No fear

As Helen Mccrory fights for justice in ITV thriller Fearless, the actor tells Janet Christie about the appeal of the role, the new season of crime drama Peaky Blinders and meeting Cherie Blair after twice portraying her on screen

Helen Mccrory talks to Janet Christie about her new legal thriller Fearless

Fake news, post-truth, a world where there are no facts, only interpretations, if ever the time was right for a character like Helen Mccrory’s human rights lawyer in ITV’S six part legal thriller, Fearless, it’s now.

Emma Banville believes in truth and the ability of the British legal system to uphold it, but not without a fight, and the tenacious lawyer is up for that fight. Known as a champion of lost causes, she sets out to prove the innocence of a convicted killer, who has served 14 years in jail for the murder of a schoolgirl, amid a backdrop of official conspiracies and cover-ups.

“Emma is a hunter for the truth, fearless and brave. She believes in Britain’s legal system and that it will strive for a just and fairer society, and that nothing is above the law,” says Mccrory over the phone from the Fearless press junket.

“What’s really interesting is the grey area where politics and the law meet. It’s one thing to prove whether or not someone is guilty, but when it comes to who is responsible for covering up facts, that’s more difficult.”

Written by Homeland writer Patrick Harbinson and from the makers of Poldark and Downton Abbey, Fearless also stars comedian John Bishop in a straight role as Banville’s photojournalist boyfriend and Michael Gambon as a shadowy former Cabinet Office grandee.

So does Mccrory see any similarities between herself and the character of Emma Banville?

“Well, she specialises in lost causes and maybe I’m similar in that I don’t think there’s such a thing as a lost cause. I believe in second chances for everybody. Also, Emma’s obsessive about her work and I am too. I’m always thinking, why did the writer write this line?

“Lawyers are constantly looking after their clients’ interests, sometimes for years, and come to identify with them, and it’s like that playing a character – you become an advocate for them.”

Mccrory goes on to expand on what she sees as a British desire for fairness and equality and recognition that no-one is above the law. Coupled with this, in the wider world, is a growing concern that human rights are increasingly endangered. A child of the Seventies, she grew up with an awareness of the effects of Thatcherism on Britain and has drawn on this experience in Fearless.

“It was important for Patrick that he cast someone that had been politicised like Emma Banville so at the beginning there are flashes of Greenham Common and Thatcher’s Britain. I grew up in that and love her or loathe her, everyone was politicised by her in the same way as people are by Trump today. For Emma Banville activism is second nature from the cradle.”

Mccrory also believes in protest and marched against the poll tax back in the day, more recently taking her ten-year old daughter Manon on January’s Women’s March. Her commitment to change sees her channelling her efforts into various charities, including the Sir Hubert von Herkomer Arts Foundation which gives children a gateway to the arts, The Princes Trust, MIND and Seen and Heard.

“With Hubert von Herkomer we introduce children who are falling through the gaps to art. It’s a great way for them to find their own voice and I find as I get older I’m more and more interested in doing that kind of work. I’ve realised the youth of Britain is what I care about most, and my energy has gone into that, mental illness and mentoring.”

As you would expect from the writer of Homeland, 24 and ER, Harbinson’s Fearless bears the hallmarks of that stable and the pace is cracking, with plot twists coming thick and fast.

“He comes from that American writing tradition where the plot is king and it’s hugely entertaining. You think you know this character, a slightly arsey woman lawyer and there’s a killer, and you’re thinking Christ, I’ve seen this before. But then it’s tipped on its head and you realise it’s not what it appears. There are three cases running consecutively and we go from a small rural setting to crossing continents and it gets bigger and bigger as time goes on.”