Writer and Executive Producer - Neil Mckay

APPROPRIATE ADULT

Writer and Executive Producer - Neil McKay Executive Producer - Jeff Pope Producer - Lisa Gilchrist Co-Producer - Kwadjo Dajan Director - Julian Jarrold PRODUCTION NOTES

***The information contained herein is strictly embargoed from all press use, non-commercial publication, or syndication until Thursday 25 th August 2011 ***

Introduction Page 3 Press release Page 4 Foreword by Writer and Executive Producer Neil McKay Page 5 Interview with Executive Producer Jeff Pope Page 8 Interview with Emily Watson who portrays Janet Leach Page 10 Interview with Dominic West who portrays Fred West Page 12 Interview with Monica Dolan who portrays Rosemary West Page 14 Cast list Page 17 Production credits Page 18

ITV Press Office Press contacts: Janice Troup - 0161 952 6210 / [email protected] Natasha Bayford - 0161 952 6209 / [email protected] Picture contact: Patrick Smith - 0207 157 3044 / [email protected]

APPROPRIATE ADULT 2 INTRODUCTION

In February 1994 Janet Leach, a mother of five from Gloucestershire, was at home making her children’s tea when the phone rang. Janet was on an access course which when completed would enable her to train as a social worker. Janet was also on an approved list of ‘appropriate adults’, volunteers who can be asked by the police to sit in on interviews with minors or vulnerable adults in order to assist them and safeguard their rights.

Following the phone call she left the house and arrived at Gloucester police station where she was asked to assist a 52 year old male, Frederick Walter Stephen West.

So began the extraordinary and largely unpublicised story of how Janet Leach helped to uncover the crimes of Fred and Rosemary West and establish how many victims the Wests had murdered and where the bodies were hidden.

Fred West began to view Janet as his confidante and often chose to disclose unknown facts about the scale and the nature of his crimes to her. At pivotal stages in the investigation, Fred deliberately misled the investigating officers. Aware from the private conversations with Fred that there were more victims to be found, Janet threatened to turn her back on the case unless he told the truth.

APPROPRIATE ADULT 3 PRESS RELEASE

Appropriate Adult tells the extraordinary story of Gloucester housewife Janet Leach who played a key role in the uncovering of the crimes of Fred and Rosemary West.

The factual drama centres on the period of time between Fred West’s arrest, his suicide in 1995 and the conviction of Rosemary West, and how Fred confided in Janet Leach who took the role of the ‘appropriate adult’ during his police interviews.

‘ Appropriate adults’ are volunteers who can be asked by the police to sit in on interviews with minors or vulnerable adults in order to assist them and safeguard their rights.

Double Oscar nominated actress Emily Watson (Oranges and Sunshine, Gosford Park) plays the role of Janet Leach; Dominic West (The Hour, The Wire), portrays Fred West.

The multi award-winning production team responsible for Mo, See No Evil: The Moors Murders, This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, The Murder of Stephen Lawrence and Wall of Silence, have produced the drama, written and executive produced by Neil McKay, executive produced by Jeff Pope and produced by Lisa Gilchrist.

Jeff Pope said: “It has always been our intention to produce a sober and thought- provoking factual drama based on a true story. We have developed the script over a number of years and it provides a unique insight into the police investigation which led to the conviction of Fred and Rosemary West and the key role Janet Leach played as the ‘appropriate adult’.”

Following meticulous research into every aspect of the Cromwell Street murders by co-producer Kwadjo Dajan, the drama was filmed on location in Manchester earlier this year.

Appropriate Adult completes a trilogy of notorious murder cases (the previous two being See No Evil: The Moors Murders and This Is Personal: The Hunt For The Yorkshire Ripper) produced as factual drama by ITV Studios.

Rosemary West is portrayed by Monica Dolan (U B Dead, Occupation, DCI Banks: Aftermath).

The two x 90-minute episodes of Appropriate Adult have been commissioned by ITV’s Director of Drama Commissioning Laura Mackie and is directed by Julian Jarrold (Red Riding, Becoming Jane, Brideshead Revisited).

