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A VERY DANGEROUS LIAISON
Emily Watson is the scientist whose life unravels when she embarks on a passionate affair with a stranger she meets at the Commons in a new BBC thriller
Apple Tree Yard is a rare TV show. It shows a woman over thirty as a fully functioning human who can still fall in love, make mistakes and have (whisper it) intimate relations. Based on the bestselling book by Louise Doughty and starring Emily Watson as Dr Yvonne Carmichael, we know something has gone terribly wrong from the beginning when we meet her handcuffed in a prison van heading for the Old Bailey. Over the course of the series – which, be warned, contains lots of raunchy scenes – we see how her suburban life as a genetics scientist and mother of grown-up children Carrie and Adam unravels after she meets a handsome stranger, Mark Costley, played by Ben Chaplin, after appearing in front of a select committee at the House of Commons.
Within minutes of their first encounter, the electrical charge is so strong between them that they can’t keep their hands off each other and are romping in a broom cupboard in the House of Commons crypt. Afterwards, Yvonne realises it could all get out of hand and tries to end the relationship. But her marriage to fellow scientist Gary Carmichael (Mark Bonnar) is already under strain because of his research assistant’s infatuation with him and so Yvonne goes headlong into an affair. And then something terrible happens which binds the lovers closer together but ultimately leads to her appearance at the Old Bailey.
‘When I first read the script it made me feel very nervous,’ admits Emily. ‘But then I met the director and she reassured me. It comes at a time in my career when the number of film roles for women my age is getting smaller and smaller. This is about a woman who is powerfully sexual, who has a complex life, and those women aren’t represented on screen very much.’
Yvonne gets little sympathy when she turns to her best friend Susannah. ‘I think people will feel very strongly about Yvonne, the things she does and the choices she makes,’ says Emily. ‘Some people will disapprove of her but I think some women will invest in that relationship, which shows an older woman having an exciting affair. I hope it’ll make people talk. I think the moral ambiguity is true – every character is imperfect, complicated and interesting.’
Before signing for the role, Emily insisted she’d do no nude scenes: ‘Not because I’m a prude – I’m just too old to be naked on screen,’ she says. She also suggested her friend Ben Chaplin should play Mark Costley. ‘A lot of people’s sympathy with her will be down to Ben,’ says Emily, who’s known him
since they appeared in the film The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep together. ‘You believe it. She could have walked away but you can see why she’d want to be there. But when he agreed to the part I suddenly thought, “Oh no! I have to do those scenes with Ben, who I know!”’
At the BAFTA launch of the show she admitted to having nightmares about it going out on TV. ‘I dreamed I
was about to go on stage and I didn’t know my lines. I was looking for a copy of the play but I couldn’t find one. It’s a common actor’s dream and it taps into a fear that I’m going to be exposed, but I chose to do it. I think the topic of a sexually powerful woman in her 50s is now open for business.’ Apple Tree Yard begins tomorrow at 9pm on BBC1.