HUNTING EVIL
EVE MYLES AND BABOU CEESAY play a pair of mismatched detectives in a dark thriller about the cat-and-mouse search for two chilling young serial killers
‘I don’t know who I like most between the two couples’
EVE MYLES
We Hunt Together
Wednesday & Thursday, Alibi HD, 10pm
THE BLURRED LINE between good and evil, and the dark and dangerous side of passion, is powerfully explored in Alibi’s enthralling new crime drama We Hunt Together.
The six-parter follows the twisted relationship between a pair of killers and the equally complex partnership between two dysfunctional cops who are desperate to bring them to justice.
As the action begins, charismatic and calculating sex chat-line worker Freddy (The
Halcyon’s Hermione Corfield) meets unstable Baba (Baghdad Central’s Dipo Ola), a former child soldier from the Congo, in the toilet of a nightclub where Baba works.
A violent incident involving Freddy’s sleazy boyfriend Simon (Eastenders’ Nigel Harman) leads to a deadly spark developing between Freddy and Baba, and their lives become irrevocably entwined as they go on to commit a series of brutal murders.
Cynical, short-tempered DS Lola Franks, played by Eve Myles, is called in to investigate when the first body is found. But she is unimpressed when she is given a new partner in the form of idealistic DI Jackson Mendy
(Dark Money’s Babou Ceesay), who is new to murder cases.
‘Lola is odd, socially inept and a lone wolf who’s sad and isolated,’ explains Myles, best known for her roles in Keeping Faith,
Broadchurch and Torchwood. ‘Her life is her work. Something happened on duty that changed her, so she is in a very tough place. She has a huge secret and is constantly being reminded about something that’s very dark in her life.’
Lola immediately finds herself at loggerheads with Jackson over their entirely different approaches to the case – especially as Lola resents Jackson’s background in police anticorruption as well as his kind, measured way of dealing with witnesses.
But as the case develops and the body count increases, she realises that he might have the skill set needed to help her catch the killers.
‘In the beginning, it’s a very cold relationship,’ explains Myles. ‘Lola’s very practical, she’s seen everything, but Jackson’s a ray of sunshine. He drives her potty, but he kills her with kindness and gets through the cracks. She develops a new respect for him and lets him into her life.
‘I think they fix each other in a strange way. They reach a good understanding and it makes for a great partnership because they work very differently, but they come together.’
THOUGHT-PROVOKING
While chalk-and-cheese cops are a crime drama staple, Myles believes Lola and Jackson’s quirky pairing brings something unique to the genre.
‘They’re not swishing in and out of offices and on to crime scenes with all the jargon,’ she says. ‘They’re stumbling into situations and finding their way, and they don’t have all the answers. And they don’t sound or look like police officers – Lola looks like she’s been dropped into her clothes!’
Myles was also drawn to the drama because so much of it focuses on the deeply disturbed killers and their dark motivations and haunting pasts. And she hopes that the series will prove thoughtprovoking about the mindset of murderers.
‘In a normal cop drama, you’d go, “These are the good guys, and here are the bad guys.” But when I read the scripts, I said, “I don’t know who I like most between the two couples,”’ she says.
‘I hope it’s got the same effect as something like Breaking Bad, and you find yourself rooting for Freddy and Baba to not get caught because you’re attached to them – even though they commit the most heinous crimes.’
To prepare for the role – especially the trauma Lola faces both personally and professionally
– Myles, 41, was able to draw on the experiences of two of her friends who are detectives.
‘I was very fortunate and I absolutely went to town on them,’ she says. ‘We were on vacation for two weeks and, bless them, they didn’t get a holiday because I kept asking them how they would approach different situations.
‘I also researched the psychological aspect of the job. Lola’s particular predicament is apparently very plausible – because from when a detective wakes up to when they go to sleep, they never switch off. It’s an all-consuming career. But it’s also about what people see and what that does to you. It’s the stuff of nightmares.’