of research done by Corrie. And we’re telling a story as well. We’ve tried to make it relateable and, hopefully, that’s helped people along the way. But I’m sure at some points…we’re telling a story and not everything is true to real life”

Coronation Street spokeswoman Alison Sinclair: “We’ve researched with a legal team – the parental responsibility. If his name’s not on the birth certificate then if he’s married, it gives him a lot more leeway.”

Alan Halsall: “When we got case studies to read through…I was a little bit the same, I was reading the case studies and it was horrifying to read at time. But it still kind of felt like a story. And I had these questions in my mind, ‘Why didn’t they just leave? Why didn’t they tell somebody?’ And I couldn’t get past that for a while. And we met a chap who suffered with domestic violence quite seriously. He helped me get through some of those…and I thought what Coronation Street did well, all the case studies showed that they were so isolated from the friends and the family and that’s what Kirsty did to Tyrone. He was isolated. He didn’t really have anybody to go to. So I know the writers and the production team did an awful lot of research. As we tried to. But, again, it’s a subject that’s not really talked about. We had to get to it through the charities because there was nobody to go and speak to about such a taboo subject.”

Q: Alan, I know it’s only acting but Natalie’s rages are so terrifyingly real, have you ever found yourself feeling slightly scared of her?

Alan Halsall: “Not scared. But I found myself watching her sometimes in scenes, you know she can snap and I go, ‘Ooh, oh, I better be acting here.’ Because as well, what’s happened with the character of Kirsty, especially in the beginning, it was very much just a moment and she snapped. And so, yes, it was quite brilliant to watch at times. It’s been fantastic. Some of the earlier ‘hits’, if you like…they came as a shock to myself and Tyrone.”

Q: What happens after a fight scene? Do you have to hug each other to show you’re friends?

Alan Halsall: “We hug it out? I tell you what generally happens, for myself I’m generally just getting hit and then I run off. It’s the scenes afterwards that are quite emotional for my character. Whereas Natalie has to get herself into such a place, like a frenzy for Kirsty when she hits him, that when they shout ‘cut’ I run off and make a cup of tea and bring back Natalie a biscuit and say, ‘There you go.’ We calm it down for a couple of minutes.”

Natalie Gumede: “He looks after me.”

Q: Natalie – what did you think of your wedding dress? It’s quite unusual?

Natalie Gumede: “It was. It was very Kirsty-appropriate. We always knew when we talked with the costume designers that Kirsty wasn’t a traditional white wedding kind of girl. I think I’d said I’d originally wanted black. But they drew a line and said, ‘No, you’re going too far now?’ So we went for purple and they made that costume in three days. I thought they did an incredible job. It’s not what I’d personally choose, no. But I think it’s great for Kirsty.”

Jennie McAlpine: “You looked stunning though.”

Q: And the falling down the stairs…you could see how it could happen in a fishtail dress?

Natalie Gumede: “Yes!”

Alan Halsall: “Tell me about it!”

Q: Did you do that yourself or..?

Natalie Gumede: “We may have had a bit of help. A little bit. I did throw myself on to a mat which was at the top of the stairs. That was terrifying enough because there’s still stairs underneath. And then I did a bit of slumping. And we may have had some help inbetween. Trying to get the wig right was difficult…” (for the stunt woman).

Q: There was some talk from some fans on a forum that introducing a love story into the domestic abuse storyline, maybe it was distracting away from the real issue? I just wondered what you guys thought about that?

Jennie McAlpine: “I think like any story of this kind, the thing is, because these kind of things happen and love stories happen and this kind of thing happens, you can only ever tell one story at a time. So you can only tell Tyrone and Kirsty’s story and, in this instance, Tina and Fiz have come into it. People might say, ‘That didn’t happen in my circumstance. I don’t think that would happen.’ You can only really tell one story that’s happening and you can try and bring as many elements that other people might have experienced and that other people might be able to empathise with you. But you can never show what everyone has experienced.”

Coronation Street spokeswoman Alison Sinclair: “And I think they’ve (Tyrone and Fiz) got history. He didn’t just go out and meet someone. It came out of her caring for him. I think that’s what’s slightly different. And it is a drama.”

Q: Your National Television Awards nominations? Is it weird going up against each other?

Alan Halsall: “No, not really. It’s thrilling. I’m pleased and I’m sure Michelle is. I’m really, really thrilled. But it’s so weird to stand up and be nominated as an individual because it’s such a huge collective of people to make something like what you’ve just seen happen. But thrilling, especially with this storyline, that people have enjoyed it and have nominated us for the awards. Really thrilled. But we all do the same job and that’s how it is between us – and the rest of the soaps.”

Michelle Keegan: “We really support each other.”

Alan Halsall: “Absolutely.”

Michelle Keegan: “I couldn’t believe it. I was so chuffed that I was up for it and I was so grateful that people voted for me. Just to be up against Alan is amazing. I’ve said this before in an interview, and I’m not being biased, my vote is totally with Alan. If he doesn’t win it…honestly.”

Alan Halsall: “And I’ve asked Michelle to thank me in her speech.” (laughter)

Q: Michelle – you are always in the “sexiest” category and now to be nominated for dramatic performance…it’s all about your acting?

Michelle Keegan: “Yeah, it is. It’s amazing. I think because I came into Corrie as a new actor as well, five years down the line I’m up for an award like that and have been shortlisted, is just unbelievable. I’m going to have to pinch myself now and again.”

Q: Natalie – where do you think Kirsty would like to be in 12 months’ time, if she could have her wish come true? Would she like Tyrone to be banged up as punishment or would she like to have him come grovelling back..?

Natalie Gumede: “I think the latter. I think all that she’s doing now is in aid of that, really. From her perspective, from the way she’s seeing it, is probably she may come to a point where she realises a lot of this is of her own doing. And I think ultimately she would see, in her ideal world, that they’ve both made mistakes and there may be a way back.”

Q: Natalie – Corrie has got a great history of villains. How does it feel to be the latest one?

Natalie Gumede: “I’ve never really…up to this point where a couple of people have asked the question recently…I’ve never really considered her as a villain. I’ve always considered her as somebody who’s just really troubled and damaged. But I can see that she’s crawling into villain territory…charging into villain territory. It’s lovely to be thought of in the same bracket as some of the great villains that Corrie have had. To be given such a platform and to be given such a role where she’s so dark – I’ve really had something to get my teeth into. It’s been such a juicy role for me and I never dreamed of having a platform like this. I never dreamed of coming into Coronation Street and being part of a lead storyline in such a short amount of time. I just feel really lucky to be considered as such, really.”

Q: Michelle – we say in those episodes that Tina is starting to get a little baby bump now and that’s going to be upon us probably before we know it. How do you feel about giving birth on screen and have you spoken to your co-stars who have done that before you?

Michelle Keegan: “I was there when Kirsty was giving birth and, honestly, it looked so real. I’m the next one to give birth. I don’t know how I’m going to follow it. I’m a bit nervous about it. Because I was there when she did it. Unbelievable. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. But it’s going to have come out some way.” (laughter)

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Neil and Jason in next week’s episode.

SAD news today for Midsomer Murders fans.

It has emerged that next Wednesday’s ITV episode will be the final appearance of Jason Hughes as DCI John Barnaby’s regular sidekick DS Ben Jones.

Here’s the full Midsomer statement:

‘Schooled in Murder’ will be the last ever episode starring Jason Hughes as DS Jones, sidekick to DCI Barnaby played by Neil Dudgeon.

Jason has decided to leave after filming over 50 episodes of the popular and long running series MIDSOMER MURDERS.

He says: “It was a tough decision for me to go, as I have had a great time working on the show, both with John Nettles and now Neil Dudgeon, and the crew are like a second family.

“I feel it is the right time for me to leave, and after spending 7 happy years on Midsomer I am now looking at other projects, and my first one will be the pilot season in the US.

“It’s a new year for me career wise which I am looking forward to, and though I am sorry to say goodbye to Midsomer, I hope to be able to come back if there is a ‘special episode’ in the pipeline!”

Producer Jo Wright of Bentley Productions is currently looking for the right person to replace Jason.

She said: “We are sad that Jason has decided to leave the series and of course will miss him tremendously. We are now looking for his replacement, and it’s very exciting to start looking for a new face.”

Jason’s first episode was ‘The House in the Woods’ in 2005.

He went on to film over 100 hours of Midsomer Murders starring alongside John Nettles in 38 episodes.

Since Neil Dudgeon took over the leading role, the latest detective duo have clocked up a further 14 episodes.

Jason’s first day filming involved finding a dead body in a car, a foretaste of the many bizarre murders he then went onto investigate.

As DS Jones, Jason has also been almost killed by a tractor, dressed up as a nun, fallen out of trees, and gone undercover in a cult.

He has fallen in the lake in the middle of freezing January and sang naked in the shower.

In that one, he was a bit shocked when he was told to take his boxer shorts off, and then found out that they had to dub over his singing anyway because of a rights issue!

Jason’s other credits include This Life, Plain Jane, The Flint Street Nativity, Phoenix Blue, Killing Me Softly, Mine All Mine, Waking The Dead, Coming Up and Dante’s Daemon.

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THERE were other interviews after this week’s special Coronation Street preview screening in London.

You may already have read my transcript of the main cast Q&A at Coronation Street: Wedding Drama.

I later spoke to Michelle Keegan (Tina McIntyre) about a different subject:

Shopping, Katherine Kelly and Mr Selfridge.

Here’s the full version of my story:

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

Katherine Kelly as Lady Mae Loxley.

Michelle Keegan says she would love to bag a role in hit period drama Mr Selfridge.

The Coronation Street actress was working on the make-up counter at Selfridges in Manchester when she landed her Weatherfield part.

Co-starring with Katherine Kelly, who played Becky McDonald, now winning rave reviews for her portrayal as posh society hostess Lady Mae in Mr Selfridge.

“I’m a big fan of period dramas and absolutely love Mr Selfridge,” revealed Michelle, 25, who plays Corrie’s Tina McIntyre.

Asked if she would she like to make a cameo appearance as a shopgirl, Michelle told me: “100 per cent, yes! I’d love to do something like that. I’m qualified!

“I know the history behind it all. When I first started in Selfridges we had a big talk about when and how it first opened and they talked about Mr Selfridge.

“And then I found myself working with a lady who is now in the drama of Mr Selfridge, which is amazing.

“Katherine Kelly is wonderful as Lady Mae. I remember when she first got the part, I said, ‘Oh my God, what an amazing role to get.’

“And I’ve never seen Kate do anything else than Becky. So to see her on TV in a period drama is amazing. She’s brought proper life to the character and got it off to a T.”

Michelle was stunned to be plucked from her shop role in 2007 to star on the cobbles after what was just her second-ever audition.

“I heard about the Corrie audition and went just for the experience. I didn’t think I had a chance.”

Stockport-born Michelle is nominated for Serial Drama Performance at next Wednesday’s National Television Awards.

Mr Selfridge continues on ITV at 9pm on Sunday in an episode featuring the daring first steps to open the make-up counters Michelle later worked on.

With Harry Gordon Selfridge (Jeremy Piven) shocking the staff by suggesting they openly sell make-up, including lipstick – thought of in 1909 as only fit for showgirls and prostitutes.

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Rob James-Collier as Aidan.

MOVING On is back next week with a Scandinavian twist.

Created by Jimmy McGovern, the fourth series of BBC1′s daytime drama has the usual impressive cast lists.

This time including actors from The Killing, Borgen, Wallander and Lilyhammer.

Regular readers will know that I have a lot of time for all involved in Moving On.

Having written about it at Moving On: Plays For Our Today and Moving On 3.

Moving On is a series of stand alone dramas providing TV opportunities for writers and skilled production workers in the North West.

With some famous faces in the casts working more for love than money.

Along with Johnny Vegas and Robert Glenister making their TV drama directing debuts in this new series.

Colin McKeown’s Liverpool-based LA Productions performs drama miracles on a budget that would no doubt be an insult to shoestrings.

With little sign of the financial constraints on screen.

Broadcast on BBC1 at 2:15pm on consecutive days from next Monday (Jan 28), here’s just some of the highlights from this 2013 series.

Which you can also, of course, record if at work or catch up with later via the BBC iPlayer.

Downton Abbey’s Rob James-Collier makes a return appearance, having played estranged husband Clive in a Moving On series three story called The Milkman.

This time he’s a lot more charming, going back to school as supply teacher Mr Evans. Or Aidan to his friends.

In episode two: Visiting Order, written by Colette Kane, one of two films directed by Noreen Kershaw.

Marian Saastad Ottesen as Liv.

He’s immediately smitten when he meets Scandinavian single mum-of-two Liv, played by Norwegian-born Lilyhammer actress Marian Saastad Ottesen.

Social worker Liv also likes the look of Mr Evans. But keeps a secret from him.

Her father Kris is serving a long sentence for drug trafficking.

And in another casting coup, he is played by Bjarne Henriksen, who many UK viewers will know as Theis Birk Larsen from The Killing series one, as well as Borgen.

Jason Manford as Gary.

Jason Manford may surprise some as black cab driver Gary in the fifth and final film of this series: That’s Amore.

Directed by Johnny Vegas, Jason co-stars with Wallander’s Rebekah Staton, who plays his fed up wife Lisa.

“Bone idle” beer-swilling couch potato Gary has no idea anything is wrong.

Until Lisa tells him their house is up for sale and she wants a divorce.

Telling him: “People in comas make more decision than you do, Gary.”

Forced to live apart in the same house while they wait for a buyer, Gary becomes increasingly frustrated.

Concluding: “My life’s turned into one big episode of Jeremy Kyle.”

Colin McKeown says: “Johnny spotted something in Jason and it’s paid off.

“I think Jason’s performance will surprise people, so watch this space.

“I also think Robert Glenister’s episode will take people by surprise because for a first time director its an extremely assured piece of work.

“I think both Robert and Johnny have a great future as directors.”

Paul McGann as Phil.

Former Hustle star Robert directs episode four – Blood Ties – which features Paul McGann, Jack Shepherd and Jennifer Hennessy and is written by Arthur Ellison.

Robert maintains: “Moving On is the best reason for ressurecting the single play on primetime terestrial telly.”

Gillian Kearney as Danielle with Ashley Ogden (Mia) and Joseph Wilkins (Tom).

Episode three – Friends Like These – is written by Shaun Duggan and features Gillian Kearney as busy single mum Danielle.

She earns a little extra cash by child-minding for her friend Sam, played by former Accused and Coronation Street actress Rachel Leskovac.

With Natasha Little as Sonia, a new mum at the school who has a home Danielle can only dream of.

Sonia befriends Danielle and decides to help her.

But as Sam warns Danielle: “Beward of the middle classes bearing gifts.”

Sally Carman as Sarah.

Series four begins with The Shrine, written by Karen Brown and starring Matthew Kelly, Barbara Flynn, Shameless actress Sally Carman and Rev’s Steve Evets.

As LA Productions explain: “Moving On explores contemporary issues, from divorce and public displays of grief to obsessive friendships, relationships and caring for the elderly.

“All linked by the common theme of characters who reach a turning point in life and then move on.”

Scroll down for more photos and links.

Barbara Flynn and Matthew Kelly in The Shrine.

Rachel Lescovak in Friends Like These.

Natasha Little in Friends Like These with Olivia Cosgrove (Sofia) and Alex Lee Taylor (Kai).

Jennifer Hennessy in Blood Ties.

Jack Shepherd in Blood Ties.

Director Robert Glenister.

Director Johnny Vegas.

Marian Saastad Ottesen as Liv and Charlie Concannon as Eric.

Moving On 4 begins on BBC1 at 2:15pm on Monday (Jan 28) and at the same time on the next four days.

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Idris Elba as John Luther.

THE stars of BBC Drama gathered in London last night for a preview of what is to come in 2013.

Along with leading writers, directors, producers and executives.

With members of Her Majesty’s Media – me included – also invited along to the event at The King’s Fund in Cavendish Square.

BBC Drama controller Ben Stephenson made a speech and a number of announcements about new dramas, plus the latest on Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary.

Followed by a three minute showreel of highlights.

Doctor Who’s representatives included showrunner Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss and Jenna Louise Coleman.

With famous acting faces dotted around the room, including Alison Steadman, Idris Elba, Anne Reid and the cast of New Tricks.

Below is my transcript of what Ben said about new and returning BBC dramas.

Plus a full transcript of what he said in the main part of his speech.

The BBC Media Centre has the “prepared” version of the latter but I thought some might like to read the slightly expanded transcript of what he said in the room.

Ben Stephenson.

Ben Stephenson on new and returning BBC drama in 2013:

“The first piece I want to talk to you about is a 13-part new series commission to take over from Merlin. It’s called Atlantis. It’s written by the absolutely brilliant Howard Overman who created Misfits for Channel 4. It’s his first mainstream series. Produced with Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy, it is a remarkable vision and adventure, set in the lost city of Atlantis with Greek myths. It’s a thrilling adventure with huge but spectacular challenges for the Merlin slot this autumn. We’re casting it at the moment and I’m really excited.

“We’re also starting to think about who plays Mr Darcy. We are doing PD James’ wonderful book Death Comes To Pemberley on BBC1. Now I’ve had lots of suggestions…

“We’ve got some other brilliant pieces to come out on BBC1. Two eight-part series from writers with their first ever series commission. Breakdown, written by Jack and Harry Williams, and The Interceptor by Tony Saint. Two thrilling new additions to BBC1.

“We’re also doing Jamaica Inn, a book that I have loved for years and not been able to get the rights to, written by Emma Frost.

“Remember Me by Gwyneth Hughes, which is a fantastic ghost story.

Call The Midwife and the birth of more BBC Drama.

