Tag Archives: Bennet Drake

RIPPER STREET 5 interview with Charlene McKenna

“You think you can hide from life and perhaps another man might… but not a man such as you, Bennet Drake. You believe yourself cursed. You are not. You believe you carry only pain into other people’s lives – you do not. Bennet, you brought love into mine. A love that is keener now than ever it was. You are a good man… I will say those words until the day I die. Bennet Drake is the best of men and this life, this world, will not let him sink from its surface.”

– Rose Erskine Our Betrayal

BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT

An exclusive RIPPER STREET interview

with Charlene McKenna

Copyright © Damian Michael Barcroft 2017

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DAMIAN: Rose refused to accept that Bennet Drake was cursed but he was ultimately proven to be right wasn’t he?

CHARLENE: I, with a very heavy heart have to say he was right. Rose the ever hopeful, refused to ever admit it could be true.

DAMIAN: You once told me in one of our previous interviews that to live in Rose’s head is to always have hope. Surely all her optimism has now gone forever?

CHARLENE: I don’t want to quell anyone’s hope by any means. But with everything Rose has been through from season one to the end, I’m not sure she can hold the eternal optimism she once had. She is definitely damaged beyond repair I think. It’s so sad.

DAMIAN: At what point did you learn that Drake was going to be killed off and what was your reaction?

CHARLENE: Me and Jerome both knew we were ready to leave the show, so thankfully they worked around us. But to know Jerome was being killed was heartbreaking. I think we represented an innocence and purity in the show (the characters I mean. Ha!) and to see that killed off certainly allowed a “realism”, a cynicism to descend on Whitechapel.

DAMIAN: Why did Jerome want to leave the show?

CHARLENE: There just comes a time when you feel you’re ready to move on. There were no dark motives or nothing sad behind it. Just life and time to leave the party and head home.

DAMIAN: Other than MyAnna, you must have spent most of your screen time with Jerome so what was it like to actually film your final scene together last series?

CHARLENE: Let’s just say. All Rose’s tears were Charlene’s tears as well, both for different reasons.

DAMIAN: As we’ve discussed before in our interviews, you and MyAnna have been close friends both on and off the screen. However, last series put something of a strain on their friendship. Are you happy with how Rose’s story arc and her relationship with Susan and other characters has been resolved as the series concludes?

CHARLENE: I love MyAnna. And we had so much fun working together. As far as Rose and Susan go, boy have we come a long way. It was a very mixed bag of emotions. It was so sad they deteriorated so badly as friends and ostensibly became enemies but as actors it was charmed.

DAMIAN: Can you tell me a little bit about your last day on set – were there tears?

CHARLENE: So. Many. Tears. MyAnna came for my last scene, she wasn’t even in that day, and she brought bubbles and we all hugged and cried and then went out and got rather drunk!

DAMIAN: And what about the wrap party – did everyone behave themselves? — I’m thinking specifically Adam and Toby!!

CHARLENE: Short answer? No! – what else would you want and expect?

DAMIAN: I like to imagine Rose disappearing to America and not been heard from again until she’s middle-aged and enjoying a life of opulence and decadence during the 1920s jazz age. You’ll be appearing in the Irish premiere of The Great Gatsby at the Gate Theatre in Dublin over the summer, who do you play?

CHARLENE: Awww what a sweet imagining. I’m not sure where Rose will end up. I hope her tough street background kicks in and she makes something work. Yes, in Gatsby I play Daisy. And I CANNOT wait. The concept for this show and the scale of it, is like nothing I’ve ever done before. It’s immense, intense and SO exciting!!!

DAMIAN: The production has been described as an immersive adaptation! What does this mean and should traditional theatregoers who like to sit in the audience sucking on a bag of wine gums be somewhat concerned?

CHARLENE: They should be willing to rip up the rule book! It’s wonderful. And a rare chance to get intimate with the actors and the text and be involved. The puritans may turn up their nose but I think they’ll be highly mistaken. It’s a beautiful heartbreaking story and a rare chance to see it up close and personal.

DAMIAN: The Gate Theatre website states that the audience are encouraged to wear 1920s attire and dancing shoes are mandatory! So, if I come along, I can’t sit down and eat wine gums, but I will have to dress like a dandy and dance all evening with a bunch of flappers?

CHARLENE: Yes!!! You’re mad about wine gums! We have lots of champagne, whiskey and gin bars and should you chose you can drink all throughout! And yes, dress your best. I mean you’ve got an invitation to Gatsby’s mansion why wouldn’t you want to look sharp?

DAMIAN: I won’t dance, don’t ask me – Merci beaucoup. As with Rose’s journey from Tenter Street to Blewett’s Theatre and music hall stardom, The Great Gatsby also explores issues surrounding inequalities in social and class mobility. And again, isn’t there also a sense of doomed or cursed relationships fighting alongside an optimistic desire to transform idealistic and possibly unrealistic or impractical dreams into reality?

