Friel ‘almost pulled out’ of thriller series
ANNA FRIEL has said she almost pulled out of crime thriller Marcella because she was unsure if she could compete with others who have portrayed female detectives on screen.
The actress is reprising the role of DS Marcella Backland in a second series of ITV’s noir detective show, which was a ratings success during its first outing in 2016.
She said it was a “relief ” to see how popular it had been because she “almost pulled out of it” after accepting the role.
Friel said: “I just thought, ‘Oh God, how can I do this, there’s so many amazing female detectives that have done it so well, I don’t know what I can offer differently.’ So I had to really work hard on that.
“I think when it was received as well as it was, I thought, ‘Well, maybe I have done something that is different and I’ve got my own ownership and my own stamp on it.’ That was very nice.”
The programme follows London-based detective Marcella, who suffers from fugues, or blackouts. The new series starts a few months on from where the first series ended, and Marcella has gone without a blackout for some time.
When a body is discovered inside a wall, a devastated Marcella soon works out that it is that of schoolboy Leo Priestley, who was abducted a few years beforehand and was a friend of her own son.
Friel, who won an International Emmy Award in November for her role as Marcella, said that working on the Nordic-style crime drama means having to prepare for the “quite harrowing” filming process.
Marcella returns to ITV at 9pm on Monday, February 19.