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State Of Play

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Cast and crew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Cast interviews

John Simm plays Cal McCaffrey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30David Morrissey plays Stephen Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Kelly Macdonald plays Della . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Bill Nighy plays Cameron Foster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Polly Walker plays Anne Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

State Of Play

www.bbc.co.uk/stateofplay 26

David Morrissey and John Simm star in State OfPlay, a gripping conspiracy thriller set against thebackground of Whitehall and Fleet Street.

Stephen Collins (Morrissey) is a high-flying,ambitious member of parliament and Chairman ofthe Government’s Energy Select Committee. CalMcCaffrey (Simm) is a well-respected investigativejournalist and Stephen’s ex-campaign manager.WhenStephen’s young research assistant, Sonia, falls to herdeath on the London Underground, it’s not longbefore revelations of their affair hit the headlines.

Meanwhile a suspected teenage drug dealer namedKelvin Stagg is found shot dead.The discovery thatKelvin and Sonia shared a two-minute phone callon the morning of their deaths draws Cal into aninvestigation that’s always one step ahead of thepolice. But friendships are tested and lives are puton the line as an intricate web of lies unfolds.

When Paul Abbott, who has created many hit seriesincluding Clocking Off, Linda Green,Touching Evil andReckless, decided to write State Of Play, it was hislove of the conspiracy thriller genre which inspiredhim.“It’s the kind of television I like watching, andconspiracy thrillers seem to have gone by thewayside in the last few years,” he says.“By creatingthe link between a rising star of the government and

a young journalist, it looks at the way we’re all fedinformation, the way it’s laundered for massconsumption, and how that translates once it makesthe front page. I fell in love with the idea of watchinga tiny piece of journalistic information trigger aninvestigation that gradually unearths a scandal.”

Abbott says he wanted to base the story on anewspaper investigation because it is a worldthat hasn’t been seen very much on Britishtelevision. “It’s a world that intrigues me becausejournalists have a different mentality from thepolice.The police naturally look for evidence,while a journalist naturally looks for a story. Andit’s in a journalist’s commercial interest to keepthe information away from the police. But whilethey have very different perspectives, bothjournalist and detective rely on each other tofertilise their information.”

Producer Hilary Bevan Jones, who has worked withAbbott on dramas as varied as Cracker, ButterflyCollectors and The Secret World Of Michael Fry,believes the appeal of State Of Play lies in its manytwists and turns.“You think you’re on the righttrack, then something else comes along to makeyou think again, it’s constantly changing.You cannever predict what is coming next, but you canhave a lot of fun guessing,” she says.

27www.bbc.co.uk/stateofplay

Introduction

State Of Play A major new conspiracy thriller by Paul Abbott

“I also wanted to look at the world of politics, andpeople’s growing disenchantment with moderngovernment’s reliance on spin,” continues Abbott.“There is a lack of honesty which just seems tohave spiralled out of control.The fact that the twovictims – Sonia Baker and Kelvin Stagg – shared aphone call on the morning they died consequentlymushrooms into a huge political and public story.Then the race is on between the policeinvestigation and the newspaper investigation andthere’s emotional fall-out for everyone involved asthe drama unfolds.”

Abbott believes that media, big business andgovernment should watch their own corners.“Ifgovernment gets too familiar with business, thenbusiness steers the country in a way that happensin America. Look at the links between the people inGeorge Bush’s administration and Exxon. TheBritish media seem currently far more robust attaking the goverment to task than their UScounterparts,” he says.

Abbott, Bevan Jones and director David Yates spenttime at The Times and The Guardian and were struckby the energy in the newsrooms they visited.“Wewanted to capture the exuberance, the risingtensions and the sheer andrenalin that weobserved,” says Bevan Jones,“as well as the humourthat comes from working in a highly stressfulenvironment.”

Yates, whose Bafta Award-winning production ofThe Way We Live Now was one of the highlights of BBC One last year, was hooked by the scale andcomplexity of the story.“Paul skilfully interweavesthe myriad worlds of press, politics and police, buthis sense of the bigger picture never buries theemotional lives of his characters. He is a masterstoryteller and the thrill of the ride doesn’tdisplace the fact that, at the end of it, the themes of State Of Play are still pretty resonant.”

