Newsroom drama Press
Charlotte Riley and Ben Chaplin on their drama set in the cut-throat world of newspapers…
Hot off the press from Doctor Foster writer Mike Bartlett comes a fastpaced new drama about the lives of journalists working for two fictional newspapers – one a broadsheet, the other a tabloid.
At upmarket The Herald, deputy news editor Holly Evans (Peaky Blinders’ Charlotte Riley) immerses herself in her work to the exclusion of virtually everything else.
Meanwhile, across the street at red-top The Post, editor Duncan Allen (Apple Tree Yard’s Ben Chaplin) is hugely successful at delivering sensational stories and keeping his CEO (played by Poirot legend and TV Times favourite David Suchet) happy.
But Duncan’s home life is just as colourful as the sensational stories he splashes across the front cover in the name of ‘entertainment’.
In what felt a bit like a busman’s holiday, TV Times caught up with Charlotte, 36, and Ben, 49, on the very realistic newsroom sets for a quick conference about what’s on the agenda in Press…
What are Duncan and Holly like? Ben: Duncan is the high-flying editor of the best-selling newspaper in the UK. He’s a bit amoral, very persistent, an irresistible force. Even if he’s beaten he doesn’t really mind; he puts a positive spin on it. Charlotte: Holly is incredibly passionate about what she does, and it’s pretty much her whole world. She’s from a very workingclass background, has sacrificed a huge amount to get where she is, and is dedicated to journalism.
What about their home lives? Charlotte: Holly’s career has come at the expense of her personal life, and she’s pretty lonely. She has colleagues who she gets on well with, but the loneliness she experiences is outside the office.
She lives to work, and being in the office brings her to life – it’s her raison d’etre. It’s quite sad that, as soon as she walks through those office doors, she breathes again. Ben: Duncan is married, but not very happily – and that’s all down to his immaturity, rather than being anything to do with his partner. Can you describe the two papers? Charlotte:
The Herald is probably quite reminiscent of The Independent and it’s run by a trust, like The Guardian. You see the pressures that are on it to stay relevant and ahead of the times. Ben: I suppose aesthetically I wanted to be the editor of The Herald. But it was definitely a better laugh to be editor of The Post – I could tell from the script that it was a bit boring over at The Herald!
What newspapers do you read? Charlotte: I grew up reading The Sun and the Daily Mirror at my grandparents’ house, and my mum and dad read The Independent. So I grew up with a broad spectrum. Ben: I read The Guardian. There’s something about a paper you’ve read all your life – it becomes a friend, and you’re blind to its flaws. Even the bits that irritate you about it comfort you, as they’re familiar!
Have you had any bad experiences with the press?
Ben: I don’t like critics. They just annoy me – why is their opinion so good? What do they know about it? Also, when I was in Apple Tree Yard [the steamy 2017 BBC drama] there was a double-page spread in The Sun about me being a 47-year-old heartthrob!
Has working on this drama changed your view of journalists? Charlotte: I was shocked by the hours some of them work – they are just insane! Also it makes me a little bit nauseous thinking about having to produce that amount of content every day. How do you find that constant curiosity? Ben: If I were the editor of a tabloid newspaper I wouldn’t last five minutes! I couldn’t talk to somebody who was at a low point in their life, and tell myself it was in the public interest to write about it.