SERIES 4 Introduction 3 Foreword by creator, writer & exec producer 5 Interview with 7 Interview with 11 Interview with 15 Interview with 17 Interview with Phaldut Sharma 20 Interview with 23 Episode one synopsis 25 Cast and Production credits episode one 26

ITV press office Press contact: Natasha Bayford | natasha.bayford@.com

Picture contact: Patrick Smith | [email protected]

Mainstreet Pictures Press contact: Lisa Vanoli | [email protected]

2 BAFTA nominated actors Nicola Walker (Last Tango In Halifax, The Split) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Yesterday, Goodness Gracious Me) reprise their roles as DCI Cassie Stuart and DI Sunny Khan in the highly-anticipated fourth series of critically acclaimed drama, Unforgotten.

Produced by independent production company Mainstreet Pictures (Gold Digger, Age Before Beauty) in partnership with Masterpiece, and devised and written by acclaimed screenwriter Chris Lang (Innocent, Dark Heart), the new six-part series charts a fresh investigation into another emotionally-charged cold case murder.

The main cast is joined by (New Tricks, Delicious), Susan Lynch (, Apple Tree Yard), Phaldut Sharma (Hanna, EastEnders), Liz White (Life On Mars, ), Andy Nyman (Wanderlust, Peaky Blinders), Clare Calbraith (Baptiste, Little Boy Blue) and Lucy Speed (Marcella, National Treasure), along with returning actors Peter Egan (Downton Abbey, Hold The Sunset), Alastair Mackenzie (Deep Water, ), Carolina Main (Blood, Grantchester), Lewis Reeves (Uncle, Inspector George Gently) and Jordan Long ( 1973, SS-GB).

The fourth series opens with the discovery of a dismembered body in a scrap metal yard, which the team believe has been stored in a domestic freezer for thirty years. A unique Millwall Football Club tattoo leads to the victim being identified as Matthew Walsh, a young man in his mid-twenties who went missing in March 1990.

3 The team quickly track the purchase of the freezer to Robert Fogerty, but they are disappointed to learn he’s recently died a lonely, broken man. On looking further into his past, they discover a drink driving conviction on the same night their victim, Matthew Walsh, went missing, and intriguingly there were four passengers in the car with him at the time.

As the investigation progresses, we are introduced to Ram Sidhu and his wife Anna who are expecting their first baby together in ; Liz Baildon and her fiancée Janet who live in Cambridge; Fiona Grayson, her partner Geoff and their children in the Peak District; and Dean Barton and his wife Marnie who live in Rochester with their disabled son, Jack, and his younger sibling, Casper. All in their late forties, they appear to be in a good place, but the investigation has the potential to shatter their reputations, family relationships and the lives they’ve built over the last 30 years.

Meanwhile, after making the decision to retire from the police force for her own sanity and wellbeing, Cassie faces an impossible dilemma when she learns she isn’t entitled to her full pension payment unless she completes her thirty years of service. Disappointed and angry with her superiors and the system, Cassie has to make the gut-wrenching decision to return to work. Whilst her relationship with John is going strong, she also faces difficult times with both her son, who has moved back home, and her father, Martin, who is struggling with early dementia.

Mainstreet Pictures’ Sally Haynes and Laura Mackie said: "We are proud to have made a fourth series of Unforgotten. Chris has created yet another memorable and emotional story that we are sure will delight the series’ loyal viewers."

Writer Chris Lang added: “I am so excited to be bringing back the Unforgotten team for a fourth series, as Cassie and Sunny take on perhaps their most challenging case to date. Once again, we have assembled an astonishing cast.”

Unforgotten has gone from strength to strength since its first outing in 2015, proving hugely popular with viewers and critics alike. The series has received two BAFTA wins and a further nomination for its compelling performances, whilst the finale of the third series received average consolidated figures of 6.9m and a 28% share.

The series has been commissioned by ITV’s Head Of Drama, Polly Hill, with Mainstreet Pictures’ Sally Haynes and Laura Mackie as Executive Producers, along with creator Chris Lang and Rebecca Eaton for Masterpiece. Andy Wilson (World On Fire) returns to direct, whilst Guy de Glanville (Gold Digger) is the producer. The series is distributed internationally by BBC Studios and is a co-production with Masterpiece.

4 Foreword Chris Lang Series creator, writer and executive producer

So when Unforgotten 3 broadcast in the summer of 2018, and we were immediately asked to make series 4, Nicola, Sanjeev and I, went out for lunch and all agreed that although we were delighted to be making another series, we needed a short break to recharge our batteries. Which is why we did not end up going into pre-production on series 4 till October 2019, to start filming in January 2020.

