Web Of Deceit Top TV

The actors on the new series of Ordinary Lies ponder how just one moment in time can irrevocably change lives forever…

NOEL SULLIVAN

NEIL: Amiable forklift driver who likes football, going to the pub and kebab and chips! His simple approach to life is not shared by his girlfriend Holly and her lie has a huge impact on their relationship.

“I had to learn how to drive a forklift for the role and it wasn’t easy,” says Noel, 36, who found fame on the 2001 TV talent show Popstars in which he was in the group Hear’say with Kym Marsh, Myleene Klass, Suzanne Shaw and Danny Foster.

He got the role of Neil after the casting director saw him in the stage musical version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

“This is my first straight drama and I was really nervous at the read-through with all these actors I’d admired for years,” says Cardiff-born Noel. “They teased me on set by singing Hear’say songs but it was all done in a friendly way and I can take it. I make fun of myself!”

MATT DI ANGELO

FLETCH: Warehouse packer Fletch finds his happy marriage threatened when he is reunited with his estranged father. “He’s a very normal guy who lives for the weekend,” says Matt Di Angelo. “He has a monotonous job of walking up and down the warehouse, taking T-shirts out of a box, scanning them, and putting them into a trolley all day long – and he’s been doing it for years. “It’s only when a secret his family has been keeping from him comes out that he begins to question his life. He married a bit too young and he’s got himself into a rut. Is he going to behave like his father did? That really scares him and drives him to do what he does.” London-born Matt, 29, who memorably played Dean Wicks in EastEnders and was runner-up in Strictly Come Dancing in 2007, got to act with Griff Rhys-Jones, who plays his father in Ordinary Lies. “My character has to hate him but Griff is such a nice guy that it was actually quite hard!” he laughs. “We had a really long scene together and he was so professional and seems to know a lot about everything. I was full of admiration for him.”

CON O’NEILL

JOE BRIERLEY: Affable Head of Sales who takes drastic lengths to protect his family when he suspects his wife of an affair.

“Joe is somebody who is unravelling,” says Con, 53. “He’s a decent person who does something stupid and can’t cope with the fall-out.”

Con’s storyline kick-started the series and so he was busy during the first eight weeks of filming in Cardiff, but in the second eight weeks he had time to also film the Doctor Who spin-off series, Class.

“There’s a lot filmed in Wales now,” says the Wigan-born actor. “We stayed in the same hotel as the Sherlock cast so it was nice to hang out with them a bit.”

Con was inspired to act at the age of seven after watching Norman Wisdom in the pantomime of Robinson Crusoe.

“It was his energy. He was a dynamo. He was witty and sang beautifully and his acrobatics and pratfalls were delightful. I felt a light go on in my head.”

ANGELA GRIFFIN

JENNA MOSS: The all-seeing, super organised General Manager, but behind her composed exterior lurks a dark past...

“Jenna Jenna doesn doesn’tt get too close to th the staff,” says Angela, whose TV credits include Coronation Street, Cutting It, Lewis and Brief Encounters. “They have their nights out but she stays 250 away. She likes to keep herself to herself but has a nice smile for everyone – and that’s for a reason. She’s hiding something. As we get to the sixth episode, she does something and all hell breaks loose!

“The image and perceptions of what other people think is very important to Jenna. Our lives feature so much through social media and there doesn’t seem to be as much face to face conversation anymore. Everyone is checking social media and it’s easy to control what other people see – but underneath, it’s never what it seems.

“I was a fan of the first series which was set in a car dealership. Right from the first episode when Jason Manford’s character, salesman Marty, came into work and lied that his wife was dead, I was hooked. So I was delighted to be in this. You can understand how every one of them has got to the point where they are in such a mess.” And has she ever told a whopping lie? “I lie to my children every day,” laughs the Leeds-born mum of two, who is married to Jason Milligan. “But I think that’s allowed!”