CHARLENE: Yes but I mean Rose and Daisy couldn’t be more different. I think Rose is beyond courageous and a fighter and will always try to trump the odds. I think Daisy is spoiled and a coward. She has lived in a world without consequences. And even after she kills Myrtle she still retreats back into her money and never had to face it. Somewhere in her soul she has to live with that but as women they are a class apart. If you’ll excuse the pun!

DAMIAN: You’ve loved, laughed and cried both on and off the set but I wonder what will be among your most treasured memories from your time in Whitechapel?

CHARLENE: I have so many! So, so many. I will always be grateful to the Ripper Street cast and crew. The laughs on and off set. The gift of Rose Erskine/Drake. It changed my life forever and for the better.

DAMIAN: Maybe there’s a young girl in Ireland reading this who is falling in love with the stage or screen for the first time. What advice would you give her in wanting to pursue acting?

CHARLENE: Acting is wonderful. And awful. And joyful. And tearful. And and and… it’s not all you think it is for better and for worse. If you want to do it. And you LOVE IT. Do it. Follow it to the end and don’t give up.

DAMIAN: You know, these interviews and this website, it all really started with Ripper Street. And, in the very beginning there was Mark Dexter, Toby, MyAnna and yourself who were kind enough to agree to being interviewed and help get me started. I will always be enormously grateful for that. Thanks so much Charlene and may you run fast in all your tomorrows.

