Vive la difference!
As crime drama Murder In Provence brings sunshine to our screens, star Roger Allam tells DANIELLE DE WOLFE it was a chance to do something new that led him to the role and explains why strong French accents are out
ROGER ALLAM has played a whole host of different characters in his long career, from Prime Minister Henry Pelham in Pirates Of The Caribbean to Peter Mannion in The Thick Of It.
The 68-year-old’s latest role sees him as Investigating Judge Antoine Verlaque in ITV’s three-part drama
Murder In Provence.
Set on the sunny shores of France’s Cote d’Azur, the whodunnit sees Roger’s character join forces with romantic interest
Marine Bonnet (Nancy Carroll) as they try to solve a murder at the local university.
The series also features Miranda and Rumpole of the Bailey star Patricia Hodge, alongside The
Greatest Showman star Keala Settle.
Here Roger tells us more about it...
What first drew you to this series?
The appeal for me, always, is doing something different to the thing I’ve just done.
It’s a very different kind of character to Endeavour (Roger plays DI Fred Thursday in the Morse prequel) – even though we’re still in murder mystery-land – and a different location. And it was written by one of my oldest friends, Sheila Stevenson.
So you were brought on to the project at an early stage?
She told me all about her plans for the show. She said she wanted to create something that was witty and amusing, as well as dealing with serious crimes.
That really appealed to me – and also, of course, the idea of going to Provence.
Shelagh and I tend to be a good match because of the dry humour in her scripts, which I enjoy.
I do have a very silly side to my sense of humour too... but you probably won’t see that in this character.
Can you tell us a bit about your character, Antoine Verlaque?
He’s a man who is very serious about his job and he’s very proud of being an investigating judge in the French system.
It’s a great passion for him... His job as an investigating judge is very important in the French system of justice.
We don’t have investigative judges in the UK, can you elaborate?
It’s a bit like a detective, in which you kind of gather all the information and sort of present the case. I think he was very proud to become a judge, because he comes from a very wealthy family. But he has, I think, a very difficult relationship to both the wealth and his mother, and sort of rejects that.
Becoming a sort of servant of the state, the public good, I think, is of great value to him.
Antoine is a connoisseur of wine, food and art. Did that make scenes all the more enjoyable?
Well, of course, the last thing you should do as an actor is to actually eat anything while filming, because you’re stuffed a few takes in – and the wine is some sort of diluted prune juice!
But I have quite a lot of food preparation to do during scenes; you’ll see me shucking the odd oyster and chopping vegetables, things like that.
Alas, I couldn’t actually cook as Antoine because the kitchen on set in his house just wasn’t practical and I might have burned something down.
Do Antoine’s interests reflect your own?
I like art. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on it at all. I like wine and food – and I like to cook, certainly. So, I related to him very much there.
Were you excited to reunite with Nancy Carroll?
I was very, very keen on Nancy playing that role. We did a play called The Moderate Soprano a few years ago in the West End – and a few years before that, at the Hampstead Theatre. We got on terribly well, we had a great ease around each other.
We make each other laugh like the characters do. So that was all very useful, I think. And enjoyable, hugely enjoyable.
Can you explain the decision behind your character speaking English?
We were never going to do French accents for these characters, that wouldn’t have worked at all, it would have become annoying. But we did try to find a French quality to them...
The approach to the language was that everyone in it is French, and we’re in France. I think the rule was that we tried to sort of do a slight kind of French pronunciation of names, but do it as lightly as possible, really.
Can you speak French?
I can just about order a meal in a restaurant, but I’m useless at languages, unfortunately.
Did you have time to explore Aix-en-Provence or the surrounding area?
We did most of the interiors [in the UK], and then travelled to France for the last three weeks of the shoot. I’d have had a lot more chances to sample the local life and indeed the fantastic restaurants in Aix-en-Provence, if I’d been playing one of those parts where I had days off...
It’s called the City of Fountains – everywhere you go there’s some fountain.
We went down to Cassis where I’ve been before, which is so beautiful being by the sea – we had a beautiful couple of days there. But generally, it was just being around the town of Aix.
Is there anywhere in the world you still wish to film?
Somewhere where I have a bit more time off would be pleasant.
I once did a film in Thailand, many years ago, and it was the most glorious experience, because I’d never been there before.
It was incredibly beautiful. And my character wasn’t in [it] all the time, so there was time off as well.
Well, of course, the last thing you should do as an actor is to actually eat anything while filming, because you’re stuffed a few takes in Roger Allam on the challenges of his character’s interests
■ Murder In Provence is on ITV tomorrow at 8pm