TV blog Feed

In the Club: Bringing Jasmin’s storyline to life

2016-05-03T16:10:53+00:00

As the painfully honest and utterly heartwarming series about motherhood returns, new mum Jasmin is not only trying to repair her marriage, but is pregnant again - with twins. And when it’s revealed there could be complications, her strength is truly put to the test.

My character, Jasmin, is usually the confident, dry-humoured, sociable one. She has no filter with what she says and when it comes to her relationship with Dev, she is definitely in charge!

She adores Dev, but doesn’t show it in the conventional way. She isn’t an overly affectionate wife to him and she certainly doesn’t like to be made a fuss of. To make matters worse, her own mother and mother-in-law are now living with them, adding to the pressure of raising their daughter, Amber.

She was so scared of being a new mum the first time around, so finding out she’s pregnant again with twins catches her completely off guard.

She’d only just begun to find a nice balance of being a new mum to Amber. Jas and Dev had only just come out of the aftermath of her affair. When she finds out that there are complications with the twins she wholeheartedly blames herself, believing it’s bad karma for her previous actions.

In this series we see the vulnerable side of Jasmin which she usually keeps locked away. The impact of having such devastating news really takes its toll and from the off we see her crumble under the pressure. Her steely determination and force of will, shaky at first, pull her through.

Jasmin struggles to come to grips with needing an operation

The show’s writer, Kay Mellor, was approached to do this story about twin pregnancy from a lead obstetrician who wanted the subject matter to be known more widely. I had a wealth of resources on hand at all times so I could tell the story as truthfully a possible.

For me, I really learned how terrified parents can be, finding out that they are having twins, worrying about the cost and the sheer amount of emotion and physical pain a woman goes through carrying two babies.

We worked a lot on movement too - how low the baby is sitting, the pace you would walk. A midwife was always at hand to guide me and I watched videos of pregnant women carrying twins and chatted to women who have been pregnant with twins too.

We had a lot of supporting artists who were really pregnant on set most days, so I could always watch them and ask questions.

I couldn’t just jump up to get off the sofa or even sit down without much help and support. I usually walk as quick as lightning so carrying this huge, heavy bump and walking like a snail took some getting used to!

Jasmin is so determined to make things right after her affair and really does feel alone in making the right decision for the sake of her unborn babies. Dev and her family mean well, but only she can make the decision. She just doesn’t know what the right one is.

She is reluctant at first, but later fully embraces her friends, showing their unconditional support as they all rally around to make things as smooth for her as possible - including one very tricky baby naming ceremony for Amber.

They’ve all kept in touch since meeting at a parenting class and understand that they are all navigating their own way through motherhood, each with their own issues.

Taj Atwal plays Jasmin in In The Club.

In The Club, series two starts on Tuesday, 3 March at 9pm on BBC One. It will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Remind yourself what happened in series one by watching In The Club: The Story So Far, available to watch in BBC iPlayer until Thursday, 2 June.

What we discovered in 10 minutes with Zoe Boyle and Kerry Howard

2016-04-20T11:15:28+00:00

Flatmates Rhona and Leanne couldn't be more different. One is a weekday vegetarian who wants to quit their friendship, the other a clingy BTEC-qualified actress whose bra and knickers don’t match. All of a sudden they are forced into the complex world of witness protection after stumbling across a gangland shooting. What could go wrong?

We met actresses Zoe Boyle and Kerry Howard who play the unlikely friends in new BBC Three comedy Witless – to see what else we should know about them…

Rhona (Zoe Boyle) is ready to leave the flat she shares with Leanne (Kerry Howard)

We discovered that Zoe and Kerry have had their own flat-sharing experiences…

Zoe: Well I lived with a drummer at university for a bit which was horrendous. It was a whole big mess. I think we thought it would be really cool to live with a drummer but it’s not cool, it’s not fun, it’s not big or clever.

Kerry: Probably my worst experience was when I was living in my dad’s apartment, and my brother Daniel was living there too. There were only two bedrooms, so my dad had his bedroom obviously and Daniel had the other one because he had a job. So I had to sleep in the lounge.

Dad would wake up really early in the morning, so my mum’s answer was to get me a pop up tent. So I slept in a tent inside the lounge… for about a year. I mean luckily [laughing] I didn’t have a boyfriend!

Zoe: “Oh come back to my pop up!”

Kerry: Yeah it’s amazing what you suddenly remember, I’d blocked that out! But the thing is, it’s not soundproof, I could still hear dad at 5.30 in the morning.

Zoe: It wouldn’t even block out the light either?

Kerry: No! It was awful.

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/bbcthree/status/720600314538233856

…that their characters, Rhona and Leanne could learn a lot from each other…

Kerry: Leanne can learn to have a bit of breathing space to think things through before doing them.

Zoe: Yes, and Rhona could learn to cut loose a little bit more. She’s really inhibited. And also she really needs Leanne because Leanne is the BTEC qualified actress [they both laugh] but she’s willing to improvise and to take things as they come.

This is a situation that you can’t plan for – Rhona’s planning isn’t working so she’s dependent on Leanne. And that’s a nice dynamic, because they get a bit closer as the show goes on.

Kerry: On their own they wouldn’t manage, I don’t think. But together they are the ‘perfect human’, dealing with everything.

Zoe: …I wouldn’t say perfect! That’s so Leanne!

Kerry: [Does Leanne accent]: THEY SHOULD BE TOGETHER AND THEY SHOULD NEVER BE BROKEN. EVER.

Zoe: But the situation gets worse and worse, so they are more entangled in this thing. And they have to resort to more extreme measures as they go along.

Leanne and Rhona test out their new pseudonyms at the dentist. At least, that's the plan...

