ON SET WITH... Matthew Lewis

7 MONDAY

This new series of Ripper Street begins in the summer of 1897 as Britain prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and H Division of London’s Metropolitan Police – which my character Sgt Drummond has joined – finds a dead body at the docks. Drummond is the desk sergeant at Leman Street police station where Jerome Flynn’s character DI Drake is now in charge. I was nervous about joining a cast including Jerome and Matthew Macfadyen, but I’ve been warmly welcomed.

8 TUESDAY

In some senses you’re aware you’re filming a period drama because of the costumes and the wonderful sets that have been created, but there’s also a contemporary feel to the storylines. The opening episode, for example, deals with subjects such as immigration and Islam. As one of a new breed of coppers, it’s Drummond’s job to champion the new technology the force is using and, in today’s scenes, he has to teach the other officers how to use the internal telephone system at the station.

9 WEDNESDAY

Drummond is also keen to learn as much as he can about science, anything that will help advance police methods of detection, so his visits to the lab with Captain Homer Jackson, played by Adam Rothenberg [right] fascinate him. He’s in awe of the detective skills of people like Jackson.

10 THURSDAY

I’ve been able to keep my Leeds accent for most of my previous work, so playing Drummond is a bit of a change as the guy’s a Cockney from Whitechapel where the series is set. I’ve had a few teething troubles with his moustache too. I grew one initially but the producer said I looked too virile for a fresh-faced young man like Drummond, so I shaved it off. On my first day on set the director asked, ‘Where’s your moustache?’ So I got the one previously worn by Jonathan Rhys Meyers when he was starring in The Tudors, apparently. A second-hand ’tache!

11 FRIDAY

We’re filming some of the cliffhanger finale of the last episode of this current series today, which sets things up nicely for series five and offers some real surprises. Everyone was genuinely shocked when they read what’s going to happen in their scripts, it really does seismically shift the whole show. I’m actually finishing a couple of days before most other people so I’ll miss the wrap party, for which some of the actors from previous series have been invited to Dublin. It promises to be quite a knees-up if our previous nights out are anything to go by! Ripper Street, Monday, 9pm, BBC2. Matthew is appearing in Unfaithful at London’s Found111 Theatre from Thursday.