“Of course we’ll also be bringing back – this was a hard decision for me – Call The Midwife. (laughter) It’s had rotten ratings but we thought we’d give them another go. (laughter) So we’re doing another eight-part series of that and a marvellous Christmas special.

“We’re also bringing back Death In Paradise again. A very, very easy decision considering it’s been getting eight million and I think is the highest midweek series on any channel for quite a long time.

“Adding that to the return of Ripper Street and that is every single show, every series we’ve launched so far this year coming back.

“I’m very excited – you’re about to see a showreel – Luther is about to come back. I’ve just seen episode one. I’ve literally never been so scared in my life. I actually screamed in the office. Idris is amazing. It is beyond frightening. And I’m also very pleased to announce that the very scary Ruth Wilson – she’s not scary in real life, she’s lovely in real life…but the character she played, Alice Morgan, will be back at some stage. She wears black gloves and she does very evil things.

“But it’s not just about BBC1. We’re also bringing back Sir David Hare’s single play as a series…two single films, Turks and Caicos and Salting The Battlefield, again with a fantastic cast, including Bill Nighy.

“Slightly sad news, BBC4 will be ending its drama. But we’ve had re-investment on BBC1 and on BBC2, so I thought we can more than make up for it with the ambition there. But we wanted to end it in spectacular fashion. BBC4 has been the home for the new generation of biopic. I felt it was absolutely right to end with that. So we are doing – and it is so exciting – Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. A story that maybe you don’t know, which is after they were divorced…they toured New York in a production of Private Lives. Any of you will know it’s about a couple who are divorced. We’re very excited that we’ve got Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West to play Burton And Taylor. Both of them have been on BBC4 before, so it feels like a wonderful end to the BBC4 drama story.

“Now…we’ve also go an anniversary this year. It’s the 50th anniversary and, of course, it’s that tiny little show called Doctor Who. I’ve got the new assistant in front of me, I’ve just got a bit starstruck (laughter). So this year is the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. I can’t say anything about it because I can hear Steven Moffat somewhere in the room and he is quaking with what secrets I might reveal.

“I think this is a crucial part of the BBC’s output this year. Last year we had the wonderful Jubilee and the wonderful Olympics. This is an opportunity to make drama a landmark event for the BBC. I think everyone has a connection to Doctor Who, everyone has their own Doctor – Peter Davison, but I love them all – and I think that we can really do something spectacular with this.

“The only thing I can announce, and this is very exciting for a show that is constantly innovative – it’s going to be 3D. Which feels like a bold innovation that absolutely is right for what Doctor Who should be.

“We’re also at the moment filming Mark’s (Gatiss) fantastic behind the scenes of how Doctor Who started. I had a little cry at the read through. It was very, very moving.

“Now I’m going to show you a showreel. I haven’t shown it to anyone, apart from a few, because I wanted it to be secret. There are lots of other shows in here – New Tricks, Mayday, The Politician’s Husband, Quirke, Frankie, The Syndicate, Prisoners’ Wives, Case Histories, The Fall, Our Girl…”

Colin Morgan as Jimmy in Quirke.

My transcript of Ben Stephenson’s BBC Drama Speech in full:

“I think that 2012 was the most successful year for BBC Drama this century. A bold statement. Thanks to all the people in this room and many who can’t be here tonight. It is one that I believe – I would say that but I think I’ve got evidence. So really I want to say thank you to everyone as well as taking this opportunity to look forward to new horizons, new ambitions and a BBC with an exciting new DG (Director-General).

“The passing of some wonderful series in 2011 and 2012 marked the end of an era. Danny (Danny Cohen, BBC1 Controller) and I needed to find the next generation of returning series. And whilst this hunt still continues, I’m really, really pleased that 2012 saw the arrival of six new series, all of which will be returning in 2013. And I hope for many, many, many years to come.

“From Call The Midwife to Last Tango In Halifax, these series prove that if you create a show with intelligence, love and authorship the audience will follow. It’s also good to note that four of those six series were created by female writers with only one of them a crime show.

“So I’m determined that the next few years follow suit. But we’re also going to introduce a rich new line of shows on to BBC1 with rich, real filmic scale, including epic dramas we’ve already announced, including the 10-part The White Queen, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel and The Village, which I think take our ambition up to a new level.

“2011 saw the beginning of BBC2’s drama really coming back to life. But I hope that 2012 proved why it really mattered. Janice (Hadlow, BBC2 Controller) and I were thrilled that Line of Duty, Parade’s End and The Hollow Crown, amongst many others, proved how much audiences had missed BBC Drama. And with Jane Campion, Wolf Hall and again many others still to come I hope this will be just the beginning.

“Last week it was very, very nice to see a first. Every single drama nomination at the BPG and the South Bank Awards were won by a BBC drama. I’d always rather have audiences over awards but nevertheless that was quite a nice moment and it means that I don’t have to worry quite so much about what wins. (laughter)

“So, getting to the heart of what I want to talk about. Drama and the BBC really are inseparable. It’s written through the BBC like a stick of rock. No other broadcaster in this world, I absolutely believe, has drama so firmly embedded deeply in its DNA. Knock down any BBC building and I can prove to you that at the heart of it is a writer sat in the ruins typing away.”

Writer Lucy Gannon shouted out, “And crying.”

Ben continued: “Crying. Alright. Fair enough.” (laughter)

“A couple of weeks ago I was very lucky to be taken on a tour of the Royal Opera House by Lord Hall, our new DG. I found both the space and my time in his company absolutely inspiring. We talked about the BBC as a cultural organisation with an international reputation. One to make us proud and one that allows us to strengthen our creative muscles.

“When you go to the Royal Opera House or the Royal National Theatre there’s a buzz in the theatre before the curtain goes up. That buzz comes not just from what you’re about to see but because the space, the history, the values of the place add up to something extraordinary.

“It’s that electric crackle of excitement that I want to create at BBC Drama. I want to make BBC Drama a cultural institution. A touchstone for quality and modernity with all the excitement and glamour of the curtain going up.

“Part of the reason a couple of years ago I introduced the ‘Original British Drama’ tag line was because I wanted BBC Drama to add up to something. It shouldn’t just be about individual shows. I want audiences to feel that anticipation when they see our logo. When they hear that there’s a new BBC drama coming on I want their expectations to be enormous and I want them to be really tough if our ambition isn’t as huge as they demand.

“But crucially I want you – some of the absolute best talent in the world – to feel genuinely excited about working for BBC Drama.

“I hope that some of the changes I’ve made to BBC Drama in my four years in the job have helped. I hope it feels more welcoming, broader, more driven by creative talent and, crucially, at times, more fun.

“Of course there’s no escaping from the fact that we are a weighty institution with weighty and, yes, sometimes labyrinthine processes. But as much as possible I want to bypass that and create a place that feels inspiringly creative, where there is a buzz of creativity and an ‘anything goes’ optimism.

“And that means setting our values out more clearly than ever, articulating that we are the adventurous, gung-ho market leader that the competition can only follow. And sometimes, maybe, copy. And, yes, I am looking at you Sky and your ‘Original British Drama’ tag line.

“It means continuing to foster the best possible culture we can inside and having the top notch best team of staff in the country. And whilst frustrating, it’s also good news that I’m constantly having to stop my staff being poached.

“I want to build a BBC Drama department that has an enormous international reputation. When Sundance premiere Top Of The Lake and it’s called a masterpiece or Ripper Street is the highest new show to premiere on BBC America. Or actors like Idris Elba, Cillian Murphy and Elisabeth Moss come back from Hollywood to join our repetpoire. It’s really good for us. It makes us bolder and it makes us bigger. It adds a bit of spice and glamour to the mix and I think it takes us out of ourselves.

“As any of you will have heard me bang on before, you’ll know that I tend to view the word ‘international’ as a bit of a dirty word. It makes me think of Euro Puddings – that’s a real term – and pitches that have the budgets attached but no writers. It will probably have a picture of a crown or a sword on its laminated cover. All you producers know what I’m talking about, you’ve all seen it.

“But at all costs we must protect our own British values, without which we’re just a cheap imitation of Hollywood or a less Scandi version of Scandi. Why copy other countries when we can be the best at what only we can do? I want us to be international but, crucially, on our own terms.

“And that means making us more British than ever – rather than chasing a naive ambition to be a British HBO and chasing famous names it’s about applying the great Danny Boyle vision to our work, a bold, adventurous, authorial approach that exports because of its Britishness, not despite it.

“In Boyle’s vision of Britain, Mary Poppins sits alongside Brunel, Shakespeare alongside James Bond. And so it should be at the BBC. But Britishness absolutely does not mean that we don’t work with the best international talent. We should have really open creative borders.

“But none of this talk is about being niche. I want packed houses to watch our shows. The ambition to be popular and brilliant runs through the BBC. Of course I am being ridiculously, deliberately idealistic. Because without a vision, what do we have to aim for?

“Now some of you will be thinking, ‘Yeah, this is all very well but you turned my script down last week.’ Or, ‘You’re so bloody slow.’ And of course we’re never going to agree on everything and we’re all going to have our ups and downs. But whilst we are far from perfect, I want us to move with integrity at all times. I know some other broadcasters talk about themselves as paragons of virtue but we’re not. But we will keep getting better.

“Ultimately I think I can boil this down to one thing – I want to make BBC Drama the hallmark of quality and the automatic home for the best talent in the world.”

BBC Drama 2013 Showreel

BBC Drama

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Luke Newberry as Kieren Walker.

IT looked like it would be an intriguing drama.

And lived up to expectations.

In The Flesh is a three-part BBC3 series starting at 10pm on Sunday (March 17) and also heading to BBC America.

It’s been trailed as a zombie drama but is much more than that.

Written by first-time TV writer Dominic Mitchell and directed by Jonny Campbell, it stars Luke Newberry as Kieren Walker and Emily Bevan as Amy Dyer.

Both are Partially Deceased Syndrome (PDS) sufferers.

Humans have won a war against zombies who are now, thanks to modern medication, being re-introduced into society.

Transformed via drugs, make-up and contact lenses to a more normal appearance.

But members of the Human Volunteer Force (HVF) and others are not convinced, also remembering those who lost their lives in the fight against the zombies.

Trick or Treat and Halloween is still banned in the small rural community of Roarton, such are the nightmare memories.

So what does that mean for people like Kieren, who originally killed himself, returning home to their parents after the horrors of what has gone before?

With his own sister Jem (Harriet Cains) a member of the HVF.

Kieren returned home.

Last month I was invited along to a press screening in London which was followed by a Q&A and other interviews.

If you think In The Flesh is just for a youthful BBC3 audience, then – I’d argue – you’d be wrong.

With cast members including Kenneth Cranham, Steve Evets and Ricky Tomlinson, it has a cross-generational storyline relevant to a wide age group.

Including an exploration of prejudice, discrimination, extremism and redemption.

Director Jonny’s past credits include Eric & Ernie, Ashes To Ashes, Doctor Who, Shameless and Spooks.

So he knows a thing or two.

“What drew me in about this is that it was, effectively, a device,” he explained.

“It’s not really about zombies, you could argue.

“Yes, it’s got elements of that. But actually it’s about family and a drama which can ask questions which other dramas can’t.”

Made by the BBC Drama production team in Salford, there’s plenty to say about In The Flesh.

Below is the story I wrote a few hours after the screening.

That’s followed by a full transcript of the post-screening Q&A.

And then a transcript of a further chat that evening with Luke.

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

THE star of a new TV zombie drama got a shock when he fell asleep in the make-up chair.

“It was three in the morning during a night shoot and I took a nap,” said In The Flesh actor Luke Newberry.

“I woke up and caught myself in the mirror – I was terrified!”

The three-part BBC3 drama tells the story of the aftermath of a war between humans and the risen dead.

Defeated zombies are now classed as suffering from PDS – partially deceased syndrome -  and receive NHS medication to allow them to be re-introduced into society. 

Luke plays Kieren who is returned to his parents in the isolated rural community of Roarton where members of the HVF – Human Volunteer Force – still hunt the undead.

Kieren, aged 18, has nightmare flashbacks about killing a young girl in a supermarket when he was in a rabid state.

“It was very weird to film ripping open a scalp and eating a brain,” said the Devon-born actor, who has also appeared in Sherlock, Mrs Biggs and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

“Even though I knew it wasn’t real, I did feel very odd about it.

“It was like Angel Delight and actually really tasty. I look like I’m enjoying it and I was!

“The prosthetic brain was attached to the real actor’s head. I don’t think she minded,” added Luke, currently starring in ITV’s Lightfields.

Emily Bevan also had to spend hours in the make-up chair to play PDS sufferer Amy, who originally died from leukaemia.

“I came off the worst. I looked absolutely hideous,” she said.

“But in terms of getting into character it was incredibly helpful just to look in the mirror and be horrified by yourself.”

The series also features Rev star Steve Evets as Bill, leader of the local HVF, who is married to Janet, played by Karen Henthorn, who played twisted Teresa in Coronation Street.

With The Royle Family’s Ricky Tomlinson as Roarton resident Ken and Kenneth Cranham as Vicar Oddie.

In The Flesh begins on BBC3 at 10pm on Sunday March 17.

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

BBC3 Controller Zai Bennett echoed the wider themes of In The Flesh in his introduction before the screening.

“I will say zombie drama for now…

“The dead have risen. The zombies and humans have had a huge war and the humans have won. This drama begins where the zombies are being re-integrated into society. And for me that was just a really arresting, different pitch to read. And with that pitch came a wonderful script and a huge bible of all the mythology – Dominic had mocked up NHS leaflets for the partially deceased. Just amazing. It was a really easy commissioning decision once you’d read all of that. It was a world that he had thought so much about and knew intimately. It was so different and arresting that I thought we had to do it for BBC3.

“Dominic wrote In The Flesh and submitted it to the (BBC) Writersroom. Then it was developed by BBC North through the Northern Voices scheme. So things like this really do happen. A first-time TV writer – here’s a three-part drama. In only two years.

“In addition to being written by a hugely talented emerging writer, we’ve also had the chance to blend some wonderfully seasoned actors with some great new talent.

“Also what Jonny has done with the directing and the style – it’s a very different drama to what you’d normally get for 16 to 34s. Normally it’s super fast cut pace, loads of heavy music over everything and in your face. This is a wonderfully arresting beautiful drama which actually treats our audience like adults.”

Q&A:

Kate Harwood, BBC Production Head of Drama, England:

“I am so proud of this show that I could talk about it endlessly. To actually bring Dominic’s imagination to screen as a first-time television writer was a real honour and something that doesn’t happen very often. Then to have Jonny Campbell direct it was equally an honour and a privilege.”

Q: Dominic, Zai earlier on referred to the legendary ‘bible’ that we all read and were completely knocked out by. Where does it all come from? How did you come to this idea and how was it imagining this world? What drew you into it?

Dominic Mitchell: “I was watching a zombie movie, it was about five years ago, late at night. It was a typical zombie movie where you had a bunch of survivors and they were just blasting away zombies. They were doing it with such glee and macho gusto that I started feeling sorry for the zombies. One of the survivors, they blew away a young man and I was like, ‘Ah, he had a mother and probably had a father and maybe a sister. Maybe that’s an interesting take on it?’ And then I was developing an idea about a young lad who’d had a psychotic episode and he does something really terrible in his rural community. He gets treated and he gets medicated and he was coming back and dealing with all that guilt. I kind of was getting stuck on it. It was a bit too on the nose. Then when I watched the zombie movie I was like, ‘Oh, maybe he’s my young lad who had the psychotic episode? Maybe he didn’t have a psychotic episode? Maybe he’s a zombie?’ I was always like, ‘What would really happen in a zombie apocalypse in Britain?’ There would be this war and then the scientists would always be trying to get a solution to it. They would be like, ‘Right, we’re going to try and get them medicated and try and manage them.’ And that sparked off all the other ideas. And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that could happen and that could happen.’ You never see a zombie apocalypse…well you see an immediate aftermath…but I was like, ‘But what happens four years on when the undead and the survivors who battled the undead are trying to get on with their lives?’ So I thought, ‘That’s the way to go.’”

Emily Bevan as Amy Dyer.

Q: The bible of mythology ahead of the script?

Dominic Mitchell: “It was really fun to do this massive bible. Because I had to get all the back story right in my head and what happened in The Rising and what the medication was…Nortriptyline…what effects does it have on the brain? So I did this big patient information leaflet where I know all the side-effects of Nortriptyline and what poor Kieren has to go through every day. With this kind of show you have to know everything about it before you can write the scripts.”

Q: Jonny – what drew you to this?

Jonny Campbell: “Everything Dom said is encapsulated in the opening stage directions of this script. And there was only the one script but it totally drew me in and I had to read to know what was going to happen next. But it was something in the tone of voice in the way he writes the stage directions which really drew me in most. For example, in the opening scene in the supermarket, you could have just written, ‘Oh, there’s a girl and she’s getting some supplies and then she gets attacked.’ But he went into such great detail, saying she was buying Monster Munch and none of the major food groups were accounted for in her trolley. And similarly, in the scene in the treatment centre where they’re sitting round having a therapy session, again it could have been, ‘There’s a group of people having a therapy session.’ But it was, ‘You could be forgiven for wanting to play a morbid game of guess the cause of death.’ It just nuanced it and gave it a sort of mischievous quality which went right the way through it.”

Steve Evets as Bill Macy.

Kate then opened up questions to the audience:

Q: (From me, as it happens) Dominic, what sort of themes and issues did you want to explore in the series?

