The Responder | Interview with MyAnna Buring (Kate Carson)

How did The Responder come to your attention?

I had worked with Dancing Ledge Productions on The Salisbury Poisonings, which was such a sensitive and important story to tell, and Dancing Ledge did it so mindfully, carefully and considerately – so when this came up I knew straight away that I wanted to audition for the part.

When I read Tony’s scripts, they felt incredibly fresh and I could hear his very strong voice coming through in the writing. There are a lot of really good cop dramas out there, but this comes in from a lot of different angles and that felt very new and personal. Tony’s experience of policing and his experience of that world and all the characters jumped off the pages, it was really exciting and thrilling read.

What was it about the character of Kate that appealed to you?

Kate is the wife of our main character Chris, who is a police responder. When we meet Chris we see that he is having a mental health crisis and Kate is suffering just as much as him, because she’s living with it too. She’s living with a man that she loves very much, but who is falling apart at the seams. They have a daughter together and Kate is trying to hold her family together throughout.

Most people have either experienced mental health issues, know of people who have mental health issues, or live with people who do. I think it’s important when talking about anything to do with mental health, to also talk about the people who live with them because they are going through this too. That’s what struck home for me with Kate. It really resonated and broke my heart – it still does. Chris is getting some help at work, but Kate doesn’t get any support, and that’s pretty true to life. Family members rarely get support. We begin to see Kate unravel too and that felt like an honest way to understand these characters and approach the whole area of mental health.

Where do we meet Kate in the series?

We first meet Kate and Chris at a dark point in their relationship. Chris has been suffering for a long time, while Kate is trying to be supportive. She’s been holding things together but is desperate to have her husband back. I think what’s so hard for her is that she thinks if she just holds on for a bit longer, he’ll get better. However, the crucial thing about mental health in lots of cases is that you give so much, walk on eggshells for so long and find yourself in these deep, dark holes before suddenly realising that it might never get better. That’s where we find Kate and Chris.

She’s also lonely and just wants to be held for once, as opposed to be holding all the time. We do know that she loves Chris and wants nothing more than to have the man she married back, so for her it’s not the case that this relationship is over. That’s what makes it so sad.

How was it working with Martin Freeman?

I’d never worked with Martin before and it was a lovely experience. This is a hard and challenging show to lead because what Chris is going through is so traumatic, but Martin just did it with ease and great humour.

How important is it to bring the humour to what is serious subject matter?

The humour that underpins this subject matter is what’s wonderful about Tony’s writing. The story is dark and heavy with emotional undercurrents but that witty Liverpool humour undercuts and helps people through the darkness, which is very true to life if my experience of Liverpool is anything to go by.

It’s been fantastic to make a show in Liverpool that is so Liverpudlian in its DNA. There seems to be a lot filming in Liverpool at the moment and it’s such a great place to shoot. There are so many wonderful locations and an array of different styles of buildings. Each area of Liverpool feels so incredibly different and the people here are fantastic.

Kate’s friendships are also put to the test – how were those scenes to play?

Friends are our support in life when things get hard, but there’s not a lot of evidence in the script to suggest that Kate is supported by her family, nor does she seem to have loads of other friends buzzing around except for Ellie.

Mullen (Warren Brown) is married to Kate’s best friend Ellie (Kerry Hayes) – I’ve worked with Kerry and Warren previously so the three of us had a history of knowing and working with each other, which really helped which we use in the story.

Tony is really good at presenting the ambiguity of both his characters and their morals in his writing. That’s always what actors look for and what’s thrilling when you find it. That’s always what you want to play. You know, if it’s not there in the writing, then you’re desperately trying to scramble to create it yourself. If it is there in the writing, which it absolutely is here, then it’s just a joy. It makes your life really easy because you come to work and you just you turn up and you play.

How was working with Tim Mielants?

Tim Mielants is just a joyous director who makes it all seem easy and fun. He’s very caring and his direction is really thought through. He often gives quite surprising and contradictory notes just to see what might happen, and the outcome is always wonderful. It’s been a job where every member of the production team has been very present. All our crew from make-up and costume to the props team have really brought this script to life with the finest details, right down to Kate and Chris’ wedding photo.

How was it taking on the accent?

We worked with an amazing voice coach called Helen Ashton. What I found worked for me was to stay in the accent for as long as possible before a take. That helped me get the sound and right sort of placement of my mouth. I also learnt all my lines phonetically so that when I got to work I wasn’t really thinking about it. I really like the sound of the Liverpool accent – it feels like rocking

What do you think audiences will find appealing about the show?

I think the main thing that’s appealing about The Responder is the rich plethora of characters that Tony has created. They are interesting and surprising and the audience will go on a great journey getting to know all of them. There are so many police shows out there because we all love them, but this is a really different take on the genre. It comes from very different and personal angles that allow a certain amount of ambiguity. It makes us question who’s wrong and who’s right. We watch the characters really tussle with the sense of right and wrong and I think that’s going to be really exciting for an audience to watch.