Oh. If only we had known.

When lockdown happened, we were eleven weeks in to shooting and just four weeks shy of completing principal photography. So near and yet so far - suddenly those four weeks I took off to learn macramé now seemed absurd. More absurd even than they seemed at the time.

We resumed shooting on 21 September, and finally got everything safely shot, on Friday, 16 October. A few beers were had that night. And I guess it was as we started editing, and I started to watch footage which I had mostly not seen for nine months that I was reminded of what ‘Unforgotten’ actually is.

Because seeing those stories afresh, and discussing them again with my creative partners, after such a long break, reminded me that it is not at heart a detective show, or a thriller, or a whodunit, but just a show about people. Flawed, ordinary people, with messy, complicated lives, who have, like all of us, made mistakes. Most of them are small, even the more egregious mistakes tend to come from a place of weakness and selfishness and damage rather than pure evil, and they are generally mistakes (not always, see series 3!) that we can all relate to. And I think series 4 really mines that idea and then ties it back in to another key component of the series – the police.

So Unforgotten 4 will once again explore the fallout from and the investigation in to, an historic murder case, but the primary theme of this series, will be society’s relationship with the police.

It’s still a very unusual thing to decide to become a police officer. To become a copper marks you out for the rest of your life, it sets you apart from everyone you grew up with, and there is an ‘otherness’ you take ownership of, the day you put on that uniform for the first time, that doesn’t leave you until the day you die and we atomise this idea in series 4.

5 Foreword Chris Lang continued:

The investigation will show the best of the police and the worst, and at a time of unprecedented cutbacks, it will ask a number of difficult questions about the police force as an institution. It will ask what do we expect them to be? It will ask if that is compatible with what they are capable of being? It will ask how much we now take for granted the fact that on a daily basis, these men and women walk towards danger. And, after decades of bruising revelations about their probity, it will ask if we can ever again truly trust them.

It is at once a love letter and a ‘J’accuse’. Welcome to Unforgotten 4.

6 Cast interview Nicola Walker | DCI Cassie Stuart

Nicola Walker says the uncertainty of 2020 helped create the right atmosphere to bring DCI Cassie Stuart back in the fourth series of Unforgotten.

She explains: “Coming back to the role in January (2020) was so exciting because of the storyline and the suspects this year it’s very timely. Our writer Chris Lang seems to have a knack for that… I don’t know how he does it but it tends to be a conversation with the audience about what is going on exactly in our society at the time. There is a lot this year that chimes with big conversations we have all been having.

“Then through lockdown it was really strange because you are carrying this character around, all you’re thinking about is this storyline and realising a few weeks in that you have to let it all go, including the lines…

“But it meant when we came back the one thing I needed was four weeks advance notice to learn the lines again - you can’t hold them in your head for that long. That’s what happened. I had to re-read scripts to get the story back in my head and get the lines back in.

7 Cast interview Nicola Walker continued:

“That was a muscle memory – the first few days back, there are a lot of outtakes of me going ‘sorry, what’s the line?’ because your brain is out of the habit of carrying around that much dialogue. It took about three days and then it was back, which was a relief. I am sure everyone feels this… you come back to a job and you think ‘I don’t know if I can still do this.’ It is a really strange feeling. And ironically that was fine for me because that is exactly where Cassie is this year, which struck me as rather funny. It was perfect for Cassie because she doesn’t know if she can do it anymore and on a very real level I wasn’t sure that I could either. So it worked in my favour rather than against me.”

Nicola stresses that returning to film post the first lockdown was wholly positive.

“I actually felt incredibly safe and it was such a positive feeling to go back and a real perspective giver because our business is full of freelancers and what was amazing was seeing the majority of the crew that had managed to come back.

“Everyone was really relieved to be back in the working environment although it bore no relation to our normal working environment. Mainstreet did it so well, it was so carefully planned and I felt incredibly safe.”

“It was surreal, of course because you are masked all the time apart from when you are actually on camera. So you are looking around the room, the director, Andy Wilson, said it was like TV made by a bunch of bank robbers. There was something really heartening about seeing the group trying to push on and everyone did it with great grace.”

Where do we find Cassie when we return for series four?

“When we left Cassie at the end of the last series she felt it necessary to stop, she definitely had what would have been loosely termed ‘a breakdown’ and we were left wondering if she was going to come back. When we meet her this series you realise she doesn’t really want to come back but she is in a terrible position that she will lose a massive amount of her pension pay out on a technicality if she doesn’t come back and complete a certain number of months to comply with her pension.

