Oz-tracised
Charlie Brooks plays a betrayed wife who is left isolated and suspicious of her husband when they relocate to Australia in new thriller Lie With Me. TRICIA MARTIN finds out more
EASTENDERS fans were delighted by the recent news that Charlie Brooks will be returning as Walford villain Janine Butcher.
But while we wait to see what twisted schemes she’s got in store, Charlie is back on our screens this week in tense psychological thriller Lie With Me.
And there’s a bit of a soap link – she’s teamed up with Brett Tucker, best known as Daniel Fitzgerald in Neighbours.
The Channel 5 drama is a collaboration between British and Australian broadcasters, and Charlie plays Anna.
After her husband Jake has an affair, she moves with him and their young children from London to his hometown of Melbourne, Australia, for a fresh start – but she’s anxious about his secretive behaviour.
Their nanny Becky (Phoebe Roberts) seems supportive. But who is the real threat to Anna’s marriage?
Charlie says she talked to friends to get some inspiration about Anna’s situation, both in terms of emigrating and her relationship. “Anna’s an outsider in so many ways and I spoke to a friend who emigrated to Australia about the loneliness and isolation you can feel. I also spoke to friends who have experienced gaslighting in their relationships.” Charlie also drew on her own experiences for the role, saying: “As a woman approaching 40 with my own daughter and my own challenges, I always take from my own experiences in life, and insecurities that you might feel as a woman,” admits Charlie, who has daughter Kiki with her ex Tony Truman.
“It’s interesting to tap into those things. Anna has a lot of uncertainty. A lot of any character comes from what you have within you – but I say that lightly because I have played some ‘out there’ characters and killers, and that’s not from me!”
For Brett, 49, filming meant coming home. “We filmed in Montrose, close to where I grew up,” he says. “The house is a big character in the story, so we needed to up our game to match the location.
“We were shooting in the same studio complex they shoot Neighbours in, which was bizarre.”
Charlie reveals she also had another good reason to love filming in Melbourne.
“I got to go on the Neighbours set. That’s the main reason I did the job, just so I could pretend I was Charlene in 1987!”