Cold Feet star no ice maiden:
Hermione Norris talks about her role in the new British crime drama Innocent, which also stars Lee Ingleby as David Collier, a man fighting to rebuild his shattered life after his conviction for the murder of his wife is overturned.
Hermione Norris puts the record straight.
TVNZ 1’s crime drama Innocent will have viewers asking one key question: is he really guilty?
This taut new four-part British thriller recounts the story of David Collier (Lee Ingleby, Line Of Duty, Our Zoo), for whom the past few years have been a nightmare.
He has spent the past seven years in jail, having been found guilty of murdering his wife, Tara.
Certain that David is guilty, Tara’s childless sister Alice (Hermione Norris, Cold Feet) and her husband Rob (Adrian Rawlins, Harry Potter) have taken over as parents to David’s children. They are a happy family and, having received the proceeds of David’s estate, they now are much better off than they were when Tara was alive.
But Alice is horrified when David is granted a re-trial and acquitted on a technicality.
Even though David is still enveloped in a cloud of suspicion, he embarks on the hard task of reconstructing his life and winning back his reputation.
He also tries to regain custody of his children and clear his name.
As Chris Lang and Matt Arlidge’s drama unfolds, will Alice accept David’s acquittal? And can she and David ever be reconciled?
Norris, 50, has worked with Lang before on his equally riveting thriller, A Mother’s Son, and has always relished his scripts.
“There is something very raw about Chris’ writing,” says Norris.
She goes on to describe his work as, “Fascinating psychologically and emotionally”.
Alice is the latest in a string of driven, emotionally complex characters Norris has played – from her most popular performance as the brittle Karen in Cold Feet and the superficially hard-as-nails Ros, who is actually quite vulnerable under the surface, in Spooks to the worldly older mother Roanna in In The Club and the
“If I hadn’t made it in Cold Feet, I probably would have called it a day.” – Hermione Norris
tough, no-nonsense matron Grace in The Crimson Field. Many of these characters appear to have ice in their veins, and some journalists have mistaken this professional coolness for personal reserve, but in interviews quite the opposite is true. Norris can be summed up as wise, witty and warm. She laughs with typical self-deprecation about the chilly image she has been saddled with by some writers. “If I was an ice queen, I’d find the press easier to handle – so I wish I was. “I’ve got a theory that the ‘ice maiden’ tag comes from my best-known programme being called Cold Feet.
“Journalists like thinking up anything to do with cold. My interviews have had headlines like ‘Cold Heart Turns Warm’, ‘Cold Comfort Farm’ – I’m just waiting for ‘Ice Queen Melts’. Certainly I don’t think that anyone who’s met me would describe me as an ice maiden because I’m a very passionate person.’’
The actor, who is married with two children, needed every ounce of that passion to help her through some tough times before she landed the career-changing role of Karen in Cold Feet.
Norris recalls that she was so hard-up, she lived in a flat which had no hot water.
The low point came when she was reduced to playing a moose for a promotion in a shopping mall.
“That’s when I just felt like I was dying inside.’’
She found the process of constantly waiting by the phone ‘brutal’ and was on the point of giving up acting as a bad job.
“If I hadn’t made it in Cold Feet, I probably would have called it a day,’’ Norris reveals.
“I saw some actor friends recently who are struggling financially, trying to bring up small children, and it hasn’t really worked out. Maybe it’s time to let go of that dream. And it left me thinking, ‘Thank God’.”
But throughout, the actor has never lost her sense of humour.
For instance, when asked who she would like to swap places with for 24 hours, Norris replies quick as a flash, “My pointer Bess. She can just loll around all day, eat delicious food, be loved by everyone and not have any weight of responsibility. That would be very nice indeed.”