“It is awful, she is in a complete trap so she agrees to come back so she can access the full amount of her pension because her dad is getting more and more ill and she is looking at the fact that she will probably be financially responsible for her father’s care. So she is completely caught. Her entire career she has very dedicatedly given to the police force. She is angry and feels very betrayed and that’s how she goes into this series’ story.

8 Cast interview Nicola Walker continued:

“Having gone through what she went through in the last storyline… she knows that she is broken, that she should stop but also on a practical level, she literally cannot leave the police force without that settlement and why should she? There is a scene early on with her boss and he says ‘this could be different in a years’ time, the rules could change, but at the moment they’re watching every penny’. And Cassie is incredibly practical and she is going to put herself back in for this case, get her time, money and hopefully get out and carry on with… actually she has got the beginning for a new life.

“Her relationship with John (Alistair Mackenzie) is going really well, they’re talking about buying a house together. But her relationship with her father is in a very different place to last series, he is becoming more and more ill and so she feels, in a way people often do, pushed out by his new partner. She is very angry at his new partner, she is concerned that her father is being manipulated and used for his money. There is a lot about money… She has always viewed herself as a really good daughter, not perfect, but very good and good at her job, but again not perfect, and all of those things are being pushed this series.

“Her problem has always been that she gets too personally involved, but how could you not get personally involved in the things she deals with? In her head she is imagining she is going to split her brain, she’s going to go back and just do her job, and she’s not going to get personally involved. That isn’t going to happen because of the sort of woman she is.”

How was it coming back to film with Sanjeev and is his character Sunny worried about his colleague and friend Cassie…

“It started with an incredible read through and we were all so pleased to be back in a room together and we were very much all together in the days when you could spend your time cheek by jowl with lots of hugging.

I spend a lot of my time when filming Unforgotten just grabbing Sanjeev at every opportunity. I did find it incredibly strange to be socially distanced on set, we both did.

“Yes, you see it quite a lot that Cassie will be pushing too hard, she wants to get the case completed and you can see Sunny seeing that and worrying about that. He knows her inside out so he knows better than her that there is a part of her that needs to be back at work, but I think he loves her enough to know that really, the best thing for Cassie would be to not be there.

9 Cast interview Nicola Walker continued:

“It is really difficult for them both. He has no doubt that she is capable of the work, I don’t think he has lost his faith in her skills to lead the team but he is definitely aware of what it is costing her and doing to her emotionally. But he is brilliant, he is supportive and understanding and sometimes he is scared for her.”

What has been the most rewarding part of filming this series?

“The fact we have been able to complete. Who knew that would be the most rewarding thing? The fact that we all managed to get back together and complete filming was immensely rewarding.

“But really, as ever, it’s been the relationships that me and Sanjeev have made with the actors playing the suspects. They are always the most rewarding days at work, for me the most rewarding scenes to play and days at work are the interview scenes. They just keep getting better and better and what actors do when you’re sitting opposite them at the table when they have 10 pages of story to tell you, it never stops being impressive or surprising. You just don’t know what that actor is going to do with what Chris (Lang) has given them until you are sat in the interview room with them. And Andy (Wilson) shoots them very quickly. The first thing he’ll say is ‘do you want to do a rehearsal or should we just film it?’ and literally every single one of the actors who has ever been on has said the same thing, they’re ready to go and they always say ‘shoot the rehearsal.’ There is no pressure and invariably the first take they do, and they’re long takes, invariably that take is brilliant. We feel like we are in the front row of the theatre or cinema, we have front row tickets and we just get to see brilliant British actors do a 10- minute take. It is and continues to be the best part of Unforgotten; they’re the best days.”

10 Cast interview Sanjeev Bhaskar | DI Sunny Khan

As the fourth series of Unforgotten returns to ITV Sanjeev Bhaskar explains why working on the series is a rare ‘lightning in a bottle’ experience.

“There are three projects that stand out in terms of TV series I have done across my career that have been really meaningful and important to me, and Unforgotten is one of them. For the simple reason that the writing is excellent and the people are wonderful. What is incredibly unusual and reassuring is having predominantly the same core cast and crew going into the fourth series.

It’s amazing to know I will have a good day on set, regardless of the challenges of the work that day. You count your blessings on shows where you are happy because I can tell you that is not always the case.

“On the last day we filmed this series, when we were walking back to film the last shot Nicola (Walker) said to me; ‘you know how rare this is, don’t you?’ and I said ‘yes, I do.’ It is rare to do a job where you have the upmost admiration for everyone involved; the crew, the actors, the writer and the director - Andy Wilson has directed every episode, which is relatively unheard of and I have learned more from his guidance than I have from any other director in my career.

