Roth worth another ‘Tin Star’
Tim Roth is a revelation in the second season of ‘Tin Star’, where he continues exploring the moral dichotomy in his role as Jim Worth (aka Jack Devlin), writes Debashine Thangevelo
AFTER Lie to Me, Tim Roth was hungry for a character he could really sink his teeth into. And he got to do just that in Tin Star, in a role that explores the dark duality of one man.
On the one hand, he is as righteous as they come as Jim Worth, Little Big Bear’s chief of police.
However, when he is under the vice-like grip of alcohol, he turns in Jack Devlin, his badass former undercover persona.
On being drawn to this show, he recalled: “I wasn’t particularly looking to do something in television. I had already done a series in America (Lie to Me), and that was hard work but fun, which is always good. Then this popped up. It had an anarchy and chaos to it that I really liked and not accidental chaos, it had a feeling of madness. There is a monstrous confusion to the character that I think is fun to play. And the awful bombshell that hits at the end of the first episode spurs the remaining nine to a point I found to be intriguing.”
Little Big Bear was an opportunity for him to start over with his family, having let them down on so many occasions in the past. But things haven’t gone as planned.
In the first episode of season two, Jack is bleeding on the mountainside, having been shot by his daughter Anna (Abigail Lawrie), who is being pursued by her mother Angela (Genevieve O’Reilly). Racked with guilt, she tries to commit suicide but is saved by the daughter of the local pastor. Meanwhile, Jack wakes up after being unconscious for some time and, in his state of grogginess, tries to signal for help by setting fire to Whitey’s cabin.
On his character and his alterego, he shared: “There are real-life people who have been working as police officers in Britain who take jobs in small towns in far-flung places just for a quiet life. That’s the position Jim is in. He is a recovering alcoholic and he comes out for the quiet life with his family. That is the good guy who is trying to be a regular bloke. But he is still quite ‘thinky’. And then there is the other guy when he falls off the wagon.
“I won’t get into it too much but there is a much wilder version of the character who appears, one that we are not expecting. It is tricky to say what they are but both of them are quite bonkers.
“They are very different versions of the same man,” Roth said. “But there are common denominators that anchor him however wild he goes: his wife and daughter are the gravity of his whole character. One of the most powerful things about the show is the family dynamic. As wild as it gets, that is what holds it together.”
The humour in the show is quite dark, too.
Season two of Tin Star airs on BBC First (DStv channel 119) at 8pm tomorrow.