We discovered that John Inverdale makes a memorable cameo in the comedy…

Kerry: John appears in a video about how to cope with witness protection. I loved it. We have that in every episode to mix it up and it’s brilliant.

Zoe: But what’s also really funny is that whenever we had a read-through everyone had a version of John Inverdale that they would do. So we’ve met so many different John Inverdales.

…and that they admire a lot of British comedy actresses…

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/THEKERRYHOWARD/status/702960171463667716

Kerry: For me it’s definitely Julie Walters. She’s just amazing. And Patricia Routledge as well. There were a lot of strong really talented women around in the 80s and 90s. Dawn French, Jen Saunders…

Zoe: Mine’s Joanna Lumley. I bloody love her!

Kerry: …Penelope Keith. Judi Dench had her own sitcom. They were all leading shows. They weren’t quite setting up gags for other people but we’re changing that now.

We discovered Kerry wants to work with her brother, Russell Howard again…

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/THEKERRYHOWARD/status/677077653845839872

Kerry: I mean if the opportunity arose we’d definitely work together again. Filming A Gert Lush Christmas together was really really fun actually. But at the moment it’s just getting us tied down to something really because we’re both just so busy. He’s about to do a travel show with my mum!

We’re not really a showbiz family though, I was brought up on jumble sales in church halls you know, very very normal. It’s a bit weird what’s happened.

…and that her Bristolian family like hearing their accent on screen

Kerry: Well they just think I’m playing them, so all my cousins are like: “It’s me isn’t it”.

Discover more comedy shows on BBC iPlayer.

Zoe Boyle plays Rhona and Kerry Howard plays Leanne in Witless.

Witless starts on Friday, 22 April at 6pm on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer. Episode one will also be shown on Friday, 29 April at 11.25pm on BBC One. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for six months after broadcast.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Murdered by My Father: Creating characters with feeling

2016-03-30T10:30:29+00:00

Murdered by My Father dramatizes a very real human tragedy at the heart of a family. But how did its star and writer ensure its characters had heart, too?

Kiran Sonia Sawar, actress:

It was really important to me that my character, Salma, wasn’t portrayed just as a vulnerable victim. I wanted to make her an intelligent girl who could make her own choices, who had her own will and who had her own backbone – having that behind her was really important to me. Just making her a normal teenager and a really accessible character that you see in the street every day was important.

I also didn’t want it to be a tyrannous relationship with her father – I wanted it to be a really loving relationship in a loving family home where there is a lot of compassion and empathy between herself, her brother and her dad.

Essentially, what I discovered with Salma was all her actions were to protect the people she loved and that’s all she really wanted, and the more she tried to do that, the harder it got for her.

I think it’s important to give a voice to these stories and also to bring light to the fact that it’s not necessarily what people think it is. It’s a human rights issue. Making dramas like this opens up that dialogue – I think that’s really important.

Vinay Patel, writer:

A 17-year-old girl is a complex person – I remember my sister when she was 17, she was lovely but an absolute nightmare! – and I think you want people to be able to see themselves. You want her to perhaps be a bit bolshy, you want her to have her own thing going on, you also want to see the contrast with that and the way she interacts with her father. We are all different with our friends than what we are with our parents – when you’re 17 that’s an especially big contrast! That was really important to me to get across.

With the father, Shahzad, you come to the programme knowing what an audience’s expectations of that character are roughly going to be. I think it’s important for the writer to try and flip that as much as possible.

It’s weird what having a title like Murdered by My Father does to something like this dramatically because you know what’s going to happen – both what’s going to happen to someone and who does it. You already know everything about the actions of that character so as a writer you want to give that character an arc and a journey.

There are cases where you can see a person’s mind turned by the sort of pressures that sit around them and that’s what helps you really get to the heart of the issue. The act is almost an aside – it’s the way of thinking that causes that to happen. I wanted people to see that he does struggle, because he does genuinely love his daughter and his mind is in conflict.

You want to believe that he might not do it. You want that character, who you know a little bit about, maybe even like a little bit, to tell himself: “Don’t do it, there is a good person in there who doesn’t have to do this”.

Vinay Patel wrote Murdered by My Father. Kiran Sonia Sawar plays Salma.

Murdered by My Father is available to watch in BBC iPlayer until 5pm on Sunday, 25 September.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Why family is at the heart of The A Word

2016-03-22T17:00:48+00:00

The Hughes family in new BBC One drama The A Word has all the love and humour of a family you'd want to be raised in. But this seemingly-perfect unit is challenged like never before when its youngest member, Joe, is diagnosed with autism.

Playing mum to Joe in the drama written by Peter Bowker is actress Morven Christie, who found herself as overwhelmed with love for this family as her own character, Alison.

My character, Alison, is quite a bullish person. She doesn’t really receive any piece of information without resisting at first. And she goes at everything full pelt. So when she gets the diagnosis that her son, Joe, is on the autism spectrum she just says to herself: “Right, this road has now opened up, this is the direction” and she just goes down that path.

She absolutely dotes on her son. She wants to make the world easier to negotiate and just make life a safer place for him to be in. But she doesn’t necessarily go about things in the right way. She doesn’t know what the right way is, but she’s also not afraid of upsetting people on the route. She’s single-minded.

Alison and her husband Paul have different ways of dealing with it. It causes quite a wedge in the marriage and relationship. Alison’s primary characteristic is that she’s forthright: she’ll go after things. She’s very much like her father. Her dad Maurice, played by Christopher Eccleston, is very much: “I will do things my way, I’ve got the best idea”. But Paul’s thing is: “Oh it will be fine, just leave him be, let him get on with it”.

But these are two people who love each other immensely. Their reactions to this bombshell are very different and that does cause problems between them. The realisations are coming on them like slaps in the face. But ultimately they’re both coming from the same place which is loving Joe and wanting to make everything OK for him.

And I still have hope for them! They are written as a couple that has, from the outside, the perfect marriage. They laugh with each other, they’re sexy with each other, they have fun with each other, they can fight without it really mattering too much. But this does expose the fault lines, essentially.

The whole family becomes involved and I think Alison is quite resentful of that. I don’t think she appreciates having the opinions of others. It’s quite an instinctive, mothering thing. That this is my young, this is my journey, this is mine to protect. But it does take that whole village to raise that child doesn’t it? And so ultimately this family needs to find a way to function, but they just can’t agree on it and that’s the problem.

I felt massively protective over Max Vento, who plays Joe. As the series develops, Max and I have a lot of scenes together, so it was often just the two of us. It was sometimes really tough, but he was my little buddy. It was lovely when I got here this morning and our publicist said: “Max really misses you” and I was like: “I miss him too!” And I really do.

But Joe is no more indicative of a child with autism than I am indicative of every female. If I’ve learned anything it’s that to meet one child on the spectrum means you’ve met one child – because they are so different to one another.

Morven Christie plays Alison Hughes in The A Word.

The A Word starts on Tuesday, 22 March at 9pm on BBC One. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

13 things you need to know about Thirteen's Ivy Moxam

2016-02-25T16:49:00+00:00

Imagine returning home after 13 years of captivity. Would your family even recognise you? Would anything be the same?

In new BBC Three drama thriller, Thirteen, Jodie Comer (from Dr Foster and Remember Me) plays Ivy Moxam, a young woman who escapes from a cellar after being abducted as a teenager on her way to school. We caught up with Jodie to find out the 13 things we need to know about this complex character…

1. Ivy is very guarded

Ivy isn’t very intimate – when she first escapes, she doesn’t want physical contact. One thing I had to really focus on was being aware of when people were around me. Being aware of when characters are touching you or trying to make contact and reacting to that. That was a big part of playing Ivy.

2. You’ll never fully understand who she is

Ivy’s like this animal, she is so feral. When she’s around certain people, certain sides of Ivy do show more than others. There is definitely a mystery about her, one minute you think she’s Ivy and the next she’s not giving you the 100 per cent truth. Even playing her you just don’t quite understand who or what she is.

Detective Sergeant Lisa Merchant and Detective Inspector Elliott Carne question who Ivy really is

3. Not everyone feels the same way about Ivy

DI Carne, who is assigned to Ivy’s case, sympathises with what she may have gone through and still sees her as a girl who has been through this turmoil. I think he just sees the innocence within her that his colleague, DS Merchant, maybe doesn’t see. Merchant is a lot more suspicious and isn’t so quick to welcome her with open arms.

4. Her family’s reaction was surprising

The one thing that shocked me when I first read the script was that they’d taken all of her stuff out of her bedroom. So when they put it back in that broke my heart a little bit. Ivy’s effort to find out what her family are thinking and how that affects her unfolds a little bit more as the series goes on.

5. Ivy has to re-build a lot of trust

Even though they’re her family, Ivy doesn’t know them - they’re not familiar people to her. That trust has to be rebuilt - which takes a lot of work.

Familiar strangers: Can the Moxams go back to being a family again?

6. Her own sister doesn’t recognise her

Her sister definitely has her suspicions: she doesn’t think that this is Ivy at all. But then such a long time has passed and Ivy is not that 13-year-old girl who left. She’s experienced so many different things that have completely shaped her into a whole new person.

7. Ivy just wants to be 13 again

She wants to pick up where she left off and there is such a giddiness when she is around her old friend Tim (played by War and Peace's Aneurin Barnard). She tries her best to not be affected by the situation and to brush it off and be 13 again. There is such an innocence about her in those scenes with Tim.

8. But she doesn’t feel like a victim

Ivy doesn’t feel self-pity in all this. She’s become hardened by what she’s gone through. For her that was normality for 13 years, so to then come back and have everyone fuss over her, I think that drives her crazy.

9. She wants to move forward

I think she feels that Tim is someone she can chat to and someone to move forward with rather than treading over old ground. Tim is definitely who she clings to at first.

10. Ivy has such great strength

She’s lived a hard life and it is so alien to what we could ever imagine. She’s missed out on so much, all those chats that you have with your mum when you’re growing up. She has got such strength to have been able to come out the other end.

11. She has to learn what it’s like to live again

I think she sees the world in a completely different light now and she’s probably forgotten a lot of things. When she gets out, she’s reminded of what life is like and what normality is to others.

12. We have to guess about Ivy’s past

We follow Ivy from when she escapes her captivity. There are no flashbacks which leaves a lot to the audience’s imagination. They have to assume what she has gone through by the way she is acting.

13. Ivy’s experiences open your eyes

You spend a lot of time with the detectives and the case which can feel very intrusive but I think it opens people’s eyes to these types of stories. You hear of these things happening and think: ‘What must their mum and dad be going through?’ or ‘Well I wonder what happened when she got home?’ So Thirteen opens that up a little bit. I think it is important to get people thinking and talking about this subject.

Jodie Comer plays Ivy in Thirteen.

Thirteen starts on Sunday, 28 February at 12pm on BBC Three. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast.

Jodie’s byline picture is from Jack Alexander/Notion Magazine.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Death in Paradise: I can't repeat the French phrases I taught Kris Marshall

2016-01-14T14:01:21+00:00

Appearing in Death in Paradise was my very first time acting in English. So the biggest challenge was to learn my lines in a very short time, make sure that everybody would understand me properly and express my character, Florence’s feelings as naturally as possible. Even if I know that people can hear my French accent, my goal is to provide the best English as possible when I act.

I think Florence brings a touch of charm to the show, but that’s not the only thing. She is really into her job, she’s passionate and talented. She is an action woman, ‘une femme d’action’.

Humphrey – I call him Humph – is the funny part of the series. He is intelligent yet clumsy and as talented as he is weird. He is indisputably the best detective the island of Saint Marie has ever known.

In contrast to other police series, there is very little blood or any type of violence on screen in Death In Paradise, and I think that’s why it’s so popular both in Britain and France. It is quite different as a drama and those differences come from the beautiful scenery, the originality and complexity of the cases. Also the relationships between the characters and of course, the British sense of humour.

You have to be very careful when you speak French around Kris Marshall, who plays Humphrey. He understands almost everything! I am very impressed with his learning capacity. He’s really involved with the French crew while we film in Guadeloupe, speaking and joking around in French with them on a daily basis.

I’m not sure I can tell you what French phrases I’ve actually taught him… Let’s just say that most people, when learning a new language, are only interested in ‘funny’ words.

Joséphine Jobert plays Florence in Death in Paradise.

Death in Paradise, series five, continues on Thursday, 14 January at 9pm on BBC One. Each episode will be available to watch in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Read Kris Marshall's post on why Humphrey finds Saint Marie life so exciting

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

We ask Hinterland’s Mali Harries: What is it with the red parka?

2016-01-13T13:00:21+00:00

Think of crime drama Hinterland, and a few things are bound to come to mind. The mysterious, impressive backdrop of the Ceredigion countryside. The ever-present feeling of tension mounting. And DI Mared Rhys' bright red coat.

So we asked actress Mali Harries what it feels like to put that parka on every day...

The story of the red coat is as follows. Marc Evans, the director of Hinterland's first episode in 2013, wanted my character, Mared Rhys, to have a parka jacket.

Hubert Tachanovski, the director of photography for the first series, wanted a bright colour, so that in the very wide shots of the landscape, you could easily spot Mared out of the green, greys, and browns of the land.

Ffion Elinor, Hinterland’s costume designer, wanted a bit of fur (fake, obviously). And I wanted something that could keep me warm during the snow, hail, wind and rain. So the red coat that Ffion eventually found brought all these ideas together.

Richard Harrington (DCI Tom Mathias) may be the lead actor but his coat is in a supporting role

A lot of fans ask on Twitter where the coat is from. It's actually an Italian make, and is brilliant.

The coat has a certain following, and I call it a ‘she’, as she is beautiful and strong, weatherproof and brilliant.

As regards to her having her own Twitter account, I am very surprised that she doesn't have one. In episode four (in 2014) where I wore a cream version, some people felt it wasn't right. In a way, the coat is Mared's uniform, as if to say: "I'm ready for anything, bring it on. Rain, wind, hail, snow." And certainly filming in Ceredigion for such a long period of time, we will encounter all sorts of weather.

Mared's cream coat didn't prove as popular with Hinterland fans

With regards to her being a character in her own right, she is welcome to have all the adventures she deserves. Hopefully she can be auctioned off for a charity at the end of the series.

I personally would steer clear of wearing a big red parka in future, as I feel it would spoil my disguise in real life. Normally I don't wear make-up and I tie my hair back, so wearing a similar coat would blow my cover somewhat! Although I have bought a few coats from the same company, as they are so well made. Buy cheap, but twice I always say.

Mali takes a break between scenes - but the coat stays firmly on, obviously

If I was to buy Mared a new coat, it would have to be extremely warm and comfortable, but maybe a little more fitted for when the seasons get warmer.

Mali Harries plays DI Mared Rhys in Hinterland.

Hinterland, series two continues on BBC Four on Saturday, 30 April at 9pm. The series was first broadcast from Wednesday, 6 January at 9pm on BBC One Wales. The series will be available to watch from everywhere in the UK in BBC iPlayer. Each episode is available for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

The Bridge’s Sofia Helin untangles Saga’s complex emotions

2015-11-19T10:00:00+00:00

Saga Norén is not your usual TV cop. As Scandinavian detective drama The Bridge returns to BBC Four, actress Sofia Helin talks about the challenge of playing an intense, exhausting and surprisingly emotional role. How will she cope with a new partner, a new case and some old demons..?

I adore Saga so much. She means a lot to me. She’s been the most exhausting character to play. I have to be so intense and so concentrated.

When I first had to play her, it was difficult, because I realised I had to do something completely different from what had been done before. And also I had to dare not to give anything back to my colleagues. That was hard.

And when people are new, or if I meet someone new on set, they just start to laugh because I’m just staring at them like Saga. I think they are uncomfortable.

Sofia demonstrates her character's trademark stare in scenes from series three

We have a convention in television about how to play a police officer, since we’re doing so many crime dramas. We have a way of being kind of a bit cool and dark. And I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to be someone different. And not trying to be cool. Yeah she’s cool, but not traditionally so.

Saga has always been logical. But she gets more and more unstable during this third season of The Bridge, and more and more emotional.

I admire her for always trying. I think she’s trying so hard with her personal life, and in her relationships, to be something she can’t be.

Of course I find Saga a very annoying person too. I could never stand being around her. And she’s also an exhausting person. She’s too intense. But it’s fascinating to be so good at what you do like she is. I admire her for that.