Note to Editors: The two-part television film See No Evil: The Moors Murders starring Maxine Peake and Joanne Froggatt achieved the coveted BAFTA Award for the Best Drama Serial of 2007. In the same year the highly acclaimed drama won best drama at the South Bank Show Awards and writer Neil McKay won the Original Drama category at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards. In 2006 See No Evil: The Moors Murders also picked up an RTS Television Award.

APPROPRIATE ADULT 4 FOREWORD BY WRITER AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER NEIL MCKAY

Appropriate Adult tells the story of Janet Leach, the Gloucester housewife and part- time social work student who played a key role in the uncovering of the crimes of Fred and Rosemary West.

It completes a trilogy of dramas made by the same team about the most notorious crimes of the last century – the previous two being This Is Personal – The Hunt For The Yorkshire Ripper and See No Evil: The Moors Murders. For this project, the team: myself as writer, executive producer Jeff Pope, and producer Lisa Gilchrist has been augmented by co-producer Kwadjo Dajan and director Julian Jarrold.

Both This Is Personal and See No Evil received great critical acclaim and won many awards for their sensitive handling of the most difficult subject matter. The same painstaking effort – spanning several years – has gone into the development, writing and making of Appropriate Adult. All of us involved in the making of the drama are acutely conscious of the responsibilities which go with dramatising a story which not only shocked the nation, but in which numerous individuals either lost their lives or suffered in other ways.

There are some who feel that such programmes should not be made. The same argument was made against both This Is Personal and See No Evil – that essentially the crimes were so terrible that it is wrong to dramatise any aspect of the case. Our belief is that, responsibly made, such dramas can illuminate events, which have cast a dark shadow not only over individual lives, but also over our society as a whole. There is nothing new in this idea – from Greek Tragedy through to the present day, drama has been used as a tool for understanding both the best and worst of human behaviour. No subject, however dark, has been left unexplored – including the many films made about the Holocaust such as Stephen Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Our belief is that what matters is not whether but how such dramas are made.

They should not be made merely because the events happened, or because there is public fascination. They need to have a clear purpose which is to understand the events and, like any good drama, have things of significance to say about human nature. Appropriate Adult does not in any way shrink from the horror what the Wests did, but it does not dwell on that horror for its own sake. Anyone watching for voyeuristic reasons will be very disappointed, and those in search only of terrible facts will find far more in the many books, which have been written on the subject and are readily available.

Appropriate Adult is about the effects of the crimes rather than the crimes themselves. Whereas This Is Personal and See No Evil focussed variously on the victims, their relatives or the police, this drama focuses on a woman who initially had no direct connection with the case. But within minutes of taking on the role of Fred West’s appropriate adult in police interviews, she became both a witness and key player in bringing those crimes to light.

The scale and depravity of those crimes, as many who recall the unfolding news coverage will recall, created disbelief. Unlike the Yorkshire Ripper or Moors murders they had not taken place on city streets or in remote countryside but (for the most part) within a family home on a quiet street in a picturesque English cathedral city. It is perhaps this which shocks us most – because our expectation tends to be that those who wish to do us terrible harm come from some other place, not from within the home itself.

APPROPRIATE ADULT 5 Some of the crimes the Wests carried out were against their own children or stepchildren; some of the young women they murdered, such as Lucy Partington, were complete strangers to them. Most, however, were young women – vulnerable in one way or another – who needed a home and were offered one. The trust that they placed in the Wests was both understandable – both could be charming, warm and affectionate. Yet it was also tragic – because ultimately that trust was abused in the most terrible way imaginable.

Janet Leach, who has assisted in the making of the drama, makes no claims to be a heroine. She admits to making many mistakes and misjudgements as her relationship with Fred West developed. But Fred West was a profoundly evil man who contaminated almost everyone he came into contact with. The drama asks the question: how would any of us react when exposed to that kind of evil? It is our belief that few people – even the harshest critics of Janet Leach – would have done any better.

From the moment Fred West set eyes on Janet Leach he began to manipulate her, providing information to her that he would not give directly to the police. That information ultimately proved crucial to unlocking his crimes, but – because of obligations of confidentiality – she was not free to pass it directly to the police. Fred West knew this and exploited the power this gave him, both over her and the police. He rewarded Janet – emotionally – for the moral support he demanded from her if he was ever going to tell the full truth. And if she had not given that support there might have been families who, even now, might never have found out what happened to their loved ones.

