Robson Green and James Murray
Robson Green and James Murray on how their on-screen bond and love of fishing has made them BFFS off camera…
Age Before Beauty Tuesday / BBC1 / 9Pm
Inside the lavish set of Mirrorbel Beauty Salon in the heart of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, Age Before Beauty stars Robson Green and James Murray are happily chatting away between takes.
The actors clearly get on like a house on fire (their friendship began after they discovered their shared love of fishing when they started working together on the BBC1 saga), and on the surface, the same can be said for their characters, Teddy (Robson) and Wes (James), who have been best mates for decades.
However, as viewers have now discovered, Teddy has long been harbouring feelings for
Wes’ wife, Bel (Polly Walker), despite being married to her self-centred younger sister, Leanne (Kelly Harrison).
He’s hatched an elaborate scheme to set Wes up with glamorous personal trainer
Lorelei (Madeleine Mantock) in the hope of wrecking Bel and Wes’ marriage, and so far, the plan seems to be working…
During a break in filming,
TV Times chats with Robson, 53, and James, 43, about their roles, beauty regimes, and, er, trout!
What do you love about Age Before Beauty?
Robson: It’s a very unique, stylised, colourful production, with singing and dancing. One minute you’re in the moment, acting, the next you just burst into song! It’s very different, very vibrant, very powerful and very likeable. It also really does send out the message that it’s what’s inside that counts. It deals with infidelity, but it deals with true love. There’s something incredibly romantic about it, which I’m an absolute sucker for.
James: When I saw the scripts, it immediately took me back to Cutting It[ James played former boy band-member-turned hair dressing-entrepreneur Liam Carney in the hit Noughties drama], and it is undeniably Debbie Horsfield. However, this story and the way she has written it has a fresh and more modern view on life than perhaps Cutting It did, as that was more than 15 years ago. I also think this comes at a great time because the TV schedules are saturated with cop dramas, murder and darkness. This is the antithesis to that and will give viewers a lot of colour, humour, and is visually sumptuous. I hope it’ll be a welcome change. With everything that’s going on in the world, we need some decent cheering up.
Robson, how have you found playing Teddy?
Robson: It was an absolute treat when I got the script. At no time have I played sinister in my life, I am not a sinister person, so I have never come close to doing things like Teddy does in this series; he has sown seeds which are going to be so destructive. You just have to wait for the explosion of collective emotional trauma to happen. He’s a pathological liar, but everything Teddy does stems from an absolute devotion to love. There will be moments when you really care for him and even feel sorry for him because we have all experienced similar emotions.
And James, do you think viewers will like Wes?
James: When I read it, I could tell he’s a likeable guy, I certainly like him. He’s big-hearted, down to earth, and a rock in Bel’s world when she needs respite from her crazy sisters. Are his actions forgiveable? That is questionable. He makes a big mistake… several times! And he doesn’t learn from them as quickly as he should. Hopefully, he’ll polarise viewers because you want people talking and debating. If we do our job well with Wes’ particular storyline, you’ll get couples watching either moving an inch away from each other or hugging each other harder. It should be thought-provoking.
On a lighter note, do ybouehaauvtey any beauty regimes?
James: [bursts out laughing] Not really. I shower daily! As an actor, you’re lucky to have othjear worry about that stuff when you’re working. I’m not much of a metrosexual, whatever that is! Robson: IuseVe et[ hapirirc em touvarl cream]. I am the missing link! When I was 12, I had a hairy chest, I was like this ball of fluff. People are shocked that I use Vpereotfgoranmo cosmetic reason whatsoever except just so the hair isn’t sticking through the costume. And I try to go to the gym when I cawn. was a great moment, proving men have moved on in society, when a guy I didn’t even know said that he’d forgotten his moisturiser and me and another guy replied, ‘I’ve got some. Not a problem.’ It’s all acceptable now.
You two have become good mates off screen, how did your friendship start?
Robson: Since I saw Jim reading Trout & Salmon magazine, every text we send each other now has a picture of fish! He’s a fanatical fisherman. I live near where the South Tyne and the North Tyne become the Tyne, and Jim fishes there loads, near my house. We talk casting technique, river levels and water quality… We’ve been fishing whilst we have been on set a few times. He’s a good angler and fly-fisher, much better than I am. He’s a gorgeous person and has got that lovely timing similar to James Norton [Robson’s Grantchester co-star]. Yes there’s a bromance – all based on fishing!
James: Obviously I knew that Robson quite likes fishing because apparently he does some telly show about it! So when I heard he was
eauty, I kept saying to myself, don’t be a fish bore, he probably gets it all the time, just hold back and be professional. But within a couple of hours, I’d let it slip. I think he caught sight of my Trout & Salmon magazine, carefully placed on the coffee table! Ever since it’s fish, fish, fish, which must be very boring for anybody within a metre or two of us. Robson’s great – lovely, very amenable and a very experienced actor, so he’s good to work with. Predominantly it’s about fishing, I’m not going to lie.
Maybe you could do a fishing show together one day!
James: We do talk about it. I’d probably do a segment on flyfishing, which is my particular passion, about which Robson claims to know stuff – but he knows nothing about it! So I’ll go on and right his wrongs at some stage!
Robson’s great – lovely, very amenable and he’s good to work with! JAMES MURRAY
There’s a bromance – all based on fishing! ROBSON GREEN