Saga must work with a new Danish partner - and confront her past - in the new series

Whenever I create a character, I always try to think about them from top to toe. How she moves, how her eyes move, her mouth. And it’s the same with Saga, but then she was so different from me, so I had to think hard. I thought a lot about her hips. I tried to make her stand straight. And then I wanted her to be really intense and a bit too much. So she’s constantly going too close to people, going too far forward.

She’s very lonely. I feel so bad for her. I really really do. And she’s getting lonelier. In one way, she’s lost love.

Deciding to turn Martin in at the end of last series was very hard. Their relationship was something new to her. And he stayed by her. And he could stand her way of being. So that was hard. Now she’s all by herself.

Danish detective Martin and Swedish detective Saga shared a unique understanding

She tries to function without Martin. But she almost doesn’t get through it. Now, this series, her past is coming too. And she can’t run anymore. So she has to face everything that happens, including her mother coming…

What sort of a new partner does Saga need? That’s interesting. She would need someone who’s a bit like Martin. But I don’t want to reveal what happens, and what kind of partner she might have – I’ll spoil it!

Sofia Helin plays Saga in The Bridge.

The Bridge, series three, starts with a double-bill on Saturday, 21 November at 9pm on BBC Four. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Read The Bridge writer Hans Rosenfeldt's blog on writing his favourite scenes.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Fried's Mandeep Dhillon: 'Cast becomes like family, and I wouldn't change it for the world'

2015-08-25T14:00:54+00:00

My Fried character, Amara, finds herself being forced to work at Seriously Fried Chicken to be honest. Her dad wants her to learn the value of money. She hates her job, and she’s not very good at it either!

Amara’s a nice girl deep down, she’s just a bit, well, she likes her material stuff. She’s all about nails, big fancy cars, a big house… all of that jazz.

But I think throughout the series you do see her grow. Maturity-wise. Probably more human skills if anything you know.

Amara doesn't think colleague Joe is her type

Her colleague, Joe, secretly likes her. He just needs to have a bit more faith in himself though, bless him! Amara is the type of person who’d only really get with someone who’s sure of themself. Who has confidence in their own looks. And he really doesn’t. That’s probably why she sees him as so sweet. He’s a mate to her, rather than what he wants, which is a relationship.

Is that set to change? Mayyyybe!

This external content is available at its source: Mandeep's Instagram photo with her Some Girls co-stars

Of all the characters I’ve played on TV, in real life I would like to be friends with Saz from Some Girls. She’s a little bit crazy and I’d never get bored of her. She’s one of those people where you just want to be like: ‘What the hell is going on inside your head?!’ She’d keep me entertained.

I always say I’m not similar to Saz at all, but the Some Girls cast say that I am. And I don’t quite know how to take that! I mean obviously Saz is a character I’ve kind of created myself in a weird way, because I’ve had the role since it was a read-through. So all of her stupid facial expressions and certain ways that she reacts to certain things, I brought those elements to the table. So yeah, maybe the silly side of me could well be Saz. But I’m definitely not socially inept like she is.

With any cast, especially doing a six-week shoot, you do end up becoming like family. And it’s difficult to just stop talking to each other because you are in each other’s life for so long. With Some Girls, all of us – as a whole cast that is – really do get along. We speak every day. And it’s actually formed really amazing friendships, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

This external content is available at its source: Mandeep's Instagram photo with the Fried cast

Likewise with Fried, it was such an amazing cast, and it was so much fun on set. Katy Wix, the Mary character, and the Derek character, Matthew Cottle, were definitely the mum and dad of Seriously Fried Chicken. And what a crazy mum and dad they are!

Matthew’s not at all like his character off-screen. One: he doesn’t have the accent. Two: he’s just so down to earth and lovely - he’s not shy but more kind of reserved. When he performs I am honestly so amazed. Whenever I watch him I’m like: ‘Where the hell do you bring that from ‘cause you’re a genius, a comedy genius!’

While filming, it’s the one production I’ve been in comedy-wise where I’ve felt so unprofessional, because I just found it so funny! So when it comes to corpsing on set, all of us were terrible! But do you know what? That just proves it’s such a funny show.

Fahmida (Anjli Mohindra) watches out for friend Yasmin (Mandeep) on a speed dating night

With My Jihad, too, I’ve made amazing friends with Anjli Mohindra, and Ameet Chana as well, who I get to work with again soon in the stage version of Anita and Me. Weirdly he played my husband in My Jihad, and he’s about to play my dad! I know right? How weird! When we both read it we were like: ‘Ah… OK that’s interesting!’

Mandeep Dhillon plays Amara in Fried, Saz in Some Girls and Yasmin in My Jihad.

Fried starts on Tuesday, 25 August at 10.30pm on BBC Three. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Ripper Street's MyAnna Buring: 'Strong characters can be incredibly boring'

2015-08-03T14:00:41+00:00

Playing Long Susan is a joy. Ripper Street’s creator Richard Warlow and its writers, in particular Toby Finlay, have an innate understanding of how to develop fully rounded characters with rich internal lives, which often sit in stark contrast to the external demands the world of Whitechapel places upon them.

All of Ripper Street’s characters start in one place and end up somewhere totally different. It’s these twists and turns that I feel not only make the show compelling for audiences but also makes the job for me as an actor so interesting.

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In Long Susan’s case, she goes from a fugitive hiding the secrets of her past to a woman who - once those secrets are exposed - finds the potential to live openly within her community and openly with her love, Jackson.

Season two sees those hopes threatened by debt. A debt that forces her from brothel madam to whore, let down by and at the mercy of the men around her. The irony is not lost on any one.

In season three we find Susan having undergone a further transformation. Using her wit and resilience she has become an influential businesswoman and philanthropist, creating a financial empire with walls around it as thick as the ones she has built around her heart.

