Corpsing on the murder express
Hayley, Matthew and, inset, Emma
THE BBC has done it again when it comes to period drama – we are predicting success for the four-part adaptation of novel Howard’s End when it begins at the weekend.
Oscar-winning Manchester By The Sea writer Kenneth Lonergan did the version of the EM Forster book, first published in 1910 and a story of class, social convention and personal relationships in turnof-the-century England.
Strong female roles are at the centre of the drama and the star of the show is Hayley Atwell, who plays the brilliant Meg Schlegel.
A 1992 film of it stars Emma Thompson – who won an Oscar for playing Meg – Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, Anthony Hopkins and Samuel West.
And Hayley, 35, says she took advice from Thompson. “Emma was younger than me when she played her,” she says of Meg.
“We spoke about it, Emma has been a mentor to me for a number of years so I told her they are doing the impossible.
“I am wanting to pay my respects to such an amazing woman who has influenced my life. Emma said: ‘Don’t watch mine, you are she and she is you’.
“She said she read some physics books because they have got very active minds and to make sure you can dart about a lot. But we didn’t, we played Heads Up and Bananagrams on set.”
The pair worked together on the 2008 film of Brideshead Revisited – where Emma confronted producer Harvey Weinstein after he reportedly called Hayley a “fat pig”.
Hayley also says she and Philippa Coulthard, who plays her sister Helen, felt empowered by the roles and the research they did about this time in England when women were finally starting to be treated equally.
She adds: “We saw photos of Edwardian women walking down the street swinging their arms and smoking and laughing.
“There was so much movement. Most of the Ullman photos of that period they had to stay still but these photos showed them moving as we did.”
Meg’s eventual love interest, Henry Wilcox, is played by Pride and Prejudice star Matthew Macfadyen, and comedian Tracey Ullman plays Aunt Juley Mund, providing plenty of humour.
The series also stars Miles Jupp, Bessie Carter, Joe Bannister, Joseph Quinn, Yolanda Kettle, Alex Lawther and Rosalind Eleazar. It’s on BBC One at 9pm on Sunday. I hope we find Murder On The Blackpool Express as funny as the cast did while they were making it. Jonny Vegas, 47, and Car Share star Sian Gibson, 41, star in the Gold drama, which airs on Saturday night.
Jonny says: “We’ve spent a full day of filming and all she did was look in a fountain so she didn’t have to look at me. When you see it, you’ll go, ‘Why is she looking at the fountain?’, and you’ll see the shoulders are going and she is corpsing through the entire scene.”
Jonny, who plays coach driver Terry alongside Sian’s character Gemma, who runs the tours, says: “We have had a laugh. I think what’s genuine and nice is we actually got on very well off camera.” Vegas