11 Cast interview Sanjeev Bhaskar continued:

This job has also been the most fun I’ve had. I believe we have laughed more on all of these series than we do on any other job and, given the subject matter, that has kept us sane. Nicola was right; we are both very aware of how rare this is. It is real lightning in a bottle.”

Sanjeev explains that his on and off-screen friendship with Nicola Walker is a significant reason why he has so enjoyed working on this drama.

“Of the many gifts that I have received from doing Unforgotten, having a friendship with Nicola is one of the biggest ones. We have chemistry and I believe that stems from the very first scene we did in the first series. At the end of shooting that scene we were talking and suddenly I stopped and just said to her ‘it’s really weird that I haven’t known you for 10 years’ and she said she felt the same way. Nicola said that within two minutes of meeting and working together that she knew this was going to be something good.

“What I like about Sunny is that he has always been Cassie’s (Nicola Walker) rock; he is dependable both in terms of his work and his support of her. They have a short hand and there is genuine love there and that is unusual in cop shows where you have a lead and a sidekick, as the sidekick’s role is usually to back up the key investigator, but not as often emotionally. However, the bond between Sunny and Cassie has been something that has connected with people.

“Sunny has always been there as a mirror to Cassie, to reflect back where she is at, at any particular point. He understands the pressures of the job and is slightly better at compartmentalising it than Cassie is. She takes it much more personally than Sunny and he is aware of that but he also knows that’s what makes her such a good detective, that it is personal to her. He knows that is what makes her brilliant and doesn’t try to stamp on it whilst also being aware that is always a dangerous path to tread and your mental wellbeing can suffer the most from it.”

Sanjeev discusses where we find DI Sunny Khan at the beginning of the new series.

“In the upcoming series Sunny is back with the team, investigating another strange appearance of body parts, as we have begun with every series. What is different about this series is that the investigation leads them much closer to home and it effects the way they investigate this case because the ramifications are much bigger.

12 Cast interview Sanjeev Bhaskar continued:

“Sunny is also moving in with his girlfriend this series and is trying to find that stability in his home life. His home life has been quite chaotic as he put all of the organisation and care into his work life and very little into his personal life and we see him attempting to redress that imbalance this series. This time around there are elements within the story, which certainly were more emotionally challenging, for me, in a way they hadn’t been in previous series.”

Unforgotten boasts an incredible array of guest stars over the last few series. Working alongside them is always a highlight for Sanjeev.

“Stepping back into Sunny’s shoes is a wonderfully familiar feeling, but one of the most exciting aspects of doing this drama is that each series presents a whole new and exciting story, as well as the new guest actors who come in. The calibre of the actors who come onto the show is always so strong, which makes it more challenging and scary for me because every time I see what they’re doing it makes me want to raise my game. It keeps you on your toes, which is brilliant.

“Interestingly for the first time I knew three of the four main suspects this series. Susan Lynch I hadn’t met before, but I was a huge fan of her work. Liz White I worked with on a pilot about 15 years ago and hadn’t seen her since then and Phaldut Sharma was in the very original line up of Goodness Gracious Me, about 22 years ago, and we hadn’t worked together since. Andy Nyman and I know each other socially, so that was a slight difference for me this series.

“Nicola and I have always said that when we film the interview scenes it is like having front row theatre tickets to see someone brilliant. I always end up wishing I had more scenes with the other actors in the series. They’re always so talented and those interview scenes in particular, that’s where you have that one on one focus, there is nowhere to hide and they were all amazing. On series one we sat opposite Sir thinking ‘wow, this is ridiculous’ and we have felt that way with everyone since. In each series at least one cast member has been nominated for a BAFTA. But everyone is of that quality. Sometimes it is very difficult in those scenes to say your next line because all you want to do is stand up and applaud, give them a standing ovation right there.”

13 Cast interview Sanjeev Bhaskar continued:

With filming coming to halt two thirds of the way through, Sanjeev discusses what it was like to return to set under the new COVID 19 regulations.

“It was really strange, we had five- six months off in between and the really good thing was how well the production was organised and managed when we came back; it was incredibly reassuring, with us being tested and then put into mini bubbles. You had to have your temperature checked before you came onto set, the set was marked out in zones and only certain people could be in certain zones, so it was all very comforting. Once you got into the scenes it felt like it did before but it was very strange to begin with. Also, actors are very tactile so it was weird not to be able to shake hands or hug anyone, that was probably the biggest challenge. It was strange, but it was lovely to be back. To have real conversations, with real people was definitely something we’d been missing over the last few months.