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The price for such walls is that once again she is forced to live with dark secrets. That was the most compelling aspect for me to explore while filming this season - to consider how extraordinarily lonely great power can be and to question what one might be willing to compromise in order to achieve a greater good. Can a dark deed ever be excused? Even if it means that many greater deeds are achieved because of it?

These are the character arcs you dream about playing as an actor. It is fun, it is challenging, it gives me food for thought - and for that I am very grateful.

So much about Susan also lies in what she doesn’t say - there is always a huge tug between her inner and outer self, and I love that.

She’s often referred to as a ‘strong’ character and to an extent that is very true - she is, and admirably so. But if she were only strong she would be boring to play.

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Humans are a big mix of paradoxes really. We are strong, but we can be vulnerable as well. A character’s greatest strength can become their greatest weakness, and that’s what’s interesting – the light and shade, navigating the constant push and pull of opposing forces within oneself. A character lacking in such juxtapositions is never as satisfying to get one’s teeth into. Ripper Street has never failed to provide all of us with many layers to explore.

The language of Ripper Street’s scripts is extraordinary. Not only in that it very much establishes the world of Whitechapel, but it is rewarding to work with as an actor. The lines are so specific that we rarely change them and when spoken, the rhythms infect how you feel. That was a very new experience for me as an actor.

The family atmosphere and rapport on set is another reason I celebrate the continuation of the series. We have many cast, crew and production members who have now worked together for four years. The shorthand that has developed between all departments is palpable and the humour that abounds on set is infectious. It makes for a very happy workplace and one that we have all wanted to return to again and again.

MyAnna Buring plays Long Susan in Ripper Street.

Ripper Street, series three continues on Friday, 7 August at 9pm on BBC One. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Why Kay Mellor kept The Syndicate’s plot a mystery from the cast

2015-06-02T14:20:15+00:00

Lottery winnings are transformative in every sense for my character, Dawn. She’s in a low income family, they’re really, really struggling. They’ve got two teenagers and an unexpected baby on the way. I think they’re wondering how they’re going to manage. They’re classic winners of the lottery – they desperately need a break.

All the main characters have got their heads screwed on. I think the feeling that you get from them is that they’re a pretty sensible crew. They’re not likely to go out and do anything nuts with the money. In fact, what they choose to do is really sensible.

The Syndicate pool their money together for the lottery rollover

I just know what it feels like. I’ve got a nine-year-old son and a nine-year-old nephew, and I’m a busy mum, and I know a lot of mums who are busy with a job, rushing around, getting everyone off to school and work – so it’s just very easy to identify with Dawn really – it wasn’t too difficult!

The plot was a secret from us in the cast. The first two months we were all working very closely together filming the first day – and the disappearance of Amy, Dawn’s daughter. After that, we literally didn’t know what had happened to Amy or where she had gone. We were given two episodes at a time. We started in October, and it was still a mystery right up until the beginning of January when we started the last little block. So we didn’t know whether she was going to be alive or dead! And I think Kay Mellor wanted it that way – there was everything to play for, doing it like that.

Dawn Stevenson (Elizabeth Berrington) and her daughter Amy (Daisy Head)

British drama at its best is realistic and truthful. You know, working class characters are portrayed. I know that there’s less of an appetite for that (for example) on mainstream TV channels in the States where all the characters are sort of polished – nice make up, hair nicely brushed.

Wolf Hall was brilliant for me. Yes it was a period drama, but it was just so utterly believable. Sometimes period drama can be very beautiful, but it isn’t very current because it isn’t 100% truthful. But the characters that were realised in the show were just utterly believable. And when English drama produces work like that, then it’s top notch really.

The moment when the group find out they have won!

I’ll tell you who I’ve worked with who I find incredibly watchable – Sarah Lancashire. I love Sarah’s work. She can’t do something that isn’t utterly believable and utterly truthful, and I find her absolutely mesmerising. Every bone in her body is terribly committed and just full of truth really.

I also love Monica Dolan, another wonderful English actress, she’s in W1A – she plays the Welsh communications officer. But you know, fiercely talented. Both she and Sarah have been supporting actresses for years and years, just grafting away, and now they’re being acknowledged in a way that they ought to be.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’d spend the money if I won the lottery. And my sister is next to me, so if I won the lottery I’d pay off her mortgage! I’d sort out her and my family and friends. The whole family are chipping in now! I’d hire a big villa in Sicily and fill it with all my friends for a couple of months and have a grand party! My son is now shouting "what about me?!" [Aimed at her son in the background] – I’d send him away to school and we wouldn’t see him until Christmas time! I’d take some time off work, learn some languages, and do some things that you never normally learn to do.

The Syndicate with their winning cheque at Hazelwood Manor

Elizabeth Berrington plays Dawn Stevenson in The Syndicate.

Series three of The Syndicate begins at 9pm on Tuesday, 2 June on BBC One. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

W1A returns! Actress Ophelia Lovibond - hardworking PA Izzy - tells us what she loves about the comedy

2015-04-23T13:33:08+00:00

Who's your favourite W1A character, after Izzy?

Oh well I think that has to be Will Humpries, played brilliantly by Hugh Skinner. He’s so infuriating, yet loveable at the same time, and Hugh is just so funny.

What made you laugh the most in the new series?

Hearing the two Hughs (Bonneville and Skinner) riff on the trials and tribulations of Syncopatico... W1A's fictional software system.

What made you cringe the most, watching it back?

I can’t tell you that! It happens later, in episode three or four. It involves Sarah Parish’s character (Anna Rampton) and a loo...

How long do you see Izzy having before she reaches the levels of Lucy Freeman – or even Anna Rampton - or will she be driven away from the corporation?

