ITV’s Maryland Interviews: Suranne Jones

ITV’s Maryland Interviews: Suranne Jones

Award-winning actress Suranne Jones and screenwriter Anne-Marie O’Connor teamed up to create the three-part relationship drama Maryland, which follows the lives of two sisters who had grown apart over the years but who, in the wake of a tragic event, rediscover their love for and respect of one another.

How did this project come about?
I had an initial idea and I wrote a treatment. It was basically about two sisters finding out their mother was leading a double life, with the premise being ‘How well do you really know your family?’ I think the attraction for me was this was a 60-something-year-old woman – and while we’re used to seeing men leading double lives in drama all the time, we never see women. So I wanted to explore
how she’d do that. Also it was important to have prominent characters that were in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. These people have lived, they have experience and I think people forget that.

My agents The Artists Partnership, look after a lot of writers too, and they teamed me up with Anne Marie (O’Connor). I knew Anne-Marie socially but hadn’t worked with her in a creative or professional capacity. So, we got together two and a half years ago and we got the first episode in really good shape. Then Monumental Television came onboard and really got behind our vision. ITV loved the idea and they commissioned it – it was pretty quick for TV. ITV just wanted us to write a family piece rather than anything else, something that would resonate with the viewers and it turned into a real characterful piece. Over my career, I’ve loved playing the real characters, so this was my own chance to do this.

Executive producing isn’t new to me, but creating an original story and developing it with a writer in a writers’ room, and being there throughout all the stages is. And of course, it’s TeamAkers’ (our company’s) first drama co-production.

And do you find it gives you a new kind of buzz, seeing those rela?onships that you first imagined coming alive on the screen?
On the first day of filming when Eve [Best] was there, and Dean [Lennox Kelly], Andy [Knott] and George [Costigan], I was just like, “Oh! We have invented these people, and here they are.” So that’s definitely a new buzz… I’m not a writer. I’ve tried, but I think there are better writers out there. I definitely enjoy being a creator and a creative producer. That’s what I’m loving.

I’ve realised that the way I want to work is to, almost organically, put people together that are really good to work with. If you do that, you can let people be totally free with their talents. You know they can do it, so you don’t have to be on top of them or micromanage them. It’s lovely and just really nice to encourage people to do their thing.

And this is a very female-led production. How does that translate on the ground? Does that change environment?
We’ve had a really blissful experience with Monumental. I think Alison and her team are amazing. The team in the writers’ room were just beautiful to be around. Katharine Rosser and Katie Kelly particularly. And Chloe and Polly at ITV were brilliant. Anne-Marie was on set with us a lot of the time because it’s a character piece and she wanted to be able to talk to us about little nuanced things that we could add in or take away, that were either helping or hindering. There were no attitudes, no one was being precious… we were all mucking in. And I think that’s the beauty of women, being able to talk things through. We all picked up the phone and said, “Right, how can we help with this?” I just loved it. I thought it was beautiful. Ireland was beautiful too of course. I loved being by the water, that was just gorgeous. So yes, I had a great experience. I’d work with Monumental again in a heartbeat. They were brilliant.

Tell me about your character, Becca.
I had the choice of playing either sister and I wanted to play someone recognisable in a very ordinary way. She has two kids, a husband, and she’s a busy mum. The Beccas of this world are perhaps not represented on screen as much as other people – that person who a little bit is stuck, works really hard, but doesn’t think too much about herself. It’s a bit of a commentary on a life of caring. You know, she’s had to care for her sister, she’s had to care for her mum, she’s had to care for her family and she’s in that kid of comfortable rut. Then suddenly she gets a lightning bolt of information and she discovers her mother isn’t her mother. The person whose footsteps she’s followed in, isn’t that person at all and her life becomes slightly unravelled and nonsensical because of that.

She almost loses herself in that. If her mother had just died under normal circumstances, at home in Manchester – that would have been different. Everything that she knows about her mother and herself has been blown apart and it brings up a lot of questions about how happy she is with her life.

At the centre of this is her relationship with her sister, they’re not close and Becca would really love to be. but her sister has kind of pushed her away. So, she’s our everywoman, you know? She doesn’t really care much for herself – it’s always been about everybody else and she just gets on with it. Anne-Marie and I really wanted to bring out the Becca who was underneath all that and explore how she discovers herself through this unpleasant experience.

And how did you and Eve Best go about creating that chemistry needed to show the journey they’re on?
I didn’t know Eve before Maryland, but I loved Nurse Jackie, and I loved her in The Honourable Woman so when she agreed to it, I was like, “Argh!”

We just had lots of fun, the chemistry just sort of happened when we were doing the read throughs and trying costumes on and stuff. I kept saying, “Oh my God, you look gorgeous, you look beautiful.”

Because all her stuff is cashmere, and beautiful designer coats and bags and sunglasses. And then I went, “Right, now it’s my turn!’ and we had to rustle up something for Becca straight off the High Street so, the costume envy I had with Eve translates in some ways to the characters (laughs).

Eve was very supportive right from the off and there were lots of cuddles. I think when you start like that, you’re able to then just play the opposite to it. So yes, we kind of knew our characters inside out, and we knew what we wanted to do with them, and how we wanted to bring them together. I just love the way that it becomes a love story about them. They’re just ordinary women, and they’ve had a lot to deal with in their lives. And with all this stuff going on, it’s a slow burner of their love story. I just love the way it makes me cry. They love each other and it’s sweet to see two women, two sisters, find that little bit of a bond again, because a lot of families don’t have it because throughout life they go in their separate directions.

I don’t have a sister, Anne-Marie does so this family is an amalgamation of conversations we’ve had about our own families and about other people’s families. I think most people, if you have conversations with them, will say, “Well, my auntie found out such-and-such a thing.” Everyone has this kind of story within their family, a secret, a bombshell, a tragedy. I know grief – I’ve lost both my parents. I know sickness and I know care. And so these sisters arrived from lots of conversations between myself, Anne-Marie and our team. So it was a lovely experience… I’d never had a sister before so that made it even lovelier!

You have an amazing supporting cast including Stockard Channing…
I always had George Costigan in mind just because, I love George. I’ve done about five jobs with him now. Anne-Marie said, “Oh my God, are you going to get George.” He’s so brilliant because towards the end, he’s so angry. But at the beginning, you don’t know what’s happened, what he knew and how much he knew about what was going on so you feel sorry for him – but he also shows his true colours.

With these characters… they’re just very normal people but with a lot of complications. Stockard we actually manifested! Basically, every day in the writers’ room we’d say, “Stockard Channing is going to play Cathy.” And then she did! We still can’t quite believe that but we absolutely loved her. I think she’s brilliant, a total rock ‘n’ roll star!

Did you enjoy playing Becca?
I loved playing Becca. I loved playing someone who was being dragged along by the story, because obviously coming off the back of say, Vigil, (of which I’m about to start filming season 2), or Gentlemen Jack, they’re characters who very much lead the story. They’re at the forefront whereas Becca’s very unsure of her steps, and really doesn’t know where she’s going… Until she gets drunk and goes to the karaoke, obviously. But she feels a very different kind of character for me after the ones I’ve recently played.

Maryland premieres soon on ITV.