Interviews Tamzin Outhwaite plays Sergeant Jo McDonagh Tamzin Outhwaite, fresh from her success in the Melanie, so unlike anything else I’d done. award-winning BBC One film Out Of Control, What’s more, the writing was very good,” reprises her role as maverick Army detective Jo she says. McDonagh in the first series of Red Cap, following the hugely successful pilot, broadcast As she proved in Out Of Control, Tamzin’s not in December 2001. worried about being stripped of her glossy on- screen image. Indeed, she feels that she can For Tamzin, best known as the sexy and relate quite strongly to Jo as a character. glamorous man-eater Melanie Healy in EastEnders, playing the role of Sergeant Jo The actor continues: “Jo has determination; she McDonagh represented a real change and is blunt, she tells it like it is. When she wants challenge. It was a part, however, that she something, she goes for it – she’s on a mission. I readily accepted. think there are similarities between us. She’s not too worried about what she looks like, she “Jo McDonagh was the first role I was offered doesn’t care about vanity. outside of EastEnders that was really substantial. What tempted me was that I’m a “That said, sometimes I’m very vain, I have to tomboy anyway and the part allows me to admit. She’s not very aware of her femininity, explore that side of my character. Up until then, she was brought up with boys, in much the I’d been playing a character who’s really quite same way as I was. She strives to win – and that glamorous, so taking on such a different role really is the cornerstone of her character. I’m was really important for me. Jo is so unlike not as ambitious as Jo.” Red Cap 5 Interviews For the pilot, Tamzin spent a week at Chilwell, Jo’s greatest adversary in the pilot was Staff an Army training camp in Nottingham, where Sergeant Roper (James Thornton), who resented she was put through her paces by a team of her presence, her keenness and her ambition. Army personnel and was shadowed by a real- Tamzin continues: “I wouldn’t say there is life SIB sergeant, Morven Sayer. romance between Jo and Roper in the series, but there are definitely glimmers of ‘will they, She recalls: “I had to do a lot of weapon won’t they?’. Jo’s not a romantic girl, not at all training for the pilot. Even though Jo’s in the hearts and flowers, so this series will show her SIB now and office bound, she still feels the being as romantic as she can get. But I still need to go back on the assault course and make think she finds it difficult detaching from cases sure she’s still got it, to make sure she’s still up that involve other people’s feelings. She does there with the fittest. Fear of failure is a real have a heart and she’s very sympathetic; she has problem for Jo. We use guns in the series and I a lot of empathy with the people her work had to do a refresher course which involved brings her into contact with.” retraining on 9mm pistols, SA80 rifles and how to load, unload and clean the guns after they Tamzin filmed the successful pilot episode last were fired.” year while she was still playing Melanie, one of the most popular and high-profile characters in Being an action woman is not hard for Tamzin, EastEnders, and it was playing Jo that made the who trained as a dancer and likes to keep as fit actor realise that it was time to move on and do as she possibly can. “Sporty competition is other things. “It wasn’t until after filming the something I’ve been brought up with, as both Red Cap pilot that I decided it was time to go. my brothers were sporty and my dad loves his Then I knew I had just six months to enjoy sports. I did about half the stunts in the series. working on EastEnders and I had a good time I’ve been chucked against a few walls and doing it. It was very intense work because there’s something in me, probably quite like Jo, Melanie was imprisoned and pregnant and, just that doesn’t like to wear a back brace and wants when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, her to do my own stunts. I was quite adamant husband [Steve Owen, played by Martin Kemp] about doing it myself – if I were a producer, I’d died. The leaving party for me was fun: the be worried about some of the stuff I was doing, night I left was fantastic.” definitely! In this series I get to drive cars fast and handbrake skid, which is great – it’s like When Tamzin finally left the soap, she embarked being in a movie.” upon one of her most challenging performances to date, playing the single-parent mother of a In the pilot episode, it was revealed that Jo’s 15-year-old boy in Dominic Savage’s award- boyfriend had been killed in an accident, winning Out Of Control. something for which she blamed herself. “I think Jo finds it difficult displaying any form of “It wasn’t tricky playing the mother, because if emotion and I think that’s because she’s been you’ve had any love in your life or if you’ve got hurt before. She’s very wary of getting involved a close relationship with your mother, you just with anybody. Even the slightest little hint of base it on that. I loved it; it was an amazing feeling unnerves her. I think she becomes a bit project to do. I had a brilliant time. It was also stronger and more open as the series progresses. very traumatic because I hadn’t done anything Professionally, she learns by her mistakes and like that before.” doesn’t make as many blunders, but she still goes for everything, regardless of the rules. Jo’s a bit Tamzin’s had a busy year since she left more confident now, she’s not so much the ‘new EastEnders and is currently filming a new girl’ and it’s more about proving her worth to drama by Deborah Moggach, Final Demand, herself than to the others.” also for BBC One. Red Cap 6 Interviews “Final Demand has a very good contemporary edge to it. My character is a manipulative scheming little cow, which is great fun to play,” she says. “My career is moving on in a way that I never expected it to. I always had goals and it feels like I’ve passed those. Now I’ll have to think of new things I want to do, but at the moment I’m just happy playing different characters with good scripts. I’d love to do some theatre again at some stage and I’d really love to do a film. It’s finding the right time, it’s fitting it in, choosing the right projects.” Being so busy has left Tamzin with little free time. “I should have had more of a social life since I left EastEnders, but no. I went away to Thailand for a couple of weeks when I finished filming and felt completely replenished and wonderful. I’ve had a couple of breaks since and also a two-week holiday in Dubai after filming Red Cap. There’s a lot of other stuff happening next year, and I’m reading a lot of scripts, but they are still in the discussion phase.” Although Tamzin is very much a family person and is particularly close to her parents and her brothers, it is likely to be some time before she can start a family of her own. “Family is very important to me. With things like family, you need to be committed and at the moment my career is so intense that it would be impossible to include anything like that. I get to see as much of my parents and brothers as I can. One brother is travelling the world, the other is extremely busy. It’s just taking things day by day, and at the moment it’s a work phase. At the end of the year I’ll have a month or so off and that will be a heavenly relief – some time to myself, finally.” Red Cap 7 Interviews Douglas Hodge plays Sergeant Major Kenneth Burns Douglas Hodge, one of the UK’s most versatile crisp and clear, everything is done in perfect actors, is rarely off the television screen, order. I think he responds to that kind of routine whether playing Roger Carbury – “the nicest and discipline. man in England” – in The Way We Live Now, or “a psychotic, mad, lost, self-hating killer” in “Once we started the series, we knew he was a The Russian Bride. As Sergeant Major Burns in typical work-loving obsessive, who liked to Red Cap, he brings a subtle sensitivity and a manipulate his team to get the best out of them, sense of humour to the role of the tough, to the point where it could be quite dangerous,” hardened military policeman. explains Hodge. “He’s quite a frightening man, I think. Family is more important to him than “My character in Red Cap is diametrically anything, and those kind of old-fashioned moral opposed to the last few parts I’ve played,” values are very fiercely protected.