Izzy is a very driven, ambitious individual so I reckon she has her sights set on having as much autonomy as possible, as soon as possible. But! that’s a lot easier said than done with Will around as she essentially has his workload on her plate too.

You said that in Hollywood, female characters are under-written. What do you appreciate about the female characters in W1A?

That they are exactly the opposite; they’re comprehensive individuals each with their own very particular agenda and John Morton's dialogue reflects that. It’s not like you could interchange all their lines and it not make a difference. Reading the scripts, you'd never confuse one character with another, because they each have their own voice.They’re also funny!

What kind of fun did you have off-camera?

There was one particular time when Sarah and Jessica Hynes were lying on the floor of the green room, just chatting away with the rest of us, nibbling on fruit. There was no apparent reason. No one questioned it or even mentioned it, conversation carried on as normal. It quite easily could have been a scene from the show.

Will lovestruck intern Will manage to catch Izzy's eye in series two?

Did Jessica share any comedy insights with you?

Not explicitly, but by osmosis - I’ve loved her since Spaced and been hugely influenced by her sense of comedy. I vividly remember watching it thinking how brilliantly nuanced her character was and immediately being inspired to try something similar at the theatre group I went to on Saturdays.

Izzy is kind enough to defend Will from criticism… would he have a hope at the Christmas party, ever?

Well anything can happen with enough Crème de Menthe down the hatch...

Do you have any other anecdotes to share from filming?

Just this really - that filming at BBC New Broadcasting House there were so many moments of art imitating life (or it may have been the other way round - it’s genuinely hard to tell with W1A). Most notably, I was never able to get into the building. Although they had my name on the desk and knew I was filming there, there were never any passes left, so some poor soul had to come down from the seventh floor each morning to collect me and escort me up. A la Will and Izzy…

Ophelia Lovibond plays Izzy in W1A.

Ophelia’s byline picture is from Who’s In Today? – See other celebrities snapped as they visit the BBC HQ in London.

W1A returns on Thursday, 23 April at 9pm on BBC Two. Each episode will be available in BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast on TV.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

The feature-length special is coming! Mali Harries shares her view of Hinterland

2015-04-02T08:09:51+00:00

Mali Harries took a break from filming series two of Hinterland in the wilds of Ceredigon to share a few thoughts on the feel of this weekend’s feature-length special.

Working in two languages – English and Welsh - is a real challenge. You can’t literally translate it line for line, as there are differences in the syntax and rhythm. The meaning is often the same, but the colour can vary between both languages.

I speak Welsh at home, but I have no preference as to which language I work in, I just want to work! The police language often flows easier in English. I personally don’t feel anything is lost in translation. We can’t allow it to be, as the Welsh language and non-Welsh language viewers have the right to enjoy every beat of each scene, regardless.

I improvised the line "Why is it women do the work, men get promoted?" during a tonal meeting. I think often women crack on with the job, and aren’t always given the praise, or the pay they deserve. Mared, like myself, is a straight talker.

Working with Richard Harrington (DCI Mathias) is a real pleasure. He’s a very passionate person, and he often larks around, which is good, as I tend to get a bit serious when I work. In a scene, if there is a slight problem with anything, it often turns into a great moment with Rich. In Hinterland, we are encouraged to work in a very a very organic way, so as actors we can contribute things, and if they’re agreed they are included.

The sparse dialogue in Hinterland definitely gives us more freedom to play as actors. I think that silence is a wonderful thing, it means that the atmosphere is driven by people’s innermost thoughts and not just the plot.

Mali Harries plays DI Mared Rhys in Hinterland.

A feature-length special episode of Hinterland is available to watch in BBC iPlayer until Tuesday, 6 October at 12.10am.

It was first broadcast on BBC One Wales on Monday, 6 April 2015.

Need a refresher on series one? Watch the recap here

An arson attack lures DCI Mathias back - watch the special episode's trail

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

Everything you need to know about Claudia Jessie – the new woman on the beat in WPC 56

2015-03-09T13:10:57+00:00

WPC 56, the drama about the first female police officers in 1950s Birmingham and the Black Country is back. And the force has a new policewoman in its ranks: Annie Taylor, played by actress Claudia Jessie.

As Annie takes up the badge left behind for her by WPC Gina Dawson, who has graduated to the Met, Claudia tells us seven things we need to know about herself and her character.

1. I watch everything I’m in with my mum.

I’m really excited for series three to start. I’ve been re-watching the second series in preparation – again! I’ll be watching it with my mum. Everything that I’m in, I watch with my mum. And then I’ll make my boyfriend watch it with me later on BBC iPlayer!

I hate any photographs of me, I’m not on Facebook or Twitter or anything like that - I hate seeing myself in a normal situation, me being me. But when I’m playing someone else it feels like I’m removed from it, so I don’t mind watching scenes I’m in too much.

WPC Annie Taylor is Birmingham's newest female police constable

2. Annie and I have a lot in common

Being the new girl ran parallel and it really helped me actually. There was me coming into a cast that had already established a great production and great characters, and meeting these lovely people as actors, and then Annie was going through the same thing wasn’t she? I think it was quite nice that I had that in common with my character.

Am I like Annie? I really bloody hope so! Because she’s lovely. I think Annie is probably a lot stronger emotionally than I am though – I don’t think I’d be able to do her job!

3. Annie has a lot of expectations to live up to

One of the first things she says to her peers is that she’s going to do her best to live up to the expectation of the hard work that Gina built. But I think the thing with Annie is, she just wants to do a really good job, and I think she would have done that even if she was the first WPC.