Dominic Mitchell: “It was about redemption and prejudice as well. There’s this rural community…the Human Volunteer Force are very against zombies. So it was about, coming back to having a psychotic episode, that thing of mental illness. Paranoid schizophrenics are medicated now but would you want one of them, even medicated, living next door to you? And I thought that’s something that you can actually talk about but not talk about, because it’s a zombie show. And that idea of extremism with the Undead Liberation Army and on the other side Vicar Oddie (Kenneth Cranham). When you don’t know. Because in The Rising, they don’t why it happened. So when there’s a vacuum then anything can fill it. And usually it’s quite extremist views that fill that vacuum. They were the sort of things that I was looking to explore.”

Q: Watching that, it made me think it could be an allegory for somebody who is maybe on the Sex Offenders’ Register?

Dominic Mitchell: “Yeah, definitely…they get a list. It was definitely that, that I was thinking about as well.”

Q: There are a lot of zombie things at the moment. Did that stymie you at all? Were you thinking, well I’m going to have to differentiate mine from the others. Have different zombie rules and that kind of thing?

Dominic Mitchell: “Yeah, sure. I was thinking about this idea five years ago and now it does seem like the zeitgeist with Warm Bodies and all this other stuff and World War Z coming in. But I love the zombie genre anyway. So any sort of zombie movie I will watch. I knew about Warm Bodies, the book. And I was like, ‘No, I can’t read it because it will seep in.’ I wanted to keep away from anything that was like that. I still watched The Walking Dead because I love The Walking Dead. And then they’re about survivors. It’s very tried and tested that kind of thing.”

Jonny Campbell: “That’s what drew me to it. It wasn’t like everything else I’d seen. I’d watched The Walking Dead and I carried on watching it. And I did find that at a certain point it becomes a bit more like a computer game. That it’s very, very samey. When the zombies don’t evolve, they just go round blowing the zombies away. The location changes but the story doesn’t really. And what drew me in about this is that it was, effectively, a device. It’s not really about zombies, you could argue. Yes, it’s got elements of that. But actually it’s about family and a drama which can ask questions which other dramas can’t. So, for example, ‘Why did you bury me?’ / ‘Didn’t I go to your funeral?’ / ‘Why did you choose that epitaph for me?’ You don’t hear that every day. And it just allows the characters to go back through things. Like, ‘Why did you commit suicide? Why didn’t you leave a note?’ They’re the kind of questions that people are facing every day, wanting to know answers. And this sort of drama allows some of those answers to come through. So it was fascinating for me as a director and a storyteller.”

Kenneth Cranham as Vicar Oddie.

Q: Dominic – why did you choose to set this in a rural setting as opposed to a city? What do you think that brings to the drama?

Dominic Mitchell: “Well, I’m from a rural setting myself. So I guess write what you know. We wanted to keep it really small scale. If we’d set it in Manchester or London, I think it would just have been too big. I think setting it in a little rural village, it’s like a microcosm about what’s happening maybe in the cities and Britain as a whole. Because I’m from a rural village I know those sort of characters, the whisperings and things like that. We didn’t have to go big on it. We could just go really small and that’s what I was really drawn to, to set it in Roarton, which is a village.”

Q: Question for the cast. How did you get into character for your rabid state?

Luke Newberry (Kieren): “Hours of make-up preparation. It was quite nice, actually. Because you could just come in, in the morning and just chill out and zone out while you had your face ravaged with prosthetic make-up.”

Emily Bevan (Amy): “Yes, the prosthetic cheeks we had to make us look a bit more gaunt and a wrinkled forehead. I think I came off the worst. I was absolutely hideous. And layers and layers and layers of make-up. In terms of getting into character it was incredibly helpful just to look in the mirror and be horrified by yourself.”

Luke Newberry: “I took a nap once, when I was in my full…it was like three in the morning where we were doing a night shoot. I woke up and caught myself in the mirror. I was terrified. There was a lot of that.”

Emily Bevan: “I remember in Shaun of the Dead there was a great scene – how to be a zombie. To teach them how to blend in. And I remember, ‘vacant with a touch of sadness’ was quite a useful reference. I’m not sure if any of that will come across but..”

Ricky Tomlinson as Ken Burton.

Q: Dominic – were there any autobiographical elements to the story?

Dominic Mitchell: “Like I say, I’m from a rural village. I didn’t kill anyone and then come back from the dead. But there is quite a lot of autobiographical stuff up there. I guess I was different. Growing up and being a teenager, definitely I was different. I think rural communities or just my community were a bit afraid of that, a bit afraid that I listened to rock music – Guns and Roses. And I don’t think it’s that bad, Guns and Roses. And then Nirvana came along…I had long hair, I wore cardigans…and that made me like the bad lad of the village, the black sheep of the village and there was a lot of whispering about that Mitchell lad at number 11. So I kind of know where Kieren is coming from. And, of course, it’s incredibly heightened because he’s also a PDS sufferer who ate people in the village.”

Kate Harwood: “One of the things that I always find incredibly moving about it is Kieren chose to die, Amy didn’t…his energy coming back is particularly poignant because he wanted to go. And hers is very different because she didn’t.”

Q: Is it conceived as a three-parter or could it continue?

Kate Harwood: “Who knows? It’s a very BBC answer isn’t it? It’s a very complete three-parter. But let’s see who’s still there by the end credits and we’ll see how we go in the future. We were very aware of wanting to make this an event three-parter that really satisfies in its own right, rather than spending the whole time looking round the corner and trying to keep things going just in case.”

Jonny Campbell: “It was clear to me when I read the first script that this was a really interesting idea. Having said that, it was a fairly low budget piece but we had the three-parter to make. And Dominic has, as you can already tell, ideas to fill quite a long-running series. Having said that, we had three hours. So part of the conversation was about trying to, not clip Dom’s wings in any way but just make the most of what the story was giving you in that first episode and making sure that we weren’t going to tantalise viewers with, effectively, a three-part pilot for something. I think that’s really important because I think that happens far too often and I think it was really key for this to have a cathartic, wholesome three-part story that, as Kate says, hopefully like a lot of good things, if you think it’s good we’ll leave you wanting more. And that was the ambition behind it.”

Dominic Mitchell: “We wanted it to have a really good resolution. You see a lot of these things where you’re like, ‘Oh, they’re going to get to it on series two.’ We didn’t want that. We wanted the audience to feel satisfied at the end. There are doors open and I’ve got loads of…well, this bible, which weighs about 50 tonnes. But, yeah, we just wanted it to be a complete story and have that. I think that’s fine.”

Harriet Cains as Kieren’s sister Jem.

Q: You got the commission through the initiative for new writers. What was the day job? What were you doing before? And can you talk us through how this affected you?

Dominic Mitchell: “My background was in theatre. I was a struggling playwright. A starving playwright…I was writing plays. When I first came up with this idea, I wrote a one-pager and I was like, ‘This is a TV series. It’s not a play. Should it be a stage play? No, it is definitely a TV series, I see it so clearly in my head. But I don’t know where to go.’ Because I had no contacts in TV at the time. And then this BBC Writersroom Initiative came up, which was Northern Voices – you could spend 12 months being mentored and developed…a great writer called John Fay. And it was just the four of us – three other really talented writers. It was great. I could learn how to do a TV drama because I’d never written a TV script before. So that was fantastic to do that 12-month thing. Then it was lucky enough to read by Simon Judd (script editor) and Hilary Martin, the executive producer. They liked it and we had a meeting and they optioned it. Then from there I started on this massive bible. It’s so incredible because of course it’s developed and changed – but a lot of the initial ideas, five years ago, are on the screen. It’s just incredible to see. And I think done really fantastically. It’s amazing.”

Kate Harwood: “This is made by our BBC Drama production team in Salford. Hilary and Simon snapped it up and brought it to mine and Ben Stephenson’s (BBC Controller of Drama) attention the minute they read it. Nothing in drama moves fast, but for drama it’s moved pretty fast actually. And we’re very, very proud of it.”

Luke Newberry as Kieren.

Luke Newberry plays Kieren Walker:

Q: Your background?

“I was a child actor, I guess, from when I was about seven, doing some TV and film and stage. A bit of everything really. I went to a normal school and took my A-levels and thought, ‘I really want to train.’ So I got into the Bristol Old Vic when i was 17 / 18 and went there for three years and graduated in 2011. Then I’ve had a year of being really busy and doing lots of amazing different projects and different parts and really varied roles. It’s been a great year. But this, obviously, was my biggest part that I’ve ever done.”

Q: How did you want to approach him?

“I wanted to make him believable. Obviously he’s very low, he’s very depressed and he didn’t leave the world in a good place and he doesn’t come back in a good place either. So it was a tricky balance of finding how to play all that – everything he’s battling with. And then new things he’s battling with coming back, like flashbacks. And also not making him just totally flat. I think Kieren goes on a very long journey throughout the episodes and you see that different characters unlock different things in him as they go along. Like Amy unlocks the fun in Kieren and slowly he starts to grown different parts of him back again.”

Q: You told the story about having the nap in the make-up chair. What time did you have to get in and how many hours were you in the chair on a heavy day?

“Depending on the location, maybe like a five or six start in the morning and then two hours in the make-up chair. And then on most days I’d be in every shot of every day, as well. And my make-up would be being re-touched throughout the day. So I’d be wearing an awful lot of make-up. Then we’d finish at seven or whatever. Unless it was a night shoot and then we’d go through. Then it was an hour of the make-up, depending on the day – whether it was prosthetics. The easy days were the days were the days when I was just in my foundation without any lenses in. But sometimes it would take an hour to get off and I’d get back to the hotel and just collapse.”

Preparing to return home.

Q: How were those contact lenses?

“I got used to them. I’m not a contact lens wearer so I found it difficult. We all had difficult times with it. But actually, apart from the first day, they became quite comfortable. And they’re big. They’re massive. They are clear but they’re hand-painted so you’re a bit tunnel vision with them. It changed the way I was, really. Because when you can’t see everyone – it did make me go a bit inward. Which helped me then Kieren because he is very introspective. So it didn’t hinder anything at all, really.”

Q: So it must be quite shocking to see yourself at first in the mirror?

“Yes.”

Q: Have your family or friends seen any photos of you? What do they think?

“Yes. Horrified! Thrilled! A lot of my friends couldn’t believe it. And couldn’t believe it was me. The weirdest make-up was probably the orange foundation at times because I look like me but just slightly not quite right. Which is almost more disturbing than the prosthetic cheeks and all that. Because that looks more generic zombie.”

Unexpected item in bagging area. Riann Steele as Lisa and Emily Bevan as Amy.

Q: The flashback of you eating?

“The brain? When I eat the brain? It was like Angel Delight stuff. It was actually really tasty. So I look like I’m enjoying it and I was. It was great. Very weird though. Ripping open a scalp, which I actually did, and then eating. Even though I knew it wasn’t real, I did feel very odd about it. It was attached to the real actor’s head. So it was like an extension of her head. It was all a bit of a blur. Three in the morning in a supermarket, lenses in. I just went in and did it. It was like being underwater, slightly, because you had something on everything, in my eyes…so you just had to come in and go for it. I don’t think she minded me eating her!”

Q: Did you have any unexpected encounters on location with members of the public?

“We did a lot of my rabid stuff in the studio, so it was a bit more out of the way. The funniest thing was doing the funeral scenes, in my orange state, my foundation cover-up. And people in the crowds maybe not quite knowing the ins and outs of the story, knowing that I wear cover-up – and getting wolf-whistled by them. People must have been thinking, ‘Why the hell is that guy wearing so much make-up? And who’s his make-up artist?’ I just felt like screaming at everyone, ‘Just watch it. You’ll get it.’”

Q: Any other memorable moments?

“Me and Emily, who plays Amy, at four in the morning in a supermarket staff room, completely covered in prosthetics. She looked completely burnt. And both of us being a little bit hysterical. We’d had far too much coffee, going absolutely nuts. We couldn’t stop laughing for about an hour. That was a highlight. It was just so surreal. It was in a break. We were having our lenses put in and they couldn’t get mine in because I was laughing so much. Just very surreal. ‘How did we get here? And what are we doing?’”

Q: In The Flesh is partly about overcoming obstacles. With some really interesting issues in this?

“It looks at mental health issues, prejudice, things that obviously drama touches on a lot. But I think this can go further because by using Kieren being a zombie you can feed more in through that, in more interesting ways as well. I forget it’s about zombies when I watch it. And I think that’s interesting. It’s a funny one to describe. That’s great that it’s about zombies but it’s not that totally. I find it really hard to describe to people. I generally just have to say, ‘You’ll just have to wait until it’s on.’”

Q: Can you see it coming back?

“I’d love to. It works so brilliantly as a three part drama. But there are lots of different avenues that it could go, that would be really interesting. I was sad on my last day of filming saying goodbye to Kieren because I’d lived him for two months. So it would be a joy.”

Q: We get to more about why Kieren killed himself and his relationship with best friend Rick (who was Bill Macy’s [Steve Evets] son, killed by the Taliban while serving with the Army in Afghanistan)?

“Yes. Much more comes into play as we go through the series. And different sides of Kieren I get to show as well, through the different people he meets and the different experiences he has.”

Q: Other recent work and coming up next?

“I’ve got a series called Lightfields (which began that night on ITV). And a horror film. I’m doing another genre thing called Frankenstein’s Army which is coming to cinemas soon, I think. But apart from that I’m just focusing on promotions for this and meeting for stuff.”

In The Flesh begins on BBC3 at 10pm on Sunday March 17

BBC In The Flesh Official Site

In The Flesh BBC Media Centre

BBC Writersroom

John Fay

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“AND the Doctor’s greatest secret will be revealed.”

Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat speaking at a London press conference last Friday morning.

The content of which was embargoed until now, just after midnight in the early hours of Monday, together with the new pics which also feature on this page.

We were shown The Bells of Saint John – the opening episode of series 7b – written by Steven Moffat.

To be screened on BBC1 and BBC America on Saturday March 30.

The media preview was followed by that Q&A with Matt Smith (the Doctor), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara) and Steven Moffat.

You can read my full transcript further down this blog, edited to remove any major spoilers.

Steven’s reply was part of the answer I got after asking the trio to talk about their personal highlights in the next eight episodes.

Followed in November by Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Although the latter are still under wraps, the press conference did give us a tiny taste of what is ahead.

“You won’t be disappointed,” promised Matt, having seen the script for the birthday episode.

“I read it and I clapped at the end.

“It’s going to be the biggest, the best, the most inventive, the most exciting year for the show.

“And I think this script, it delivers on all those points that you want it to for where the show is at this time. It’s brilliant.

“It somehow manages to pay homage to everything and look forward. And I think that’s the mark, the genius of it.”

Jenna agreed: “Reading especially the finale of this season as well, without giving too much away, it really is epic and I think it’s really a treat for the fans of the last 50 years.”

As you’ll see from the Q&A transcript, there was plenty to interest fans of the Time Lord, as well as those of Sherlock.

Steven explained his decision to bring back the Ice Warriors in one episode while also saying that Doctor Who no longer had to raid its back catalogue for old monsters.

While Matt revealed:

“Towards the end of the season…I think we might have one of those clever Moffat creations.

“One of the new classic monsters. And they’ve got a great name and they are so brilliant.”

The opening episode – actually ep seven of series seven after a series break – is very possibly the best “first episode” I have ever seen.

Directed with a pace to rival James Bond’s Skyfall and also set in a modern day London.

Introducing a 2013 Clara as perhaps the most intriguing companion in the show’s long history.

With Jenna a joy to watch on screen.

Most will already know that it introduces The Spoonheads and involves the perils of wi-fi and the web.

Including a very good joke from Steven about Twitter, hewn from his own experience before quitting that particular branch of social media.

If you’re looking for a sign of just how memorable this 50th year is going to be, then look no further than The Bells of Saint John.

I won’t spoil it for you, but to put part of the Q&A into context, we see the Doctor as a monk…and there are Jammie Dodgers.

Along with a portrait of Clara Oswin Oswald and her now classic line: “Run you clever boy…and remember.”

As Jenna pointed out during the press conference: “There’s nothing worse the Doctor hates than an unsolved mystery.

“And that is what she is.”

It certainly sets up a fascinating, epic path ahead.

With a 1963 programme called Doctor Who in the very best of hands.

BBC Drama Controller of Commissioning Ben Stephenson introduced the screening:

“As ever, I can’t say anything about anything because everyone keeps running over to me saying, ‘It’s embargoed.’ So I’m saying to all of you, ‘It’s embargoed.’ But the reason it’s embargoed is because it’s brilliant. What I can say is Jenna, having flirted with the show over the last two episodes she’s been in, finally commits and is one of our most marvellous assistants, I think in the history of Doctor Who. So it’s a real treat to see her coming through in this eight part series.

“As ever, Matt Smith is a god…as ever, he just does something extraordinary with his Doctor. He’s always funny and yet always truthful. And I think as the series goes on you really see the depth of that character coming through. He makes you cry and he makes you laugh. And that’s just in real life.

The Rings of Akhaten. Episode 7.8 written by Neil Cross.

“And, of course, TV’s Steven Moffat, without whom we wouldn’t be here. Last week I got three brown envelopes from Steven Moffat. Well there were four. One of them had money in, but that’s something else. And one of them was episode one of Sherlock. One of them was the DVD of this and one of them was the script of something to do with Doctor Who that’s happening later in the year…(laughter). That’s how hard he works.

“And I know it’s boring to talk about people working hard and not very glamorous. But sometimes in all of the conversation about how brilliant people are, we forget that people are committing hours and hours and hours and nights and night and nights. Committing themselves to writing shows as brilliantly as this. So on a pure hard work level, I want to thank Steven and everyone else involved in the team.

“But, of course, he doesn’t do it alone. There an army, phalanx of producers. And, of course, Wales plays a huge part in this. Roath Lock is an extraordinary studio complex. It’s the most Hollywood you’ll get in the whole of the country and it’s in Wales.