CHARLENE: Damian, thank YOU!!! It’s been all our pleasures. Don’t be a stranger.

~~~

The Great Gatsby at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, Ireland

July 6 – September 16, 2017

Previews: from Thursday 6th July

Opening night: Wednesday 12th July

See link below for more details:

Click here for more information and to book tickets

The fifth and final series of Ripper Street will be broadcast on Monday nights at 9 on BBC2 with the entire series also available to purchase from amazon. I’ll bring the wine gums.

All the interviews and articles on this website are original and exclusive and I would please ask that the copyright be respected. Therefore, please do not use quotes or any other information contained here without permission. Thank you.

Copyright © Damian Michael Barcroft 2017

MIDNIGHT TRYST AND BLACK MAGNETISM: Ripper Street interview with Leanne Best

MIDNIGHT TRYST AND BLACK MAGNETISM

An exclusive Ripper Street interview with Leanne Best

Interview copyright © Damian Michael Barcroft 2015

My first interview with Leanne Best was in November 2013 as the second series of Ripper Street was broadcast on BBC1. While she was a respected, and indeed award-nominated stage actor, she was less well known to television audiences at that point despite screen credits that included Casualty, Wire in the Blood and Doctors. Since then however, and with appearances in such high-profile projects as The Worricker Trilogy, Lucan, Fortitude and, most recently, The Outcast and Home Fires to name but a few, there has been an explosion of love for the increasingly prolific Leanne who seems hell-bent on turning up in almost every TV show – not to mention a promising new career in the movies, having played the title role in last year’s The Woman in Black: Angel of Death and soon to be seen in some exciting new films that are either currently filming or in post-production.

I wanted to interview Leanne for a second time to discuss the third series of Ripper Street, on being a Hammer Horror Monster and breaking bread with Bryan Cranston. Most of all, however, I just wanted to speak to her again while she’s still answering my calls because I predict Leanne Best is going to be something of a star…

Damian: Hello again Leanne and thanks for doing this. So much has happened in your career since our first interview but the last time we chatted was over drinks at the Brown Bear while we drowned our sorrows lamenting the demise of Ripper Street. Not only has Ripper Street returned for a third series (with the promise of two more!) but you have managed to land roles in many well-received and much-admired television dramas, big-budget Hollywood films and, if all this were not enough, also been Willy Russell’s personal choice to star in the 35th anniversary stage production of Educating Rita! – what’s going on?

Leanne: Ah that’s all very lovely of you to say! There’s a fair bit going on at the minute… Second series of Homefires is underway and I’m filming a drama for the BBC in London.

Damian: How much of this success would you put down to the exposure gained from Ripper Street?

Leanne: Well it certainly didn’t do me any harm I’m sure! Ripper Street is such a classy production and so loved by its viewers. I felt very grateful to be in such good company across the board from the actors to the writing, the direction and design. The whole thing is impressive so to be a part of that I’m sure has served me well.

Damian: Before we discuss series three, I’d like to talk about your character Jane Cobden (daughter of Richard Cobden) of Bow and Bromley Division and the adopted candidate of Liberal and Radical Association for the London County Council Election. We first meet her around the time of the public meeting of electors in the Bromley Vestry Hall, Bow Road so, at a very rough guesstimate, I’d say this was Wednesday, January 14th 1890. Your character is, of course, based on the real Jane Cobden (1851 – 1947), who was indeed the first elected female councillor and is best remembered as a pioneer of the suffragette movement. Let’s remind ourselves of how she was introduced in the third episode of the second series, Become Man (written by Marnie Dickens)…

JACKSON: I just saw the damnedest thing. This woman I just passed in the street. No, scratch that. She was not a woman. Uh-uh. She was a goddess, Reid, to make even a heathen like you believe… You should have seen her. She had gentle eyes, perfect face and the body that one imagines under the…
REID: Yes. Thank you, Captain.
COBDEN: Oh, no, please – do continue on, sir.
REID: I apologise, Councillor Cobden. He is American and therefore lacking in manners or propriety.
COBDEN: Well, then, we shall get along famously.

Jane Cobden could have possibly been an overbearingly moralistic and righteous character but the way in which she is written, and indeed performed, is simply a joy to watch and, even in her first episode, there is an immediate chemistry between her and Reid. It must have been so much fun to play her?

Leanne: I love playing Jane. In reality she was quite a firebrand who bucked most trends of the time for a woman so that coupled with the writing allowed me to be quite free with her. Part of her attraction for Reid I think was her lightness and willingness to be open to what life has to offer.

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Damian: Another scene which I love and think is so indicative of your character is the following scene that comes towards the end of Threads of Silk and Gold (S2: 05 written by Toby Finlay):

REID: It is a rare thing to find a friend in this world, a true friend. Rarer still one that might become more. There are some that do and risk all for it and, even though the world and all its might may seek to snuff out their love they burn with it, fierce and bright, like the sun. The love that I have known, the strength needed of me was not there. I failed my wife Miss Cobden. I would not have that pain visited upon you. You said the past was naught but black magnetism. If I allowed, you would help me resist it. I have had enough of the darkness if you would help me know the sun.
COBDEN: Well, Edmund, I do hope you’re not going to launch into sonnets every time you wish to take me for dinner and a dance. I should find all the swooning quite tiresome.

Quite understandably, Reid is such a sombre and melancholy character but I wonder if you could tell us what it is like to work with Matthew Macfadyen during such scenes and give us a general sense of the atmosphere on set?

Leanne: He’s a brilliant actor and a lovely presence on set and it really is a pleasure to work with him. He also does a pristine scouse accent which cracks me up.

Damian: In the grand finale of series two, Our Betrayal, thanks to the odious Fred Best (David Dawson) having written a charming little piece for The Star with the headline, “Councillor Cobden and Detective Inspector Reid in Midnight Tryst”, Chief Inspector Abberline orders Reid to end the relationship. I suppose considering this and Reid’s later dark journey, it was perhaps inevitable but do you share my disappointment that there wasn’t more scenes that showcased the delightfully playful and flirty banter between the two of you in series three?

Leanne: I think it’s an interesting dynamic. Although I’m sure she still has feelings for Reid it’s perhaps more dramatically honest at this juncture to see how they are with each other as friends and allies when he has made it clear he can’t or won’t ever be able to be with her because of a world in which they both have very different paths to tread… I’m an old romantic but this is Ripper Street so I’m not too surprised they didn’t skip off into the sunset together, or not yet they haven’t anyway!

Damian: Reid writes Cobden a letter which we see her read presumably breaking off the relationship, can you remember if there was anything actually written on it – I’m just wondering if there was any information regarding the contents that might have been cut?

Leanne: I can’t remember what day it is most of the time so I couldn’t tell you to be honest! No content was cut as I recall. It was simply that he didn’t feel he could be with her.

Damian: The final moments of series two were stunning with Drake and the villainous Jedediah Shine (Joseph Mawle) slugging it out in the boxing ring with Reid screaming at Drake to finish him off. There is no dialogue between you and Matthew but the scene is just so powerful. Cobden simply stares at Reid as he shouts “No, Sergeant! You kill him!”. Was it a look of disappointment, disbelief or even disgust – what was going on inside Cobden’s head at that point?

