‘The story in itself has an innate drama’
Danielle de Wolfe speaks with actor Hugh Quarshie about ITV’s Stephen Lawrence drama. 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 murder of the teenager who was killed in 1993 in a racist knife attack by five white youths in south London.
Quarshie, 66, played Stephen Lawrence’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, the new drama is set following ten 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 over Zoom, Quarshie 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 Quarshie. “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”,
Quarshie says the new threepart drama is every-inch “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 Quarshie 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 myself 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?”.
Quarshie also notes the poignancy of the project – specifically its timing, given the recent highlighting of racism following the Black Lives Matter movement and the backlash 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 Nevilles 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, published in 1999, examined failings in how the police investigated the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Concluding that the police investigation had been marred by failings, including ‘institutional racism’, the report went on to make a number of recommendations set to increase trust and confidence in policing amongst minority ethnic communities.
Quarshie’s role of Neville Lawrence follows a 19-year stint playing general surgeon Ric Griffin in long-running BBC medical drama Holby City, a much-loved television staple. 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 Quarshie. “I’ve stayed part of the WhatsApp group which the cast formed and so I learned of it that way.”
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.”
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 just think, well why did
you bother?’