David Morrissey follows up his acclaimedperformances in Out Of Control and This Little Life.His previous credits include Murder,TonyMarchant’s Holding On and Captain Correlli’sMandolin. John Simm is best-known for his leadingroles in The Lakes, Human Traffic and Crime AndPunishment. State Of Play also stars Polly Walker,(recently seen on screen playing Mary Archer in

Jeffrey Archer – The Truth) as Anne Collins, Stephen’swife and the object of Cal’s increasing affection;Kelly Macdonald (who has appeared in the hit filmsGosford Park and Trainspotting) as Della, Cal’soutspoken young colleague; and Bill Nighy (recentlyon screen in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and The Lost Princeand shortly to be seen in BBC Films’ I Capture TheCastle) as newspaper editor Cameron.

State Of Play is an Endor production in associationwith the BBC.The producer is Hilary Bevan Jones,the director is David Yates, and executive producersare Gareth Neame, Laura Mackie and Paul Abbott.

Viewers of State Of Play will be able to join in theintrigue by guessing what happens next in a BBCiwebsite game and competition which will run inconjunction with the series.Throughout the series,web-users will be invited to log on towww.bbc.co.uk/stateofplay and choose betweendifferent scenarios and decide which is the mostlikely outcome in subsequent episodes.

Episodes two to five of State Of Play première onBBC Four, immediately after the previous episodesare shown on BBC One.

www.bbc.co.uk/stateofplay


Introduction


Cast and crew

State Of Play

Cast

Stephen CollinsCal McCaffrey

DellaAnne Collins

CameronDan Foster

PeteHelen

SydLiz

Adam GreeneYvonne

Dominic FoyDCI Bell

ChewyDI Brown

Detective Chief Constable JansonGreer

Andrew WilsonGeorge Fergus

Louis CollinsKaren Collins

Olicia StaggSonny Stagg

Writer and Executive ProducerProducerDirector

Executive Producers for BBC

Production DesignerDirector of Photography

Costume DesignerMake-Up Designer

EditorComposer

Script EditorLine Producer

David MorrisseyJohn SimmKelly MacdonaldPolly WalkerBill NighyJames McAvoyBenedict WongAmelia BullmoreTom BurkeRebekah StatonChristopher SimpsonGeraldine JamesMarc WarrenPhilip GlenisterSean GilderRory McCannNick BrimbleDeborah FindlayMichael FeastJames LaurensonCharlie RyanRebecca RyanMaureen HibbertJohann Myers

Paul AbbottHilary Bevan JonesDavid YatesGareth NeameLaura MackieDonal WoodsChris SeagerClaire AndersonAnne ‘Nosh’ OldhamMark DayNick HooperSusie ConklinPaul Frift

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Production credits

“State Of Play is all about human relationships and,on top of that, it’s a huge thriller,” says John Simm.“Cal finds himself investigating his distraught friend,Stephen Collins, and soon becomes embroiled withStephen’s wife,Anne, whose marriage has finallyfallen apart over revelations of her husband’s affairwith Sonia.”

Simm has a history of playing dark, troubled souls,culminating in the darkest and most troubled ofthem all – Raskolnikov in last year’s Crime AndPunishment on BBC Two. But his latest roles in bothState Of Play and his upcoming film, Miranda, wherehe stars alongside Christina Ricci, are a departurefrom all that.

The decision to play someone “a bit more grownup” was a conscious one.“I usually play brooding,weight-of-the world weirdos,” he chuckles,“but

Cal’s not one of those. He’s a bit more normal. He’snot a perfect person – he hasn’t settled down andhe’s a bit crumpled – but he’s an investigativejournalist, a professional, and very high up in his jobso in that respect it is very different.

“He does try to help Stephen, but there is alwaysthat thing at the back of his mind that the story iseverything.The more he unravels it, the moreexciting it gets and he’s like a bloodhound. He’llbreak rules to get what he wants. His friendshipwith Stephen sometimes puts him at odds withthe rest of the investigative team. But it’s anadvantage because sometimes he wouldn’t havegot half the information he has unless he had beenfriends with him.

“The whole relationship with Anne is a messy lovething which he doesn’t really mean to happen. Butshe and Stephen had already split up so it’s not hisfault. She needs a shoulder to cry on and he’svulnerable. I don’t think he’s ever been very goodwith women,” he explains.

