PROFESSIONAL DISAGREEMENTS
MARTIN COMPSTON AND VICKY MCCLURE EXPLAIN THE FRICTION BETWEEN STEVE AND KATE – AND WHY THEY MAKE A GREAT TEAM…
hat started out as a routine complaint about a senior cop not following protocol has, in typical Line Of Duty fashion, spiralled into a complex case involving deliberate misconduct and the suspicious death of forensics expert Tim Ifield.
Steve Arnott and Kate Fleming are still trying to determine what, if any, part
DCI Roz Huntley has played in all of this, and the pace of their investigation causes tension between the pair this week. But stars Martin Compston and Vicky Mcclure reckon Steve and Kate’s professional relationship is strong enough to withstand the odd tiff.
“At the end of the last series, Steve owed everything to Kate because she was the one who believed in him and got him out [of jail],” Martin reminds us. “But now Kate has had a
STEVE’S A LITTLE SMART-ARSE, SO HE’S FUN TO PLAY” MARTIN
promotion, they’re the same rank, so there’s a little bit of friction between them. Steve’s a little smart-arse, he thinks he knows better than everybody else, so he’s lots of fun to play!”
“It’s quite funny, because me and Martin are really close, and we’re a bit like brother and sister,” adds Vicky. “There are some brilliant lines this season with us, and the little pokes here and there that wind each other up, and you go, ‘I can’t wait to do that scene today!’. They’re both fiercely ambitious, so it’s realistic for them to have this tension, but they’ve also got each other’s backs.”
The good-natured teasing is mirrored in the pair’s real-life relationship, particularly when they received their scripts for series four and Vicky was able to read them before Martin…
“Usually I’d be champing at the bit to read them,” admits Martin. “But this year I was filming something else when they came through, and the problem is that once you start reading them, they’re so good that they become your main focus, so I decided to leave it until I got the job done – but Vicky was finding it very hard not to say anything!”
“I was dying to speak to him!” recalls Vicky. “He was going, ‘I can’t read this while I’m doing the other show’ and I was like, ‘Oh God Martin, I just need to talk to you!’ And then I started making things up, which really panicked him!”
One of the joys of working on Line Of Duty for Martin and Vicky is getting a new set of suspects to pursue each series, and they had a brilliant time working with Thandie Newton, who plays this year’s prime suspect Roz.
“I call her ‘Hollywood’,” jokes Vicky. “She’s an extremely bright, talented woman who just has this presence where you instantly feel at ease.”
“She’s an absolute darling,” agrees Martin. “Thandie might not appreciate me saying this, but she’s a hard Mary Poppins – she’s really sweet, but you wouldn’t mess with her!”