But it was in some ways a Faustian bargain. As the drama shows, Fred West demanded a heavy price in return. It pulls no punches over the moral minefield she was drawn into or the mistakes and moral compromises she made.

Janet Leach’s story is thus a kind of metaphor for how all of us deal with evil at its most extreme. We would like to believe that people who commit such terrible acts are creatures from another planet, that we would recognise them the moment we set eyes on them, and that if they were to strike at us it would be from outside rather than inside the home, and above all that we would be able to deal with them without being contaminated ourselves. The case of Fred and Rosemary West, as Appropriate Adult shows, proves that this is not true.

It damaged and compromised many people. When the story initially broke many could not believe it. But as the horrific reality set in a kind of moral panic broke out. Stories and rumours, fuelled by a press that was ready to throw money at them, swirled around the city (including unproven allegations that the police investigation was compromised because un-named officers had in the past used Rosemary West’s services as a prostitute).There was criticism of the Social Services for not intervening sooner (although they had made attempts to do so). There was blame, fear and recrimination everywhere – and the real authors of this terrible moral cloud were Fred and Rosemary West.

Our research has been extensive. The drama draws on many first-hand sources including interviews with Janet Leach and others with a close knowledge of the case, as well as many documents and transcripts. We wanted the story to speak for itself, ramping it up purely for dramatic effect would have been unnecessary as well as wrong.

APPROPRIATE ADULT 6 Throughout the process we have kept those who suffered in the forefront of our mind. One of Fred’s daughters has spoken out against the drama and said she will not watch it. We believe that no one has more right than her to make her feelings known. We reiterate however that the drama is a sober and unsensational account of a story in which there is legitimate public interest. We also point out that other relatives who have also suffered profoundly have supported the drama, and having watched it, believe that it will have an effect for good.

Such a reaction encourages us to believe that, as was the case with previous dramas This Is Personal – The Hunt For The Yorkshire Ripper and See No Evil: The Moors Murders, Appropriate Adult has taken a story which has had a profound effect on our national psyche and illuminated it in a way that helps our understanding of both the events themselves, and of those aspects of human nature which created them. It is only by engaging with such events that we learn from them, perhaps prevent their re-occurrence and liberate ourselves from their destructive influence.

APPROPRIATE ADULT 7 INTERVIEW WITH EXECUTIVE PRODUCER JEFF POPE

In his extensive career in television as a producer and scriptwriter, Jeff Pope has never shied away from making thought-provoking factual dramas. His impressive CV includes the BAFTA award-winning See No Evil: The Moors Murders, This is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, Dirty, Filthy Love and Danielle Cable: Eye Witness.

Even so, despite his track record tackling difficult issues, Jeff says that the subject matter of Appropriate Adult made this, in many ways, his most challenging drama to date. “It was the most disturbing material I have ever worked with,” he acknowledges.

“ I read a lot about the subject, but I always knew we wouldn’t be focused on dramatising the crimes of 25 Cromwell Street.

“Neither did I think there was anything to be gained from attempting to look into the psyches of Fred and Rosemary West - they are irredeemably evil. What unlocked it for me was coming across Janet Leach, who was Fred West’s ‘appropriate adult’ during his police interviews. Here was an innocent woman coming into their orbit – that to me was a compelling story.”

Jeff first contemplated making a drama about Fred and Rosemary West ten years ago, after seeing a Channel 5 documentary about the couple. Five years ago he began researching the idea more thoroughly and following this he spoke to producer Lisa Gilchrist and writer Neil McKay, who he works with regularly, and told them his thoughts. After discussions they too agreed that there was the potential to make a drama that was both powerful and sensitive.

Before going ahead the team, alongside co-producer, Kwadjo Dajan, took soundings from as many people as possible. They met and interviewed Janet Leach on numerous occasions, spoke to Gloucestershire police and wrote to as many of the families of the victims as they could contact, as well as those children of Fred and Rosemary that they could trace.

The production did not however seek to speak to Rosemary West. “I didn’t believe there was anything useful to be gained from it,” Jeff explains. “Rosemary says she didn’t have anything to do with the murders, and that it was Fred, and the drama duly reflects that denial, but the jury convicted her.”

