Helen: I owe my fame to being in Prime Suspect
DAME Helen Mirren says TV bosses were so unsure whether Prime Suspect would be a hit with a female lead role that they only signed her up for one series.
The star said producers were concerned whether viewers were ready for a woman as a leading detective back in 1991.
Dame Helen, who played Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison for seven series until 2006, said it was a key moment in her career where “a woman drove the drama”.
She told the Radio Times: “ITV were quite worried whether the audience would accept it. When they contracted me, it was for one series, potentially three.
Creative
“They said they might pick up the other two and they might not.
“They weren’t at all sure it would be successful.”
But it paid off as Prime Suspect became an instant hit, averaging 15 million viewers and propelling Dame Helen to stardom.
“It was an incredibly lucky break for me,” she said.
“Prime Suspect hit the zeitgeist, it was very much of the moment. It came from the creative mind of a writer, Lynda La Plante, and then I took it and I ran with it.”
Dame Helen was 46 when she took the role of DCI Tennison, struggling to be taken seriously as she led a murder investigation in a male-dominated, chauvinistic police world.
The ground-breaking show highlighted sexism not just in the police force at the time but also in the television industry.
Aside from Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, TV detective series were written almost exclusively for men such as the late John Thaw, who played DI Jack Regan in Seventies favourite The Sweeney and later starred as opera-loving Inspector Morse in the much-loved show.
But Dame Helen, now 74, won critics over with her brilliant performance, scooping three consecutive Best Actress Baftas and an Emmy for playing the no-nonsense police chief.
The huge success meant she finally had the chance to be a star on her own terms, rather than as a support to men. Dame Helen added: “This was the moment when I could segue out of this world of being the wife or the girlfriend and into being something different.
“I recognised it was a great moment to be in something where the woman drove the drama.”
She has since played other strong females, most notably The Queen. Her latest role sees her portraying another powerful woman of a different kind.
Dame Helen stars as Catherine The Great in Sky Atlantic’s four-part period drama about the 18thcentury Empress of Russia.
The lavish mini-series follows the latter years of her reign and details the enduring love of Grigory Potemkin, played by Australian actor Jason Clarke, 50.
All episodes of Catherine The Great will be available to watch on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV from Thursday.