Simm was looking forward to working with DavidMorrissey as he had admired his work for a longtime, particularly in Tony Marchant’s Holding On. Butthe connection goes way back:“He did somethingcalled One Summer years ago which I remembervery well from being a kid. It stuck in my head andit was one of the things that made me want to goto drama school,” Simm says. However, Morrisseywasn’t overly flattered when Simm told him of hisearly admiration.“He just said, ‘thanks, that makesme feel really old,’” he laughs.

Simm spent time in the offices of both The Timesand The Guardian in preparation for the role.“There’s a lot of things that journalists find out thatthey can’t tell you or they can’t print. But theinteresting thing for me was the how the placecame alive as the deadline approached, the buzz ofthe office became really prominent and everyone’sbody language changed.”

Simm very briefly toyed with the idea of becominga journalist himself before he left school, taking part


John Simm

John Simm plays Cal McCaffrey

in an organised trip around a local paper and headmits that the idea of being an investigativejournalist holds some appeal for him:“You have alicence to do undercover detective work whichcould be very interesting.”

However, it is unlikely that Simm would be able tosqueeze another career into his busy life as actor,musician and new father.

He is due to begin work shortly in Dublin on TheSix Revenges Of Gregory Lynn, a film which hedescribes as “a cross between Natural Born Killersand Billy Liar”. He plays a librarian who kills off hisold teachers one by one and will star alongsideBrenda Blethyn, Michael Gambon and JoelyRichardson. In Miranda, due to be released shortlyin the States, he plays another librarian. Simm saysthe film is lighter than his usual roles and his characteris eccentric, romantic, shy and quite funny looking –“he has a mad quiff and dresses like Frank Sinatra.”He starts a passionate affair with a mysteriouswoman who walks into his library and, when shesuddenly disappears, he travels down to London tosearch for her only to discover that she has threeidentities – dancer, dominatrix and con-woman.

However, the roles for which Simm is still recognisedin the street are usually his earliest – Danny in TheLakes and then Jip in the raver film Human Traffic. Infact, the latter provoked such a response he soonfound himself under siege whenever he wentclubbing, surrounded by ravers on the dance floor“all gurning away”. Although he concedes that it ispart of the job, he hates the idea of celebrity culture.“It infuriates me and makes me angry. I couldn’twatch the Oscars in the middle of the war – actorsslapping themselves on the back is just crass. I thinkthe worst thing an actor can be is a celebritybecause you lose all the mystery. It makes it harderfor anyone to believe in you as the character.”

He finds it difficult to pick a favourite role but,when pushed, says he thinks Crime And Punishmentwas the best thing he’s ever done.“It was so meaty,dark and heavy – kind of similar to Hamlet withoutplaying Hamlet.” Which is a surprise as you mightexpect his favourite to be his performance as JoyDivision guitarist and New Order frontmanBernard Sumner in 24 Hour Party People, a rolewhich combined his two great loves – acting and

music – and one which Simm describes as “the bestfun job I’ve ever had”.

He has recently played on Ian McCulloch’s newalbum, Slideling, which is to be released shortly, andsays he might get up and do a few songs with himwhen he tours. If he does, it won’t be the first timehe’s shared a stage with McCulloch as his band,Magic Alex, have supported Echo And TheBunnymen on tour. He says there are plans forMagic Alex to release an EP this year but swiftlyqualifies it with “but we keep saying that, we’re allreally busy”. He has no regrets about concentratinghis professional energies on acting:“We’vesurpassed everything I thought we would doanyway, so anything else is just a bonus.”

These days, he insists that he is much more of afamily man, happy to spend time at home with hisgirlfriend, actress Kate McGowan, and their 19-month-old son, Ryan. He describes Ryan as “themeaning of life” and is consequently not lookingforward to a two-week trip to promote Miranda inthe States.“I’ve never left him for that long before– it’ll break my heart when I get on the plane,” hesays.“Being a father, your priorities suddenlychange, you’re not number one any more, which isquite a weird thing – if the proverbial truck washurtling towards me, I’d rather die than him. I’d cutmy own throat if he wanted blood.” But Simm, anavid Manchester United fan, says it could all changeif Ryan doesn’t do the right thing when it comes tosupporting a football team.“I won’t feel like that ifhe grows up an Arsenal fan,” he jokes.“If he’s anArsenal fan he can find somewhere else to live, it’sall out the window then!”