One of Jeff’s aims with the drama was to examine how evil can come in many guises. “It’s not always a strange person with flashing eyes – it can come in a benign form, such as Fred West,” he explains. “Fred West is unlike any other serial killer I have encountered. Ian Brady for example conforms much more to our stereotypical view of a serial killer. He’s demonic, sarcastic and argumentative and looks down on the rest of humanity. He’s tall, slim and pale with piercing eyes – a frightening figure to meet.

“Fred is the utter antithesis. He was this slightly corpulent, jolly bloke, always ready with a funny line. He could be charm personified. And that is what is so frightening. He came across as somebody’s mate. What I want to achieve with this drama is an understanding of how someone like that could thrive in our midst for so long.”

APPROPRIATE ADULT 8 While Jeff acknowledges the criticism that Appropriate Adult has attracted in some quarters of the press, he asks, “are there subjects that should never be tackled? My argument is that there have been many documentaries, newspaper articles and books that discuss what happened at Cromwell Street, and this is just as valid. Of course drama – to see something as if you are actually watching it happen – is far more powerful, so, rightly, there is a spotlight on what we are doing. But we do not glorify Fred or Rosemary West. There is no depiction of any violence. That’s not what we are about. Appropriate Adult is not prurient or salacious. Throughout the entire production we have always been conscious of the victims and their families. The audience will see the story as it unfolds through Janet’s eyes.”

Jeff began his working life as a newspaper journalist and for the past two decades has been one of Britain’s leading producers. His credits include the award winning and critically acclaimed Mo – the drama about the life of former Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam, BAFTA-nominated My Beautiful Son, and Pierrepoint. But it is for his factual dramas about modern-day crimes that he is best known.

“I think in drama I have gravitated to the extremes of how people behave because the DNA of these stories tells us something about ourselves,” he explains. “I’ve looked at the stories which have most fascinated and repelled and captivated us in the last 30 years and then seen if there is a way into these stories that resonates with people. Appropriate Adult reminds us that there is evil in our midst the entire time.”

APPROPRIATE ADULT 9 INTERVIEW WITH EMILY WATSON WHO PORTRAYS JANET LEACH

Although she prepared for her role as Janet Leach as thoroughly as she could, Emily Watson specifically chose not to read any books about Cromwell Street before filming began. “I wanted to walk into it innocently – as Janet did – and to be knocked for six by it, as she was,” Emily explains. “It meant that although I’d learnt my lines and in a way was used to the subject, there were occasionally times where I was being filmed and the reaction – Janet being taken back, repulsed or upset - was suddenly my own.”

Appropriate Adult’s co-producer, Kwadjo Dajan, had met and interviewed Janet Leach several times over a number of years before the production went ahead. Emily read through every word of those interviews and also met Janet herself, which she says proved invaluable. “I wanted to see where her centre of gravity was, how she picked up a drink and how she held herself,” she says. “When we met I found something quite steely and likeable about her. And I admired her for surviving what she had been through. She was immensely perceptive and helpful to the police inquiry.”

For Emily, an experienced stage, film and television actress, Janet Leach was not only key to the story, but also to her agreeing to take the role. When her agent initially suggested the drama she wasn’t keen to get involved, but after reading the scripts she immediately changed her mind. “Had Appropriate Adult contained any graphic scenes then I would have shied away from it completely, but it’s a pure psychological drama and there are no reconstructions of any crimes,” Emily explains.

As well as the strong script, Emily was keen to work on a production closer to home and in the UK. “My career mostly has been making independent movies in far-flung corners of the globe, which is not the most practical way to lead your life with two small children,” she adds. “I’d been looking around for the right thing for a while and then I was sent this.

“ It is difficult territory, but it’s not what you expect; it’s told from the unique perspective of someone that most people haven’t heard of, but who was very important to the whole unfolding of the police investigation.

“ Fred spotted a potential ally and a vulnerable woman and she instinctively trod quite a clever path through it. Fred would deliberately leak stories to see who he could trust and who he couldn’t and Janet never betrayed his confidence. She was naïve. But had she not been, we might not have known about all the murders the Wests committed. I think Janet’s particular combination of naivety, vulnerability and integrity, opened a door.”

