What for you are the questions at the heart of this story? Is it an examination of policing? Is it questioning language and attitudes and their consequences?
It’s both really. It’s certainly language and attitudes and the consequences of those. What I love about this script is that they are what you could call very small pieces of unacceptable behaviour that would several years ago maybe have been brushed off as just that. We cannot escape the fact that this is not acceptable anymore, however casual, however well meant, whatever angle you think you are coming from. I think it’s really interesting and believable. People are passionate about this. The refugee has a point of view. The detective has a point of view and the mum next door has a point of view. Everyone has a point. You can’t really land on anyone’s side, which I love about this. You see everyone’s side.
What did you already know about being a Detective Sergeant?
Not a lot actually. I spoke to Kate London at length about it and there was a detective on set, Claire Job, we could talk to. We also had quite a lot of extras who were ex-detectives, ex-police and ex-paramedics so they had seen it all. It was really great to nibble their minds and ask all the questions that we all want to ask about their job and what they’ve seen and how they behave. For instance, I didn’t know what happens when you take a forensic suit off so we were doing something slightly wrong. One of the coppers said, ‘We wouldn’t have done that. It would have gone straight into the evidence bag.’ I learned a lot about the chain of command and the correct way to do things so items don’t get contaminated.
Did you talk to Kate London about how she was able to compartmentalise her emotions in the job?
Yeah I spoke to her and to several people about how you put that away and go home and have a normal life. Some of the detectives on set were saying about having to do a death call, when you have to speak to a family and report a death. The typical answer is that you get hardened to it but also there are people you can debrief with and talk to. There is support. That was my understanding, so that you don’t take the job home with you. I guess unfortunately you must get used to it. All of them seemed to be haunted by one case or other. There is always one that seems to stick with you.
How does Sarah react when she and DC Steve Bradshaw get the call to proceed to Portland Tower?
She’s an everyday detective. Nothing like this has ever happened on her watch before. This is a shock to her. I think her working relationship with Steve is healthy. They’re a good team. They know each other inside out. They know each other’s tastes and rhythms. So we find her on an everyday, if you like, and then things change quite dramatically when they go to the tower. Because of how it happens and why it happens.
What decisions did you make with Jimmy Akingbola about the dynamic between Sarah and Steve?
I think we really wanted to make sure we had the little smiles and the levity and the tiny joke but not too heavy-handed. These guys are old pals and they get on. Really the only levity that Sarah has is a few jokes with Steve. We definitely discussed those nuances and how long they had worked together and what we know about each other.
What has been Sarah’s career path through the force?
I think she is very, very good at her job and very, very dedicated to her moral compass, which is absolutely dead straight. I would say she has climbed well and that she is well liked.
How would you contrast Sarah and Lizzie’s moral compasses?
Sarah has been in the job so long that it’s so sharp and true North, if you like. I think Lizzie is not dissimilar. She just goes about it all very differently and she’s very green. She doesn’t quite know how to make the right decisions. She is influenced by her heart too much, perhaps, and Sarah is more head. Lizzie makes a decision that leads to terrible consequences but her reasoning is reasonable.
What’s Sarah’s relationship like with her boss, DCI Bailie (Karl Davies)? Should she be where he is in the chain of command?
Well, yes, I think so! There’s a great line she has where he questions her station and why she’s not higher up and she says, ‘Because I can’t tell jokes to blokes in bars’. She knocks him down a few times. She’s not scared of bringing it to him because she knows she’s good at her job and that she’s secure but he has a camaraderie with Steve and an instant coldness for Sarah.
He asks Sarah at one point if everything is alright on the home front. Can you imagine him asking the same thing of Steve?
No, exactly, there is a certain gaze being given to us through his eyes. I love Karl Davies who plays him but I flipping hated Bailie. I found it hard to even make eye contact with this monster. He is so good because he delivers it with this smooth, shark-eyed genteelness. He never overplays anything. It’s like gaslighting. ‘Is that an insult? I think you’re being really rude to me, mate, but you could be being really charming.’ I don’t think they see entirely eye-to-eye.
Another who makes Sarah’s blood boil is DI Kieran Shaw. What is it about the man?
Again Emmett is such a nice guy but DI Shaw is a piece of work! He has done a lot of questionable things. I’m not sure I land on his side from any point of view. I can see everyone else’s. So yeah, Emmett’s character certainly challenged me. It’s great to play across someone like that because you don’t really need to do much. You are already furious as Gemma, it was a lot of fun to work with.
Do you like wearing Sarah’s hopefully-soon-to-be iconic orange coat?
That’s thanks to costume designer Georgina Napier, who worked with Jim Loach on Save Me Too. I don’t think they are going to be vastly upset if it doesn’t turn iconic, I just think they wanted to be able to find Sarah in a crowd. That was the thought behind it. There was also a no blue rule. No one is in blue at all in the whole thing. It’s just stepping away from some of the typical police choices you might make for a drama.
What’s been your favourite scene to play?
It’s the interview scene with Sarah and Lizzie, there are 11 pages of dialogue. There are no cues because Lizzie just keeps saying ‘no’ and ‘I don’t know’. There is nothing in her sentence that would lead me to the next thought. Sarah will say one thing and then just lead off in a different direction. I had to prepare very, very hard for that. I record all my lines and then listen to them. I had been doing that for several months and then the script changed the week before. Thankfully none of the rhythms had changed and there wasn’t much added. My husband was amazing. He just helped me so, so much and sat in a restaurant in Liverpool just going through it with me while Frances, our daughter, was sleeping in her pram. I really couldn’t have done it without him. He really drilled it with me so on the day I felt excited to do it, not nervous. I think it’s rare for an actor on telly to have a run out like that. It was really exciting to do. This scene is pivotal to the whole thing. It was brilliant to play the scene and play against Tahirah.
Are there things that you’ve learned from working with actors like Suranne Jones on Gentleman Jack about how to lead a show?
Yes, I have certainly learned from Suranne. She’s got so much dialogue to learn on Gentleman Jack. When I was learning all the lines I started very early and I thought of her a lot and how hard she works and the dedication she brings, how disciplined she is. It put me in good stead. I needed to turn up and know it and bring my game. If you are supposedly the lead you don’t want to let yourself down and turn up stumbling. Suranne’s ethos certainly bled into what I was doing.
Writer and executive producer Patrick Harbinson rates you with Claire Danes as the very best he’s worked with: ‘A class act: prepared, kind and generous.’
Oh wow, that’s very, very nice. That makes me a bit emotional. Well, he’s been fantastic to work with. He’s been absolutely brilliant, professional of course but also really kind and gentle and so clever. He knows what he needs in a scene and his writing is so good that thankfully it is easy to learn.
He threw an extra little speech at me near the end of the shoot but because it was so good I learned it overnight. It’s a testament to his writing that it makes sense in your mind. It’s easy to flow. It’s almost poetic. A couple of times we took a line out and then we realised, no, we need that for the rhythm of it. It’s a real pleasure to work with such a giant of the industry, such a gentle one though.