John Simm

David Morrissey found his latest role as politicianStephen Collins particularly tricky to play.“Stephenis genuine and honest, but because he is a politicianand these are not qualities which we believe arecommon amongst our own politicians, your naturalinstinct is not to believe in him,” he says.“At best,people are apathetic about politicians and, at worst,they’re completely cynical.”

For his own part, Morrissey falls somewhere betweenthe two.“It’s how I feel about some politicians, butnot all of them. I believe in the political machineand that, for all its flaws, the democracy we have isthe best way to run the country.”

Stephen Collins is an up-and-coming light of theLabour party.As the Chairman of a Select EnergyCommittee on oil he’s being groomed for highoffice. He’s very ambitious, very capable, and thingsare going swimmingly for him until one day, hisresearcher falls under a train and all at once his lifestarts to fall apart.

He turns to Cal for help. Cal was once his campaignmanager and they were very close but pressure ofwork has meant they’ve drifted apart.“He enlistsCal’s help as a damage limitation exercise, but alsobecause he really does need his friends, but thingsget very complicated, not least because Cal startsan affair with his wife,” says Morrissey.

“In State Of Play the main focus is finding outwho’s spinning who and who’s telling the truth.As the story goes on, it dawns on both Stephenand Cal that there are bigger things at work thanthey thought.”

As research for the role, Morrissey spent sometime shadowing Peter Mandelson and two otherMPs, but his time in Parliament didn’t make himwant to be a politician himself. “It’s a ruthlessprofession, they were all quite open about the factthat if you want to rise in the party you have to becareful who you affiliate yourself with.There’s a linein State Of Play when an MP says, ‘the enemy isn’tsitting opposite you but all around you,’ and it’strue.As a politician, you’re not allowed to showvulnerability and I’d find that very difficult.

“You do think they live a slightly glamorous life,particularly someone like Mandelson, but actuallyit’s really hard work. It’s a huge workload, especiallyif your constituency is outside of London and youhave to do a lot of travelling.That’s part of thereason why Stephen’s marriage falls apart – it’s afact that for a relationship to be successful youhave to spend time with someone!”

Morrissey found the whole experience of filmingState Of Play a bit schizophrenic as he used a six-week break during shooting to fly to Luxembourgand film Girl With The Pearl Earring with Colin Firth.Based on Tracy Chevalier’s novel about Vermeer,Morrissey plays Vermeer’s friend and confidante,VanLeeuwenhoek.“One minute I was in the modernday and the next I was in doublet and hose, with abig moustache, beard and long wig – that was veryweird and it was difficult to go back to State Of Playafter that.”


David Morrissey

David Morrissey plays Stephen Collins

Morrissey has a reputation for playing meaty roles.His most recent appearance was as the traumatisedfather of a baby born three months prematurely,whose relationship with his wife collapses underthe strain, in This Little Life. Prior to that, he madean acclaimed appearance opposite TamzinOuthwaite in the award-winning Out Of Control. InDominic Savage’s BBC One film, he played anofficer in a young offenders’ institution, unable toprevent one of the inmates from taking his ownlife. He has also played troubled characters inHolding On, Murder and The Suicide Club… the list isseemingly endless.

However, he has had forays into the lighter side ofthings in Linda Green and Born Romantic, a film aboutsalsa and love, in which he played opposite JaneHorrocks.“I tend to play people who are goingthrough trauma. I’m happy to be seen as a seriousactor but I wouldn’t mind a bit more frivolity. Still,I’d rather be playing them in my work rather thanliving them in my real life and doing comedy all thetime,” he says with a wry grin.

In real life, Morrissey is a father of two whosepartner, Esther Freud, was behind his recentdeparture into the world of directing.“She got fedup with me complaining about not having enoughcreative responsibility and told me to do somethingabout it or stop moaning.” The result is his ownproduction company,Tubedale Films, and he hasalready made a few successful shorts as well asSweet Revenge for BBC One. He’s keen to do moredirecting but his next project, an adaptation ofFreud’s The Wild, is stalled at the moment, acombination of too much acting work onMorrissey’s part and the recent demise of the film’sbackers, Film Four. Nevertheless, it remains “verymuch on the front burner”.

