Cover story
Jared Harris and Cush Jumbo in revenge thriller The Beast Must Die
The Beast Must Die
‘Frances makes a bunch of mistakes… you really see her vulnerability’ CUSH JUMBO
‘I AM GOING to kill a man. I don’t know his name. I don’t know where he lives. I have no idea what he looks like. But I’m going to find him. And kill him.’
So begins gripping Britbox thriller The Beast Must Die – the streaming service’s first original scripted drama – in which a grieving mother sets out to find the hit-andrun driver who killed her son during a holiday on the Isle of Wight.
GOING IT ALONE
Adapted from a novel by Cecil Day-lewis – father of Oscarwinning actor Daniel – the five-part series stars The Good
Fight’s Cush Jumbo as teacher Frances, who takes matters into her own hands when she learns from newly transferred DI Strangeways
(The Serpent’s Billy Howle) that the police investigation into her son’s death has hit a dead end.
Taking a leave of absence from her job, Frances poses as a writer researching a crime novel as she returns to the island to conduct her own investigation.
‘Frances is very good at persuading and reading people, in the way that you imagine she would be with teenagers in a secondary school,’ says Jumbo.
‘But she’s making it all up as she goes along, makes a bunch of mistakes, and you really see her vulnerability. That’s one of the things I loved about the script, because I hate it when people [in TV dramas] are just suddenly able to shoot guns, use knives and jump over cars – it’s so unrealistic.’
The teacher soon tracks down a woman who she believes was a passenger in the hit-and-run vehicle and, after befriending her under false pretences, identifies her prime suspect – George Rattery, a self-made businessman with a love of fast cars, played by Jared Harris.
‘George has the “three Ws” – women, winning and wealth,’ says Harris, who’s best known for his roles in The Crown, Mad Men and
Chernobyl. ‘Initially he seems fairly charming, but deep down he’s deeply selfish, and all he can see is what affects him, and what interests him.’
To find out whether her suspicions are well-founded, Frances inveigles her way into the posh house George shares with his trophy wife Violet (Maeve Dermody), and formidable sister Joy (Geraldine James).
‘The set-up is very Addams Family!’ reveals Jumbo. ‘George’s sister Joy is this weird matriarch. She says things to Frances that are borderline sexist and racist, so Joy is very much the main person that Frances has to watch out for when she gets there.’
Since George enjoys the high life, and loves showing off his prize possessions, Harris and Jumbo both got the chance to sail a luxury yacht and get behind the wheel of a flash car while filming the series.
‘My dad [actor Richard Harris] had a house in the Bahamas going back about 30 years, so I was on boats a lot,’ reveals Harris. ‘However I’m not a car person at all, so that was a bit of a stretch.
But they did get me a really swanky Aston Martin to drive around in, so that was fun.’
For Jumbo, meanwhile, helming a 70ft yacht was a slightly daunting prospect. ‘I’m from South London, so I didn’t even see a cow until I was about 11,’ she laughs. ‘It’s a little bit stressful when you’ve got a whole crew and the owner on the boat, and everyone’s relying on you not to kill anybody!
‘But I had some sailing lessons from Shirley Robertson, who’s an Olympic gold medallist and lives on the Isle of Wight,’ she adds. ‘You start to understand where the wind is coming from and how that’s going to affect you, and you kind of become part of the boat. I really loved it.’
While the premise of a child’s death and a bereaved mother lends the drama a very dark tone, Jumbo says she was pleased to learn that The Beast Must Die also delivers plot twists, thrills and even the odd bit of light relief.
‘I have a two-year-old son, and on one level the drama is about a woman dealing with a child dying, with no one to support her, and it goes into a world where the justice system hasn’t worked properly,’ she says. ‘But it is also a gut-twistingly exciting thriller that, at times, is comedic – which is a great relief.’
● For information on Britbox, go to britbox.co.uk. At the time of going to press, Britbox costs £5.99 per month after a seven-day free trial.