“How it worked was the production organised the actors into bubbles. So if you were in the same bubble as another actor you could be within two metres of them and if they were in a different bubble, but in the same scene, then they had to be two metres away. Once you were off set they encouraged us not to take the distance thing for granted and to minimise the time we were next to anyone. Everyone was responsible when it came to following the rules. It doesn’t need to be terrible and we all knew why we were doing it. Within that as well people have different family set ups, some people are looking after vulnerable people and some have kids so it was a good, clear set of rules and that was reassuring. We felt very lucky we got to go back at all – we all counted our blessings.”

Finally, Sanjeev explains why he thinks Unforgotten has been the success it has and why people should watch the new series.

“Unforgotten focuses on historical murders, on the impact of a crime and how far the ripples from a pebble dropped in a pond go and it is something that has connected with people. As audiences have grown around the world, we have also discovered that it is this inherent compassion at the heart of horrible events that is something people have connected with and is something that is even more important now when the world feels more frightened and unstable. Having a story that has that compassion at the heart of it is even more significant than ever. In a slightly more scared and unsteady world, compassion that brushes up against darkness is a positive message.”

14 Cast interview Susan Lynch | Liz Baildon

Susan Lynch reveals that the complex character of Liz Baildon drew her to the role in the fourth series of ITV’s highly anticipated crime drama, Unforgotten.

“Liz is quite a challenging character, because initially you think she is one thing and then suddenly as time unfolds, you see that she is something entirely different and it is so brilliantly arced. It was this mystery of Liz that initially drew me in. She has a highly responsible job which she is exceptionally good at and she is very happily engaged to the love of her life, Janet (Amanda Douge). So she has found herself in such a happy place in her life and then suddenly, as this drama does, it unfurls each of the characters and you find out that Liz is not who she seems. I like complex characters, so for me this was a gift of a part.”

Susan tells us about a specific, familiar face she was happy to be reunited with on set.

“Andy Wilson directed this series and he was the person who directed me in my first ever TV role, on a series called Cracker (1993). We hadn’t worked together since and I was about 23 then and I am 49 now so you do the maths… When they sent all the information for the series over and I saw Andy’s name I was over the moon. Working with him, it felt like no time had passed. It was really exciting stepping on to set and even more so due to my history with Andy. Everyone was so welcoming.”

15 Cast interview Susan Lynch continued:

Susan’s highlight from filming Unforgotten was another wonderful coincidence.

‘There really are brilliant actors in this show. It was lovely to meet and work with Nicola (Walker); she is an amazing actress. She is so natural when she’s acting and so kind and generous, she makes everybody feel comfortable.

“My highlight though was working alongside Sheila Hancock. I had worked with Sheila years ago on a show called Dangerous Lady in which she played my mother and this is the only other time we have worked together and once again she’s playing the role of my mum! That was lovely. She is a wonderful woman and a brilliant actress.”

Susan reveals that off screen her relationship with Sheila differs dramatically to the pernicious mother-daughter one share have on screen.

“Liz is very much under her mother’s thumb and it is awful, but there is a turning point which is quite shocking. It was amazing to play those scenes. It is a very fractious relationship. Liz was obviously quite close with her father, they both were, but Liz liked to see herself as her father’s golden child and apple of his eye but her mother disagrees. But then her mother basically disagrees with everything that Liz does and says. Chris Lang is such a brilliant writer, the tension between these two women is palpable.”

Susan discusses what it was like to film in the picturesque English town of Cambridge during the very beginnings of COVID19.

“We shot in Cambridge, which was really beautiful, but it was just before the lockdown, so it was a little odd. Obviously it was all very restricted but the crew and cast were so unbelievably conscientious about hand washing and all of that. It was a little like a ghost town, other than the people punting which was hilarious. It was like the rest of the world was in pre-lockdown, but there was still this romantic activity going on. We kept having to pause filming because the boats were floating past.”

16 Cast interview Liz White | Fiona Grayson

As she joins the cast of ITV’s Unforgotten, for the fourth series Liz White reveals she is a huge fan of the show and binge watched the first three series in a matter of days.

“We finished the box set of the drama we’d been watching at home and then we had that dreaded ‘what do we do with our evenings now’ moment. We found Unforgotten on and since we both love Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar’s work, we started it. Before we knew it we had watched three entire series in one week! It is so compelling and the performances are so brilliant. It is so elegantly directed, we were gripped…clearly!