He says that being a director has given him adifferent perspective on being an actor.“Basically youknow what’s your business and what isn’t. Before, asan actor, I thought everything was my business, I’d gomad about where the catering truck was parked, butnow I know I’m just here to do my job.”



Kelly Macdonald

Kelly Macdonald first shot to fame in Trainspottingand, since then, has had numerous roles, mostnotably as Mary, the maid, in Robert Altman’s GosfordPark. But, like John Simm, she found herself playingsomeone with “a proper job” for the first time asCal McCaffrey’s sidekick, Della, in State Of Play.

“She takes her work very seriously and is verycareer-minded – she’s 24 hours on the job and youimagine her personal life probably suffers quitebadly,” she says of journalist Della.“Della is part ofthe investigative team looking into the death ofStephen’s researcher, Sonia, and is the one who firstunearths the connection between her andmurdered teenager Kelvin Stagg.”

But for all her professionalism and hard-nosedinvestigative skills she has a few vulnerabilitieswhich she tries to keep well hidden.“She’s like aCadbury’s Cream Egg – she’s got a hard shell and asoft centre.There are certain things that happen to

her where she feels her life is threatened and youcan see her get upset, but she doesn’t like to showit to people. She soon recovers and starts being theaggressive force that she was before.

“Della thinks that Cal is too personally involved tobe able to do his job properly. He makes certaindecisions that she doesn’t agree with but, becausehe’s a couple of rungs above her, there’s not muchshe can do about it, except tell him what shethinks, and so they have a few spats. But at the endof the day they are mates and respect each other –they’ve both got the same aims work wise.”

Della also has some useful connections of her ownand has a reciprocal arrangement with the police,trading snippets of information on cases. But whenthe stakes are raised on the investigation, she findsherself dealing with the equally hard-nosedDetective Inspector Bell (played by Philip Glenister)who is determined that the journalists shouldn’t beone step ahead of them.“There’s a lot of frictionbetween Della and DCI Bell,” says Macdonald.“Theyannoy each other all the time, and they keep gettingin each other’s way, but they end up helping eachother out in order to make progress on the case.”

Asked whether she thinks it’s the media or thepoliticians who hold the most power, she pauses toconsider.“I think one can’t really work without theother, it’s an interesting thing.We are told what theGovernment wants us to know, and there arethings going on behind the scenes so you can’t takethings that you read at face value.”

Brought up on a Glasgow council estate, Macdonaldfamously got her big break when a friendpersuaded her to attend an open audition forTrainspotting, while she was working in a pub andthinking about applying for drama school. She saysthat without the film, it would have taken her a bitlonger, but she would always have become anactress, although her lack of formal training worriedher at first:“It wasn’t like I was being treated anydifferently but, in my head, I thought because Ihadn’t been to drama school I didn’t deserve to bethere.” Now she’s glad that she didn’t go to dramaschool:“The more people I talk to the more I

Kelly Macdonald plays Della

realise that it’s not a problem. I hope I’ve beenlearning as I go along, which is much moreentertaining for other people,” she laughs.

Gosford Park certainly saw her holding her own withsome of the biggest names of stage and screen asMary, the maid through who witnesses much of theaction as it unfolds.“Every day there was somebodynew and more famous than the next. I was in a niceplace in the film because I could openly watch theother actors at work – my character was watchingwhat everybody else was doing,” she says of hertime alongside Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith,Helen Mirren, Emily Watson, Richard E Grant andAlan Bates.

With Robert Altman at the helm and that kind ofcast it was bound to get noticed but Macdonaldinsists “it was a bit of a surprise to everybody thata lot of people went to see it, and then went backto see it again, which is a really nice thing, even if itwas because they couldn’t understand the plot andwent back to verify it!”

In the last year, she has filmed two more featuresdue to be released in 2003. She appears alongsideJohnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie andDustin Hoffmann as Peter Pan in Neverland, a filmabout JM Barrie and how he first came up with oneof the most famous stories of all time.And shestars with Colin Farrell in Intermission. “It’s about abunch of idiots really trying to sort their lives out,and I’m one of them!” Intermission was filmed inDublin, and Macdonald says that the experiencewas very similar to working on Trainspotting.

