TV’S VICKY ON ROLE AS BOMB DISPOSAL EXPERT
Star talks about tongue-in-cheek baby gift for Scots Line of Duty co-star .. and why she’s OK with comparisons between new series and hit show
VICKY McClure has revealed she bought Line of Duty pal Martin Compston a waistcoat – for his baby. The Scot’s character DS Steve Arnott has become famous for his waistcoats.
The sixth series ended in November 2020 – seven months after Martin’s first child with Tianna had been born.
Vicky, 38, who is engaged to Welsh actor/director Jonny Owen, said: “When Martin had his baby we did buy his baby a waistcoat.
“We wouldn’t buy him one. He’s got plenty. He doesn’t need any more.
“We don’t get Martin or Adrian (Dunbar) Christmas presents but we do tend to film Line of Duty up until Christmas so we get wrap presents for each other and they are always very thoughtful.”
While the Line of Duty stars enjoy lots of laughs behind the scenes, Vicky’s latest role is deadly serious.
She will be back on our screens next month in Trigger Point – a six-part series in which she plays Lana Washington, a bomb-disposal expert dealing with a series of improvised devices threatening London.
As it’s starring Vicky and being produced by Jed Mercurio’s HTM Television, it’s already being compared to Line of Duty, which fans hope will return for a seventh series complete with Vicky’s DI Kate Fleming.
The actress, from Nottingham, is fine with the comparison. She said: “We never expected Line of Duty to do what it’s done and I can’t be worried about taking roles that might be in a similar world or similar vein because of that.
“I look at Lana and Kate and I don’t see them together as the same people at all.
“They are both very strong women for sure and very brave and committed, but that’s the kind of roles I like to take because when I read a script I often want to play the male’s role because that’s the strong committed role so I’m always gong to be drawn to that.
“But I’m not playing a police officer in Trigger Point. In so much as it’s in that world, my character is accompanied by a police officer. People loved Line of Duty so if there are any comparisons it might not be a bad thing.”
While Kate sniffed out bent coppers in LoD, her new character has a far harder job as an Expo – bomb disposal experts who risk their lives on “the long walk” towards danger.
The actress – who made her breakthrough in This is England – reckoned she is far
more at home doing one of Kate’s AC-12 interrogations than trying to work out which wire to snip in Trigger Point.
She laughed: “I’m scared to cross the road sometimes. People might think I’m hard, I’m not. What I am is very nosy.
“In terms of interrogation and asking lots of questions and getting to the truth. I think I’d be alright at that.”
There are no female Expos in the Met so Vicky leant on experts Joel and Paul, who were brought in to give the actors, including Hustle star Adrian Lester tips on what bomb-disposal experts would do in real life.
She said: “It was great to have their support so I could ask the silly questions like, ‘Why have I taken my helmet off when I’m right next to a device?’”
The answer shows just what the real Expos have to deal with. The helmet can be distracting or impair vision if they are working in a small space. Or it could knock something and cause the device to go off.
“If there is an explosion that little helmet is not going to help. So best it’s taken away,” Vicky added.
The on-set experts also gave the actors emotional advice, especially about the “long walk” – the distance the Expos have to go from safety to where the device is rigged.
She said: “They’ve been doing this for so long you have to sort of get past the fear.
“Just walk towards the device and get on with your job. The calmer you are the calmer you can deal with it.”
Vicky decided to wear the very heavy suit real-life bomb squad members would wear, which includes 80lb of Kevlar and ballistic plates.
Vicky said: “I tried one on originally when we were doing the costume fitting and it didn’t have any weights.
“It was still pretty hefty. Adrian managed to get one that was the real deal with the weights in and they said, ‘Try it on see how you feel and if you want we can take the weights out’.
“I wasn’t being a hero by any stretch because they would shout, ‘Cut’ and I took it off but I wanted to do it because it just felt right. It makes everything a bit more authentic.”
The suit includes battery-powered air con, with tubes pushing air around the suit – helpful on a normal day and even more so when they filmed during a summer heatwave in London earlier this year.
Speaking via Zoom, she laughed: “And the helmet is absolutely huge. It weighed about the same as I do.
“They are in those kits all day every day. We were doing it and then cutting so it was no big deal but I certainly wanted to do it for real.”
Next up for in-demand Vicky is ITV psychological drama Without Sin.
No wonder she’s looking for a change of scene.
She laughed: “I want to do a romcom – something really light and funny would be lovely.
“Not that I’m funny. I’m a bit of an idiot really. I’m laughed at, not with.”
Trigger Point is coming to STV in January.
I want to do a romcom – something really light VICKY McCLURE JOKES ABOUT FUTURE ROLES