Filming for Appropriate Adult took place over seven weeks in Manchester earlier this year and Emily stayed on location in a hotel in the city with the rest of the cast, returning to her family home on Friday evenings. “It was quite a bizarre experience to be filming Appropriate Adult all week, which was quite intense, and then on Saturday morning to be woken at six am by children bouncing on my bed,” she says. “It was quite nice to come back to that actually – to a happy, family weekend. During the week I spent most evenings back at the hotel reading my lines for the following morning. Because of the subject matter it was quite a draining shoot.”

APPROPRIATE ADULT 10 Oscar nominated twice, Emily is one of Britain’s most accomplished film actresses. She first came to the public’s attention after being nominated for her performance in the film Breaking the Waves in 1996. In 2004 she received a Golden Globe nomination for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers and her countless other film credits include The Silence of the Lambs prequel Red Dragon, Angela’s Ashes, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress, Gosford Park and the animated film Corpse Bride.

Appropriate Adult is not the first time Emily has tackled a difficult subject. In 1998 she took on the controversial role of cellist Jacqueline du Pre in the film Hilary and Jackie.

“Hilary and Jackie took a national treasure and exposed her life and a lot of people were angry about that, but in the same way that Appropriate Adult has attracted criticism I thought the story was justified,” Emily says. “What happened at Cromwell Street is etched forever on the national consciousness and it’s very troubling that someone could get away with that for so long. Fred and Rosemary West had terrible backgrounds. What they did goes to the point of incomprehension. Yet you can’t say it doesn’t exist, because they lived for 20 years in the midst of us.”

Emily has nothing but praise for her co-stars Dominic West who plays Fred West and Monica Dolan who plays Rosemary West. She says of Monica: “She stayed in character in the corner of the room and she was this looming presence waiting to go for a take; she was absolutely terrifying. Between scenes she would be muttering away to herself. There is a scene in the drama where I, as Janet, brought her a change of clothes. Janet is clearly intimidated and it was genuinely scary.”

Emily believes that Dominic West was perfectly cast for the role of Fred West, so much so that she had thought of him for the part before it was even offered to him. “When I heard they were casting for Appropriate Adult Dominic West was the first person I thought of. He’s a great character actor and he looks slightly similar,” she explains. “There is something slightly fleshy about the way he looks and he has that curly hair and strong, intense face and eyes.

“ That first day on set when I saw Dominic in character, was uncanny. During rehearsals I thought that it might be a real stretch of the imagination, but once filming was underway it felt like I was sitting opposite Fred West.”

APPROPRIATE ADULT 11 INTERVIEW WITH DOMINIC WEST WHO PORTRAYS FRED WEST

Appropriate Adult was filmed over a seven-week period in Manchester and the cast stayed together in a hotel in the city during that time. It made for an intense filming schedule, but Dominic West believes he would not have been able to portray serial killer Fred West had he returned home to his wife and three children every night.

“It would have been impossible, I think,” he says. “The acting would have suffered, rather than my wife and children. My children were a brilliant way of escaping Fred West at the end of filming and when I came back to them it made it all the easier to eradicate him from my consciousness. But had they been around when I was filming I don’t think I would have been so easily able to act him. It was only possible in a finite, brief period away from home when I could completely concentrate on the role and immerse myself in it and not think too much about anything else.

“ It was extraordinarily different to anything I have done before and I don’t think I would like to play someone like him again. I was going straight on to another job afterwards, so it was fairly easy to put Fred West behind me. I was determined not to let him get to me but I was glad when it was over. Most shoots take a lot longer and I couldn’t have done it in those circumstances. It was an intense time.”

Dominic, who is best known for his portrayal of Detective Jimmy McNulty in the acclaimed American drama series The Wire, agreed to accept the role after reassurance from the production team that they had done their utmost to ensure that the families of the victims were satisfied the drama dealt with the subject matter with sensitivity. “I read the scripts and realised that it was not centred on Fred West and I overcame my initial moral qualms and thought that it was something that could be both an incredible acting challenge and also something of serious intent that was not exploitative,” he explains. “If it was a film just about Fred West and his crimes it would be impossible to justify.