“Unforgotten is about cold cases that are in the past, which means you never see anything too gruesome, instead you are watching these very compassionate, clever and forensic police officers trying to uncover the truth. Also, because these events occurred so long ago every character most likely has a secret, it’s just a question of whether theirs is the big one or not. It is such cleverly written drama. Chris Lang, the writer, is brilliant, because not only has he got the plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but you also really care about the people involved, you find yourself even caring about the people who may have done the deed.”

17 Cast interview Liz White continued:

Liz talks about the character she plays in the new series, Fiona Grayson.

“Fiona is one of the suspects in the cold-case murder investigation this series explores. She is one of a group of people who may have known each other a long time ago but have all since dispersed and have no remaining association with each other. She has since created this whole new life for herself, like a lot of the people, but more so Fiona. Fiona and her partner, Geoff, live in the Peak District with their two children. She is a therapist and she and Geoff (Daniel Flynn) are in the process of buying a property to be her new practice. So suddenly she finds herself in a situation where they are set to expand their business and she is about to become more prominent in her own right, and that terrifies her. Fiona is living this false reality, apart from the fact she has two children she loves and what seems to be a happy union with her partner. She has done a good job re-establishing herself, but the past is still hanging over her head. She always thought she would tell her partner the truth when the time was right but life got in the way a little and it never happened. So when you meet Fiona you meet a woman who is struggling with a lot.

“Before Fiona became a therapist she was working a job she was never very well suited to, but did it anyway because her father wanted her to and she wanted to make him happy, since he raised her alone after her mother passed away. Unfortunately, it made her very unhappy and she didn’t want to be there. It didn’t suit her personality at all and it was like she was trying to squeeze into something that she wasn’t right for, and unfortunately that became a pattern for her life. So she became a therapist because she wants to feel like she is doing something good for the families, but also she hopes it could help her understand more about her own family. Her family has massively shaped who she has become and by doing this work she felt perhaps that she could unpick the events of her own life and also to learn to be a better parent for her children.”

Liz reveals that working alongside Nicola and Sanjeev, as well as the team behind the show, is what made the experience so special for her.

“My highlights from working on Unforgotten were definitely the people on this job. Andy (Wilson), our director, made you feel like you could do your best work when you were on set with him, these tiny notes he would give you made you feel like you were capable. Working with Nicola and Sanjeev was wonderful. Nicola is, as you’d hope in real life, a lovely, warm, generous, clever woman. I really admire her work, I am a big fan of Unforgotten, The Last Tango in Halifax and River, so it is brilliant to finally work with her because I have learned and gained so much from what she has done already.

18 Cast interview Liz White continued:

Sanjeev and I worked together about 14 years ago, we did a drama that he had written. It was really great to see him again, especially as our lives have changed so much since then and he is a lovely man. You never know when you are going to meet these special people again, chances are you will and it was a genuinely lovely reunion.”

As for why people should tune in to watch series four of this critically acclaimed series, Liz says:

“It is such a clever, well-written and well-produced series that will keep your mind working. It doesn’t affront you in the same way that a lot of present day investigative dramas do – you won’t see anyone being gruesomely murdered, it is more of a psychological thriller and that is so interesting because you learn about these interesting characters a lot more and in depth.’

“It is an excellent series and it knows what it is doing, a testament to the show is that they’ve virtually had the same crew for all of the four series, Andy Wilson the director has shot all of them and that says a lot – that people want to come back. People are putting their heart into this project and that is when the best work is produced.”

19 Cast interview Phaldut Sharma | Ram Sidhu

Phaldut Sharma found the role of second-generation Sikh Ram Sidhu in the new series of Unforgotten a cathartic one.

“Ram Sidhu is one of the four murder suspects in the new series of Unforgotten and he is quite a sparky character. Ram is a very successful man and there is definitely something of an alpha male in him and sense of bravado in the way he carries himself - broad shoulders, chest out, elbows out - and coupled with that is a certain charm and charisma that he has. He enjoys the spotlight; when he is in the room people know about it. He also enjoys status level and with that comes a certain hot-headedness and ambition.

“Ram was born in west London in the 1970s; he is a second-generation immigrant of a Punjabi Sikh family, which is a unique upbringing. Being of that ilk myself, second generation, you go into a world where you are looking for an identity and you have your feet in both worlds – first generation influence of your culture, your family and of traditions and then you have this western culture you are trying to integrate with and Ram probably found he was neither one or the other really. He fell through the cracks. So there is an identity crisis going on about where one belongs.

