It’s not just another drama about a kid that goes missing
Motherland’s Anna Maxwell Martin is a parent under pressure in new ITV thriller Hollington Drive... but this time she’s not playing it for laughs. JANE HAASE finds out more from the actress and co-star Rachael Stirling
WE ARE used to seeing Anna Maxwell Martin as frazzled working mum Julia in hit sitcom Motherland.
In ITV’s new four-part series, Hollington Drive, family is still at the heart of the drama but this time events take a much darker turn.
Anna plays chaotic Theresa, while Rachael Stirling plays her older, more sensible, headteacher sister Helen.
The action begins on a warm, balmy evening, as the pair are enjoying a barbecue with their partners and children.
When Theresa’s 10-year-old son Ben asks to play in the nearby park with his cousin Eva, Theresa is plagued by feelings of anxiety.
As expected, the children don’t return on time and Theresa goes looking, finding the youngsters on the edge of a woodland area.
They appear to be fighting and her instincts tell her something terrible has happened.
Sure enough, later that evening their distraught neighbour Jean (Britannia star Jodie McNee) calls on the family and says her son Alex has gone missing.
What has happened to him – and could Ben or Eva be responsible?
“On paper this looks like another drama about a kiddie going missing, but it’s not that,” stresses Line of Duty star Anna. “This series is really not about the missing child – that’s just a catalyst to make people turn in on themselves.
“The real centrifugal force of the drama is this hideously co-dependent relationship between Theresa and Helen. It’s very complex and you just can’t really work out what’s going on between them.”
Anna, 44, describes Theresa as “a bit of an antihero really”.
“She’s often not very likeable and often not a very good parent, she makes lots of terrible decisions,” says Anna.
“She’s slightly unhinged and I really liked that, because she’s not a cookie-cutter mother making the right decisions, doing the right thing. She’s very flawed. She doesn’t handle Alex’s disappearance well at all, but she’s not a happy go lucky person before that, she’s dysfunctional and it becomes clear that she’s suffering with trauma.”
From the outside, it looks like Theresa and Helen are living the perfect middle-class life.
“It’s very much a Stepford Wives idyll at the beginning, this very clean perfection, which of course is not real, it’s a veneer for lots of other things going on with these people,” says Anna.
Despite the dark subject matter, she says there were light moments on set.
“I always find filming dramas much funnier than doing comedies.
“There are some funny characters and some little jokes in Hollington Drive, it’s not all misery – I wouldn’t want to be part of a misery show.”
Wild Bill star Rachael and Anna have worked together before on code-breaking drama The Bletchley Circle.
“Yes, Anna and I know each other well,” says Rachael, 44, daughter of the late Dame Diana Rigg.
“In an age when there’s not often time for lots of rehearsals I looked at this very intense relationship and knew we could evoke it believably on screen, just by virtue of the fact we know each other so well.
“There’s a shorthand so the whole thing becomes more enjoyable.”
Rachael describes her character Helen as the sensible, pragmatic, practical one of the family.
“You come to learn that her sister, Theresa, has had a chaotic time and she has always been the one who has been a bit out of control,” she says.
“Helen has never been out of control in her life, so she has always looked after Theresa and it suits her,” she says. “Helen is now a primary school headteacher and a pillar of the community.
She’s slightly unhinged and I really liked that, because she’s not a cookie-cutter mother making the right decisions, doing the right thing. She’s very flawed. Anna Maxwell Martin on her Hollington Drive character, Theresa
“She has an assumed authority about her – I know those people so well, the type that when they walk into a room you just do what they tell you to do, just because of their tone of voice, it’s that simple.
“She’s very high status and you’d look to her during any sort of crisis.”
Discussing the sisters’ complicated dynamic, Rachael adds: “I’ve never had a sister so I’m fascinated by that dynamic. “Theresa isn’t entirely confident in her own skin, and very much depends upon Helen, who is very organised and controlled. “Theresa looks up to her, and then this appalling thing happens, a child goes missing and Theresa is absolutely convinced that her son has something to do with it.
“The show is about these two sisters coming together to protect their children, and in the end it’s about the fact that there’s no length to which a mother won’t go to defend her child.”
Also starring in the series by acclaimed writer Sophie Petzal, who also wrote TV thriller Blood, are Peter McDonald (Dublin Murders) and Rhashan Stone (Finding Alice) as the sisters’ partners.
Anna promises the drama will have viewers hooked.
“It’s great storytelling,” she says. “I love thrillers, I hope the audience has a nice night in on the sofa watching it.”