“So, as I say, you can’t say anything about this episode. What you can say is that it’s brilliant and you can also say it’s the best first episode of Doctor Who ever. That’s official. You can definitely say that.

“I really hope you enjoy it. Afterwards there will be a Q&A with Matt and everyone. So that’ll be exciting. Thank you. Sit back, enjoy.”

The post screening Q&A with Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman and Steven Moffat, hosted by Boyd Hilton.

My full transcript is below but edited to remove any major spoilers.

Q (Boyd Hilton) : So Jammie Dodgers?

Steven Moffat: “We get no free Jammie Dodgers. Let’s just get that straight right away.”

Matt Smith: “I have actually been sent a box of Jammie Dodgers. No, no I haven’t…”

Q: It felt almost slightly James Bond-ish. Exciting, London-ey…was that a conscious thing?

Steven Moffat: “We were talking about the fact we were going to have to do a modern day story to introduce Jenna yet again. But this time not kill her. And Marcus Wilson, our producer, said, ‘Let’s do it as a proper London thriller.’ So as close as we can get – given that Doctor Who is mad – to James Bond or Bourne or something like that.”

Q: Jenna – this is your proper introduction. Obviously you’ve been in two episodes and you’ve had various deaths and personalities. Do we feel this is it? We’re finally meeting you? Does it feel that way to you?

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “I suppose this is kind of take three. And then this is the Clara that we will be with for the next episodes. But with all of the Claras, there’s kind of an essence that’s the same running throughout. But this is the Clara that we will be with and know for the next…”

Steven Moffat: “Unless we kill her.” (laughter)

Cold War – episode 7.9 written by Mark Gatiss.

Q: Matt – how has it been dealing with a new companion who has so many different levels and personalities and deaths?

Matt Smith: “I think it’s quite nice for the Doctor because I think having got his grieving for the Ponds out of the way, I think she’s re-ignited his curiosity in the universe and given him his mojo back, for want of a better word. Yeah. And I just have to say that I think she’s done…I mean you see on the screen…I think she’s absolutely brilliant. It’s been a joy to work with Jenna and I’m really proud of the work we’ve done. And I think it’s exciting for the character. It gives him a new lease somehow.”

Q: Riding a motorbike?

Matt Smith: “It was such a lovely day in London. We both went, ‘This isn’t a real job?’ It was great fun. That and just playing football…if I get to play football in the show. And I’d just like to say that I think the director Colm (McCarthy) has done the most fantastic job. I think he directed it with wit and verve and pace. I think it was brilliantly made.”

Q: Yes, it was an incredibly fast moving, exciting episode?

Matt Smith: “Yeah.”

Q: Do you feel Steven – I was watching an old episode the other day to try and work out what the difference was…and the pace seems to be, for me, the main difference. These episodes…you pack so much in. Is that fair?

Steven Moffat: “Yes, of course it’s got faster down the years. But the truth is all television has. If you look at old Doctor Who compared to other television shows at the time, it was faster. So, yes, you do try and go madly fast in Doctor Who – more stuff, more colour and more sooner all the time.”

Q: You keep saying that every episode is going to be like a film – every single episode to be packed full of a whole film in 45 minutes?

Steven Moffat: “Next week he’s in a cupboard. No, he’s not. Actually can I just tell you that I think what we’ve got, in effect, this year is we’ve got three opening episodes. The next two are fast-paced nail biters as well. So as normal we get one big, super-fast mad one at the beginning and settle down. But we don’t settle down for ages in this one. It’s like having three episode ones in a row.”

Hide – episode 7.10 written by Neil Cross.

Q: And there’s an episode coming up where you journey into the centre of the TARDIS…

Steven Moffat: “Oh, you’re a fanboy at heart.”

Q: …I was talking to Matt the other day about that episode, just the title alone (Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS) is incredibly exciting. How much can you tell us about it? How much will we see of the TARDIS?

Steven Moffat: “You will go to the heart of the TARDIS. You will see more of the TARDIS more properly than you’ve ever seen it before. It’s all that stuff. The moment I got that title and gave it to Stephen Thompson, who wrote it, it was just the title alone gets…because I remember years ago…in the Radio Times there was a little article saying, ‘In this week’s episode the Doctor dodges the Sontarans through the many rooms of the TARDIS.’ I could not wait for Saturday. But there was a problem with the scenery or something and they shot it all in a disused hospital. And it was so disappointing. And I thought that day, ‘Some day! Somehow, I will do what I can to get into television and do that properly!’ (laughter) And that worked out. So Michael Pickwoad (production designer) goes mad and gives us the TARDIS and gives us all manner of things.”

Q: And apparently a swimming pool?

Steven Moffat: “Wait and see. There’s way more than a swimming pool. Wait ‘til you see what’s in there.”

Q: Jenna – how has the chemistry worked with Matt? You’ve worked on it but not worked on it. Do you feel that from the start you had that? You had something between you that was going to work on screen? Or have you worked on that? Have you literally sat there with Matt behind the scenes going, ‘Right, let’s work on it.’”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “I think it’s a bit of both. Instantly from the first audition I definitely felt it. And it was a feeling of walking away from the audition room thinking…I kind of felt like I’d been knocked off my feet a bit, actually. It was a bit of a hurricane. But just the feeling of, ‘This is what I’d really like to do day in and day out.‘ Because every day really is so different and I really don’t know what he’s going to throw at me, which is great. It’s keeping that spontaneity. And then I suppose you get used to each other rhythms as well. They both feed into each other really.”

Matt Smith: “And I think that that’s something that you got so immediately. Jenna…with Steven’s writing there’s such rhythm to it. I think you were immediately inside it. And then we have fun, don’t we? That’s the main thing. It’s such a fun show to make. But it is something where you’re cast – and it was the same with Karen – and then it’s like, ‘Have chemistry!’ And acting chemistry, because you’re exposing yourself and all that…and this show, she’s done so brilliantly at jumping in and jumping on the train of it. But there’s always a sort of period of evolution with any characters. That’s the fun bit, I think.”

Q: You’ve already snogged, so we’ve got that out the way.

Steven Moffat: “In the show.” (laughter)

Q: You snogged Dawn French this morning, didn’t you? (On Radio Two’s Chris Evans’ Breakfast Show Red Nose Day special)

Matt Smith: “For 50 quid. And Jennifer Saunders. On Radio Two. It was nice. I had a good time.” (laughter)

Q: Will you be giving out Comic Relief snogs to anyone…

Matt Smith: “Hey, for 50 quid a snog, if it raises a bit of money for Comic Relief.”

Q: I’ll give you 50 quid.

Matt Smith: “Go on then.”

(Matt and Boyd then enjoyed a polite kiss to applause from the audience)

Matt Smith: “That was a bit of a pansy snog as well!” (laughter)

Steven Moffat: “What do you do for a hundred?’ (laughter)

Matt Smith: “Stop pimping Doctor Who!”

Steven Moffat: “It’s my career…”

Q: Matt did tell me that he’s read the script for the 50th anniversary thing. He said, ‘You will not be disappointed.’

Steven Moffat: “That’s what we’ll put on the poster then.”

Q: What do you mean by that?

Matt Smith: “Well, it sort of does what it says on the tin. You won’t be disappointed. It’s my cryptic way of going…no, the thing is, much as we’d love to tell you everything, I read it and I clapped at the end. I think it’s hilarious and I think it’s epic and I think it’s vast. I’m telling you nothing more. But you will not be disappointed. I think it’s going to be the biggest, the best, the most inventive, the most exciting year for the show. And I think this script, it delivers on all those points that you want it to for where the show is at this time. It’s brilliant.”

Q: And how did you (Jenna) feel when you read it?

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Exactly the same. How do I say without saying anything? This is a new skill that I’m learning. Reading especially the finale of this season as well, without giving too much away, it really is epic and I think it’s really a treat for the fans of the last 50 years.”

Matt Smith: “It somehow manages to pay homage to everything and look forward. And I think that’s the mark, the genius of it.”

Steven Moffat: “Information content of that – zero! You know less and less…we are subtracting information. That is my aim.”

Q: So the filming takes place soon, in April. And the filming of the new Sherlock…it’s all happening at the same time? How do you feel about that?

Steven Moffat: “Fresh and vigorous..well, it’s very exciting. I always end up belly-aching about it because I think if I did anything other than belly-ache I’d sound like I was boasting a lot. But it’s absolutely brilliant, incredibly exciting. We’ve just had the read through for Sherlock, which was in storming form, and now we’re just embarking on the 50th (anniversary) Doctor Who.”

Q: How do you both feel about being…you’re the Doctor, you’re the companion, in the 50th anniversary year? When you got the role did it hit you that, ‘Actually, I’m going to be playing it in the 50th anniversary year?’

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “No, no, not immediately at all. The focus was on the story coming up and those things. But going to the stamp launch that we went to the other day and seeing the 11 Doctors on a stamp and it all gets signed off by the Queen…”

Matt Smith: “Does it?”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Yeah. You got signed off by the Queen.”

Matt Smith: “Cool.”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “At 10 ‘o clock on a Saturday morning…”

Matt Smith: “That’s what she does?” (laughter)

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “It just makes you realise what you’re part of, things like that.”

Q: Matt – when did it strike you that you’re the incumbent?

Matt Smith: “Well it’s the show’s year. But to be the incumbent Doctor, it’s the most thrilling…it’s been the most thrilling ride anyway but to be part of it now is a huge privilege. I’m thrilled. And as I say, we’re upping the scale of everything. It’s 3D…I won’t say anything about the event but there’s just a bit more for your buck. There’s more bang for your buck.”

Q: It’s longer?

Steven Moffat: “46 minutes…I’ve just said that for the sheer hell of it. Someone is going to write that down and create a whole blog of that. ‘Moffat Says 46 Minutes.’”

Boyd then opened questions to us journalists in the audience.

Q: Can I ask Jenna-Louise to talk a bit more about being blown away at that audition? What was so impressive about what you were seeing that made you feel it was like a hurricane?

Matt Smith: “Yeah, what was so impressive?” (laughter)

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “It was more because…obviously I had read the scenes and prepared them in a certain way. And then basically, as soon as you’re approached by Matt all of that goes out the window and you don’t quite know what’s going to happen or where it’s going to go. So it was that kind of spontaneity. We kind of just played around. And what was lovely as well is Matt made me feel like he was auditioning with me, which was really nice. So it was kind of like show and tell – all of the producers left the room and left me and Matt to just literally run around and play.”

Matt Smith: “We had team time, didn’t we?”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “And then everyone came back in and then we got to do it. I just didn’t know where it was going to go. I just felt thrilled and excited by it. And, again, it was the idea of doing this day in, day out. It was cool.”

Q: (From me, as it happens) Obviously you don’t want to give too much away. But can you talk us through some of your personal highlights of this series and the guest stars that you’ve got coming in?

Matt Smith: “Gosh, yeah. We’ve got Liam Cunningham, who is a personal favourite actor of mine. We’ve got a submarine. We’ve got the Ice Warriors, we’ve got the Cybermen back in new guise, we’ve got Neil Gaiman writing a script, we’ve got Diana Rigg playing an old hag (laughter) – but brilliantly with great charm and sexiness and grace. And her daughter (Rachael Stirling), who is also brilliant. And the scenes between them. That’s a Mark Gatiss script which is full of fanboy love. I think both of his scripts.”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “I’ve never seen you (Matt) as quiet on set, with Dame Diana and her daughter as well. Both of us were sat watching them both and watching the dynamic. We go to a big alien planet…”

Matt Smith: “Yeah, that was fun, wasn’t it? With as many aliens as we’ve ever seen in one place…”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Yeah. In an amphitheatre of aliens. So we’ve got so many pictures…we’ve got an entire day of us sat, kind of like all of you guys (the audience) but you all had prosthetic heads on as aliens.”

Matt Smith: “Doing a little swaying…”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Yeah, swaying away. (laughs) We are under the sea, we’re in a submarine. We are in the infinite interior of the TARDIS…”

Matt Smith: “And I think towards the end of the season – I don’t want to give too much away but I think we might have one of those clever Moffat creations. One of the new classic monsters. And they’ve got a great name and they are so brilliant.”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “They are. They are absolutely brilliant. They’re a monster that…they don’t chase you, they just come at you slowly. And they’ve got a style which I find really quite terrifying. They’ve got a style to them. But I think that’s all we can probably say.”

Steven Moffat: “And the Doctor’s greatest secret will be revealed. And actually will. I’m not lying.”

Q: With this being the 50th year, has there been a bit more of a pressure to keep the balance between fanboy referencing and keeping it accesible to maybe first time viewers?

Steven Moffat: “It’s been a long time since we’ve bothered, really, hasn’t it? The thing about Doctor Who…I think there was one problem within the first year…when it came back. Because I think everyone just became a fan. And the truth is people stop me in the street with the most abstruse questions. And they’re real people. They’re not fans like me. And I’m thinking, ‘You’re not supposed to know that stuff. That’s supposed to be mine…’ To be honest, it feels like everyone’s a fan. The level of knowledge is very intense. But it’s very, very easy to keep Doctor Who accessible because it’s designed to be. The format can be summed up in such a short sentence, even after all this time. ‘It’s a man who can travel anywhere in time and space in a box that’s bigger on the inside.’ We’re done. That’s all you need to know. Everything else you can pick it up. People quite often ask me, usually Americans, ‘What’s a good jumping on point?’ And you say, ‘Well that’s like asking, what’s a good James Bond film to start with?’ They’re all fine. You’ll get it. I don’t think it’s difficult…and it’s not difficult to balance that. It’s surprising how much the general audience want the detail and the continuity and the call backs to their childhood…because we all remember it.”

Q: Two things. Firstly Matt, your socks are amazing…”

Matt Smith: “Thanks.”

Q: …I’ll give 50 quid to Comic Relief for those. Secondly, Steven – you talked about television has got faster over the years and I was taken at how well directed that episode was. The scale of intensity of what directors are doing with television at the moment has just been on a real roll for the last 10 years or so. I’m wondering where you’re finding your directors and what kind of things you’re looking for. Because we’ve talked about how Jenna’s jumped into the show…you’re bringing lots of new directors and talent in as well?

Steven Moffat: “It’s a very good question. I hope I can do it justice. Where do we find them? We find directors like Colm (McCarthy) there, sitting right behind you, with ambition, not just to get the show made but to show off a bit. That’s what you’re looking for. Directors who – and the same with Sherlock – actually actively want to impress you. They’re not just there to get the show done in the time. Which is actually quite difficult in itself. But ones who are really ambitious – storytellers…and we make no demands on Doctor Who for it to be the same every week. We are saying, ‘This one’s your one. Make it your one.’ We say that to every…the writers as well…treat it like you own it. And that’s really important. So there’s a category of writer and a category of director – and that category is called talented, I would say – where they leap at that. They say, ‘This is mine. Right now it belongs to me and I can do what I like with it.’ That’s what we want. People with authorial ambition.”

Q: Jenna – I just wondered how you feel like Clara’s relationship with the Doctor has changed since Christmas and also before that?

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Well, obviously, for her this is a completely clean slate. She is oblivious. She is meeting the Doctor as he turns up on her doorstep as a monk for the first time. So that’s her first impression. So, for me, it’s to treat it completely as a clean slate. But what I really love, and especially because that’s the first time we’ve seen…is that the dynamic is so different because there’s nothing worse the Doctor hates than an unsolved mystery. And that is what she is. So you can really see it arcing over the next episodes.”

Q: I just wanted to ask you Steven about doing Doctor Who and Sherlock at the same time. How you keep them separate, whether you ever have ideas for lines then you’re torn over who to give them to? How you separate them?

Steven Moffat: “They’re just in little different parts of your head. They honestly feel really quite different. The way the pace of a Doctor Who goes is completely different to the pace of a Sherlock. Although I’m talking about television being really, really fast, it is – but Sherlock has the longest scenes in the world…it just lives in a different place…and Mark (Gatiss) and I are both always saying, ‘You can never not do something or do something based on the fact that we both do both shows.’ You can’t say, ‘But we had that in that show, so we can’t do it in that show.’ If Doctor Who and Sherlock were made by different people you wouldn’t ever worry about that. Aesthetically I don’t find it at all difficult to divide it in my head because they feel very, very different places to me.”

Q: With the 50th anniversary script now landing on people’s desks in brown envelopes, as we heard earlier, what sort of lengths do you have to go through to protect the secrets of this episode (the 50th) in particular?

Steven Moffat: “Random execution…we’re just very, very careful and we kill people. Was I smiling? Look, it’s difficult. What can I say? I’ll tell you, one length I’ve gone to, which I think is a really, really good security measure – I make sure I don’t get a script. Because I will lose it. So I forbid people to hand me one. It’s just on my computer at home under lock and key.”

Matt Smith: “Well, you cultivate the habit of giving nothing away. And then it’s quite nice. You’re sat on all this information and people are genuinely intrigued. It’s one of the responsibilities of being in this show. You have to be discrete about what you tell people. But you have to give people enough. Because otherwise what’s the point in all you guys turning up? You scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours…” (laughter)

Steven Moffat: “For 50 quid.”

Matt Smith: “So that’s the fun bit, I think. But the show – it’s based on impact. And we want it to be. And that’s why we’re so grateful when you are…when you see these things and you write about them in a certain way, because it’s based on delivering it on a Saturday night to people in their homes.”

Q: Just wanted to ask Matt about Doctor Who’s new clothes. Did he choose them himself and what was the inspiration, because they’re quite Teddy Boy-ish, I thought?