“For at least one of those relatives, Marian Partington, the remarkable sister of Lucy, the renewal of interest in the case, though painful, was essential. She has long maintained that the case must never be forgotten and its issues must never cease to be discussed. This of course, is part of the purpose of drama. To discuss the extremes of human behaviour. To try to make sense of human depravity. To give catharsis to meaningless horror. It seemed to me that this script was doing exactly that – discussing what happened in a thoughtful and sober way.”

Although Dominic’s mind was quite quickly made up he admits that people close to him did try to talk him out of it. “Oh all my family – my wife and everybody,” he says. My eldest sister, who is the most vociferous, thought it was an appalling thing to do. Many people do think that, but I’m certain when people see the drama they will feel differently.

“It’s an intelligent and respectful, but nevertheless provocative look at an aspect of our society that is very present and if anything is getting worse. There are thousands of people in Britain who go missing every year and a proportion of them never turn up again. Not wanting to scare anyone but there are serial killers out there in our midst and what I realised from looking into Fred West’s story is that he wasn’t a loner who lived in a vacuum.”

APPROPRIATE ADULT 12 Dominic, who is 41, was in his mid 20s when the case happened and although he remembers it vividly, he prepared thoroughly for the role of Fred West, listening to tapes of the police interviews with him and reading almost every book written on the subject. He recalls: “I’d never been interested in books or subject matter related to serial killers; in fact I couldn’t believe that books like this existed. It was quite depressing to wade through it all. It was absolutely appalling stuff to read and I had to take a lot of deep breaths and have a walk every ten pages.”

In order to further prepare for the part, Dominic spent ten days in the Forest of Dean and around Gloucester in order to immerse himself in the accent and visit the places where Fred West lived and grew up. Having just finished filming The Hour for BBC2 he had a short 1950s haircut when production began, so was given a hair piece at the back to make his hair appear longer, padding in order to give him Fred West’s physique and a set of false teeth to fit over his own.

“I have quite simian features anyway. The teeth I was given for Appropriate Adult emphasised it even more. Fred West was very simian and putting the teeth in was a great catalyst for me. Once they were in they acted like a trigger and the accent just came and I was there.”

Dominic, who lives in West London, is just about to finish a long run in London’s West End in the stage play Butley and is about to appear as Iago in Othello at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.

He says: “Some people have argued that Appropriate Adult is giving publicity to an individual who we want to forget. But it does not glorify Fred West in any way. It gives a detached, objective, rational view of what happened from the point of view of Janet Leach, our heroine, a woman who sacrificed a great deal of herself and her life to try to get this monster to confess to what he did in order to lessen the suffering of his victims’ families.

“ It’s very well-written by Neil McKay and is a thought-provoking project. The production team spent a great deal of time making sure it was for the benefit of humanity and that at all times it was completely respectful to the victims and their families. It’s a way of trying to make sense of horror. The main function of drama is to give us a way of exploring the extremes of society in a way that gives us both catharsis and a certain understanding and I think that’s what Appropriate Adult does. I wouldn’t have agreed to take the role otherwise.”

APPROPRIATE ADULT 13 INTERVIEW WITH MONICA DOLAN WHO PORTRAYS ROSEMARY WEST

Monica Dolan admits her initial reaction on being asked to audition for the part of female serial killer Rosemary West was one of fear. She was on the verge of taking a job teaching Shakespeare to students when the call came and she had to think long and hard before finally accepting.

“ It’s the sort of part you know will affect you in your work in the future and psychologically too,” Monica says. “I’m not someone who is intrigued by murder or has a morbid fascination with it and I was concerned because of the depth of research I would have to do. I was frightened about reading that amount about the subject. I knew I would have to look at what she did to find out what motivated her, in order to play her. That’s what I’ve been taught to do as an actress, but sometimes that leads you to places you don’t like.

“I have read books about criminal psychology in the past and found that fascinating, but this was different. In fact I remember in 1994 when I was just out of drama school and the murders were in the news. All these years later I’m asked to take the role of Rosemary West in a factual drama.”

Such were Monica’s fears that she didn’t initially tell her family she was auditioning. “I told a few actor friends, but my family tends to worry about me,” she explains. “No- one tried to talk me out of it, but interestingly the people who may have tried to talk me out of it I didn’t tell. My family might have said: ‘oh no, don’t get involved in that, don’t do it.’ Obviously they care for me and they would worry if they thought I was going to play a role like this.”

