Stephen’s story has innate drama... would the racist murderers get away with it?
Danielle De Wolfe speaks TO Hugh Quarshie about reprising THE role OF stephen Lawrence’s Father FOR ITV
REPRISING a leading role nearly two decades on is almost unheard of for most actors. But when that opportunity arose for Hugh Quarshie, accepting the role required little consideration.
A drama that first aired in 1999, The Murder of Stephen Lawrence was based on the real-life story, documenting the case of the teenager who was killed in 1993 in a racist knife attack by five white youths in south London.
Hugh, 66, played Stephen’s father Neville in the original adaptation, and now the former Holby City actor steps into Neville’s shoes once more, this time as part of ITV’S new three-part drama titled Stephen.
Based on the 2006 investigation led by former Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll, played by Steve Coogan, the new drama is set following 10 failed investigations, two failed court cases, an inquest, and an inquiry into the racist murder.
Then a senior investigating officer, Driscoll’s belief in justice set in motion a police investigation which led to the conviction of suspects Gary Dobson and David Norris.
Despite continued efforts, the remaining assailants have never been brought to justice.
Chatting candidly, Hugh is quick to note the poignancy of the project nearly 30 years after the teenager’s murder on April 22, 1993.
“The story in itself has an innate drama, namely ‘would the racist murderers get away with it?”’ says Hugh.
“That’s what drives [the programmes] in a way, but it also has a kind of moral force – in the sense that this is the story of a man, Clive Driscoll, who was just motivated by what he calls ‘old fashioned coppering’.”
Recalling the way in which the 1999 project had been more of a “dramatic reconstruction”, Hugh says the new three-part drama is very much “a conventional dramatic piece”.
A reprisal that allowed the actor to draw from his previous encounters with the Lawrence family, the role allowed him to revisit source material gathered some 24 years previously.
“I’d studied his mannerisms,” says Hugh of Neville.
“I had his voice on a tape on a loop, just because it was important to get his inflections and his accent right. But this time I felt the sense that I had that in the bank.
“This time, intuitively, it didn’t feel like the right thing to do – to call up Neville and say ‘how do you feel about your son being murdered?”’.
“I have an 18-year-old son – the same age that Stephen was when he was murdered. And I think, like Neville, like any father, particularly any father of a black or mixed race child, what do I tell my son?
“What do I teach him about the world? That it’s basically full of decent people or is it actually a place which is menacing and a threat and a dangerous place for people like you?”.
Hugh also notes the poignancy of the project – specifically its timing, given the recent highlighting of racism by the Black Lives Matter
movement and the abuse faced by England players following their penalty defeat at the Euro 2020 tournament.
“In one sense, it feels there has been a kind of step forward, particularly because of the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the determined efforts of the Lawrences to get a proper investigation. The Macpherson report coined the phrase ‘institutional racism,’ which forced people to think ‘well, what exactly does that mean?”’
“It felt for a while as if there had been forward momentum,” reflects the actor, who nods to the England team as “the most diverse team in the Euros maybe, apart from France”.
“That alone was cause for celebration, I thought. But then following the penalty misses, that outpouring of abuse, oh my God,” he reflects.
The Macpherson report, which
was published in 1999, examined how the police handled the Stephen Lawrence case.
Concluding that the investigation had been marred by failings, including ‘institutional racism’, the report went on to make a number of recommendations aimed at increasing trust and confidence in policing amongst minority ethnic communities.
Hugh’s role as Neville Lawrence follows his 19-year stint playing general surgeon Ric Griffin in long-running BBC medical drama Holby City.
Fans of the drama were shocked when the BBC recently announced the series is to end in March 2022 after 23 years.
“I was stunned – just as the [cast]
were, because they only found out about it a couple of hours before it was announced to the press,” says Hugh.
Noting his “confusion” at the decision given the show had “pretty reputable figures”, the actor says he was left “puzzled” given the BBC’S battle to retain the show some four years previously after it was put out to tender.
“I just think, well why did you bother? And if they’d allowed it to go somewhere else, maybe the show would still be on.”
Reflecting on nearly two decades spent with a scalpel in hand, he says: “I was getting a bit frustrated that we were supposed to be a surgical teaching hospital but the stories were not surgically led, it was about the surgeons not about the surgery.
“This was getting glaringly exposed when, a couple of years ago, there was a series called Surgeons: At The Edge Of Life which came on immediately after Holby at nine o’clock, albeit I think on BBC Two.”
He adds: “I did offer certain storylines which weren’t taken up, which I thought were great storylines – and it wasn’t just because I wanted a spin-off series.”
I have an 18-year-old son – the same age that Stephen was when he was murdered... What do I teach him about the world?