Outspoken Con is no ordinary actor
FROM Poldark to Cold Feet, Our Girl to DCI Banks, it seems drama fans have had veritable feast to get their teeth into of late.
Ordinary Lies is another series making a very welcome return this week.
But star Con O’Neill reckons reality has bitten into the TV schedules – and he’s really not happy.
In fact, get the otherwise affable actor started, and he’s more than happy to bite back.
“Every time you turn on the TV now you’re faced with some kind of reality show,” Con tells iN10.
“It seems like our entire entertainment industry is focused on shoving cameras into people’s bedrooms, loos, living rooms and workplaces.
“I think it’s terrible. People are being convinced to sell their secrets and show parts of themselves that, in five or 10 years’ time, they may very well regret showing.
“I think it’s got to the point now where entertainment is becoming intrusive. I just don’t get it.”
Con’s unsurprisingly scathing about the likes of Big Brother and its Celebrity stable mate. He reasons, though, that while participants are “just people desperate for some kind of acknowledgment”, they are at least adults able to make that judgment.
But fly-on-the-wall shows that go behind the scenes at schools are, he reckons, another matter entirely.
“I don’t know what the parents were thinking to agree to allow their kids to be filmed in their daily school lives.
“How can that be entertainment? I just don’t understand it. I think it’s irresponsible.”
We’ve got on to the subject of intrusive cameras because of Con’s character in Ordinary Lies.
The first series followed a group of workers at a car showroom. Max Beesley, Michelle Keegan, Jo Joyner and Sally Lindsay were among the cast and viewers loved finding out about the secrets behind the workplace façade.
This time there’s a whole new cast and setting. It’s the Welsh call centre and warehouse of a sports sales company and Griff Rhys Jones, Angela Griffin, Matt Di Angelo and Con are among the ensemble cast.
“My character is Joe, the head of sales at the factory,” explains Con.
“He’s married, has two kids and he’s enjoying his life.
“But he’s concerned because he’s found out that his wife has been flirting with a guy at work through reading texts on her phone.
“So he gets a bit carried away and starts to have surveillance on her.”
Con says that with today’s cameras-everywhere culture – hence the reality telly views – he can see why his screen salesman may have got carried away.
“The thing about Joe is he’s not a bad man. He’s a good man who makes a silly choice.
“What was compelling about taking it on was that when he discovers it – and it’s not what you think he’s going to discover – he just doesn’t know how to cope.
“He starts to emotionally unravel. I wouldn’t have done it myself, but I get why he does what he does.”
Frank and entertainingly outspoken, Con’s a refreshing change from say-it-safe actors.
We’ve had a run of old sitcoms returning with new versions as part of a BBC season. Some have been warmly welcomed – some less so.
“I don’t know why we’re revisiting classics,” says Con.
“Especially Are You Being Served? It’s a thing of its time and I don’t really understand why we’re trying to shoehorn that into now.
“I think we should write original scripts. I don’t think you can better the classics.”
Con is in a sitcom himself, the BBC’s Val, (and was in another, Cucumber, last year) and is also in Class, a Doctor Who spin-off, Class and an upcoming drama, Harlots.
But it’s his role in Happy Valley earlier this year, in which his character was suspected of being the killer, that made the biggest impact.
“A woman in her 80s came up to me in a café in Ireland and all she said was: ‘I know you’re killing those women!’ and walked out,” laughs Con.
“And I was in to a hotel lift when a woman with a young child said: ‘We thought you were the serial killer’ without any context. The poor child was completely terrified.”
Ordinary Lies, BBC 1, Tue, 9pm.