Matt Smith: “Yeah. Well, they’re still tweed. I always wanted something purple. But it was perhaps too bold in season one. And if you look back at all the interviews that I’ve done previously, I’ve always said I thought the costume would continually evolve. We’ve got a wonderful costume designer Howard (Burden) and it was one of those things. The Ponds leaving and the Doctor’s mentality changing slightly and a new title sequence and a new beginning for a new era. We thought, ‘Why not give the Doctor a little revamp?’ And I think it really works. I like it.”

Q: Questions for Matt and Jenna. There’s a few digs in this episode about Twitter and as far as I’m aware, Matt, you’re still not on Twitter..?

Matt Smith: “I’m not on Twitter, no.”

Q: …but Jenna you are…

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Oh no I’m not.”

Boyd Hilton: “Fake Jenna…”

Q: So why is that? And what do you think about Twitter?

Matt Smith: “I don’t think they’re digs. I think they’re gags. A dig would be like…I don’t know…but maybe it is. Why am I not on Twitter? I don’t know really. I spend so much time on my phone and I find the idea that you communicate your life via Twitter quite peculiar. And so it’s just never really interested me. But, that said, I think it’s wonderful that you can gauge, if you’re a fan of…I don’t know who’s on Twitter…but Steven Moffat (IW note: Who left Twitter some time ago) or whoever…that you can engage with them if you’re a fan. But it’s just not really up my street. I’m not on Facebook either. I can’t be bothered.”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Yeah, I’m the same. It’s just about trying to keep off the internet, really.”

Matt Smith: “Yeah. And also eventually…anyway, it’s just not my cup of tea really.”

Boyd Hilton: “You were on Steven, weren’t you? And then you weren’t. What’s your current Twitter status?”

Steven Moffat: “I’m not there anymore. The trouble is, it does take up your time when you start looking at it. When I sit at that computer I need as few distractions as possible. So I removed it from my life. I think it’s a fascinating thing Twitter. And as a means of promoting something it’s brilliant, extraordinary. The trouble with it…I mean the only way to – I think if you’re involved in something like Doctor Who – go on it, and I haven’t done this, would be to go on with a different name. Because then you can just talk to people as opposed to everybody asking you, ‘How does Sherlock survive?’ or something. It gets a bit tedious after a while.”

Q: Jenna – when my 16-year-old nephew heard I was going to be coming here today to talk to you in a press conference he got rather hot under the collar and asked me to get your autograph. I wondered what reaction you’d had from fans generally since you’ve started in Doctor Who? Any love letters, any marriage proposals, that kind of thing?

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “No. (laughter) No, not at all. I kind of feel slightly removed from it, really. I’ve had some lovely fan mail through but I think I’m just too short. I don’t get recognised….”

Steven Moffat: “That’ll change.”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “You see Matt’s tall and he’s got quite a distinctive walk.” (laughter)

Steven Moffat: “Somebody stole his horse.”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Whereas I’m shorter and I’m honestly convinced that’s mainly part of the reason.”

Matt Smith: “What? So people recognise me because of my walk?”

Jenna-Louise Coleman: “Like you can see you from behind. In the same way you could recognise Ricky Gervais from behind…”

Steven Moffat: “You’re piling on the flattery now. It’s perfect chemistry.” (laughter)

Q: (Australian journalist) Australia has got strong connections with the Doctor. Next year will be the 25th anniversary of it being in Australia and I think an Australian was involved with the first episode – the theme music. Even Kylie. Any chance at all in the future of the Doctor visiting Australia in the TARDIS?

Steven Moffat: “Well sure. These things are story driven. It’s not like you phone up and offer us incredibly lucrative deals to film there. But if they wanted to…but it’s an amazing location, Australia. It’s quite far away so we’d need to sort it out. But it’s an amazing place to be.”

Q: The Doctor’s fez?

Matt Smith: That’s his hat which he (Steven) never gives me for very long.”

Steven Moffat: “It’s become your iconic headgear.”

Matt Smith: “At all the conventions, that’s what everyone wears.”

Q: A couple of questions for Steven. Firstly, what do you think of previous anniversary episodes that have been made?

Steven Moffat: “I loved them all.”

Q: Any in particular?

Steven Moffat: “Technically The Three Doctors wasn’t an anniversary episode. We just remembered it that way. But it was one year early for it. But I think that was a glorious show. I remember adoring The Five Doctors when it came out…I just remember thinking it was fantastically good. I like a big party bash.”

Q: And also can you tell us a bit more about the return of the Ice Warriors?

Steven Moffat: “Oddly enough, I slightly resisted them. I was slightly worried that…well first of all, I don’t think we still have to go into the back catalogue of the old show any more. Originally we did that to affirm that this new thing really was that old thing. Now that both shows are merged together and nobody really bothers to make a distinction between them anymore, we don’t really need to do that. And I always slightly thought they’re slow moving and you can’t hear what they’re saying. Is that the archetypal slightly silly monster? But then Mark (Gatiss) had been going on and on about it during a phone call which was meant to be about Sherlock, he started pitching this idea…a couple of very, very clever ideas of what we could do with an Ice Warrior. And I went for it at that point. But we were very concerned, as you’ll have seen in the clips, that that design hasn’t been seen enough to be updated in a way. So it’s a super version of the original. Sometimes you think a design should be upgraded because it’s so familiar. That one is slightly less familiar so you will be seeing the Ice Warrior in a familar form but with at least one big surprise.”

Doctor Who BBC Site

BBC Roath Lock

Ian Wylie on Twitter

Lacey Turner as Molly Dawes.

FALL in you horrible lot…

Our Girl is a 90-minute drama on BBC1 at 9pm this Sunday.

Written by Tony Grounds and starring Lacey Turner, I highly recommend it.

A story of one young person’s struggle and hope for the future.

You can learn more in my story below, published the day after the London press launch earlier this month.

Followed by my transcript of the Q&A with Lacey, Tony and producer Ken Horn.

Edited to remove any really major spoilers.

At ease.

EX-EastEnder Lacey Turner shed real tears when filming BBC1 Army drama Our Girl.

The former Albert Square actress plays new recruit Molly Dawes who trains to serve in Afghanistan.

Lacey, 25, wept while filming a scene in a military cemetery, part of a real war graves tour that all potential squaddies experience during their training.

Molly uses her mobile phone to call her mother and leaves an emotional voicemail while standing among the last resting place of the fallen.

“The scene in the graveyard was pretty much my imagination and my mum,” revealed Lacey.

She also thought of her mum for scenes where Molly has to write a “letter from the grave” to her parents, in case she is killed in action.

“I don’t know that I could write a letter like that. It was actually really tough. Just thinking about my mum while reading it was enough to take you to a sad place.”

Tears flowed when the cast filmed their fictional Passing Out Parade at the Army Training Centre in Pirbright, Surrey.

Lacey and other cast members marched alongside 200 real trainees doing a final parade ground rehearsal on the eve of their own big day when they finally became soldiers.

“That was the scariest moment of my life so far. Because I felt if I put a foot wrong, it was their real rehearsal.

“As I walked on to the Passing Out Parade I was actually crying with fear because I felt like it was just going to go like dominoes and it was all going to be my fault.

“But luckily I had a girl in front and behind and they were mouthing things out of the bottom of their mouth. Just little hints. It was amazing.”

One Army General even mistook Lacey and other actors for real soldiers and congratulated them.

Explained Lacey: “It happened quite a lot because we were in the same uniform. Someone would just come up and shout at you before you had a chance to say, ‘I’m with the BBC.’”

One of five children, bleached blonde Molly works in an East London nail bar and fears a dead end future is all mapped out for her.

But she decides to train to join the Royal Army Medical Corps after throwing up outside an Army recruitment office on her 18th birthday.

Written by award-winning Tony Grounds, the one-off 90-minute drama shows her journey through training to active service as an Army combat medic in Afghanistan.

Tony explained: “I wanted to write a film about hope and the potential in all young people. But it’s not a recruiting video.”

Lacey admitted: “I thought I was quite fit and then when I got to the training centre I realised I wasn’t.

“I said to one of the Corporals, ‘I thought I was quite fit.’ And she said, ‘There’s civilian fit and Army fit.’

“So I did a lot of fitness training and spent hours marching round the car parks in Borehamwood, which was fun.

“Weapon training, assault courses – we did lots of different training. I really enjoyed it.”

She added: “I did lose a bit of weight and tone up. I think it was a bit of a shock to the system.

“But the food there is just carbs. It’s my favourite things like sausage, chips and beans and shepherd’s pie.

“We ate like animals every lunchtime. At the end I was dying for a lettuce leaf.”

Lacey said she had total respect for everyone in the Army but could not do the job for real.

“I’d like to do the training but I don’t know that I’d ever get on the plane to actually go. I don’t think I’m brave enough.

“It’s such an amazing thing that they do. They risk so much and I’m not that brave. But I did really enjoy the training.

“You got to play with rifles and swing off bars and meets loads of different people.

“I waited weeks to fire a gun. It was brilliant. I wasn’t allowed live rounds. But it was fun. Something you don’t really get to do that often.

“I might take it up.”

Our Girl is on BBC1 at 9pm on Sunday March 24.

Post-screening Q&A / press conference with Lacey Turner (Molly), writer Tony Grounds and producer Ken Horn:

Q: What was going through all the training like, Lacey?

Lacey Turner: “It was great actually. There were so many different types of training. Just basic fitness. I thought I was quite fit and then when I got there I actually realised that I wasn’t very fit. And I said to one of the Corporals, ‘I thought I was quite fit.’ And she said, ‘There’s civilian fit and Army fit.’ So I did a lot of fitness training and spent hours – well we all did – marching round car parks in Borehamwood, which was fun. Weapon training, assault courses – we did lots of different training. It was great. I really enjoyed it.”

Q: Lacey – you were virtually in every scene. What was that like for you?

Lacey Turner: “It was fun. There was no waiting around. (laughter) I didn’t really get a minute to sit down. So it’s good because when you’re working such long hours, it’s easier to actually just keep going. When you get a bit of a break you want to go to sleep. So it was quite good, actually, being in every scene.”

Q: Can I ask Tony where the idea for this came from and also what the research process was like?

Tony Grounds: “First of all, I wanted to write a film about hope and about the potential in all young people. And often young disenfranchised people. So that was where the starting idea came from. I then happened to have a friend who was in the Army and I went with him to Colchester, where he was doing some stuff. There were lots of female soldiers there and I said, ‘The female soldiers, how quickly can they get out to Afghanistan?’ And he said, ‘Well, an 18-year-old can if they join the Royal Army Medical Corps because you do your 14-week basic and 24-week Phase 2 training. We had this one girl came in and she was as wild as a feral cat. She came in and she turns out to be one of the best combat medical technicians we’d ever known in Afghanistan. So this wild kid came in and now she’s there, she’s calling in the Chinooks, she’s tourniqueting people…’ So that was where the first idea came from. And then I met up with (executive producer) John Yorke (at the time BBC Controller of Drama Production) when he was at the BBC and he said, ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got anything for Lacey Tuner?’ I said, ‘Do you know what? I think I might have.’ And so that was where the original idea came from. Then I spent about a year going round to all the different Army camps. We went to Deepcut and Pirbright. Fortunately because I’ve got a friend who was in the Army and he happened to be Captain of the Army rugby team and captain of the Combined Services and he actually captained the Barbarians. So this gave him great access because he’s still a bit of a local hero in the different Army camps and still knows everybody because his contemporaries are still there. So I was able to get in. And although that particular girl he was talking about, I never met her – but they all keep diaries as Lacey knows…so all the recruits come in and keep diaries. So he said, ‘If any of them want to show you their diary, that’s fantastic.’ Of course they were all so willing. I had this big pile of diaries on their Basic Training and Phase 2 Training. So I just took those away with me and was able to go through all the diaires. Then I created Molly Dawes. And especially now I’d got Lacey in my mind, knowing how emotionally intelligent she is as a performer, I was then able to start to create this person.”

Q: And these diaries came from recruits at Colchester or Pirbright?

Tony Grounds: “Yeah. They’d gone all over. It was Deepcut. Now the training is done at Pirbright. But the Army changes their systems quite often. But it used to be Deepcut, as I’m sure you’ll know, and then Phase 2 was at Colchester.”

Q: (From me as it happens) Lacey – did you know much about Army life before you got this project and did you do any of your own research?

Lacey Turner: “I didn’t actually know anything at all, really. But we were all really lucky – the Army were so great in letting us go up there (Pirbright Army Training Centre)…because it is such tight security and you have to be followed everywhere. you go. But they were great. They let me up there whenever I wanted to go up. And I came up about a month before we started shooting and I was able to talk to some of the girls there and have a flick through their diaries and stuff like that. So most of my research really came from just observing up there because there’s something going on all the time. Constantly people marching past – there’s always someone doing something. So it mainly came from just being allowed to wander around Pirbright.”

Q: The drama itself was quite ambiguous about whether the Army is cult or family. I wondered, Lacey, if you had a view on that having played the part?

Lacey Turner: “For me, not knowing anything about the Army, I thought the Army was just really tough and you go and do your training and then off you go to war. And actually being there and talking to the people that were there, it all makes sense now. They are tough and they do scream and shout and your locker does have to be immaculate. But it does actually make sense. Because if you can’t keep a locker tidy then as a medic you’ve got a split second to make a decision about where you’re going – and if you’re not organised then when you go to war, how can you be?”

Tony Grounds: “What the Corporals are doing when…the soldier whisperers as they call themselves…is what they’re doing is trying to save the lives of the recruits when they become soldiers. So they’re trying to make sure that they come back. That’s what they’re doing. And it might seem hard…it’s difficult because, of course, it is a family and they regard themselves as a family. If you’re not a part of that family you might look at it and think it’s a cult. But everybody’s got to be drilled. You can’t dither. As the guy says, ‘You dither on a landmine and it’s not a good place to dither.’ So it’s all to do with that training.”

Matthew McNulty as Corporal Geddings.

Q: Tony – you mentioned Deepcut which obviously has a resonance of a very different kind, given what happened there. This is a very powerful…but it’s also quite a positive portrait of the Army. Were you anxious about making a sort of a recruiting video and did you feel any of the negative dimensions about Army life?”

Tony Grounds: “It’s obviously not a recruiting video. We were just able to shoot on an active Army camp. So you’re seeing the actual Army. When those girls are coming in they’re being trained in that facility.”

Ken Horn: “The only involvement they (the Army) had was from a factual point of view, to make sure that the training we were doing is what they do. They had no editorial control over what we did. They understood it was a drama. That was the only way we could do it. In no way did we want to make a recruitment video for the Army.”

Q: Were you quite impressed by your experience with the Army?

Tony Grounds: “I think the thing is, is that the kids that they get in – and obviously the situation at Deepcut – is this isn’t Sandhurst. The kids they’re getting in as these raw recruits at Pirbright are kids that had often had a lot of problems with education, often been in trouble with the law, episodes of alcohol or drug abuse. These are the kids that often have no other option but to come there. So they are a group that need careful handling. Now if you’re saying – do they train them well? They have to train them well because of the situation they’re going into now with Afghanistan. But obviously the resonance of Deepcut – it’s like everything else in society, things are changing all the time and you learn things. The situation which was happening in Deepcut where young soldiers lost their lives…one of the Corporals said to me, ‘There’s a lot of kids killing themselves on the street.’ And there were some instances in the Army which they don’t want to happen again. So now they don’t shout at the weak one, they shout at the strong one in each section, in an attempt to bring up the weak ones. So the strong ones are the ones that have to help carry them through. But it’s hopeful…it’s a hard call. I want to be hopeful about that there is a potential in every young person to do something brilliant. I wanted to make it hopeful about the individual rather than hopeful about saying, ‘Let’s have National Service.’”

Q: Lacey – if you did have to do this, what was it like writing a letter from the grave and do you think you could actually have been a soldier in real life having now gone through the training process, or part of it?

Lacey Turner: “I’d like to do the training but I don’t know that I’d ever get on the plane to actually go. I don’t think I’m brave enough. It’s such an amazing thing that they do. They risk so much and I’m not that brave. But I did really enjoy the training. I don’t know that I could write a letter like that either. It was actually really tough, just thinking about my mum whilst reading it was enough to take you to a sad place.”

Tony Grounds: “But you do doff your hat to those kids that are going out there. That’s one thing – you do totally respect those people that are going out there.”

Q: Which side of Molly you preferred playing, the blonde, drinking one or the Army one?

Lacey Turner: “The Army one. That was much more fun. Because you got to play with rifles and swing off bars and meets loads of different people. I waited weeks to fire a gun. It was brilliant. I wasn’t allowed live rounds, so I didn’t really get a kickback or anything. But it was fun. Something you don’t really get to do that often. I might take it up.”

Q: (Me again) Just further to what you said, Lacey, a moment ago about the letter…the tears in the graveyard – it might be a testament to your acting abilities but they looked very real on screen. How did you approach that and what were you thinking of? And also did you speak to any recruits or anybody else about the prospect of going out somewhere and perhaps not coming back again?

Lacey Turner: “Yeah, I did. The scene in the graveyard was pretty much just my imagination and my mum. That’s the root of that scene. (Filmed at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, close to Pirbright Army Training Centre) I got to speak to a group of girls who were seven weeks into their training. You ask people, ‘Why do you join the Army?’ There were about 20-sometning girls and some of their reasons, like Tony said…they’re not from great backgrounds, some of them don’t have very much opportunity. Some of them come from a family of military people. So it was a good mix of people. So I got to pick different bits from different girls to create Molly.”

Tony Grounds: “And that’s all part of the training. They do the war graves tour. And I think because Lacey…talking about her emotional intelligence, I think she so hones into the part that the tears are real because she’s in that part at that moment. Like all good actors.”