Her gender is obviously such a poignant thing in the show, but for Annie I don’t think that that’s even registered, I don’t think she necessarily feels led by her maternal side or her, um, womb! She’s led by justice really, and truth, and I think that’s really powerful.

4. I want to make Birmingham proud

I knew of WPC 56 anyway because I’m from Birmingham (I was born in Moseley) as are all my family and dear friends, so my family are really aware of it too – especially my nan! She was so pleased when I got the part. To represent Birmingham in a drama makes me feel really proud.

There’s nothing more wonderful than a Brummie! There’s this unassuming, almost apologetic nature – I mean we’ve been the butt of everyone’s jokes for decades! I have six uncles, and they’re all Brummies and they’ve got this great sense of humour, that ‘take it on the chin’ sort of humour that runs through the WPC 56 script. I think that humbleness to the characters is a real Birmingham trait. It definitely reflects Birmingham in the right light.

Coulson makes a surprise, and somewhat unwelcome return in episode one

5. I have such an appreciation for women in the 1950s

The show is set just on the back of World War Two at a time when women were doing all of the men’s jobs because they were away fighting. What I found amazing is that when the men came back – obviously I wasn’t there! – but it seemed men expected women to go back to what they were when the men were at home. Whereas actually they’d been working their socks off and had done a fantastic job.

It was a time of real social change and I remember talking to Dominique Moloney, the show’s writer, about that – you’ll get to see a lot of that with Annie and her mother and father. There are some really beautiful scenes with them all together and you really find out a deeper story and I’m sure it will touch a lot of people. When Assistant Chief Constable Coulson returns, knowing how he behaved in the last series and how he was towards Gina Dawson, Annie isn’t intimidated. She just thinks, OK I’ve kind of got a job to do. But I think there’s a bit of a revolt against him - spoiler alert - people really aren’t taking his stuff anymore towards the end of the show.

6. Parts of 1950s policing shocked me

Like all female police officers, Annie would never carry a weapon. I thought that was odd. There was a scene I did and I was just like: “Well Annie would just step straight forward”, but no, DI Harry Sawyer had the gun, so he goes first. Annie is the kind of look out. I thought wow, that’s bonkers. I don’t have a weapon but you all get truncheons?!

Although I did hold one of the guns, and it was used in World War Two, a real gun that was USED IN THE WAR. I remember holding it and being like ‘someone please take this out of my hands!’

7. I’m Buddhist

I’ve been practising Nichiren Buddhism for eight years now. In terms of me and my life in acting, I can safely say with no fear of contradiction that if I were not practising Buddhism I wouldn’t be an actress. I think it’s really supported my life, my sense of worth, and belief that I can create value in whatever I do.

Claudia Jessie plays WPC Annie Taylor in WPC 56.

WPC 56 returns on Monday, 9 March at 2.15pm on BBC One.

More on WPC 56

Writer Dominique Moloney on women in policing in the 1950s

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.

You can’t run or hide: Jessica Hynes on her suffragette comedy

2015-01-21T17:32:27+00:00

I wanted Up The Women to feel like a classic sit-com, almost as if it had always been here

In being so uncompromisingly retro filming with a live studio audience, we actually stand out I think. In dealing with the suffrage movement – a subject matter that most people don't associate with comedy I was aware that I had to make it as user friendly and funny as possible.

You can't run and you can't hide when you’re filming with a live audience

For five out of the six episodes we were in the hall, the kitchen or the entrance filming with no time jumps in the story. It’s tough on the cast and a real challenge to write and film but I wanted the audience to love these characters and feel they knew them - this is a great way to achieve that.

Helen (Rebecca Front) insists her dinner party napkins will do more to change the world than Margaret (Jessica Hynes) and her rousing suffragette speech

It would be too easy to hate Helen

By having her mother in the show we begin to understand that Helen (Rebecca Front) is reacting against the permissiveness of Myrtel (Judy Parfitt) who lived through the enlightenment. It mirrors the relationship many daughters have now with their mothers from the 1960s and I thought people would relate to it.

Helen and Margaret come from my day dreams of imagining women in 1910

I wanted to create characters with personal history who complement each other but whose personalities don't overlap. Margaret is a woman who might have been so many things if she had just had the chance. Cristabel Pankhurst got a first in law but couldn't practice because she was a woman. Margaret has read and absorbed every book she can get her hands on but she has not really 'lived' a day. She was a very clever 'every woman' in a way - battling society’s expectations and controls - constantly managing her own expectations. Her belief that in the future women might not suffer as she had drove her to become a suffragette.. And me to write and play her to vindicate her silence in 1910 by giving her a voice in 2015.

People failing and trying seems to sum life up

Writing about that and making it funny, anything that makes us feel happier, more connected and less lonely, is worth doing.

Margaret (Jessica Hynes) is going on hunger strike... after she's finished a small ham finger sandwich

Creating Spaced was completely different

I wanted Spaced to feel like nothing that had even been on TV before - to fill the screen with a recognisable world and truthful idiosyncratic characters that behave in a relatable way. By heightening the colours, being bold with lighting editing and film styles, we were able to make something both entertaining and perversely realistic. Up The Women was polished and jokes improved, as studio sit-coms need to be, until we filmed. Spaced was locked down and scheduled like a film in order to achieve it with the time and money we had, very little was changed when we filmed.

The Edwardians got some things right…

A vibrating chair once prescribed by doctors to women with stress in order to bring about 'hysterical paroxsysms' was written in at one point but we didn’t use it in the end.

Jessica Hynes created, wrote and stars in Up The Women.

Series two of Up The Women is on Wednesday, 21 January at 10pm on BBC Two and BBC Two HD. For further programme times please see the episode guide.

Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.