Filming took place in Manchester from the end of February to mid April and meticulous care and attention went into replicating Rosemary’s wardrobe. Monica had her hair cut into Rosemary’s style and had it prepared with heated rollers every morning. Monica says: “To ensure we captured Rosemary’s appearance I would sit and look at a picture of her every day. The make-up artist had the picture in front of her the entire time, as she made me up to look like her. That felt a bit strange.”

Monica researched thoroughly ahead of filming, tracking down crime reporters who had covered the case at the time and as well as spending time in Gloucestershire, studying the local accent. In addition she examined video footage from a 2001 Channel 5 documentary showing Rosemary and Fred West taking their children out to the zoo and she read four books about the murders, including Inside 25 Cromwell Street written by the West’s children Stephen and Mae, and She Must Have Known by Brian Masters. She also met the author who himself had met Rosemary West. She recalls: “It was a case of gathering as much information as I could in order to be as accurate as I could, but it was horrible.

“I was on my own at home reading these books and it was desperate to think the victims went through things I had difficulty even reading. As Janet Leach (Emily Watson) says at the end of the drama – ‘you can’t un-know something.’ And they are not things I would particularly want to know.

“I remember a friend saying to me in the middle of it all – ‘you’ve got to remember this is an anomaly.’ He wanted to impress on me that what I was reading about was not how most people behave. But it was still very distressing to think about the victims.”

APPROPRIATE ADULT 14 Monica also met a prison governor who encountered Rosemary in both Holloway and Durham prisons. “She told me that Rosemary was a very different person after the trial – she said she was very gentle and sat on her own crocheting. In fact the first word that everyone uses to describe Rosemary West is ‘non-descript,’” Monica says. “She is possibly one of the reasons that some of the girls got into their car, because she looked so ordinary. If I showed her as an evil monster it might make those girls’ actions seem quite ill-considered, but that wasn’t the case – there is a culture of hitch-hiking in that area and Rosemary didn’t appear that way.”

In order to portray her as convincingly as possible, Monica stayed in character between scenes. “I think people got fed up with me. She is very particular and peculiar and when you are in the costume it feels very odd being you, so I always had her on the back burner.”

Monica is fully aware of the fact the subject of Rosemary West draws strong revulsion from people. “Rosemary swears a lot, she is extremely direct and tough and very complex; but the way I approached it was by thinking that if people are frightening it is usually because there’s something they are frightened of. And I tried to work out what that was”, she says. “Having played her and talked to other people about her, I think she was a lot of other things as well as depraved.”

At the end of filming, having immersed herself so deeply in the story, she and Dominic West, who portrays Fred West, disagreed over who was the more guilty party. “He argued what happened from Fred’s point of view, but we just couldn’t agree on it,” she recalls. “We both felt that each other’s character’s had very much taken the lead.

“ The surviving victims talk about Rosemary being the more aggressive one and leading things, but what you have to remember all the time is that Fred West was watching and I think she was doing things to please him. But then there is a whole other perspective, which says that he brought women back to the house to please her. Essentially we don’t know what kept their relationship going.”

Monica, who lives in West London, is hoping the drama will be well received by television viewers. An actress for 18 years, Monica has never shied away from difficult roles. An accomplished stage performer, who has worked with The Royal Shakespeare Company, her TV credits include Occupation, Excluded, DCI Banks: Aftermath, Judge John Deed, Tipping the Velvet and the 2009 ITV1 drama U Be Dead, in which she played stalker Maria Marchese, who stalked a doctor for four years and is currently in jail.

Monica believes it is right that ITV should be making thought-provoking dramas such as Appropriate Adult. “Drama can be cathartic. It has always fulfilled a task in our society to make us examine ourselves and that is an important and serious function,” she says. “Its 17 years since it happened. I suppose that can be seen as quite recent, but it’s our responsibility as human beings to look at our potential for depravity and that is what Appropriate Adult does.

“ I know there will be people who will find it hard to watch but I feel it has been produced and written in a very sensitive way. Obviously playing a part like this is going to be contentious, so I just hope everyone remembers I am an actor. People have a particular view of Rosemary West, but next month I’ll be playing someone else. And I’ve decided this is as dark as it gets in terms of the parts I want to play this year. For my next role I’d definitely like to play someone with a bit of a sunnier outlook!”