Q: (Me again. Sorry.) And the Passing Out Parade? Was that filmed at the same time as a real Passing Out Parade? How was it filmed?

Ken Horn: “We did it over two days. They allowed us to place Lacey and a couple of the other actors in the middle of them and march on to the parade ground. And we intercut that with the real Passing Out Parade the next day. But I think you guys (Lacey) said that’s the most frightening thing you’ve ever done?”

Lacey Turner: “Yes. That was the scariest moment of my life so far, in the 25 years that I’ve been alive that was definitely the scariest. Because I felt like, if I put a foot wrong. It was their real rehearsal. (200 of them) As I walked on to the passing out parade I was actually crying with fear because I felt like it was just going to go like dominoes and it was all going to be my fault. But luckily I had a girl in front and behind and they were mouthing things out of the bottom of their mouth. Just little hints.”

Tony Grounds: “Matthew McNulty (who plays Corporal Geddings) had to lead his line and it was fantastic. Because he was the cock of the north all the way through. And then they said, ‘Right, you’re leading the line now.’ His legs went – but he actually led them out. Which shows how much drill they’d had to do.”

Lacey Turner: “It was amazing. That’s one of those things…I’ll never get to be in a Passing Out Parade ever in my life because I don’t want to be a soldier. But it was good to be part of a rehearsal.”

Q: Is it right that the Army didn’t know that Lacey or Matthew were in the real Passing Out Parade?

Ken Horn: “One of the generals the next day, he mistook our actors for soldiers. And he congratulated them.”

Lacey Turner: “It happened quite a lot because we were in the same uniform. Someone would just come up to you and shout at you. And before you had a chance to say, ‘Well, I’m with the BBC….’”
Q: Lacey – did you lose any weight by going through the training process? Did you tone up very much?

Lacey Turner: “I did actually. I think it was a bit of a shock to my system. I did lose a bit of weight and I did tone up. But the food there – it’s just carbs. It’s my favourite things like sausage, chips and beans and shepherd’s pie. We ate like animals every lunchtime. At the end I was dying for a lettuce leaf.”

Q: (Final one from me) Tony – are you happy with the amount of West Ham references you managed to get in? Was it difficult to get that location (Molly’s family home overlooking the Boleyn Ground)?

Tony Grounds: “You can see (the home) from my season ticket seat. And I’m obviously from there. So I know the terrain…it’s quite interesting, when I’m writing it I’ve got the geography in my mind and then having been to Pirbright, then I start writing for Pirbright.”

Q: The issue of areas like this being multi-cultural and people joining the Army to fight in Muslim countries?

Tony Grounds: “East Ham, obviously, is a predominantly Muslim area now and the demographic changes slightly from Asian and Eastern European Muslims as well. But no, that doesn’t really arise in East Ham because I think there are so few people that are joining the military from there. I guess it’s an extraordinary situation. But there’s certain frictions. But as Molly Dawes says in her speech, that when East Ham works, it works brilliantly. It’s absolutely fantastic and it’s the greatest place on the Earth to live. And when it feels powder-keggy and it feels like it’s going to blow, then it’s the worst place in the world to live.”

Q: Is there the potential for a series here?

Tony Grounds: “Yeah, definitely. And it’s definitely something that I’d love to do. That idea of those recruits coming in and the potential that you’ve got…it’s so fascinating. Each of those kids has got a story. Every one of those 400 kids that are coming in every few weeks is a potential story.”

Q: Has the BBC indicated whether they’d like a series or is it too early to say?

Tony Grounds: “I guess they’ll see what happens when it goes out. They wait and see the reaction. And if people love it, I guess we get taken out for a Cup-a-Soup somewhere…”

BBC Our Girl

Pirbright Army Training Centre

Deepcut

Brookwood Military Cemetery

Cup-a-Soup

Ian Wylie on Twitter

“MY name is Bert Middleton. I’m the second oldest man in Britain.

“This is the last thing I’ll do so you better listen carefully…”

Old Bert (David Ryall) talks to a modern day TV documentary crew in the opening moments of new BBC1 drama serial The Village.

Before we go back to the summer of 1914.

“The summer the bus came.”

Created and written by Peter Moffat, the six-part drama arrives on BBC1 at 9pm this Sunday. (March 31)

John Simm and Maxine Peake play farmer John Middleton and his wife Grace.

With Nico Mirallegro as their eldest son Joe, aged 19, and Bill Jones as youngest son Bert, aged 12, the old man we met earlier.

The first episode was screened at BAFTA in London earlier this month, followed by a Q&A with Peter (who is also executive producer) plus cast members Nico Mirallegro, Juliet Stevenson (Lady Clem) and Rupert Evans (Edmund).

My full transcript of that Q&A with some fascinating quotes – not least from Peter – is further down the page.

Including his mention of “The Wrong Ducks in Lark Rise Syndrome”.

As you will read, Peter’s grand plan, given the chance, is to write a total of 42 episodes telling the entire 100-year history of the unnamed northern village.

With the camera never leaving the village and the countryside around.

The Village – at least initially – may feel to some like a BBC2 drama, rather than BBC1.

With a slow burn approach that could lose a section of viewers across the first 30 minutes or so.

But I’d urge them to stick with it for the later rewards which will be all the greater for the time and faith invested.

The Village has the potential to be remembered in decades to come as a classic television drama achievement.

As Peter said about the current TV climate during the Q&A: “It’s quite a unique moment in television.”

So I hope those involved in an eventual decision about a second series look at the longer term wider picture of what he is trying to do.

“The summer the bus came.”

The first series covers the period between 1914 and 1920.

There are some remarkable ensemble cast performances.

When we first meet John Simm’s John Middleton he is a frustrated, violent and repressed alcoholic, riven with guilt about something that happened 20 years before.

“Must a man pay all his life for one mistake? he asks.

Who thinks nothing of locking young Bert in a cupboard.

Maxine Peake’s Grace is the woman in the middle, struggling to feed and protect her two sons as the family farm hits hard times.

Some have tried to paint The Village in terms of a “gritty” anti-Downton Abbey view of history.

But that’s not what this is about.

There’s a manor house where Lady Clem (Juliet Stevenson) and her rather mysterious family live – including Rupert Evans as local MP Edmund Allingham.

Together with a rather unhinged young woman called Caro, played by Emily Beecham.

Seen later in the series by a psychiatrist called Wylie…

The story I wrote a few hours after the BAFTA event is below.

Followed by that full Q&A.

Nico Mirallegro as Joe.

THE Village star Nico Mirallegro was left speechless during filming after plunging naked into a freezing cold lake.

Former Upstairs Downstairs, Hollyoaks and My Mad Fat Diary actor Nico plays Joe Middleton in the epic BBC1 period drama series.

“I’m still traumatised from that scene in the lake,” he revealed.

Joe goes into the water to teach his younger brother Bert (Bill Jones) how to swim.

Then vanishes as he pretends to be pulled under the water.

“We just went for it – but I realised that I couldn’t say the line in the lake. It was physically actually shock in your body.

“I had to count to 20 in my head and literally force myself to say the line.”

But Nico was shivering so much that he later had to re-record his lake lines in a studio to be dubbed on to the final version of the drama.

The six-part series, on screen later this month, starts in 1914 and aims eventually to tell the story of one English village across the whole of the 20th century.

Joe is the eldest son of John and Grace, played by John Simm and Maxine Peake, growing up in extreme poverty on a family farm.

He also works as a servant at the nearby “Big House” and is seduced by that family’s young daughter Caro (Emily Beecham) in the woods.

While his naked adventure in the lake is witnessed by another young female admirer – teacher and local Methodist missionary Martha, played by Misfits actress Charlie Murphy.

Filmed in Derbyshire’s Peak District, the camera never leaves the village and tells the history of the century through the residents’ eyes.

Creator Peter Moffat, who hopes to write a total of 42 episodes, explained: “It’s small lives telling big events.”

The BAFTA Q&A hosted by Benji Wilson:

Q: Peter – do you want to take us through the genesis of the idea for this series?

Peter Moffat: “My father became ill and I started to talk to him. And we knew we had a finite time left. So we spoke a lot, for the first time properly, about his childhood, his father, his grandfather and their lives, which were on a farm. They were both shepherds in the borders of Scotland. And it was very new to me. I was struck by how in two generations a shepherd who feeds his dogs on one bowl of porridge every morning turns into a north London media fellow. And I thought I’d better have a look at it. There’s only so far you can go with your own family. The farm cottage they lived in isn’t there anymore. It’s gone. So physically and geographically it’s not possible for me to go back and look at it. So I thought, ‘We’ll have a look at everybody.’”

Q: And in terms of research, is this based on oral histories…or things you read…

Peter Moffat: “We decided it was going to be in the Peak District and the first thing I did was went and spoke to people. So it’s was partly a question of finding the oldest people in Derbyshire to talk to, which we did. It’s remarkable how all these villages…all have people in them who have oral histories, written histories, records of the past. I think it’s a particular fascination we have in this country. So a huge natural resource that’s there for me and the writers to tap into. So the people first and then the books.”

Juliet Stevenson as Lady Clem.

Q: Juliet – what attracted you to this project?

Juliet Stevenson: “The scripts. I thought they were just the most intelligent, imaginative scripts I’d read in quite a long time. I love the whole idea really. Like all great ideas it’s got a very simple heart. You just take this community of people who the audience will get to know and then you move them through the 20th century. So it’s a way of humanising history. And I think watching it – I hadn’t seen it before – it’s so humane. So when people are angry or hopeless or violent, you always understand why their historical circumstances are making them like that – or economic circumstances,. So I love the breadth of the compassion and the wit of it. I thought it was a very rich tapestry.”

Q: What was it like to film up in the Peak District?

Juliet Stevenson: “I was coming and going. It was very cold, as it would have been. You realise how crazy it was for the women in those skimpy frocks and little tiny satin shoes. A whole class thing of these women living in a situation which is completely inappropriate…freezing cold, soaking wet.”

Peter Moffat: “The first draft of episode one had a line…old Bert at the beginning who talks to the camera, and the line was something like, ‘There wasn’t a cloud in the sky the whole of that summer.’ Which is a uniquely disastrous thing…(to write). The weather was a great character. As you all know, it’s difficult when the weather changes during takes for consistency’s sake. But actually, in the end, you just have to say, ‘It changes every five seconds up there.’ And there we are. We’ll live with that and it’ll be great. And it was bloody seriously freezing. And I was sitting in a warm place writing for those lot to go and film…”

Joe (Nico Mirallegro) and Paul (Luke Williams).

Q: Nico – you must have been delighted when you read the script telling you that you had to go naked into the lake…

Nico Mirallegro: “I’m still actually traumatised from that scene in the lake. None of us had actually been in the lake. There were some divers in there pre-rehearsal. And then we just went for it. And when we did go for it, I realised that I couldn’t say the line in the lake. Physically – actual shock in your body. I was stood there for about 30 seconds. (trying to catch his breath) I had to count to 20 in my head and literally force myself to say the line. But that was ADR, so that (on screen) wasn’t what it sounded like.”

Rupert Evans as Edmund Allingham.

Q: Rupert – we didn’t see a lot of your character in the first episode. What’s coming up for your character, how is he going to develop?

Rupert Evans: “I think what Peter has done is very clever. Because as the series progresses, my family and myself, we see the big house and all that goes on there and there’s an interaction, both through business and politics of the village. As the local MP I get involved in the politics and the business side of the village. So there’s an interaction that moves out from the big house and there’s a crossover between us all. And as it moves on, certainly one sees the effects of war from the point of view of those that are left behind – the parents, the ones that didn’t get taken up in the draft. So we see it’s like a mini-world really and I think that’s what interested me in the beginning, was that idea that we see a village, that small world of what it was like in the 19 teens upwards. So as we progress we see the effects of war from the point of view of the villagers and the outcome of that. Whether it’s seeing who comes back and who doesn’t…and also business. Business during the war thrived in many areas and obviously not in some. So boot production is a big thing that starts kicking in, in the series and I get involved in that. So there’s a real criss-cross of storylines from everyone within the village.”

Q: What was the scope…we’ve already heard talk about going right through the 20th century. That is ambitious. How do you plan for a series that is going to last almost in perpetuity?

Peter Moffat: “An episode I’m reading now, which is getting ahead of myself – there may never be a second series. Who knows? But you have to do it. Research is everything. The great luxury of the first series is that I had about three years of working on it before writing. And the first episode took me six months to write. An American television writer said to me once, ‘Are you writing a play?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘How long does it take you, do you think, to write a play?’ And I said, ‘Nine months.’ And he said, ‘Nine months?’ And I’ve got no idea what he means. Whether that’s way too long…and actually, of course, with television, both is true. A lovely nine months to write a first episode and then, ‘Can we have episode six in three-and-a-half weeks?’ So different demands and interesting demands. Often, weirdly, how annoying is this? – the three-and-a-half week thing is a bit better…” (laughter).

Q: Why start it in 1914?

Peter Moffat: “Because it’s about as far back as you can go whilst just about being within living memory. So old Bert is tremendously old and there are two or three people who are his age who are still around – you can just still touch that time. Any earlier and there isn’t anybody.”

Charlie Murphy as Martha.

Q: To what extent is it accurate historically? Because you’re always going to get people sniping and saying, ‘Oh that wouldn’t have happened, someone wouldn’t have said that, they wouldn’t have worn that?’

Peter Moffat: “Yeah, that’s always going to happen. It’s the Wrong Ducks in Lark Rise Syndrome, isn’t it? In an episode of Silk, I had somebody writing to the BBC saying, ‘I know for a fact, because I live in Middle Temple, that there is never on a Sunday night loud music playing.’ It was the composed music that she was complaining about! It was actually a good point. I’m going against that now. I quite like a lot of silence…”

Q: Being cast back 100 years. What aspects surprised you?

Nico Mirallegro: “It was fascinating to learn about what went on in those times because we never really did anything about World War One in school. So to read about how they lived and how they worked. And how they earned their money. It was very interesting. And as far as the costumes and make-up was concerned, you know how it was going to look. It all helps as well – you’re on a farm and you’re in this gear that someone had on maybe 80, 90 years ago. It’s amazing to think that. And it is actual hard work. We were in the field picking potatoes and were actually picking potatoes.”

Q: Juliet – can you say a bit about where it was filmed? Where the big house was?

Juliet Stevenson: “It was near Buxton in Derbyshire.”

Peter Moffat: “Three different villages were used. Our village is obviously a fictional village. It’s never named. The camera never leaves the village. The camera will stay there. Small lives telling big events. That’s the point to it. That’s the ambition. But the Palace Hotel in Buxton, you’ve got to go. Haunted. Lots of cast won’t stay there.” (laughter)

Juliet Stevenson: “I stayed there.”

Benji then opened questions to the audience:

Q: Was the choice of Derbyshire influenced by the fact that there is a particularly strong agrarian and mills and chimneys, as they refer to it, oral tradition existing side by side in Derbyshire?

Peter Moffat: “I wanted to avoid choosing anywhere that would be too defined by one thing. So not a fishing village, not a coal mining village, because then you’d end up telling the story of the decline of coal or fish quotas, which arguably might not be so universal or interesting. So Derbyshire – there’s a lot of change in those villages over the period that we’re talking about. Because the camera never leaves the village…although actually we do…characters go up into that extraordinary landscape. So when you get out it’s blindingly beautiful. There is – Emma Burge (producer in audience) – I think no CGI at all in any of this…”

Emma Burge: “Just the odd pole rubbed out.”

Peter Moffat: “…so great to be able to breathe. The Peak District is often referred to as ‘the lung’. I like the idea that it’s right next to Manchester, Sheffield, urban conurbations. That sense that metropolitan life is right there at the same time as that extraordinary bleak and blasted rural landscape.”

Emily Beecham as Caro Allingham.

Q: Peter – to what extent were you on set and how much was the dialogue / text revised as you were filming?

Peter Moffat: “It was a very different writing experience, this, for me. I was very obsessed with stage directions. I had an experience a few years ago when I sat in a read through next to an incredibly well-known actor who was sitting next to me and as we read the script, crossed out all the stage directions. I had to say to him afterwards, ‘What’s all that about?’ And he said, ‘Well, you know, it’s just for the execs anyway, isn’t it? I just want to know what I’m saying.’ And I thought, ‘Well that’s not right, actually.’ Television writers maybe ought to think a bit more in novelistic terms. That when you describe something that an actor is doing in a scene, and it’s be gesture, say it. Put it down there. The actor can think about it, work with it, reject it, like it or not. And actually with Juliet, for example, when she was cast – and how great is that – we had a great conversation about her part, her character, her role. And I hope that can go on. I suppose what I’m saying is that writers and actors should speak a lot more. I think there’s a nervousness around that. Some of the people in the middle – not in this particular production – get worried about it. Much more of it, I reckon. Because these guys (the cast) are paying super attention to everything they’re saying, you know? And so am I. But maybe we might disagree. And that might be interesting.”

Q: Peter – can I just ask what it is about period dramas that has proved so popular with television audiences, the public this time? We’ve had Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs…

Peter Moffat: “That’s a massive question. I don’t know. What is it? We’re all fascinated by the past. I didn’t come at this with an argument. I didn’t have an attitude about it. But I’m very struck…I think there’s an imbalance. I think we’re more interested in upstairs than we are in downstairs, actually. It just struck me as I was researching that there’s a whole wealth of material that isn’t about the posh folk. Which are all great stories or not, as it goes. So a broad spectrum of class in this, I think. Everybody.”

Q: Is there any even tacit political undercurrent to this? Are there any points you are trying to make?