20 Cast interview Phaldut Sharma continued:

“He is rebellious against both Eastern and Western influences and this plays out in different ways. His relationship with his family is difficult, as he didn’t go down the traditional route of being a lawyer or doctor or any of those things that were expected of him. He rebelled against that to find his own sense of self and he is doing that in the 1970s in a part of the world where there were events like the Southall riots which was an extremely alienating, cold and sometimes brutal environment to grow up in. So, in certain ways he grew up between a rock and a hard place and that plays out now in his life with regards to the fact he feels a great deal of old school way of thinking, institutional racism is still there for him and he is constantly rebelling and fighting against everyone and everything. It is what has given him his identity, a ‘them and us’ mentality that he has grown up with and it has ballooned into a monster.”

Phaldut dissects the similarities between himself and his character and why that has made undertaking this role such an interesting experience for him.

“Some of this series was filmed so near my house that I literally walked out my house and onto set. I actually live in Southall, the area that Ram comes from. It has been cathartic playing a guy who grew up in that time and in that area, like I did. One of the things I have found really refreshing about it is the fact that we are addressing a certain history that hasn’t really been addressed before in this way and in terms of ethnic minority representation in the industry this has been a character who has been something different, that I have found really interesting to sink my teeth into and portray.”

Ram and his wife, Anna (Clare Calbraith) are expecting their first child and are faced with some impossible decisions when they are told early on that the baby may potentially have Down Syndrome.

“This was an incredibly difficult topic to dissect and Claire, Andy our director and I discussed it at length. Ram is pro keeping the child throughout the series because of things that have happened in his past, he may falter and have doubts about it but it’s not to do with how he feels in himself, he feels ready to go ahead and he questions the notion of what a ‘perfect life’ even is, life is just life. Anna is coming from the standpoint of what this could mean for their lives separately and together and the impact and repercussions of it. They’re both valuable viewpoints.

21 Cast interview Phaldut Sharma continued:

“One of the blessings of playing roles like this is that you pose questions to the audience, you’re asking them where their consciousness lies in terms of what a decision like that would mean and in posing questions like this you are allowing people to use them to figure out who they are. It is a very difficult dilemma and was challenging to play.”

Phaldut explains why he thinks this show is important viewing.

‘What Unforgotten does so well, as a piece of drama, is focus on the laws of cause and effect, of karma. Some small act, a pebble you knock off a cliff, could start an avalanche. The way the show revisits people 30 years later really does cause us all to question who we are today, which is a difficult thing to do, to connect who we are now to who we were years ago. Unforgotten bubbles those ideas up to the surface in terms of people and what they become as the years go by and forces us to look at our sense of morality, humanity and forgiveness.’

22 Cast interview Andy Nyman| Dean Barton

Andy Nyman was thrilled to join the cast of ITV’s Unforgotten – a series he admires for the calibre of writing and acting…

“I am absolutely thrilled to be a part of what I truly think is an extraordinary series. Chris Lang’s scripts are sincerely brilliant. His writing is personal but also so great that it makes you want to adhere word for word to what he has written, which is not always the case. It is a joy to work on.”

Andy considers some of the difficulties his character has faced and how these have shaped the man has become.

“Dean is a working class man who has self-educated, built up a business and is now affluent and enjoys all that goes with that, such as the nice house and the fancy car, but in a way that is not ostentatious. It is done with a real sense of pride that he has come out of a harsh background and built a new life for himself and his family. He is happily married with two children. One of his children, Jack (Rory Averdieck), suffers from special needs and whilst Dean spends a lot of time with both of his sons he finds trying to get that balance quite difficult and he tends to overcompensate with Jack.

23 Cast interview Andy Nyman continued:

“Within the strange stresses caused by a heavy work life and a potentially difficult family life there is real happiness there. He loves his wife; they share a very happy relationship but a big reason as to why his family life is so important to him is because he came from a very unhappy family. That is something Dean struggles with and he is certainly not, when it comes to emotions, a ‘modern’ man and like an awful lot of men he buries things deep down, hoping and pretending that it will stay down there and that it doesn’t impact on his life. He had done things in his youth that he is not proud of but he has since done everything in his life to redress that balance.”

After landing the role, Andy admits to having a serious Unforgotten binge watch.

“I knew that people were really passionate about this drama so I was excited to watch it. When the job was offered to me I thought it would help to watch a few episodes of the first series but cut forward to two nights later and we had completed the first two series and were trying to find the third. I was blown away by it. I loved the structure; at its base level it is a really interesting take on a whodunit. I was just amazed at how elevated it was, how incredible the acting was. Nicola (Walker) and Sanjeev (Bhaskar) are phenomenal and the surrounding cast are just as strong.”

Andy discusses what it was like to join the cast of this popular drama and the challenges it poses.

