“To have opened this door for people is incredible…”
Shelley lifts the lid on what it’s been like to play out Yasmeen’s story…
Why has it taken so long for Yasmeen to see what Geoff is really like?
She is a woman who is terrified of losing what she believes to be her closest connection. She has lost all the men in her life, and she is terrified of losing another one. Also, she feels a failure. Geoff has made her feel a common denominator in all this loss. She believes she’s alone.
Why didn’t she leave Geoff when she found out he was using escorts?
Geoff has already isolated her – she tried to tell him she was going to Spain after she found the escort emails, but he refused to let her go. Her ex-husband had an affair for seven years behind her back, and there may have been more than that. Yasmeen thinks if Sharif had to go elsewhere to get something Yasmeen couldn’t give him, then is Geoff having to do the same?
What was it like filming this week’s dramatic scenes?
Just the technical aspect of a scene like this means that something that plays out for three minutes might take the whole day to film. During that time, you have to concentrate and stay in the moment. Ian [Bartholomew, aka
Geoff] and I are very close – we understand each other. During the
portrayal of that horror, we had to keep in the moment, barely talking outside the scene.
How important has it been for you to meet people who are in Yasmeen’s situation?
To have heard from people who have been suffering in these circumstances, and to hear that we have opened a door for them, is incredible. This is domestic abuse, but has only been recently recognised as such, as there is no evidence – there is no black eye, no scars, not physical ones, it is hidden. We have opened that door into lives affected by coercive control, and how a seemingly kind, gentle, fun
After working so hard on this storyline, you now find yourself in lockdown. How have you been passing the time?
It has been strange after such an intense period of filming to suddenly have no lines to learn. [Shelley’s partner] Trilby is working via [video-call app] Zoom, and we are making sure we are in contact with loved ones here and abroad. Trying to get my head round technology has been a learning curve! But we are very lucky to be together.