Leanne: Despite what Reid had told Jane about who he was and the world he inhabited she refused to ever see him as a monster. In that moment I imagine she did see, and was devastated by it.

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Damian: It’s crazy to look back and consider this scene could very well have been the last we saw of Reid and friends. At what point did you find out that Ripper Street had been saved by Amazon much to the delight of the thousands of fans who petitioned for its return?

Leanne: I heard through my agent. I was genuinely chuffed to bits. Irrespective of my connection to the show or whether we’d see Jane again, I felt it was the wrong thing to take away from its very loyal fan base, the opportunity to see what would happen to a world they had really invested in. It’s a great drama, and what a testament to that that its fans saved it from the chopping block!

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Damian: I’d like to take a moment to discuss some of your other work. How  flattering was it to be cast as a Hammer Horror Monster?

Leanne: I’ve played a few dead women now… I must have that glow! It was really good fun. Hammer Horror is an iconic part of British cinema so it was a lovely thing to have the opportunity to do.

Damian: Given the intense make-up effects and FX prosthesis, were you not worried about your eyebrows?

Leanne: My eyebrows were OK surprisingly but I lost a layer of my epidermis I’m sure when the face came off after a long day.

Damian: Is it true that the original script was quite different from the film that was shot in that the idea involved the government acquiring the Eel Marsh House and converting it into a military hospital for the insane?

Leanne: I’m not sure about that. The draft I worked on was the one that made it on screen. It’s based on the second Susan Hill book but how that idea was developed for the film I don’t know.

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Damian: Were some scenes cut because I’m sure I saw images either from the trailers or stills that featured you, particularly a scene at the grave in the woods where we see you quite closer than the way the scene appeared in the film?

Leanne: I think I know the still you mean and I think that was a press shot not an actual scene from the film. That being said there are always things that are lost in the edit so maybe?

Damian: Do you believe in ghosts?

Leanne: I do actually, yes.

Damian: What can you tell us about your role in Bryan Cranston’s new film The Infiltrator and how you became involved?

Leanne: I’m not sure I’m allowed to say too much about the film but it was a pinch myself moment working with him as I’m a proper fan. And he was such a gent. Bloody brilliant. And it was a good old fashioned audition that got me the gig. I did a self tape on a matinee day doing Educating Rita so no one was more surprised than me when I got the gig!

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With Con O’Neil in ‘Educating Rita’

Damian: I want to talk more about Educating Rita because I’m a fan of Willy Russell and along with Blood Brothers and other plays, I think his writing still has some very powerful things to say about social mobility and class structure. I imagine from our previous interview that some of the themes and motifs of Rita have a special resonance with you personally?

Leanne: I could write a thesis on why it’s still a vital beautiful tragic essential piece of work. I was given that play at drama school to read when I was really struggling. I hadn’t done much acting and was on a scholarship to study drama when I didn’t have a clue who I was or what I was doing there. I sat in my college library and cried as it resonated with me on so many levels, and it does that with so many people for so many reasons. I loved it.

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Damian: What is Willy Russell like in person and why did he want you specifically to play Rita?

Leanne: Willy is amazing. He’s a brilliant fascinating man with so many stories and a hero of mine. I was thrilled to be the choice for the anniversary production with Con O’Neil who is an extraordinary actor but far be it from me to guess why. Maybe he’s a Ripper Street fan!

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The Woman in Green! At the ‘Ripper Street III’ premiere with MyAnna Buring and Charlene McKenna

COBDEN: Five acres, in which reside 6,000 individuals, and the rate at which they die here is four times that of the rest of this city. As you know, I plan to replace these shanties with modern and sanitary dwellings in which people might live out of choice, not obligation. However, this I cannot do unless the party, or parties, that own these lands permit it. Currently, all our surveyors encounter is violence from hired thugs. It is for this reason, ladies and gentlemen, that I invite you here today – to urge you, in print, to shame these opaque and hidden powers into good faith and negotiation. To ask them to stand forward and have a care for the future lives of their tenants. I thank you.
REID: Councillor. The investigations I have made for you. You wish to cause men shame, it’s better for you to have a name with which to do so – Obsidian Estates…
(Our Betrayal Part I – Richard Warlow)
SUSAN HART: Know this Duggan. Every moment I felt your foul breath on my face, your murderous fingers on my body, I thought of this. Dreamt of it. Your lawyers, your estates and holdings – all will now be made to work for me. Everything that you have built, I will make it mine…
(Our Betrayal Part II – Richard Warlow)

Damian: And so back to Ripper Street. What can you tell us about Obsidian in series three and Jane Cobden’s part in it?

Leanne: Long Susan is now the sole owner of Obsidian estates in series three and has used the money and prestige to create many opportunities to educate and employ vulnerable women in Whitechapel. She has sought Jane’s council and support to legitimise the enterprise.

Cobden with Mathilda Reid (Anna Burnett)

Cobden with Mathilda Reid (Anna Burnett)

Damian: I discussed the role of women in Ripper Street in my interview with MyAnna Buring. She said that characters like Susan and Cobden were integral characters in the show and that they challenged the perceptions of what women can do. However, I’m wondering how the completely incorruptible Cobden could justify going into business with Susan given her unforgivable actions in series three?

Leanne: There’s a lot of information that Jane isn’t privy to about Susan’s past and her actions. In her haste to help her do good she may be guilty of being naive about the situation. Fundamentally she respects Susan and the work she has undertaken to improve the lives of the impoverished of Whitechapel and may be guilty of having done harm in order to do good. As a woman in a man’s world I’m sure she sees Susan as a kindred spirit.

Damian: Seeds were planted for series three’s story arc as early as episode four in the second series (Dynamite and a Woman) with particular reference to Cobden’s mission to improve working class education, the renovation of St. Paul’s Wharfside and housing for the poor. Were you aware of Richard Warlow’s grand plan for Cobden when you first joined the show?

Leanne: I wasn’t no, but it’s been great to watch it all unfold and always nice to be asked back.

Damian: In discussing the character of Cobden and her battle to protect the poor, the reader may be forgiven for drawing contemporary political parallels with many of the issues highlighted in Ripper Street. With the recent Conservative victory at the general election still fresh in their minds, issues such as relocating the poor away from London to more “suitable and appropriate” areas or “social cleansing” as some might call it, in addition to what some perceive as an ideological war against welfare might resonate more than perhaps they should. I wonder who you consider to be the Jane Cobden’s of today?

Leanne: Well that’s a question! I’m a firm believer that whether it’s the front bench, back bench or park bench, you will always find inspiring women from all walks of life trying to make a difference in or out of the public eye… I’ve come across many and it’s always galvanising I have to say. Give it time and I might have a go myself!

Damian: Miss Best, my thanks. Time with you is, as ever, educative.

Leanne: Always lovely to talk to you.

