BRIGHT BUYS
Give yourself a mood boost with these joyful items
Until the sunnier spring days arrive, a little burst of colour will make us smile. Treat yourself to one of these pick-me-ups on pay day – you deserve it!
£7
With a CV that includes muchloved shows such as BBC One’s Spooks and Last Tango In Halifax, you would think actress Nicola Walker would be recognised here, there and everywhere.
But Nicola, 50, tells us that the reality is quite different. Not that she’d have it any other way.
“Pre-covid – because I haven’t been on a Tube in about a year now – the litmus test [for the success of a show] used to be how many people said something to you on a Tube journey. And that’s very rarely with me,” Nicola explains. “But I don’t think I’m that recognisable when I’m out and about, I’m not that sort of actor. And nobody ever knows my name, which is great, as it’s all about the show, and I find that comforting.”
It’s no surprise that Nicola’s work does the talking for her, as she’s notched up some impressive roles over her 25-year career. And bucking the out-of-date trend that work dries up for women when they reach their forties and beyond, Nicola’s become one of Britain’s go-to actresses. Projects for this year alone include a third and final series of BBC One’s The Split and Alibi’s new detective drama Annika.
However, Nicola says one of her shows has sneaked through the crowd and cemented itself as a firm fan favourite.
She explains, “Unforgotten is the one that people will shout about across the street. They used to with Spooks a bit as well, which was very funny. They just used to shout out “where’s Harry?” But with Unforgotten, what’s interesting is the demographic that stops and talks to you. I don’t understand how but we’ve done that thing you’re not meant to be able to do – I get very young under 20s saying they love it, right the way up. That’s very unusual.”
And it’s welldeserved praise for the classy ITV cop drama, which follows her character DCI Cassie Stuart and sidekick DI Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) as they investigate cold homicide cases.
The fourth series, which arrives on our screens this week, picks up a few months down the line from when the detective duo cracked their last harrowing case – that of the psychopathic serial killer Dr Tim Finch.
Still on compassionate leave after suffering from an emotional breakdown, Cassie’s hoping to take early retirement, while Sunny is heading up their squad.
Then a fateful call comes in that a dismembered body has been discovered in a scrap metal yard – just as Cassie is told that she hasn’t racked up enough years of duty to be granted her pension, forcing her to return.
“It’s been a build-up of her nearly 30-year career – of dealing with the very worst of what people can do to each other. She feels that she can’t cope any more,” Nicola explains.
“But she has to come back and complete the rest of her time. I love the fact that she rejects the offer to come back and do a soft job. She says, ‘If I’ve got to come back, I’ll do the job I do.’ She knows it’s broken her in many ways, but she knows that’s where she’ll be most useful.”
While modest Nicola will have none of it, a large part of the show’s success – and how they managed to land top-name guest stars such as this series’ Sheila Hancock – is down to her and co-star Sanjeev’s natural on-screen chemistry. In fact, it’s hard to believe the pair had never met before they were cast.
“I knew [Sanjeev’s wife] Meera Syal a bit, but I didn’t know Sanjeev,” says Nicola. “But it felt like we knew each other.”
“We sat next to each other at the read through, had a chat for about five minutes, and then both thought, ‘We’ll be fine. We’re in this together.’ He and his family are in my life and I’m very pleased to be part of their lives.”
And Nicola is such a supporter of Sanjeev that she’s started a quiet campaign for him to be cast as the next Time Lord in Doctor Who, roping in her husband, actor Barnaby Kay, to spread the word on Twitter.
Nicola laughs, “My husband was telling me the names that were being thrown around for Doctor Who and I said, ‘Sanjeev, obviously Sanjeev.’ I said, ‘If I was on Twitter, I’d put that on there.’ So he said, ‘I’ll put it on Twitter for you then.’ His name should be in the hat, he’d be incredible.”
But what about Nicola’s own bucket-list role?
“My dream role would be one that my son [Harry, 14] actually thought was good and would be majorly proud of,” Nicola continues. “That means I’d have to be some form of prostheticladen superhero. So that’s what I’m pitching for now.”
‘Sanjeev’s name should be in the hat for the next Doctor Who – he’d be incredible’
IS ON MONDAY AT 9PM ON ITV
Although she laughs, “I’m not quite sure where I would fit into the Marvel universe – it would be a lot of prosthetics!”
Lockdown has meant spending much more time at home with Barnaby and Harry, where she’s been channelling her inner teacher and, sometimes, student.
Nicola explains, “I think all the teachers must know that for half of the projects they were getting our children to do, there were two middle-aged parents desperately trying to get it finished. A life-scale model of the Eiffel Tower or something, which my son has no interest in. Then you get quite a low mark for it. I think teachers are heroes and have just been brilliant.”
While Nicola herself has managed to tick some other boxes during the past 11 months.
“I tried Joe Wicks. We love Joe in our house. We did that for quite a long time and then Joe Wicks got replaced by just sitting on the sofa and watching telly,” she laughs. “I also did the ‘Couch to 5K’ with one of my close friends.”
“We sent pictures of each other before and after to prove that we’d done it. But that ended up being ‘Couch to not quite 5K’ and then back to the couch when the weather got bad. I think I’m a fair weather runner, as soon as it got cold, I was not that committed.”
Now, like many of us, she’s dreaming of better days, although Nicola admits she’s not looking too far ahead and instead taking it day by day, or perhaps more realistically, hour by hour.
“I’m doing what’s in front of me at the moment. That’s a good thing, I think,” she says. “But I do want to get in the sea. We can’t go to the pool and I don’t live near the sea, so I am dreaming about swimming.”
‘My dream role is one
my son would be proud of – a prostheticladen superhero’