Macdonald moved to London five years ago whenshe was 22.“I didn’t think I’d last very long but Ithought I’d give it a go and I really like it.” She nowshares a home with Travis bassist Dougie Payne, towhom she has recently become engaged.The pairmet in Glasgow at an art exhibition. For such astarry couple they manage to avoid the paparazziquite well – a situation that Macdonald is morethan happy with.


Kelly Macdonald


Bill Nighy

Bill Nighy has had a busy time lately. Since his mostrecent TV appearances as Grainger in AufWiedersehen, Pet and as King George V’s brilliantlyadept private secretary Stamfordham in The LostPrince earlier this year, he has found time to filmthree movies and was running between film lots inShepperton, finishing off scenes in Richard Curtis’supcoming Love Actually as shooting started on State Of Play.

Nighy plays Cameron Foster, the wise-crackingeditor of The Herald. “He’s a decent man in a hardgame and he absolutely believes in the benignpower of newspapers. He seems to have survivedthe experience of having worked in Fleet Street inan admirable way. He’s honest and he does thinkthat if you bring information into the world it iswith a view to making things better,” explainsNighy.“He sails a little close to the wind, especiallywhen it comes to legal matters, but nothingirresponsible or sinister.”

As the investigation twists and turns, he and histeam of reporters find themselves trying to stay

one step ahead of the police investigation.Thisdoesn’t make him popular with DCI Bell. “Herelishes the cut and thrust of it all and gets a hugebang out of his job,” says Nighy.“He has aparticularly strong relationship with Cal – Calreminds him of his younger self. He puts a lot oftrust in Cal and I guess there must be a couple ofmoments when he speculates about it. But for themost part I don’t think he doubts Cal’s motives orhis integrity, although he thinks there are timeswhen he’s serving too close to the line.”

Nighy is familiar with the world of journalism,“I played seven journalists when I was a young man– it became a running joke when I was in mythirties – but never an editor. I’m going up in theworld,” he laughs.

He reveals he once wanted to be a journalisthimself, applying for a job at the Croydon Advertiser.“I wanted to be a journalist principally becauseErnest Hemmingway had been a journalist, and hewas my hero. I was very keen and really sawmyself in a good hat and decent trench coat.I had the completely romantic version of what ajournalist was like. During the days, I’d meet andfall in love with beautiful women and in theevenings I imagined that I’d write a novel. If I’dhave bothered to pay attention during school, itcould all have happened!

“I left school under a cloud – in other words theyasked me if I would consider not coming backagain,” says Nighy.“I was taken to the youthemployment centre by my mother and the blokesaid, ‘What do you want to do?’ and I said, ratherlamely and meekly, ‘I want to be an author’. Mymother pressed her foot on mine very hard andviolently under the table, but he was very kind andpolitely looked through the pages of his books tosee what he could get. He said that he didn’t haveany jobs for authors but he did know of a jobworking as a messenger boy on the Field Magazine,which was a hunting, shooting and fishing magazine.I did that for a while. In fact, halfway through mytime there, the proprietor said that if I learnedshort-hand he would put me in the sub-editor’s

Bill Nighy plays Cameron Foster

office, so it could have worked out and I could wellhave gone on to become a journalist.”

Instead he went into acting.“I had done a bit ofacting at school. I was tall and therefore got to playboys, thank God. I was at a boy’s school, so if youwere slight you got to play the girls, which was akind of hell. I had a reasonable memory so I usedto get the big parts,” he says modestly.“I wascompletely naïve about acting and didn’t seriouslyconsider it. I did write to a couple of theatres andthey said that I could go and work with them but itwould have to be for free. But that was no goodbecause I didn’t have any money.And there wasnobody in my family who had ever been involvedwith acting, so I didn’t know anybody.

“Eventually I had a girlfriend who suggested that Imight go to drama school. But I never reallythought I’d be an actor – it was just a glamorousopportunity for further education. I could be astudent, which was quite posh. My life was scheduledto start quite soon – I was always one of thosepeople whose life was going to start tomorrow.And then I left drama school and got a job – and Icontinued to get jobs.And then you wake up a fewyears later and say, ‘I guess I’m an actor’.”

When State Of Play arrived through his letterbox,Nighy says he sat down on the sofa and read thescripts straight through.“I didn’t get up once – itdoesn’t just have one twist, but several. It’s a realachievement to keep you guessing like that. I thinkthe conspiracy thriller is an incredibly populargenre and one that people miss on television. It hassomething very powerful to say, there are sinisterworkings here.”

