Line of Duty Vicky: I felt controlled by ex STAR DREW ON ORDEALS F OR DRAMA
VICKY Mcclure has opened up on how she drew on her own grim experiences to play a woman trapped in a coercive relationship.
The Line of Duty star, 36, is now happily engaged to actor Jonny Owen but said past romances had involved “issues with trust or jealousy” and “feeling controlled”.
She this week stars in Channel 4’s I Am Nicola, about a woman stuck in a dysfunctional and controlling relationship.
Vicky said: “I felt blessed by my own private life. I remember texting Jonny after I watched it for the first time and said ‘God, I’m lucky’. Because I am. He’s a grown man I can have conversations with and who lets me fly. I’m lucky because everyone doesn’t find that. I didn’t at one point.”
Vicky had creative control over the partly improvised I Am Nicola alongside writer Shane Meadows – who she worked with on This Is England. She said: “It’s not a carbon copy of my life but it’s something I’ve experienced in relationships, where there’s been issues with trust or jealousy, f eeling c ontrolled. It’s a mixture of what I’ve heard from friends.
“This i s n’t physical, it’s the mundane. Going to work, coming back. It’s what a real relationship feels like. One minute it’s exploding, the next everything is OK.
“When I was younger I was envious of what friends had. There’s moments of that with Nicola. There’s moments of jealousy in a relationship, which is common when younger. That can carry into older life.”
Nottingham-born Vicky met Jonny, 48, on the set of 2013 film Svengali. She plays hairdresser Nicola, who is in a suffocating relationship with boyfriend Adam (Perry Fitzpatrick) in the new drama.
She says she hopes her new drama gives people the strength to break out of a difficult situation. Vicky said: “I’d love to think someone would watch it and afterwards think, ‘I know I’m not happy, there’s versions of that I’m experiencing’.
“It’s hard to know if you’re in the right place. When you’re not quite sure things are going right or not, you question things.
“You want someone to give you the answer. You’re desperately going ‘Is it me?’ You’re confused so you need someone to help you. Maybe we can help through telly. A lot of people get therapy through TV.”
I Am Nicola, the first of a three-part anthology, airs at 10pm on Tuesday, C4.