APPROPRIATE ADULT 15 CAST LIST

Episode one

Janet Leach...... Emily Watson Fred West...... Dominic West Detective Superintendent John Bennett...... Robert Glenister Detective Constable Hazel Savage...... Sylvestra Le Touzel Rosemary West...... Monica Dolan Mike...... Anthony Flanagan Detective Constable Darren Law...... Sam Roukin Howard Ogden...... Gerard Horan Mae West...... Seline Hizli Stephen West...... James McArdle Josh...... Rupert Simonian Jade...... Sophie Downham Kirsty Stephens...... Paula Williamson Ruth...... Heather Tobias Psychiatrist...... Andrew Readman Steve Scott...... Himself Male Journalist...... Adonis Anthony Woman Police Constable...... Louise Atkins

APPROPRIATE ADULT 16 Episode two

Janet Leach...... Emily Watson Fred West...... Dominic West Detective Superintendent John Bennett...... Robert Glenister Detective Constable Hazel Savage...... Sylvestra Le Touzel Rosemary West...... Monica Dolan Mike...... Anthony Flanagan Detective Constable Darren Law...... Sam Roukin Howard Ogden...... Gerard Horan Mae West...... Seline Hizli Stephen West...... James McArdle Josh...... Rupert Simonian Jade...... Sophie Downham Syd Young...... Stanley Townsend Richard Ferguson QC...... Jack Fortune Brian Leveson QC...... Jasper Jacob Mr Justice Mantell...... Vincent Brimble Detective Constable Carl Kempinsky...... Robert Whitelock Kirsty Stephens...... Paula Williamson Ruth...... Heather Tobias Steve Scott...... Himself Male Journalist...... Adonis Anthony Winchester Clerk...... Simon Smithies Gloucester Magistrate...... Barbara Hatwell CPS Lawyer...... Rosina Carbone Detective Constable...... Richard Calder Detective Constable...... John Draycott Police Constable...... Philip Broadbent

APPROPRIATE ADULT 17 PRODUCTION CREDITS

Writer & Executive Producer...... Neil McKay Executive Producer...... Jeff Pope Producer...... Lisa Gilchrist Co-Producer...... Kwadjo Dajan Director...... Julian Jarrold Casting Director...... Kate Rhodes James CDG ITV Lawyer...... Chris Wissun Controller of Production ...... Gail Kennett Production Executive...... Gary Connelly Line Producer...... Sue Dunn Production Co-ordinator...... Deborah Coombes Locations Manager...... James Muirhead Unit Manager...... Natalie Yehezkel Script Supervisor...... Jemima Thomas 1st Assistant Director...... Dan Winch 2nd Assistant Director...... Laura Coggan 3rd Assistant Director...... Samantha Ross Director of Photography...... Tony Slater Ling Focus Puller...... Steve Smith Clapper Loader...... Matilda Smith Boom Operator...... Gavin Dunn Grip...... Doug Newton Gaffer...... Tony Wilcock Best Boy...... John Welsh Electricians...... Eddie McCarthy ...... Joe McLean Sound Recordist...... John Hughes Production Designer...... Pat Campbell Art Director...... Frederic Evard Set Director...... Elaine McLenachan Graphic Designer...... Josephine Watkinson Standby Art Director...... Sophie McConville Property Master...... Peter O’Rourke

APPROPRIATE ADULT 18 Dressing Props...... Dave Flower ...... Roy Vivash Standby Props...... Neil Glynn Construction Manager...... Peter Johnson Costume Designer...... Steve Noble Costume Supervisor...... Clementine Charity Costume Assistant...... Louise Egan Make Up Designer...... Janet Horsfield Make Up Supervisor ...... Amanda Isaacs Make Up Artist ...... Jenny Ward Editor...... Andrew Hulme Titles & Credits...... Paul Senior Composer...... Dan Jones Recording Mixer...... John Whitworth Dialogue Mixer...... Clare Howarth Effects Editor...... John Senior Visual Effects Supervisor...... Tanvir Hanif Colourist...... Neil Parker Online Editor...... Ian Brown Production Accountant...... Jay Parsons Post Production Co-ordinator...... Helen Dean

APPROPRIATE ADULT 19