Of his other recent projects he says, modestly,“It’s been a very good year – something that actorsdream about.”

In Love Actually, written and directed by RichardCurtis, he plays a middle-aged, drug-riddled one-time rock god in a star-studded cast including HughGrant, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth,Martine McCutcheon, Laura Linney, Billy BobThornton,Alan Rickman and Michael Parkinson.

He also played a vampire in a werewolf moviecalled Underworld with Kate Beckinsale and Michael

Sheen, which gave him his first experience ofprosthetics.“I had six-hour make-ups, which was abit of a shock, and it took two hours to take off –they chip it off like wallpaper.When I was wearingthe full garb, people treated me very cautiously.Theydidn’t want to come anywhere near me and theycertainly didn’t want to eat their lunch with me.”

However, one of his favourite roles was in BBCFilms’ I Capture The Castle, starring Romola Garaiand Tara Fitzgerald.“I play a genius who issurrounded by beautiful women who fuss over himthe whole time – that was a really tough gig,” hejokes.

And his hectic schedule doesn’t look set to stop ashe will shortly begin filming Sean Of The Dead, azombie movie written by and starring Simon Pegg.


Bill Nighy

Polly Walker, who plays Stephen Collins’s wife Anne,has most recently been seen on screen playing avery different kind of politican’s wife – the ‘fragrant’Mary Archer in Guy Jenkin’s Jeffrey Archer – The Truthlast autumn on BBC One.

However, it’s doubtful that Mary Archer would haveanything in common with Anne Collins who is, asWalker points out,“not your typical politician’s wife.She’s quite opinionated, she has her own career andshe’s fiercely independent. Her priorities are herchildren. Her marriage isn’t in the best possiblecondition because Stephen puts his work first andthey see very little of each other. So really she’s likea single parent, bringing the kids up.”

Despite her recent roles,Walker couldn’t see herselfas the loving partner of an MP.“I can’t imagine apolitician would want to be with me,” she laughs.“Idon’t imagine I have the right attributes, sacrificing

everything for your husband’s career, putting himtotally number one. I don’t think I could do that.Andneither could Anne really. I think that’s why themarriage disintegrated, I don’t think she was ready todisappear as a person.”

When Anne discovers Stephen’s affair, she feelsdeeply betrayed and resents the way theWestminster spin doctors try to manipulate her inorder to keep Stephen’s career on track.“She wantsthe facts and then she can act accordingly. Shedoesn’t want to be lied to. She’s a bright woman anddoesn’t want to be patronised. She plays alongbecause the children would be the ones to reallysuffer from the bad publicity.”

The subsequent affair with Cal is unexpected.“She’sin a very vulnerable place and she’s feeling rejected.Her husband has been having an affair with ayounger woman, and her self esteem is pretty low.Cal seems to be very keen on her and it makes herfeel good. It’s as simple as that.”

Walker says that her role was all about theemotional fall-out of the revelations caused bySonia’s death and she didn’t get drawn into theconspiracy side of things.“It’s like lots of differentstories and I was only working with a few people soit was a weird experience for me, almost like doing acompletely different series,” she says.

Walker is a big fan of conspiracy thrillers.“I thinkeverybody likes guessing ‘whodunit’. It’s nice toactually be mentally involved as well and try to workthings out.” And in real life she admits to being“completely sceptical about what I read and whatI’m told by governments”.

Walker’s first major TV appearance was the lead inLorna Doone and she was soon making waves inHollywood with her portrayal of a ruthless terroristopposite Harrison Ford in Patriot Games. Roles inperiod films such as Enchanted April; Restoration,where she played the mistress of the decadent KingCharles II; and the decidedly more demure JaneFairfax in the 1996 film Emma followed. Her mostrecent big screen appearance is the SylvesterStallone vehicle Eye See You.


Polly Walker

Polly Walker plays Anne Collins

Born and brought up in Warrington,Walker attendedballet boarding school but dismisses reports that shewas destined to be a dancer until an injury put heron the path to acting.“I was always going to act,” shesays.“Ballet was something that I just seemed to fallinto because I couldn’t start acting at seven.”


Polly Walker

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