“Music helps them to express how they feel...”
Michelle Dockery, Ben Rose, Jordan Bolger and Levi Brown tell us about their new 80s drama set against a backdrop of terrorism and Two-Tone…
This new six-part drama from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is set in the West Midlands in the early 80s: a time of huge civil unrest, IRA bombings, and youth subcultures of Rude Boys, Skinheads and Zulus. Teenage poet Dante Williams (Levi Brown) meets aspiring songwriter Jeannie Keefe (Eve Austin), who suggests they form a band. Dante’s cousin, Bardon Quinn (Ben Rose), is roped in as guitarist – despite his father forcing him to join the IRA. Dante’s unrequited love, record-shop assistant Fiona (Here We Go’s Freya Parks), joins as bassist, with Matty (Karen Pirie’s Shyvonne Ahmmad) as drummer. Meanwhile, Bardon’s alcoholic mother Estella (Michelle Dockery) is back on the scene, and Dante’s soldier big brother Gregory (Jordan Bolger) has returned from Belfast. Can the youngsters fighting to forge their own paths in life find their way through music? Here, Levi, Jordan, Ben and Michelle tell Inside TV more…
Hello, all! Tell us about your characters…
Michelle Estella is a singer and a struggling alcoholic. She’s not spending as much time with her son, Bardon, as she’d like. But they’re a real family, and you start to see that they do come together. Ben Bardon has a classic father/son relationship with his dad, but he cares more about his relationship with himself, so it’s about how to navigate that. And he has a close relationship with his Nana Marie [Geraldine James] – she’s very important.
Jordan Gregory, Dante’s older brother, is in a position where he’s around but – without giving anything away – is also having to do his own thing. What I love about my character is he’s not just black and white. It’s nice taking someone so complex and making them human.
Levi Dante is instinctive; he can go from being in front of a dangerous gangster then go and see the girl he fancies, just switching from moment to moment. I suppose he’s quite romantic because he goes the extra mile. But he can’t express the way he feels unless it’s through a song or poetry.
How did you prepare for your roles?
Levi Me and Jordan had our ‘chemistry reads’ in the casting director’s office and I ended up making him cry! We just had an instant comfortability with each other.
Jordan Because Gregory is a lone wolf at times, I really appreciated our moments together… Michelle There are times when you see Estella sober and times when you
I loved being in the world of the 80s – it took me back to my childhood!
Michelle
see her drinking: I just immersed myself in it depending on what stage she was at in her addiction. Then it’s a case of working with whoever I’m in the scene with as to playing her physically. And with all of the characters, music helps them to express how they feel – Estella is just the same.
Did those of you in the band rehearse together first?
Ben We played together when we first met and went to open-mic nights, so we did a lot of bonding. But we didn’t need to, you know: we went straight into the ‘chemistry read’ and figured, they’re gonna give it to us, surely?! Levi I wasn’t as confident! But yeah, we went to open-mic nights stand did some covers of Arctic Monkeys’ songs!
Did you all listen to 80s music when you were preparing your characters?
Levi Yeah, we had a playlist on Spotify that we all shared. I also had a ‘Dante’ playlist that was made up of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan – that really gets you in the zone! Michelle Yeah, I was listening to songs of that time. I loved the world of being back in the 80s. I’d spot old Fairy Liquid bottles and adverts for milk for 50p, things that took me right back to my childhood!