With all the argy-bargy that goes on... it’s quite hard-hitting VICKY McCLURE, OTTO FARRANT AND BRENOCK O’CONNOR TELL ABOUT THE THIRD SERIES OF ANTHONY HOROWITZ CLASSIC ALEX RIDER
KERRI-ANN ROPER
LINE of Duty actress Vicky McClure probably knows a thing or two about having to keep a secret.
After all, she previously had to deal with questions galore about what Jed Mercurio had in store for the hit BBC show and its gripping storylines.
Fast forward to one of her latest roles, returning for the third series of Amazon Freevee’s hugely popular Alex Rider, based on the novel series of the same name by Bond author Anthony Horowitz, and there’s no escaping an air of mystery for Vicky.
But the Nottingham-born actress, 40, also known for roles in This Is England and Trigger Point, likes that exact fact about her Alex Rider character Mrs Jones, who we met in the first series as the deputy head of MI6 and who became Alex’s professional guardian.
“I can sort of play her in a certain way that feels like it exists and we really try and go for the truth, and making sure that it feels believable and relatable and all that kind of stuff,” Vicky explains.
The novel series, featuring the eponymous teenager who is unwittingly dragged into the world of international espionage, is often cited as one of Anthony’s most successful works.
Adapted from the fifth Alex Rider novel, the third series of the TV instalment sees Otto Farrant, 27, who has starred in BBC dramas Mrs Wilson and War and Peace, back as Alex.
This time around the teenage spy is on the hunt for the agency known as Scorpia, and with his close friends Tom (played by Brenock O’Connor) and Kyra (played by Marli Siu) at his side, he embarks on a mission to destroy Scorpia.
Vicky adds: “Otto, especially being sort of in every single scene, needs to make sure that the audience invest in him especially... but I think with Mrs Jones I just quite enjoy the mystery of her.
“Because some of it is so surreal, it’s quite playful. Whereas the other shows that I’m involved lved in feel like they’re real-life events, vents, and that’s not quite the case with Alex Rider.”
Novelist Anthony, y, who was made a CBE in the he 2021 New Year’s Honours s list, was commissioned by the estate of Ian Flemming to produce a nummber of James Bond nd novels.
His first, Trigger er Mortis, was released ed in 2015 and following wing its success he was asked sked to produce another, other, Forever and A Day, ay, in 2018.
In 2000, the first t Alex Rider novel, Stormbreaker, was released sed in the UK, and the series es has 14 novels to date. Anthony says: “I’m often asked which is my favourite Alex Rider book and although I am very drawn to Stormbreaker, the first in the series, I think it was with Scorpia that the series really found its feet. “It’s a very dark adventure which tests Alex’s loyalty to MI6 and forces him to confront his family history, and the forces that turned him into a teenaged spy.” He adds: “It also has one of my favourite villains, Julia Rothman, magnificently played in this series emotional side of the character and by the ice-cold Sofia Helin (The the slower scenes that we see him Bridge). in. ”
“Not just jus my favourite book He adds: “We’ve always tried to but, I thin think my favourite series lean into the grittiness of it and so far, Scorpia Sc is everything I because it’s a heightened reality, a wanted A Alex Rider to be. Fastlot of the things that are happening, paced, full of action, serious but we really wanted to ground it but fun.” within London and that kind of gritf uTh
The third series also tiness that we know and love. brin brings with it a lot of “So, to take that even further this ac action for Otto’s protagseason, it was amazing, because I onist and what he says think the pay-off is even greater ... ar are “a lot of twists and the threat is so big and you don’t tu turns”. know who is an ally or an enemy.” ““Every fight that I have What the show does have in its to lea learn is like a dance,” he droves is a dedicated and passionexpla explains. ate fan base. Just ask Brenock, 23, “Yo You have to go into this who plays Alex Rider’s best friend slight slightly zen mode where Tom. you’r you’re just so focused on The English actor and singer, who when the next hit is going played Olly in fantasy series Game to be and a the choreography of Thrones and has also starred in is everything. eve It’s a really The Bromley Boys film and BBC nice antidote a to the more series Dickensian, relays an anec
Kate Fleming in
Otto Farrant (left, as Alex) with Brenock O’Connor (Tom), and (inset right) Alex Rider creator Anthony Horowitz
dote as he talks about Alex Rider’s wide-ranging appeal.
“A lot of other projects I’ve done, you can sort of paint what you imagine a fan of that show would look like, you’ve got an image of who we’re making it for,” he says.
“But for this, I was queueing for a pint at an Arsenal game and a 14-year-old girl came up and said that she’s obsessed with the show, and she loves it.”
“And then two days later, I got accosted by a stag do full of 40-yearold blokes. Also just as in love with the show.
“And that, to me, says that the show is doing something right. It’s attracting the right audience of people who have been with the book since day one and kids that are finding it now and might read the books as the mysterious Mrs series of Alex Rider after it. It’s got a broad appeal, which is lovely to know that people are taking to it.”
Vicky, who was made an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours last year for services to drama and to charity, is in agreement about the show’s success stemming from it appealing to “lots of people of lots of ages”.
She says: “What Alex Rider does brilliantly is not make it too soft. You only have to put the news on nowadays, which everyone has access to no matter your age, and you are having to take on very tough subjects and – visually – look at things that are very distressing.
“On our show, with the stunts and the fights and all the sort of argybargy that goes on, it’s done in a way that is quite hard-hitting.
“I think kids appreciate it when it looks like there’s been a bit of effort put into it and it’s not been softened too much, compared to computer games and god knows what.
“With dialogue and relationships and the complexity, kids and adults alike, they want to figure things out. They don’t want it to be spoon fed. Nobody wants that. I think Alex Rider is a very intelligent show in that way. You have to pay attention – which is just how it should be.”