The Sunday Telegraph

‘I want roles that mirror my own life’

Having been Downton’s saucy housemaid, MyAnna Buring feels more at home as a chaotic DCI, she tells Radhika Sanghani

-

With her messy brown hair, no-frills manner and willingnes­s to pull down her underwear to urinate in public, Helen Weeks is the TV detective we’ve all been waiting for. The new star of In the Dark on the BBC, played by MyAnna Buring, is the latest in a line-up of strong female cops – from The Killing’s

Sofie Gråbøl to Happy Valley’s Sarah Lancashire. Like these anti-heroines, Buring’s character is complex, chaotic and completely relatable.

“She really is,” agrees Buring, 37, over breakfast in central London. “She’s someone you can go on a journey with, which is a challenge. It’s really easy to play a hard cop with no heart, but I didn’t want her to be hard.”

The Northern detective finds out that she is pregnant around the same time as her best friend’s husband is arrested on suspicion of abducting and killing two girls. She returns home to solve the mystery, while dealing with her own dark past, as well as more pressing problems (the pilot ends with uncertaint­y over who fathered her baby).

Buring’s own life could not be more different. The actress was born in Sweden, before moving to Kuwait and then Oman with her parents, thanks to her father’s job as an orthopaedi­c surgeon. She came to Britain aged 16, going to Bristol University, then the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

She launched her acting career aged 24, with a role in critically acclaimed horror film The Descent, and has gone on to appear in Twilight, the BBC’s Ripper Street and Downton

Abbey, in which she played maid and seductress Edna Braithwait­e.

Yet, despite DI Weeks’s turbulent life, Buring says she can identify with her. “In a way, you always seek something that mirrors your own life, because it makes it easier to play,” she explains. “I love the way she works with local people, and really knows her area. I could also relate to aspects of her relationsh­ip with her best friend. Though I don’t have a fear of returning home like she does, and I’m a lot more vocal – I happily talk about my feelings.”

In a case of life imitating fiction, they also have a more obvious connection. Buring has just given birth to her first child: eight-week-old son Zachary. “I keep joking that I tried being pregnant on the show, and then thought I’d do it for real,” she laughs. “It’s weird watching it now. When I filmed it, I’d never been pregnant so now I’m like: ‘I wish I could go back and do that scene better’.” One of the most realistic elements of In the Dark is Weeks’s nervousnes­s about her impending motherhood, while her partner, played by Ben Batt, is thrilled. That role reversal was something that Buring was keen to explore.

“I love that and think it’s true of so many relationsh­ips,” she cries. “Ben and I were keen to make the relationsh­ip an aspiration­al one. Hopefully, people believe in them as a couple. It’s a modern relationsh­ip.”

Modernity, realism and grit are all key words in the new genre of Brit Noir – female-led cop shows, inspired by the success of Scandi-crime. Buring, a self-avowed “box-setter”, explains: “Scandinavi­ans have loved the detective genre forever. Theirs is the crème de la crème, and there’s a lot of copycattin­g of that – or more, a merging of styles.”

She thinks the genre’s recent surge in popularity is a reaction to real-life events: “A lot of people say it’s because, in dark times, people like to escape and watch horrendous things from the safety of their own home, knowing it will be resolved. In real life, things don’t get resolved but in a crime journey they do – and that’s the treat you get from going on an emotional rollercoas­ter.”

But what really excites Buring is the central role of women in these new crime series – and that it’s no longer surprising to viewers. “After the Eighties and Nineties, writingw suddenly became very two-dimensiona­l for women,” she explains. “Everything reverted back to girl-next-door, downtrodde­n housewife or sexy vixen. So when The Killing and The Bridge came out, theyth felt like a novelty.

“But now I think there are so manym it’s not a new thing any more; it’s just a thing. That excites me. It’s less and less of a talking point. Now it’s just normal.n We can have a male heroh or a female heroine. “Directors and producers are proving that the stereotypi­cal white male aged 30-50 isn’t the only interestin­g hero.h We don’t care if it’s notn a young twentysome­things in a skimpy bikinib running around solvings murders. In fact,f we wouldn’t evene believe that, wouldw we?”

DI Helen Weeks couldn’tc be further away from the outdated stereotype of a “sexy policewoma­n”. In the first episode of the four-part series, she dreads the thought of becoming a “mum with her t--s out in a café”, lounges at home in a tracksuit, and is memorably caught weeing in the forest by a passer-by.

“I fought against that,” admits Buring with a laugh. “But we did it, and I think it creates a normalcy and light relief. It’s a reminder that she is pregnant, and that’s what’s going on in her life. But I thought if she’s going to do that then she has to look really awkward, because I’ve never been in the forest and done that gracefully…”

She is confident that television will continue to progress in terms of equality and honesty. “We’ll get to the point where we won’t be discussing the characters’ gender, the colour of their skin or their religion – it will just be a part of who they are,” she says. “We’re not there at all, but we will get there.” Nor is she worried that parts will dry up as she creeps into her forties. “In my personal experience, everything’s got better the older I’ve got. I might as well trust that.

“My benchmark is always, ‘What would my 15-year-old self think?’ and, usually, my 15-year-old self would be jumping up and down, not believing her luck.”

What she really hopes is that

In the Dark will inspire girls to explore new careers. “Can you imagine if when teenagers were asked ‘What do you want to be when you’re older?’ they didn’t say ‘famous’ but ‘I want to be a detective’,” she sighs. “Wouldn’t that just be amazing?”

In the Dark is on BBC One on Tuesdays at 9pm and is available on BBC iPlayer

‘I tried being pregnant on the show, then thought I’d do it for real’

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Strong women: Buring as DI Helen Weeks in In the Dark, left; and as brothel madam Long Susan in Ripper Street, right
Strong women: Buring as DI Helen Weeks in In the Dark, left; and as brothel madam Long Susan in Ripper Street, right
 ??  ?? MyAnna Buring, above, shot to fame as maid and seductress Edna in Downton Abbey, right
MyAnna Buring, above, shot to fame as maid and seductress Edna in Downton Abbey, right

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom