Meet the new star of Sunday night ‘crime time’
THE FIRST EPISODE
of new BBC series Showtrial saw duty solicitor Cleo Roberts begrudgingly representing the spoilt daughter of a wealthy socialite who’s accused of the murder of a university student and friend. From the producers of Line Of Duty and Bodyguard, it’s set to be the latest whodunnit to grip the nation – and a sign that interest in crime drama shows no signs of waning. All of which means its star, Tracy Ifeachor, who plays Cleo, can expect fandom – and lots of requests for spoilers.
The strange coincidence is that Tracy might have been a lawyer in a parallel life. ‘I really wanted to be one!’ she laughs over Zoom. ‘I have this natural love for law and rights and knowing what those are and that’s always underpinned who I am. So, when I was growing up, the choice was either being a good lawyer or being a good actor.’ She chose acting, which took her from Plymouth to London’s respected Central School of Speech and Drama on a scholarship. Since then, Tracy’s gone on to appear in everything from Quantico to DC’S Legends Of Tomorrow and, perhaps most famously, Dr Who. (Fittingly, as she’s also a Star Trek superfan.)
Now, though, she’s gearing up for national obsession status. In preparation for the role of Cleo, Tracy spoke to lawyers and solicitors in the field to help shape the details. ‘It was the little things like, when I went to court, they all carried their laptops with all the cables, and wear all black and patent-leather shoes.’ Following their lead, Tracy wore a black dress (‘from H&M’) to her first real court appearance, which the costume team recreated for the scenes when her case reaches trial. ‘One of the lawyers was like, “Oh we all shop at Hobbs.” So we incorporated that into thinking about the suits Cleo wears. I’m really into structured pieces because I’m an athletic pencil, so we have to create shape!’
Over lockdown, Tracy’s TV bingeing has perhaps unsurprisingly taken the form of legal dramas like The Good Fight and re-runs of British classic Judge John Deed. Growing up, she recalls the TV in her house reflected her Nigerian Igbo family in the form of her mum’s love of Nollywood. ‘I remember watching Dangerous Sisters 2 a lot!’ she giggles.
Outside the house, she was one of four students ‘of African descent’ at her school in Plymouth. ‘It’s a beautiful place to grow up,’ she says, ‘but some of the hardest times were in that city.’ She worked at Marks & Spencer, where she recollects, ‘Kids would come through and be like, “Mummy, why does she have chocolate on her face?” They had never seen anyone who looked like me.’
Tracy is optimistic that things are changing and anticipates all the Cleo’s yet to be written. ‘It’s really nice to be the lead of a BBC show and see a dark-skinned person in this position. That’s one of the things that really attracted me to this uplifting character fighting for justice, because I love seeing people who look like me play heroes.’
For now, she’s enjoying the thought of the nation becoming amateur detectives as we gorge on a new crime to solve. On the unrelenting fascination of the genre, she is thoughtful about how it reflects a changing society. ‘Now we’re realising that you literally can be just walking down the street, and kind of look like someone else, or be profiled and end up in the justice system and have to spend £180,000 to prove you didn’t commit a crime. That can happen to any one of us, so I think now we’re realising the extent of injustice.’ She smiles, before adding, ‘And that’s why I love Cleo, because she’s a freedom fighter.’ ‘Showtrial’ is on Sundays at 9pm on BBC One and on iplayer