~~~~

Ripper Street series three concludes tonight at 9pm on BBC1

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My first interview with Leanne Best can be found on the link below:

Leanne Best talks Ripper Street

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Leanne in rehearsals for ‘Educating Rita’

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Ripper Street Interview with Charlene McKenna

Ladies and gentlemen, I would ask you now to give your full attention to the voice of gaiety – Miss Charlene McKenna…

QUEEN OF THE COSTERS

An exclusive ‘Ripper Street’ interview by Damian Michael Barcroft

Damian: Before we address Ripper business, congratulations on the award-winning production of Richard Eyre’s version of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts. Indeed, the production was so successful that you not only took Ghosts to the West End, but I understand you’re also heading for the bright lights of Broadway?

Charlene: Aw, thank you Damian. We are going off Broadway to BAM, which is a very very cool theatre indeed and we are super excited to pick the show up again.

Damian: Life does seem to be imitating art! Of course Rose Erskine wasn’t always the toast of the town and indeed when we first met her she was one of Long Susan’s ladies working Tenter Street. Nonetheless, by the fifth episode of series one (The Weight of One Man’s Heart written by Toby Finlay), Rose confides in Drake and tells him of her dream to banish the dark world of prostitution and escape into the limelight of the stage. However, towards the end of the second series, and despite her noble dreams and aspirations, Rose is at the very bottom of the playbill appearing at Blewett’s Theatre of Varieties singing like a reed caught in a March gale with lyrics such as “Randy-pandy, sugardy candy. Buy me some almond rock”. In spite of this, and with a little help from a certain friend, Rose transforms into the voice of gaiety and four years later as series three begins, Queen of the Costers! Where would Rose be in 1894 without Long Susan?

Charlene: Long Susan and Rose have always had a good relationship, she (L.S) has always tried to do right by Rose, and she definitely gave her the kick start she needed, which was an incredibly rare thing to get in those days, so there’s always been a great bond between them which makes what happens in season three all the more harder for Rose to stomach. As to where Rose would be without her? I’m fairly sure Rose would still have made it because she’s very streetwise after her experiences in the brothel and around the hard back alleys of East London, she doesn’t quit, and she won’t settle so i think she would have fought tooth and nail to get herself a better life.

© Tiger Aspect

© Tiger Aspect

“All my days, all of them, whatever happens, I will always be grateful to you.”
– Rose to Long Susan in Our Betrayal (Written by series creator, Richard Warlow)

Damian: Inevitably we must discuss another of Rose’s guardian angels. I found the scenes centered around Rose and Drake at the conclusion of the last series to be profoundly moving and her loyalty to him truly heartbreaking: (Rose to Inspector Reid) “I search for Bennet Drake. There’s twice, sir, I owe my life to him. I walk this way twice a day and will stop only once I have found him. I cannot forsake him.” Drake missed Rose’s first bravo performance at Blewett’s but is there hope that she may sing for him yet?

Charlene: To live in Rose’s head is to always have hope. So yes, there is indeed hope she will sing for him yet. That quote proves my last statement, which is that no matter what it is, Rose will not fold easily, she’s like a dog with a bone, when she has decided she wants a certain thing she goes after it with all her heart.

© Tiger Aspect

© Tiger Aspect

Damian: It may not have been a passionate relationship in the past but it strikes me as something much more paramount than that, perhaps a more consistent, steadfast and enduring kind of love. How would you describe the relationship between Rose and Drake in series three from her perspective?

Charlene: Well this is a little hard to answer without giving it all away. There has been six years from when we first saw Rose to when we see her now. She has done a hell of a lot of life in those years, she has been the victim of some very dark crimes and also has been privy to many of the finer things life in the late 1800s had to offer. She has done a hell of a growing up. So she sees Drake much differently now that she did when he first asked for her hand. So I think while their relationship is built on much more than passion, that passion is there now burning all the deeper for having missed it all these years. And that is where their love is at now in season three.