Peter Moffat: “No, really not. But it’s…in this period, and with the First World War…we have a very strong feeling about it and it’s about remembrance. We remember it in very particular ways and in very strong ways. I think a little bit weirdly, it’s still a bit about Rupert Brooke. It’s still a little bit about gilded youth and the loss of that and how sunny it was before they all went to war. And arguably that’s out of balance really. Lots of people will have read, I’m sure, Ronald Blythe’s brilliant book Akenfield, which is a slightly different period. But he’s talking about men like John Simm (playing John Middleton) who drop dead in the field. From what? From work, actually. So that’s happening at the same time as Rupert Brooke is going swimming with no clothes on. So actually putting Nico in the freezing cold…

Joe Duttine as Rutter.

Q: What is it like for actors when you have your writer, also as exec producer, hanging around on set and looking over you? Is it useful?

Juliet Stevenson: “I agree with Peter. I think the days where actors and writers were talking to each other more have disappeared. It’s far much more difficult to have those crazy conversations and I would very much welcome them returning. But the great advantage in having a writer as an executive producer, as Peter is, or Paula Milne who I worked with a couple of years ago was, because then you know that if you have a conversation with a writer it may get through with the executive producer because it’s the same person. So that’s always handy. (laughter) But I would just like to echo and support what Peter said. Because I always think as an actor, you’re following in a writer’s footsteps. If they’re a good writer anyway. A fantastic one here. You have a sense that he has created…he has inhabited your character, each character, before you have. Then you come along behind and you re-inhabit them in your own way. So you bring your own stuff to it, your own sensibilities to it. You’re following in a path. They’re very closely linked those two roles, writer and actor. So I think it’s only fruitful when you have a chance to have conversations and share ideas and pool the possibilities.”

Peter Moffat: “Sophie Okonedo sits down and you go through the script line by line and talk about it. Absolutely brilliant. I thought, ‘What’s this? This is unheard of. What a great idea, actually.’ But there are 28 characters in this so it might be a bit tiring.” (laughter)

Rupert Evans: “As actors, we have our own paths. So we have our own private journey which we look at in a very detailed way individually. And actually after a while we disregard everyone else mainly and you see your own journey through the series in a very detailed way. And so on this, it’s lovely to be able to…sometimes it was madly phoning Peter in the early mornings or late in the afternoons and ask him what he was thinking and where we were going. Because invariably, if you get an understanding from the writer of what he was thinking, it can help you in that moment of crisis when you’re not quite sure what this means. So it was really easy.”

Q: (From me as it happens) As you’ve said, you can’t know yet whether you’ll get a second series, let alone a third or a fourth. But presumably you’ve mapped out the journey to the end of the century? What would come next in a second series after 1914 to 1920?

Peter Moffat: “So a second series would pick up straight off the back of the first series. So it would be the 1920s, up to and including the General Strike. So ’26, roughly. 42 parts is the plan (surprised reaction from audience). Provide them in three-and-a-half weeks? I’ve got a really good doctor. Just turned 50. Oh God.” (laughter)

Q: That must be overwhelming. That’s just so much history?

Peter Moffat: “Yeah. Great. I think it’s quite a unique moment in television. Box set culture has said long-form serial drama is now really possible. And how fantastic is it to be able to say that there is a possibility you might get to write 42 hours of television about the life of this country in the 20th century. You can’t do that at the National. I think BBC1, potentially, could and should be – people have said it before – the National Theatre. I really think that. I think there’s a good moment now. People don’t say so much, ‘I don’t watch much television but…’ People are now saying, ‘Here are the five things I really love.’ More quickly, arguably, than they’re saying it about film, which I think is interesting.”

Q: There’s a beautiful painting of Judi Dench in the National Gallery. It’s stunning. I think you’ve all crafted a really magnificent piece on the acting and writing. Even the light and colour. When you came to the end of the series, did you have a sense of loss of that era, of anything that we, as a nation, have left behind?

Peter Moffat: “Yes, absolutely. This is something my father was telling me, actually. They used to sing to each other the whole time. Just sit in small rooms and sing. At each other. For each other. That must have been great. Or not. I’m very cautious about nostalgia though. Because I think we get settled with it, attracted to it, live in it too easily. So I mentioned earlier about my great-grandfather’s dogs and how they get porridge every morning. I can feel my heart go, ‘But actually what a terrible idea. Poor dog, went to work all day on that.’ So warmth, glow, nostalgia, not sure. Be robust, be truthful if you can. Make it honest. And a big thing, an obvious, obvious thing – there is no hindsight when you’re there. Present tense all the time in the past. It’s crucial.”

Matt Stoke as teacher Gerard Eyre.

Q: The suffragette (Martha) coming through – will that progress? And your (Juliet’s character Clem’s) husband, the man who was covered, facially distorted…are you going to delve into some of the characters about why they are who are they are?

Peter Moffat: “Yeah. I had to write it as 42 parts. So I suppose it’s arguable that it’s slow burn, it’s slow moving. Yes is the answer. You’re absolutely going to get to find out about all of these people. You’re actually going to get to find out quite a lot more about them in these six episodes. Juliet’s character has a – I can’t think of another way of putting this, I so hate this – journey (laughter) to make. Which I think is a great and full and interesting one. And that happens in six parts. Where she’s at, at the end of episode six is a profoundly different – here I go again – place compared to where she is at the beginning of the episode we’ve just been watching. But it’s…don’t bish, bash, bosh. Don’t hurry up for the sake of it. Try and keep to the idea that it’s long form.”

The Village begins on BBC1 at 9pm on Sunday March 31.

Bill Jones as Young Bert.

BBC The Village

Company Pictures

Peter Moffat

Rupert Brooke

Akenfield

Ian Wylie on Twitter

Bailey & Scott.

SCOTT & Bailey series three begins on ITV at 9pm this Wednesday.

I’ve seen the first four episodes (of eight in total) and all involved have raised the bar once again.

For what it’s worth, I think it’s the best series yet.

It was my pleasure to carry out the cast interviews for ITV’s Production Notes / Press Pack.

As I did for series two.

For Scott & Bailey 2013 I spoke to Suranne Jones (D.C. Rachel Bailey), Lesley Sharp (D.C. Janet Scott), Amelia Bullmore (D.C.I. Gill Murray), Nicola Walker (Helen Bartlett) and Tracie Bennett (Sharon Bailey).

You can read the interviews by clicking on the link to the PDF document below:

Scott & Bailey 3 Ian Wylie Interviews

My interview with Danny Miller, who joins the cast from episode four as D.S. Rob Waddington, will be released nearer his screen arrival.

Along with some other extra material which must remain under wraps for now.

Nicola Walker as Helen Bartlett.

Scott, Bailey & Murray.

Amelia Bullmore as Gill Murray.

Tracie Bennett as Sharon.

The interview room.

ITV Drama

Red Production Company

Scott & Bailey 2: Interviews

Ian Wylie on Twitter

David Tennant as Aiden Hoynes.

AN invite to the premiere press screening of The Politician’s Husband last Friday night.

Followed by a Q&A with acclaimed writer Paula Milne, whose many credits include White Heat, The Night Watch and The Politician’s Wife.

We were shown the first two episodes, of three in total.

Including terrific performances from David Tennant and Emily Watson.

The series begins on BBC2 at 9pm tonight (Thursday April 25) and comes recommended.

Below is the story I wrote the next morning, which subsequently appeared here this week.

Followed by my transcript of that Q&A with Paula, hosted by BBC Drama boss Ben Stephenson.

Emily Watson as Freya Gardner.

DAVID Tennant turns into a sadist for his latest TV drama – in a sickeningly vicious sex scene.

The former Doctor Who star plays grey-haired Cabinet minister Aiden Hoynes in BBC2’s three-part The Politician’s Husband.

Appropriate Adult actress Emily Watson co-stars as his wife Freya Gardner, a Junior Education minister in Whitehall.

Known as Westminster’s “golden couple” they carry their House of Commons power games into the bedroom.

The two actors filmed several “combative” sex scenes as Aiden quits his ministerial post and his bid to become Prime Minister fails.

While rising star Freya steps out of his shadow and is appointed a Cabinet minister herself in “the cesspit of Westminster power politics”. 

Thwarted MP Aiden’s anger, jealousy and frustration eventually boil over and he commits a shocking sex act on Freya, leaving her emotionally battered and physically bruised.

Writer Paula Milne said: “The first sex scene we see with them, it is not entirely comfortable. It’s fine but it’s quite combative.

“But it becomes more brutal and it had the darkness shone on it.

“It is unforgiveable what he does.”

The former minister later becomes involved in a sex scandal after he is propositioned by a naked nanny.

Family au pair Dita, played by Sex Traffic actress Anamaria Marinca, walks in on Aiden when he is having a bath and makes plain that it is not his expenses she is interested in.

In another scene the ex-Time Lord dives fully clothed in a suit into a local swimming pool to rescue his screen son Noah (Oscar Kennedy), who has Asperger’s Syndrome, from the bottom.

The political melodrama also stars Roger Allam as Chief Whip, Ed Stoppard as Aiden’s  former best friend and political rival and Kirsty Wark as herself for a Newsnight interview.

With scenes set inside and outside No 10, including the Cabinet room, and the chamber of the House of Commons.

Mother-of-two Emily has spoken about filming the sex scenes and said that while David was a “complete gentleman” they are “always a bit of a nightmare”.

She added: “But this was particularly violent, and it’s a bit, sort of, ‘Mummy, what did you do at work today?’ Uh, well, you know that Doctor Who..?’”

Paula also wrote the acclaimed The Politician’s Wife, screened in 1995 by Channel 4.

She said this follow up was about “power within a marriage” and reflected voters’ “disappointment” with the current state of politics.

Also revealing that all the surnames in the drama are taken from the characters in one of her favourite shows – The West Wing.

BBC drama boss Ben Stephenson said: “Television has steered away from the depiction of sex and sexuality. But it’s at the heart of this piece.”

David spent time with famous MPs while preparing for his role in the political drama but refused to reveal names. 

He returned to his Time Lord role last week alongside Matt Smith to film scenes for Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary special episode.

The Scottish actor plays grumpy D.I. Alec Hardy in ITV hit drama Broadchurch, with millions about to discover tonight who killed young Danny Latimer.

*The Politician’s Husband begins on BBC2 at 9pm on Thursday. (April 25)

Introducing the screening, BBC Drama boss Ben Stephenson said:

“This is a really compelling, delicious slice of political intrigue. Paula has used a Shakespearean backdrop of the modern political system to tell a very deeply detailed story about the gender divide in a modern marriage. So although politics is the backdrop of this piece, ultimately that is just the way of emphasising and dramatising the detail of this extraordinary relationship, portrayed so beautifully and brilliantly and surprisingly by Emily Watson and David Tennant, our two remarkable leads.”

Post-screening Q&A hosted by Ben Stephenson:

Q: These character surnames ring a bell, Paula. Can you reveal…unleash the secret of the surnames?

Paula Milne: “The West Wing. It’s just a little homage, really. Every character…”

Q: The prequel – The Politician’s Wife. Just remind us of when it happened, what it was about and where you got your inspiration from?

Paula Milne: “That was 1994 / 1995, when the Tories were in power and John Major and family values and there was a kind of litany of David Mellor and Cecil Parkinson et al. And I remember in the Mellor situation, he and his wife and the family standing by the garden gate and thinking, ‘What if she didn’t forgive him? How could she forgive him and what if she didn’t?’ And that really spawned it. After it was made and went out, it was quite interesting – it caught the zeitgeist here because of what was happening in the Tory party and it was kind of on its last legs and the whole moral fabric and stuff was breaking down. But what was really interesting about it was that it was huge abroad, which didn’t have our parochial politics. So it obviously said something about – this is slightly precognition with hindsight – slightly maybe even like Borgen does, that if the politics are universal enough they don’t have to be that parochial. And in the end it was about the destruction of a marriage.”

Ed Stoppard as Bruce Babbish.

Q: Whizz forward to where we are now – what has inspired you to write this about politics today? What’s the atmosphere around politics that feeds this?

Paula Milne: “I have to rewind and just say that there were a lot of opportunities to do follow ups to The Politician’s Wife, around that time and subsequently. And I had a very strong instinct to leave well alone. That it was a good piece and had really connected, much to my surprise as anyone else’s, and not to be so cynical…but then recently…it was partly watching The West Wing again and The Thick Of It and thinking about politics and the expenses scandal and how people felt about that. And to write a piece that was not party political, which The Politician’s Wife blatantly was, but about the power games. And to take the same template. I’d actually done it before The Politican’s Wife of taking a marriage in Die Kinder – which was a marital kidnap situation – to take an emotional engine, a prism through which to look at a political thing, in that case the Baader-Meinhof. And I thought, ‘If that worked before, it would be interesting to do it again but in reverse, because times have changed. So that was the basic idea.”

Q: So what is it that you think you’re saying about politics?

Paula Milne: “I hope I’m saying what a lot of the audience, and therefore the voters, feel. Which is an understandable disenchantment and disappointment. It is a tricky thing to do this, because The West Wing in America, it was aspirational. And we don’t have that. And The Thick Of It, which was fantastic but that was satire. I’m not a satirist. I’m a dramatist. But I felt that what the audience feel is credent, it’s important and it should be validated. And I wanted to reach out to that, as it were, because that’s what drama should do. It should reflect what people feel and create that kind of conduit. So that was part of what it was.”

Q: But do you think we’re inherently cynical towards our politicians? Because you also look at a classic show like House of Cards, which obviously has terrific relish for politicians – but only if they’re serial killers?

Paula Milne: “Or Machiavellian, let’s say?”

Q: Yes but by the end he’s killed them anyway?

Paula Milne: Yes, yes, yes. I think we have a very long tradition in politics that makes us look at it…I mean this is a political melodrama. As indeed House of Cards was. And it’s very interesting I think that in the re-make of House of Cards, which I think is actually brilliant…but there’s one thing I would take issue with. When Ian Richardson turns to camera, there’s a sort of delicious collusion. He invites us in and he make us as culpable as him in his machinations. But when Kevin Spacey does it, he’s just kind of telling us what he’s doing. And it doesn’t quite have that same ring.”

Roger Allam as the Chief Whip.

Q: So talk to us about sex, Paula. Televison has, I think, steered away from the depiction of sex and sexuality. But it’s at the heart of this piece. I mean in terms of gender as well. What you wanted to do about male and female relationships?

Paula Milne: “To return very briefly to The Politician’s Wife…”

Q: Which was also quite explicit…

Paula Milne: “Yes, it was. I think several politicans said to me their favourite line was when she was hitting him and he said, ‘Not my face, not my face!’ But the disintegration of that particular marriage showed itself in bed. And you know, why wouldn’t it? That is obvious. If you’re depicting a marriage, a sexual relationship, then it’s going to manifest itself there. And so returning to the template version, I did deploy that same dramatic strategy to The Politician’s Husband. It’s more brutal. I talked to Simon (Cellan Jones) the director quite a lot about this. So that the first sex scene you see with them, it is not entirely comfortable. It’s fine but it’s quite combative.”

Q: It’s power play…

Paula Milne: “Yes. And they had learned, or understood, to keep that in the bedroom. But as things transpire between them, and is obviously clear in the second episode, it became more brutal. And if you like it had the light shone on it, or the darkness shone on it. So sex scenes in drama must carry narrative. They can’t just be there to consolidate something you’ve already seen. It has to carry narrative. To ignore that in this…specifically on what happens in that second episode…it is unforgiveable what he does. And extraordinary that she can even begin to tolerate it. But she has felt, if you like, the thermos of power and she has too much to lose not to tolerate it. I just think these things are very complex and interesting.”

Q: So what’s your feeling about an audience’s sympathy? Because I think in The Politician’s Wife it was probably clearer where your emotions lay?

Paula Milne: “Yes.”

Q: It was very much her revenge against him. Whereas in this, perhaps both of them are, at times, on rather different moral compasses. What’s your intention for what they audience thinks about these people?

Paula Milne: “In The Politician’s Wife, just to put that in context at the time, there had been quite a lot of political dramas at that time. There’s quite a dearth of them now, really. But then there were a lot. There was Blair and there was a whole load of things and they were quite satirical and they were very polemic. That particular piece characterised Tories as characters. And I thought that was really important. And therefore you could inhabit them and so on. And of course she had been betrayed. She did behave badly. And we always felt in this that there should be a tightrope where you knew where he was coming from and then recoiled. I think that again, to go back to the audiences, where they feel about politicians…I wanted to convey by making it an ordinary family with a kid with Asperger’s and they’d suffered the buffets of life that all of us are not immune to. So I wanted to convey that. But at the same time, that the quest for power had damaged them both…as is said in her speech in the second episode, ‘Perhaps all power does corrupt regardless of gender.’”

Q: And there’s not party politics in this. You don’t care who they are – whether they’re Conservative or Labour or…

Paula Milne: “No. I made a very conscious decision that I felt that unlike with the previous piece, it would just then become either coalition or become party politics. And what I was interested in was…first of all, what is the difference anyway? Frankly? I’m sure people must feel like me when they’re asked questions on Question Time and Sky News and ITN and so on and they don’t answer the question…the frustration that we feel of seeing them toe the party line and so on. And it’s the party line, not the particular party line, so it was the power games, the leadership bids, the coups, the select committees…”

Ben then opened up questions to the audience:

Q: (From me as it happens) Paula, you’ve said times have changed and you spoke a little about that. Can you just expand on your view of that…in terms of the political scene?

Paula Milne: “Well that (1995) was a very specific piece about a very specific thing that was happening in politics. When I wrote it…you have to remember…at the risk of sounding creepy, I applaud the BBC for making this and putting it out quickly. But also Michael Grade did that in Channel 4. He read the script and said, ‘We must make this and make it now.’ Because he understood that. And drama is labyrinthianly-slow to make. So this is really important, to catch whatever semblance of zeitgeist there is. That was about family values…and this was…I wanted to see if I could connect with an audience in what I felt in my disappointment. This is post-expenses and a number of other things. Promises broken, from Blair onwards. Nick Clegg…there’s some visceral disappointment, I believe, that exists in the public now about politics.”

