In a drama like this there is nowhere to hide... I relish that
The extreme close-up shots mid-interrogation do little to mask the actors’ every expression, too.
“I don’t know what lenses are on and I don’t ask!” Katherine confides. “Some jobs I might, but I didn’t [on this].
“There were four of us in the room and then probably four or six crew – they tried to keep the number down – so I do my best to block all of that out to be honest,” she continues. “Or you become self-conscious.”
“Sometimes the shot isn’t on you and you’re like, ‘Oh that was my best work’. But it was satisfying to come away at the end of the day and just know that Jim wouldn’t have missed a beat.”
There’s no doubt writer George and director Jim know the drill when it comes to thrilling audiences, with the duo – who also serve as Criminal’s showrunners – boasting respective credits on hits such as Endeavour and Killing Eve.
The expertise extends to the actors too, with Katherine no stranger to the genre, having dabbled with legal dramas – on the other side, admittedly – with Cheat and Liar; while Lee and Rochenda have both starred in Line Of Duty.
From villain to law-abiding, it’s enjoyable to mix it up, the trio maintains.
“Variety is the spice of life!” smiles Rochenda. “To be seen as pure crimson and also whiter than white, it’s great to be
for both.”
“Leah [from Cheat] was in the firing line; she just did what she had to do,” Katherine argues. “I remember looking at Hayley Atwell halfway through our episode and I said, ‘Do you know what? I’m normally you and you’re normally me’, which is another joy of this show for everybody.
“For the guests as well, they get to come in and play something that they’re not usually cast as, so that’s all part of the thrill.”
Is this the kind of show they’d settle down to watch at home, too?
“I’d watch this, I genuinely would, because I just think it’s so original,” insists Katherine, who says she trawled through hours of interview room footage on YouTube after landing the part.
“Now there’s such a plethora of choice, that’s what I am searching for. Something that I can’t predict; I’m not even bothered about the end game of it...” she claims.
“You should feel like the characters are on the edge of their seats, as much as the audience.”
As for starring in another procedural: “I’ve gotta draw the line now on the police!” Katherine teases.
“But because they are so popular, all actors do them. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t work on TV!”
Adding that she likes variety in her work, she says: “I tend to not even read books by the same author back-to-back and I definitely like to do what I’ve not just done – and I mean that across theatre, telly and radio.”
Even if Criminal was to land a second run?
“You can’t predict how a show is going to be received,” she says tentatively.
“And I think everybody has stopped trying because you never know how an audience is going to take to something.”
Criminal launches on Netflix on Friday.