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© Tiger Aspect

“I am your true friend. I know that I have been cruel to you in the past. And you must look at me now and see nothing but a reminder of your pain. But I am your friend and I will not desert you. So you go back to your graves and your dosshouses, and you be sure of this: As the day begins and the night ends, you will find me waiting for you.” *

Damian: Jerome Flynn was deservedly BAFTA-nominated for his outstanding performance in series two and I personally think you should have received a nomination for best supporting actress yourself. Quite apart from Richard Warlow’s epic scripts and often poetic dialogue, I’m wondering how as an actor, you approach scenes with so much intensity and raw emotion as those at the graveyard (RS2: 07) with such subtlety and sensitivity and yet make them dramatic. Presumably you rehearse and discuss scenes such as this with Jerome and the director (Andy Wilson) but can you please describe your journey from reading the script right up to the point of filming?

Charlene: I’m blushing. Thank you Damian. You know what sometimes we do talk it out and sometimes we just do it. I never like to be over rehearsed or rigid in my choices because it makes me less malleable to the changes that the other person may bring to the scene. So I never want to be locked in my own ideas and decisions. I like to know my lines obviously and have thought about it and then I like to go to set and see what the rest of the team are bringing. Then for me it comes down to instinct and how it feels.

© Tiger Aspect

© Tiger Aspect

Damian: In our previous interview you described Rose as “chasing a dime losing a treasure” with reference to Drake. Series 3 sees Rose engaged to Edgar Morton, the proprietor of the music hall. However, there was a line from Rose in the aforementioned episode, “Miss Susan, I have never known what it is to lie with a man I love” – I’m curious if this still remains true?

Charlene: There are different types of love. Lets just say, the love she was referring to in that line above, at the start of season three, remains true. You can draw your own conclusions.

Damian: Thank you Charlene. All that remains is for me to wish you well on Broadway but please don’t wander off with any strange Americans…

Charlene: I really will try – might go see if I can find Jackson someplace!! thank you Damian, pleasure as always. And a quick, HUGE thank you to all the fans who petitioned to have Ripper Street brought back. I think we have made a great season three for you all. Hope you enjoy.

~

*The full quote deserves to be read in its entirety owing to its beauty and grace:
“You think you can hide from life and perhaps another man might… but not a man such as you, Bennet Drake. You believe yourself cursed. You are not. You believe you carry only pain into other people’s lives – you do not. Bennet, you brought love into mine. A love that is keener now than ever it was. You are a good man. You are a good man. I will say those words until the day I die. Bennet Drake is the best of men and this life, this world, will not let him sink from its surface.”

~

All interviews and articles on this website are copyright © Damian Michael Barcroft 2015

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https://twitter.com/MrDMBarcroft

Ripper Street Interview with MyAnna Buring

Hard Medicine and Bad Money

An exclusive Ripper Street interview with MyAnna Buring

Interview copyright © Damian Michael Barcroft 2015

Damian: At the conclusion of our previous interview for series two of Ripper Street, we briefly mentioned the stage production of Strangers on a Train produced by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson which you’d just begun rehearsing. What was it like to work with the custodians of the James Bond franchise?

MyAnna: Great fun. Barbara was very hands on and has a work ethic, generosity, and positivity that is simply extraordinary. I know that might sound over the top but she is a very impressive human being and great to work with. Having met them it is not surprising that her and Michael have managed to keep the legend of Bond flourishing all this time.

Damian: While we’re on the subject of trains… No, I’m only joking – it’s more than my life is worth to reveal too much for those who haven’t seen it yet. However, I’m reminded of our discussion about the series two opener last year when you said that “the episode should bring Ripper Street crashing back into people’s living rooms”. Do you think Whitechapel Terminus, the first episode of series three tops this?

MyAnna: I think it does. I must have some sixth sense to have phrased it so last year – or maybe my phrasing last year planted some seeds, subliminally, in the writers minds? Or not… In any case, the show is definitely coming crashing back into living rooms once again.

© Tiger Aspect

© Tiger Aspect

Damian: Previous press releases have promised that we will see you returning in more of a “starring role” this time. Was this something that you personally championed for or is it simply the natural evolution of Long Susan’s character given the story and plot lines for series three?

MyAnna: No – you can’t champion for such things… if the story doesn’t have a place for you then it doesn’t. You can’t force it to, and it is not my place to force writers to write for me if they don’t feel it’s right – I would never even attempt such a ludicrous thing! Having said that, I have always felt that Rose, Susan, and Cobden were integral characters in the show, so it makes sense that we continue to be so… Richard Warlow and the producers had always had an idea that this is where Susan would end up in her character arc – a kind of Godfather of Whitechapel is how they put it to me – and as Richard, Toby [Finlay], and Will [Gould – executive producer] mapped out this season they felt it was right to go there and I am very glad and grateful they did, as she, as always, was such fun to play.

© Tiger Aspect

© Tiger Aspect

Damian: Series creator/lead writer, Richard Warlow, and Toby Finlay, who has written more episodes than any of the other contributing writers have provided Susan with many outstanding dramatic scenes and dialogue over the past three years but I’m wondering who knows your character best. Do you ever give Richard or Toby notes on their scripts with reference to Long Susan Hart?