“I absolutely love acting; I cannot believe I have made my living doing this. Every day on set for me is wonderful and exciting. One of my last days before lockdown was my first day of working with Nicola and I have really admired her for years. She is a phenomenal actress, so I was very excited about getting to work with her. That is one of the great joys of the job, if you’re lucky you get to work with people you have spent time admiring and watching for years. It’s the same with Sanjeev. I have known him as a pal for a few years and I have worked with his wife, Meera, a few times so it was wonderful to finally have the chance to work with him. It is thrilling and a blessing to be working on great material alongside some serious talent.”

“You want to present characters who feel real and when you are playing a role like this, someone who is troubled, and you have to be able to access that sensibility, it is a challenge because you want to do that as honestly as you can. Opening yourself up to those emotions and trying to access rage or sadness or pain properly can be a difficult thing. It can really surprise you how hard it hits you. Especially when it’s with something so brilliantly written, the challenge is how do I do these words justice and honour this script!? It’s very exciting; it’s why you become an actor. They’re the best challenges imaginable, what a gift that I get paid to do this!’

24 Synopsis Episode one

When a headless and handless body is found in a North London scrapyard, the team led by Sunny are called to investigate. They suspect the body was illegally dumped, perhaps transported inside a white goods item. This is confirmed when pathologist Leanne Balcombe finds that the dismembered corpse had been frozen.

The body is identified as one Matthew Walsh who went missing 30 years before and we start to meet four people who may be connected with his disappearance. In the Peak District, therapist Fiona Grayson, in Cambridge, high flying career woman Elizabeth Baildon, in Rochester, businessman Dean Barton and in Southall, expectant father Ram Sidhu. Boulting and Lingley find out that Walsh was last seen on 30th March 1990 and start to try and track down his next of kin.

Meanwhile, Cassie’s plans to retire are thwarted and she is forced to return to work just as her father Martin’s early dementia appears to be getting worse.

The team discover that the body had been transported in a freezer purchased by a recently deceased man, Robert Fogerty who had a police record for a traffic offence the same night that the victim disappeared and that there were four other people in the car with him…

25 Cast and Production Credits Cast credits | Episode one

DCI Cassie Stuart...... Nicola Walker DI Sunny Khan...... ………Sanjeev Bhaskar DS Murray Boulting...... …Jordan Long DC Jake Collier..………………………………………………………………………………………….Lewis Reeves DC Fran Lingley ….…………………………………………………………………………...... Carolina Main Martin Hughes …………….………………………………………….…...... Peter Egan Dean Barton...... Andy Nyman Fiona Grayson...... Liz White Liz Baildon...... Susan Lynch Ram Sidhu ...... Phaldut Sharma John Bentley...... Alastair Mackenzie Adam Stuart...... Jassa Ahluwalia Jenny...... Janet Dibley Leanne Balcombe ...... Georgia Mackenzie D. Spt Andrews...... Colin R. Campbell Kaz Willets...... Pippa Nixon Marnie...... Lucy Speed Jack ...... Rory Averdieck Casper ...... Jacob Lang Mary Quinn ...... ………………….Kate Williams Sean Quinn .…………………………………………………………………………………..Brett O’Shaughnessy Geoff Tomlinson ….……………………………………………………………………………………..Daniel Flynn Mark …………….………………………………………….…...... Alec Newman Sam ...... Harry Baxendale Molly ...... Darcey Hogan Eugenia ...... Mina Andala Eileen .……………………………………………………………………………………………………Sheila Hancock

26 Cast and Production Credits Production Credits

Creator/Writer/Executive Producer ……………………………………………………….Chris Lang Executive Producers ………………………………………………………………..….....…Laura Mackie ………….………………...... Sally Haynes Director...... Andy Wilson Producer...... Guy de Glanville Line Producer…………………………………………………………………………………. Emma Downes Director of Photography…………...... Søren Bay and James Aspinall Casting Director………………...... Victor Jenkins Costume Designer……...... Eleanor Baker Hair & Make Up Designer…...... Christine Walmsley-Cotham Production Designer……………………………………………………………………….Ashleigh Jeffers Art Director……………………………………………………………………………………………Jan Walker Editor……………………………………...... Mark Davis Composer …………………………………………………………………………………………Michael Price Series Location Manager……………………………………………………………………Nick Marshall

27 End If you are to use any material from the Unforgotten production notes, please include a full credit which can be obtained from the ITV press office.

ITV press office Press contact: Natasha Bayford - [email protected] Picture contact: Patrick Smith - [email protected]

Mainstreet Pictures Press contact: Lisa Vanoli - [email protected]

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