Our favorite 5 interviews of all time – British drama!
When I think of non-mystery drama series on PBS, I immediately gravitate to the likes of Downton Abbey, All Creatures Great and Small and Call the Midwife. I could even go old school and reach back to a time when Brideshead Revisited, Tales of the City and The Singing Detective were the weekly subject of conversation at the water cooler.
Then, by 2020, both Sanditon and Victoria managed to almost make us OK with the fact that Downton Abbey had gone out of production.
Two of my five favorite drama-based interviews since Tellyspotting started provides behind-the-scenes insight into those two fan favorites, especially. The list is rounded out by great conversations about New Tricks, Inspector Lewis and Atlantic Crossing.
As a reminder, I am highlighting my 15 favorite interviews with brilliant British television talent, inspired by Tellyspotting’s 15th anniversary this year. They are categorized into five conversations about three genres each: comedy, mystery and drama, below. Please enjoy!
Q&A with Rose Williams – Sanditon
March 2020
Rose Williams as Charlotte Heywood in Sanditon. (Credit: Red Planet Pictures / ITV 2019 / Simon Ridgway)
Sanditon was all but pronounced DOA after the season 1 conclusion in the U.S., as part of PBS’s Masterpiece series. Before the never-ending efforts of social media’s #SanditonSisterhood resurrected the series for an additional two seasons, we had the extreme good fortune to sit down with the thoroughly talented Rose Williams, aka Charlotte Heywood, to talk about the series, the role of Charlotte, and Jane Austen.
But we also discussed non-Regency-era matters … like Rose herself! When she mentioned that loves the British sense of humor, I wanted to know: What are her favorite British comedies?
“Okay, so it’s really obscure. It’s called The Mighty Boosh. It’s completely mad, but I think I watched it 100,000 times” when she was a teenager, she said. “One other show that I think is so brilliant is People Just Do Nothing. It’s about a pirate radio station, and it’s absolutely brilliant.”
All I can say is what an absolutely delightful individual, and what a brilliant breath of fresh air Rose was during this conversation. It’s a long one, so grab a bag of popcorn and settle in.
The programming KERA TV airs includes British drama like these, along with insightful documentaries, razor-sharp comedies and intriguing mysteries. It’s available to all North Texans for free! Support our public media mission by becoming a monthly member or making a one-time, tax-deductible donation. Thank you! 🇬🇧
Q&A with Daisy Goodwin – Victoria
January 2018
Daisy Goodwin, series creator and writer of Victoria; and a still from the series of Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria
It was 1981 when a young Cambridge University student, Daisy Goodwin, initially crossed paths with the 62-million words that made up the red leather-bound diaries of Queen Victoria. Approximately 35 years later, Goodwin put her “media and the monarchy in the 19th century” studies to work and discovered a strong, spirited, passionate, engaging, funny and frank young woman who became Queen of England at the age of 18.
In our conversation with Victoria creator/writer Daisy Goodwin in 2018, we discussed the series; the relationship between Queen Victoria and her husband, Albert; and how being a mother impacted Victoria as queen, portrayed in season 2.
“It isn’t easy being a mother and a queen. Which comes first?”
Q&A with Tamzin Outhwaite – New Tricks
August 2015
New Tricks catered to an “uncool for advertisers” older demographic who enjoyed watching a bunch of out-of-retirement coppers find ways to solve unsolved crimes using old-school methods that would, most likely, send new-age police procedural writers into orbit.
In a word, New Tricks was a huge hit for the BBC for over a decade, leaving commissioners and schedulers scratching their collective heads trying to figure out why.
How about the good acting and writing, first off, coupled with the idea that you don’t have to blow something up real good every program segment just to combat ever-shortening attention spans?
We spoke to Tamzin Outhwaite about what made the series a hit, along with what attracted her to the role of DCI Sasha Miller.
“I loved the idea of being the boss of a team of men. While that sounds so egotistical, it’s not,” she said. “My first series after Eastenders was a series called Red Cap where I was the lowest rank and the only woman in a team of men, so it feels like I’ve come full circle.”
RELATED | R.I.P. Dennis Waterman — the last original ‘old dog’ on ‘New Tricks’
Q&A with Babou Ceesay – Inspector Lewis
January 2013
Actor Babou Ceesay was more than ready to take his seat in the Oxfordshire police car alongside Inspector Lewis, played by Kevin Whately. As DC Alex Gray, Ceesay picks up his police notebook in the second installment of the sixth season of the series.
Ceesay, who grew up in Gambia, took a bit of a non-traditional road to the world of acting. He started out studying microbiology, then he worked in the London financial district as an internal auditor for Deloitte. (Personally, having taken only one semester of accounting, myself, at the University of Texas, I can completely understand Ceesay’s career-changing decision to abandon the straight and narrow for a life of acting!) He then went on to graduate from the Oxford School of Drama.
We interviewed Ceesay just prior to his UK introduction as Inspector Lewis’ new sidekick, where his DC Alex Gray takes over for DS James Hathaway (played by Laurence Fox since the series began in 2006).
Was there any chance Ceesay’s previous work in the financial district translated to how he approached the role? Surprisingly, yes.
“Auditing is very forensic. It’s financial forensics, really,” he said. “As an auditor, the need to always know the detail, asking, ‘What does this mean?’ and having the ability to pin people down to an absolute statement translates to the world of crime forensics, where you always have to ask the question, ‘What did you mean by that?’”
Q&A with Alexander Eik – Atlantic Crossing
Left: Atlantic Crossing creator Alexander Eik (Credit: @alexander.eik.official on Facebook); Right: Sofia Helin as Norwegian Crown Princess Märtha and Kyle MacLachlan as FDR (Photo courtesy: Beta Films / PBS Masterpiece)
Atlantic Crossing tells the riveting and relatively unknown true story of Norwegian Crown Princess Märtha, who became an influential figure in world politics during World War II after her country was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940. The series also follows her journey from Norway to the U.S. White House, where she was given refuge and became close to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In advance of the series premiere in 2021, we interviewed Alexander Eik, creator and co-writer/co-director of Atlantic Crossing, to fully get a sense as to what it took for his idea for the series to go from his mind palace all the way to PBS Masterpiece.
“My co-writer Linda May Kallestein and I, we did our best to achieve historical credibility. We spent almost seven years researching this story,” he said. “Some are very true to the actual events. Others are more loosely inspired by these because, when you try to compress five years of war history into an 8-hour drama, you have to make some hard choices.”
We also discussed the crime fiction genre of Nordic noir. What titles would Eik recommend?
A Norwegian police procedural “called Wisting,” he said. “It’s based on a series of books by Jørn Lier Horst, a very successful Norwegian crime thriller writer. It’s a true Nordic noir, a very suspenseful thriller set in the snowy landscapes of rural Norway.”
… As we close out 2024 and look ahead to another year of brilliant British content on PBS (and KERA TV), we wish you and your family a safe and happy holiday season with nothing but good thoughts and good telly in the coming year!
Support our public media mission by becoming a monthly member or making a one-time, tax-deductible donation. Thank you! 🇬🇧
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In: Actors/Actresses,Archive,Drama
