This week on TV
MARTIN CLUNES stars in the story of how milly dowler’s murderer was brought to justice
Martin Clunes stars in the true-life crime drama Manhunt, Sheridan Smith tries to get rich quick in Cleaning Up, and Ardal O’hanlon returns in Death in Paradise
new drama manhunt
Sunday-tuesday, ITV Hd, 9pm
BACK IN 2004, the discovery of French student Amelie Delagrange’s body on Twickenham Green triggered an investigation that became one of the biggest police operations of recent years.
The man leading that inquiry, DCI Colin Sutton, is now the subject of a new three-part
ITV drama, which shows how painstaking police work eventually put serial killer Levi Bellfield behind bars and linked him to other murders, including that of 13-year-old Milly Dowler.
Made in consultation with both Sutton and the victims’ families, the series sees Martin Clunes take the lead role as an inspector ruthlessly determined to get justice, whatever the personal cost. Here, Clunes tells us why it was a role he had to play…
YOU’VE OFTEN SPOKEN OF YOUR RELUCTANCE TO PLAY POLICE OFFICERS. WHAT CHANGED? This role is a huge departure for me, but it’s a story worth telling. I had resisted the offers of detective dramas because they don’t float my boat. This was so different.
It’s not sensationalised and I was interested in the chance to play this man. When Philippa [Braithwaite, the producer and Clunes’ wife] was developing Manhunt, she and the writer wanted me to play Colin but didn’t ask me because they knew my thoughts on TV detectives – I had to ask them if I could play him.
HOW DID YOU PREPARE FOR THE
ROLE OF COLIN? As well as talking to Colin himself, I spent a day with Hampshire Police to see how a murder squad operated. It was fascinating to see the energy and the urgency. They worked through the night. Having grown up worrying about being caught with no tax on my moped I saw the police in a certain way, but actually they’re doing it because they care, just
like nurses and doctors.
HOW CLOSE IS YOUR PORTRAYAL – DID YOU COPY ANY OF COLIN’S MANNERISMS?
I really did feel a responsibility to Colin
and to the victims, but this isn’t an impersonation. You either go down the route of Gary Oldman in the film Darkest Hour, with prosthetics and a photographic reproduction, or you don’t. I did use Colin’s real
A-Z, though, and a perfect copy of his notebook.
WE HEAR YOU HAD A SPECIAL GROUP OF EXTRAS WORKING ON THE DRAMA?
Yes, they were police specialist supporting artists. Usually extras are just brought in to fill up a set but we had the same people in the same desks every day and they invested in it. It made such a huge difference to have them onside. We really did feel like we were a team.
IT SOUNDS LIKE EXTRA CARE WAS TAKEN BECAUSE OF THE SENSITIVITY OF THIS SERIES… There was a massive responsibility attached to the whole project and throughout the production process it was crucially important to me that we respected the memory of the victims. I think we are honest, we don’t glamorise anything, and I like the fact that we don’t have the classic dual narrative of watching the perpetrator live his life alongside the detective living his. The drama doesn’t want to know much about Levi Bellfield, except that he committed the murders and was arrested. We don’t see any of the crimes take place – they are real and abhorrent, so to see them reenacted would be wrong. The focus is on the police work and Colin’s determination.
DOES THIS MARK A SHIFT IN YOUR CAREER? WILL YOU BE SEEKING OUT
MORE SERIOUS ROLES? I’ve actually just filmed a sitcom called Warren for the BBC and there’s more Doc
Martin coming up, but I’m up for anything exciting that I’m offered.