MyAnna: Toby and Richard both get Long Susan and as they’ve gotten to know me I have definitely found Susan using language that I myself use – for example, words such as ‘delicious’ crept into Susan’s vocabulary this year which is a very me thing to say… Also I think they know all of us actors so well now – not only personally, but also what we can do as actors – and they seem to have written very much with that knowledge in mind – this season in particular I’ve noticed that… I’ve never given them notes, although we’ve had chats about where we feel Susan is emotionally – just to confirm that we are on the same page.

Damian: You’ll undoubtedly remember some negative comments regarding the portrayal of women when the first episode of Ripper Street was broadcast back in 2012 and before such hasty commentators had even given the show, or indeed, its female characters a chance to evolve. So, it’s with a certain degree of amusement to observe that Susan, in addition to exhibiting enormous strength and determination herself, has chosen to align herself with some incredibly powerful women such as Jane Cobden (Leanne Best returning in her role from series two) who was the first woman to be elected to the London County Council and helped shape the women’s suffragette movement, and also Dr. Amelia Frayn (a new character played by Sherlock’s Louise Brealey) partially inspired by Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Whitechapel-born political campaigner and the first Englishwoman to qualify as a doctor. “Obsidian” was introduced at the end of the last series, can you tell us a little bit about how this has now transformed into a clinic and Susan’s relationship with Jane and Amelia?

MyAnna: Yes even as a feminist – I struggled a little with the misogynistic comments… It is absolutely important in our industry that we keep an eye out for the messages we put across in our story-telling: we do still live in a society where there is inequality and in a culture where casual sexism, racism, prejudice does not help to address this inequality… we need to insist on change.

It is to be celebrated that we can voice our concerns, and as valid and right as that sometimes is, I would argue that at other times this right allows us to make bold statements about whether or not something is or isn’t misogynistic based on a crumb of evidence: one scene, one image… a little more attention may reveal the context in which the scene is shot and may flip our initial knee jerk reactions to it.

RipperStreet is at its core, structurally, a procedural cop drama set in the streets of Whitechapel – streets still reeling from the violent aftermath of Jack the Ripper’s horrific murders of local prostitutes. At its helm is a male police officer flanked by two “helpers” – one brains and one brawn – (there were no female police officers at the time, and even though the show takes liberties with the truth – there are certain constraints by which it abides in order to make the “world” of the show believable).

This is the core structure of Ripper Street and it is the streets of Victorian Whitechapel – this dirty, poor, socially unjust back drop against which all the Ripper Street characters wrestle out their lives… it is against this back drop that the characters question and challenge, and try to fight the misogyny, the corruption, the social and moral bankruptcy – without the images of inequality all around them the show could not make a case for the importance to fight it… the characters are not necessarily any of those things themselves – Reid, Drake, and Jackson are all supporters for the most part of the women in their lives, I feel they are quite evolved in this respect, and the women they are surrounded by are to a large extent written as fully fleshed out humans like the men are as opposed to simply caricatures – if they are victims of their circumstance then I would argue that all the characters in Ripper Street – male and female are fighting those very circumstances.

The nature of a TV show means that some characters develop quicker than others in order to drive the story telling – which is perhaps why some of the female characters may have felt less developed to begin with… It takes time to get to know some people, the same goes for characters… We always knew Susan was at odds with the limitations her society placed on her sex and that she would always be drawn to people and situations who challenged them, the writers had discussed this at length and that was why I was drawn to the project in the first place three years ago… The inclusion of the characters of Cobden, and Frayn was not, I believe, a response to the critics of the first episode, but the natural evolutionary result of a story based in this particular place and this particular time with these particular characters.

So, like I said, Susan always struggled with the injustice of the world she was born into and for her, especially towards the end of the last season, she becomes clear in her conviction that to swing the pendulum of power to favour a woman she needs money and a financial hold over people. She tells the dying Duggan that she will amass his wealth, make it her own, and with it take his place as the most powerful person in Whitechapel.

Cut to season three, four years later she has done just that… however, her dream is to use this power to build a better Whitechapel for its people…She builds a clinic – Obsidian clinic – and brings in a female doctor to run it, and is in the process of building affordable housing for which she has received governmental support in the shape of Jane Cobden. Two women who, like her, are challenging the perceptions of what women can do – however, in the case of the first she is doing it, not through business, but through her education and medicine, and in the case of the last through the means of politics: political campaigning, engaging with and drumming up the support of the disenfranchised people she represents… all equally impressive means to achieve the same end…

Damian: In previous interviews with female Ripper Street cast members, I’ve discussed the Gilbert and Gubar feminist theory concerning how women during the Victorian period were portrayed in fiction as either “angel” or “monster”. To be absolutely clear on this, I have always defended the women of Whitechapel as depicted in the show as incredibly complex and multifaceted but I found Susan’s actions in series three, with particular reference to end of the second episode, The Beating of Her Wings (by Toby Finlay) to be unforgivable and, indeed, truly monstrous. Does the end always justify the means and, on a moralistic level, has Susan passed the point of no return?

MyAnna: It is an incredibly monstrous act she commits… I would argue it is no more or less monstrous because she happens to be a woman – wouldn’t you agree?

Damian: I dare not do otherwise!

MyAnna: It is written – as are so many of Rippers’ scenes – precisely so, in order that we question whether the end justifies the means – that is one of the over riding themes of Ripper – we keep coming back to it… There is a wealth of source material in the world to draw from; look around us at the acts committed everyday in the world – that we, our communities, politicians and bankers justify… what is justifiable? Ripper does beg the question, however, from whose perspective are you shown the series of events? And how does this influence our judgement of them? Susan is driven, due to the world she has suffered in and for, by a vision of a greater, safer, fairer world – an altruistic vision – which without her to ensure it’s manifestation will simply never materialise – not in the way she sees it.

She feels incredibly strongly that she needs to protect this vision. Also, she has been presented with information that makes her question the behaviour of Inspector Reid – and until she is certain his actions were innocent she will definitely NOT risk losing all she has strived so very hard for to protect him – but it’s not as if it doesn’t cost her…

© Tiger Aspect

© Tiger Aspect

Damian: Although I fully empathise with Susan’s history, ambition and protective loyalty towards her friends such as Rose Erskine, why can’t she forgive Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) despite his copious collection of flaws and certain peculiarities of temperament?

MyAnna: Come ON?!?! The love of her life, her husband – the only man she has ever truly loved – has due to his idiocy, gambling, and inability to take clear action (that doesn’t involve running away), forced her to essentially sell her body to the filthiest, most corrupt and vile human being in all of Whitechapel. I’m sure if you had that dirty corruption hammering away over you and into your body, taking physical and financial ownership of you, stripping you of your precious independence, turning the only small place of safety you had in the world to ruin, you would feel pretty resentful of the person who you feel helped make it happen… or perhaps you are more forgiving than Susan? Or perhaps Jackson’s sweet charms would mean you wouldn’t mind taking one for the team for him?

Damian: *Clears throat*

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© Tiger Aspect

MyAnna: Having said all this there is and always will be an inexplicable bond between these two characters – that unquantifiable and mysterious connection, gravitational pull some people just have between them… so the question lingers will that ultimately pull them together despite the deep hurt between them? Or have the actions of the past cut scars too deep and wide to overcome?

© Tiger Aspect

© Tiger Aspect

Damian: It seems to me that almost all of Jackson’s actions leading up to the shocking climax of series two were made because of his love for you. There were some truly heartbreaking scenes between the two of you as evidenced in the following excerpts of dialogue between the two characters from the last year’s grand finale, Our Betrayal (by Richard Warlow):

SUSAN: A moment comes in a woman’s life when she may no longer deal in dreams. This? This is fantasy… or is it death? – and it might well be both. No. Captain Homer Jackson. Matthew Judge. Husband. No. I will have no more of you and your dreams. The world is what it is. And I must live with that.
JACKSON: Look, whatever it takes darling, till my blood be spilt, I will find what it takes to make you smile again. Only allow it. Allow me the opportunity, this opportunity.

Without any more pain to feel, has Long Susan Hart become the heartless or might she smile again?

MyAnna: I don’t think anyone ever becomes heartless, but the protective wall Susan has built around her heart, is thick and tall… She cannot allow herself to feel too deeply, because to do so is too painful…she wrestles with this, but, ultimately, the best she can hope for is to help those in need and less fortunate than herself, to create some kind of monument to make her existence worthwhile, and to protect herself, make herself infallible to all the people who threaten her independence, her dignity, and to the man who took her heart and smashed it to smithereens…

© Tiger Aspect

© Tiger Aspect

Damian: For me personally, and I’ve told you this before, one of the many pleasures of the show is watching the relationship between Susan and Rose, played so wonderfully by the voice of gaiety herself, Charlene McKenna. I remember thinking that one of the tragedies of cancelling Ripper Street, and I genuinely mean this, was the thought of your two characters not sharing the screen again. Did you and Charlene keep in touch during the show’s hiatus?

MyAnna: We are all aware of your soft spot for dear Rose and Charlene – we all share it with you and join the queue! She is simply joyful. Rose is one of Susan’s few close friends and luckily for me Charlene is one of mine. We all keep in touch – it is a very close show…

Damian: Charlene painted a wonderful portrait of the relationship you both share when she told me that the two of you “snot, sing and laugh all over each other”…

MyAnna: Yup – pretty much sums it up!

Damian: MyAnna, it is always a great pleasure and a privilege to do these interviews – thank you very much indeed.

MyAnna: Thank you.

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Damian Michael Barcroft

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