Q: (Ben Stephenson) Is there any Miliband in this piece?

Paula Milne: “Sadly no. I would be disingenuous to say that that did not feature in the back of my…to make them such close friends obviously. When you say it’s a political melodrama, that’s another way of saying a political allegory, if you like. So those things do…there has to be a recognition factor with the audience. If you’re not going to do party politics and you’re not going to say it’s about obvious political couples, there has to be the odd moments where people go, ‘Ah.’ The shoes with Theresa May…”

Oscar Kennedy as Noah.

Q: The Asperger’s storyline is a surprise and unexpected. What’s the rationale from bringing that in?

Paula Milne: “Well it’s both kind of slightly cheap and decent. I’d done a lot of research into Asperger’s for another show that never got made (looks at Ben amid laughter) basically. So waste not want not. And what I felt about it at that time was valid. But also I didn’t want the whole thing to be about the usual stuff about kids and child care and stuff. To show in bite-sized moments for the audience that this family had dealt with something really meaningful. And in terms of the character of Aiden, I think that…to me, it was quite important, this relationship with his father, who as an academic had a pure relationship with politics. But Aiden had been, if you like, digging the dirt on the front line and had lost that. I spoke to many people with both my researcher and others and special advisors and a couple of politicians who helped with this and a line struck me, which I used but in a slightly different context, which is, ‘People hide in politics in plain sight.’ And a lot of them are hiding from things. And I thought that was very interesting and that the father’s deep disappointment in his child…it’s very difficult to acknowledge that you have a disappointment in your child. And so you displace it. So that was the idea.”

Q: Quite a lot of the characters are portrayed as selfish…do you think there’s space for the good in politics in terms of a drama? Or do you think it’s only the negative aspects of politics that really appeal?

Paula Milne: “I’m sorry to hear you say that. I believe – and I’m trying to convey this in the piece – that most people go into politics for good reasons. There’s not much money in it. It’s a tough journey. A lot of people go into medicine for altruistic reasons. Some don’t. But most people go in with really decent motives. And I believe that Freya and Aiden did. I’ve tried to convey that. Because what I was trying to say in the piece is, as she said, you get to be an MP, you think you can change things and as happened to him, you end up doing the holes in the road and the Post Office. And of course those things are important. But then you see that the things that actually can really change the infrastructure of society lie elsewhere. And that is what I was trying to convey. Not that they’re selfish. Quite the reverse, really. But he says at one point, ‘Sometimes you have to do bad things to get in power to do good things when you get there.’ And that is really what this piece is about.”

Ben Stephenson: “I’m always asked why there aren’t more nice families in EastEnders? And you think, ‘Because it’s boring,’ as well. So that was my answer to that.”

Off the Front Bench.

Q: Paula, I’m loving it. Absolutely fabulous. I’m very interested that he’s got his dad to talk to but she’s rather isolated. She doesn’t have a sidekick. Why did you decide to make her so lonely?

Paula Milne: “Maybe because she is. There was a thing on Woman’s Hour this morning that as women get successful, they get more isolated. I certainly know from my own case that the more successful I got, the less friends I had. That’s fine. I just had lots of children and made up for it that way. But I also think, just in narrative storytelling terms, when I went to Channel 4 to pitch The Politician’s Wife, the commissioning editor said, ‘Who is she going to confide in?’ And I hadn’t even thought about that. But immediately I said, ‘No-one. The audience.’ So in terms of suspense, you have to wonder what she’s going to do next. The most critical moment for me is when she’s alone in the Cabinet Room and she puts her hands on the table. I think the stage directions said that she felt the thermos of power. And that put the audience ahead of him and gave them a kind of, ‘Uh-oh.’ So if she’d had a confidante it would have ruined that. So a lot of it just actually comes down to sheer storytelling.”

Q: I wondered if you’d been influenced at all by Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper? They seem to me to be the most obvious couple where you’ve got two..?

Paula Milne: “They obviously are. I didn’t base it on them or talk to them or anything because I really wanted to steer clear of this party political thing, because then it just became about that. But this is what I would say – I watched Prince William’s wedding on television and in the Abbey the camera was going round, it was settling on Gordon Brown and so on, and it settled on those two. I had already started writing this. And Yvette was talking and he was looking at her. And he looked at her with sheer love. It was like a Bergman moment in a movie. It was so unexpectedly touching because he’s so thuggish in his persona often in the Commons. But there was such extraordinary tenderness and it re-inforced, as I was writing, what it was I was trying to do.”

BBC The Politician’s Husband

Paula Milne

Ian Wylie on Twitter

“THEY don’t know him. But he knows them.”

The Fall is one of the most compelling drama series I’ve seen in recent years.

A top class script matched by superb cast performances, direction by Jakob Verbruggen, editing, soundtrack and anything else you’d care to pick from the end credits.

I attended the London press launch last month and wrote the below story the next morning – used the day after as a TV centre spread in The Sun.

For some reason it didn’t also go online – so let’s put that right now.

With a few extras from the Q&A under the story.

The Fall starts on BBC2 at 9pm tomorrow (Monday May 13).

Gillian Anderson is Det Supt Stella Gibson and Jamie Dornan co-stars as serial killer Paul Spector.

Both hunters in their own way.

I’ve now seen all five episodes and believe all concerned, including writer Allan Cubitt, deserve to be in the running when TV awards panels sit down to deliberate.

Gillian plays the enigmatic Stella with just the right amount of cool, forensic detachment.

While Jamie is a revelation – chillingly believable both as the horribly twisted, cunning, ritualistic killer and the loving father and family man everyone believes him to be.

There are also wider layers to this Belfast story that begin to unfold in episode two.

The dark nightmare of what Paul Spector will do next always flickering away in your mind as you watch.

As Stella explains: “It about power and control and the thrill.”

And what of the killer who could be a friend and neighbour in any street?

As he points out:

“No-one knows what goes on in someone else’s head.”

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

GILLIAN Anderson has warned viewers will be shocked by her new X-rated TV drama.

The former X-Files star hunts a serial killer who stalks his young female victims before murdering them in their homes.

BBC2 bosses will broadcast a warning before each episode of disturbing five-part drama The Fall, on screen next month. (May 13)

Filmed and set in Belfast, Gillian plays Det Supt Stella Gibson who is brought in from London’s Met Police to review the investigation and hunt for the perverted monster.

With Once Upon A Time actor Jamie Dornan – who once dated Keira Knightley – as psychopath Paul Spector, a married father-of-two young children and grief counsellor.

Gillian, 44, agreed the tense psychological thriller could be particularly frightening for women living on their own.

“It’s pretty shocking,” said the London-based actress who played alien investigator Dana Scully in The X-Files and was a fan of Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect.

Enigmatic Stella could turn into a long-running role, with creator and writer Allan Cubitt already working on scripts for a second series.

“I was always a fan of Prime Suspect and had read other attempts at re-creating that and always found them lacking,” explained Gillian.

“And there was something about this that felt like it had the depth and complexity – and yet simplicity – of that series.

“I really liked her – I love how we don’t really get to know who she is or what makes her tick.

“I’ve played other law enforcement officials before. In good scripts a character comes off the page and that was certainly the case with this. I could taste her from the first few pages.”

Asked if she could see Stella as a returning character, Gillian replied: “Definitely.”

Gillian filmed a sex scene as part of the drama as Stella summons local Belfast police detective James Olson, played by Ben Peel, to her room at the Hilton Hotel.

The Great Expectations and Bleak House star lived like a “hermit” during filming with Gillian and Jamie mainly kept apart from each other during the project.

“I am a bit of a hermit anyway. But I become more of a hermit when I’m working than when I’m not.

“Even if I have a few days off, I generally just stay in my hotel room.

“That’s not keeping in character. It’s just keeping my mind on it and working on it.

“I’ve worked with actors who keep in character all the time. I don’t do that.”

The truth is out there from the very start with the killer’s identity unmasked as he plans the sexually-motivated murder of a young solicitor.

Creeping into her bedroom while she is out to arrange her underwear and a sex toy on her bed.

Later stalking her in Belfast’s Botanic Gardens while out with his eight-year-old daughter.

Jamie, 30, said he found it hard to reconcile loving family man Paul with his twisted other side, including keeping detailed drawings of his victims.

He apologised to the young actresses involved in scenes where their tied-up terrified characters are strangled as the killer acts out his fantasies.

Arranging their naked bodies is careful poses before making his escape.

“It’s not easy to have ligatures round some young actresses mouth and watch her eyes bulge out of her head and sweat and try to look like you’re getting an element of satisfaction from it,” said Jamie.

“It’s a very strange place to put your head in for three months. There’s horrible aspects.

“But it’s an amazing character. They’re the best scripts I’ve ever read.”

Allan – whose previous credits include Prime Suspect – studied American serial killer Dennis Rader as part of his research.

Known as The BTK – Bind, Torture, Kill – Strangler, Rader murdered 10 people in Kansas between 1974 and 1991.

The drama follows the two hunters – police and killer – at the same time and explores the psychology of the murderer as well as giving the audience time to get to know the victims.

“I wanted to avoid having a faceless victim at the start of the drama. I wanted the audience to make some connection with the victim,” said Allan.

BBC drama boss Ben Stephenson confirmed a warning would be broadcast before the episodes aired.

He added: “BBC2 is about pushing the boundaries and telling stories in a different way and has done a huge amount of challenging material over the last few years.

“It’s a powerful, compelling piece. You feel the actual reality of the situation and get to know the victims as people. Which invevitably makes it more emotionally difficult in places.”

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Creator and writer Allan Cubitt on getting to know Spector’s victim in the first episode:

“I hope that we will have made some emotional investment in her and her family. And the way in which the killer is capable of compartmentalising his life. These people are incredibly difficult to catch.”

Jamie Dornan on playing a serial killer:

“I’ve read lots of horrible stuff. A lot of these guys live very normal lives, have girlfriends or wives and solid jobs and are able to separate the rotten stuff from who they really are. People are none the wiser to what they’re getting up to at night.”

Jamie on co-starring with Gillian Anderson:

“This is about the fourth time we’ve ever met. We met at the read through, bumped into each other in the make-up trailer a couple of times and done some press together. And that’s it. It wouldn’t have made any sense to hang out.”

Gillian Anderson on how the arrogant killer takes risks before he takes a life:

“Practically revealing himself before the deed, many times over. That’s intriguing to watch.”

Gillian Anderson on Stella’s swimming pool scenes – her way of releasing tension and thinking about the killer:

“I’m actually not a swimmer. I don’t like water very much. The swimming pools add to the creepieness of it.”

As part of her research for the role she bought The Senior Investigating Officer’s Handbook – a book published for police use.

Producer Gub Neal: “It’s very rare that you get an opportunity to spend five hours in the company of someone like Paul Spector – a grief counsellor and monster at the same time.”

The Fall BBC Media – including a Behind The Scenes video featuring Gillian Anderson in the American version of her accent

BBC The Fall

Allan Cubitt

Artists Studio

The Senior Investigating Officer’s Handbook

Ian Wylie on Twitter

John Lynch as Assistant Chief Constable Jim Burns.

Niamh McGrady as Danielle Ferrington.

Bronagh Waugh as Sally-Ann Spector.

Laura Donnelly as Sarah Kay and Gerard McCarthy as Kevin McSwain.

Stuart Graham as DCI Matthew Eastwood.

Aisling Franciosi as Kate.

“THE world is my patient.”

Meet Frankie, played by Eve Myles.

District nurse, small town heroine and Ken Bruce addict.

Who loves to boogie at any time of the day or night.

The tracks of her years begin on BBC1 at 9pm tomorrow (Tuesday May 14) in a new six-part drama series written by Lucy Gannon.

I was invited to the London press launch last month and reckon Frankie has the potential to be a big hit.

As BBC Drama boss Ben Stephenson told us:

“This is a really great populist mainstream drama.

“They are some of the hardest pieces to make work. To make them smart, popular, intelligent.

“Eve gives such a wonderfully life-filled performance.”

In truth, I was hooked after the first two minutes.

Frankie Maddox is a one woman tonic who loves chips and cream cakes.

Defiant in the face of an impossible NHS workload.

“I laugh at cutbacks. I sneer at them,” she exclaims.

Lucy Gannon has her typing fingers on the pulse of real life, real people and real problems.

With some wicked flashes of humour.

Just listen out for a particular ringtone on Frankie’s mobile phone.

Below is the story I wrote on the day of the press launch.

Followed by a few extras from the main Q&A.

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The office disco.

FORMER Torchwood star Eve Myles has spoken of her heartbreak while filming emotional scenes for a new TV drama.

The award-winning Welsh actress plays dedicated district nurse Frankie in a six-part BBC1 series of the same name.

A scene in the opening episode sees Frankie battling to save the life of an eight-year-old girl who stops breathing after suffering a cardiac arrest in a traffic jam.

Eve said she found the storyline upsetting. “I’m a mum. So anything to do with children, it affects you.

“Even when you’re just performing and you’re acting and you’ve got a script, there’s still something you’ve got to connect to. It’s quite heartbreaking.”

The quirky nurse, who puts her patients before her personal life, misses her own birthday party to help a woman give birth.

“As a mum myself I was giving advice. A lot of it hasn’t been used because we can’t air that kind of language!”

While Frankie is also left battered and bruised when a dementia patient hits her in the face and she falls into a door.

But she has her own prescription to release work pressures, with Eve busting a series of dance moves throughout the series.

“At 34 you don’t get the chance to shake your booty on BBC telly – and I got a chance to do it,” she laughed.

“Kenneth The Bruce”

Frankie has an “addiction” to Radio Two’s Ken Bruce Show and treats her car as the office disco.

Seen head-banging and singing at the wheel, Eve added: “She is a firework to play. You just have to go for it. Because if you don’t you’re going to look ridiculous.

“She’s crammed every day with patients. They all are. There’s a tremendous amount of pressure – they’ve got to release somewhere. Me and Ken are like that!

“That’s a real big side of Frankie that I love playing – though it is horrendous to watch myself. But it’s fun and I hope people smile and enjoy it.”

Writer Lucy Gannon said Eve embraced performing to songs like T Rex’s I Love To Boogie, Pixie Lott’s All About Tonight and Should I Stay Or Should I Go by The Clash.

“It was a little bit like writing Soldier Soldier and trying to keep Robson and Jermome away from singing,” she added.

Ex-Merlin actress Eve, who is set to marry long-time partner Brad Freegard, father of her three-year-old daughter Matilda, made sure she was fully prepared for the part.

“My husband-to-be’s auntie was a district nurse and I’ve also got medical people living next door to me. So they’re sick to the back teeth of me because I pluck their brains about everything.

“We had a fantastic district nurse and medic on set with us. And the guy who did the props was an ex-nurse.”

Frankie (Eve Myles) and Ian (Dean Lennox Kelly).

On screen next month (Tuesday May 14), Frankie was developed by the BBC at the same time as Call The Midwife and co-stars Dean Lennox Kelly, Jemma Redgrave and Derek Riddell.

The first episode includes a Doctor Who in-joke as Frankie and policeman partner Ian, played by Dean, discuss sleeping with a Time Lord.

“In bed with Doctor Who? Well I suppose it would depend on which one,” comments Frankie.

“It was fun and that’s a nice little thing to be in there,” said Eve.

Still known to millions as Torchwood’s Gwen Cooper, the actress said she originally thought there might not be a role for her in the drama.

“As soon as I heard about Frankie, I said, ‘Who’s playing him?’ And they said, ‘No. The lead character is a female.”

Asked about her own work-life balance, Eve joked: “Matilda does think that I work in a trailer now in a car park.”

And she told of her daughter’s reaction when she caught a glimpse of her mother in bed with Dean, when Eve was watching a preview DVD of the first episode – thinking Matilda was asleep on the sofa.

“She said, ‘Oh mummy, you’re kissing a Prince!’ I said, ‘Don’t tell your father!’”

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Eve Myles on District / Community Nurses:

“It’s the entire family that they help. But they don’t like being made to look like heroines. They’re incredible.

“We had some fantastic advice on set – and we went through exactly how it would be. We made sure that we did everything correctly.”

Eve Myles on her dancing and singing scenes:

“When Lucy writes it down, the description of it is fantastic. You get a character like that, you can’t help but just wring it for all it’s worth. And go for it. Because if you don’t go for it you’re going to look ridiculous. So go for it, have fun and hopefully you’ll have fun watching it. There’s a lot more to come.

“She loves music. She’s crammed every day with patients. They all are. And there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on them every day. They’re on the road all the time, they’re giving advice, they’re listening every day, they’re doing their job, they’ve got to release somewhere.”

Lucy Gannon on District / Community Nurses:

“The community nurse or the district nurse is the unsung heroine or hero who is out in the community keeping people away from hospitals, keeping them in their own homes. There are lots and lots of stories to be told. They’re anti-heroic.”

Lucy Gannon on Ken Bruce:

“Ken Bruce was my saviour. When my husband died – my husband was Scottish and I really missed that male presence and the Scottish accent. And Ken Bruce was that for me. I put him on every morning at half past nine and he would carry me through the morning. So that’s why I gave Frankie Ken Bruce.

“He’s a babe. He’s lovely. He’s done a few voice overs for me in previous films. He’s never any trouble. I’ve listened to him so much I could write his dialogue for him.”

Derek Riddell as Andy.

BBC Frankie

Lucy Gannon

Ken Bruce

Ian Wylie on Twitter