PRODUCTION NOTES

“This town – it’s all secrets. Everyone knows something you don’t”

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The Town is a three-part contemporary drama from Big Talk Productions starring BAFTA winner Andrew Scott alongside an outstanding ensemble cast including Julia McKenzie, Charlotte Riley, Gerard Kearns, Kelly Adams and Martin Clunes.

The first television series by Laurence Olivier award-winning playwright Mike Bartlett, The Town follows a shocking incident within an otherwise normal family. Mark Nicholas (Scott) returns to the town where he grew up to find his grandmother Betty (McKenzie) is now living in his childhood bedroom and he barely knows his teenage sister Jodie (Avigail Tlalim).

Mark is drawn back into the life he left behind. Hardest of all is meeting his first love Alice (Riley), now married with a child. Thrust into the complicated lives of his former neighbours, it’s not surprising there are awkward moments as Mark becomes reacquainted with his past, including his old friends ‘down the pub’ Lucy (Kelly Adams), Carly (Aisling Bea) and Jeff (Sam Troughton).

Running parallel with Mark’s story, we get to know the town Mayor, alcohol-soaked Len (Clunes). With his world falling in around him, Len is stumbling from one PR disaster to another. As we get to know the community, we’re also introduced to the enigmatic Inspector Franks (Douglas Hodge) from the local police force whose links to the family are stronger than it first appears...

Mark struggles to decide whether he should stay permanently to be with his family. But a new life is difficult to build in the place you used to call home and now feels like you barely know it.

The Town is produced by Big Talk’s Luke Alkin (Dirty War, Grow Your Own), and executive produced by Kenton Allen (Rev, Him & Her), Matthew Justice (Attack the Block) and Simon Curtis (My Week With Marilyn, Cranford). Colin Teague (Doctor Who, Shirley) directs.

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Andrew Scott plays Mark

“I was looking to do something a little bit more human. Something closer to myself as a character,” explains Andrew Scott.

His BAFTA award-winning role as Moriarty in Sherlock introduced the Dublin-born actor to a wider audience around the globe.

“Playing an arch villain like Moriarty and such a famous literary one was very high stakes, theatrical with some elements of the baroque about it.

“I was anxious to find a project where I could show a little more light and shade. I wouldn’t describe Mark as an everyman but he’s certainly somebody people will recognise.

“Mark ticked those boxes post-Sherlock as a character and was a really exciting prospect for me.”

Explains Andrew: “The writer Mike Bartlett and I have worked together in the theatre before and we had a great time.

“I knew that he had been writing his first television project and was very keen to read it. And I was very happy to be asked to be involved.

“Mike has got an absolutely brilliant way with dialogue. It’s something any actor would want when you’re looking for a TV role - something that’s smartly written.

“He has that gift of knowing how human beings really speak and express themselves. It’s rare to find that on television. And he has also put a lot of wit into the script.”

Mark left the small town of Renton as a young man to draw up a new life as an architect in London.

But a shocking incident forces him to return to the place he once called home, re-visiting his past life among family and friends.

“He finds himself having to re-establish himself back there 10 years on, having lived a very different life in London.

3 “I think everybody understands that feeling of going back home and people treating you exactly the same way. You go into your old local pub and it feels exactly the same as it was before.

“When you move away from home you re-invent yourself somewhat. The difficulty for Mark is trying to re-establish forgotten relationships with his family and others in the town, including his ex-girlfriend Alice.

“There are ghosts of the past that are very difficult to confront, particularly in the circumstances he finds himself in when he returns.

“A major family incident forces him to come back and he suddenly has to make very quick adult decisions.

“He feels enormously trapped at the beginning. There are also a lot of unanswered questions that he becomes more and more obsessed by as the series goes on.

“Things become clearer through the three episodes as you delve further into the lives of the characters in the town and how they’re linked.”

Andrew adds: “Mark may be the ‘hero’ of the show but he’s not reliable. You definitely can begin to doubt him and wonder whether he’s doing the right thing for himself and his family.

“In Mark’s case, you can build up these perceived ideas of how provincial your home town was. And when you’re in the small town you think London or the big city is the most exciting place where everybody is going out having cocktails and visiting photography exhibitions.

“Actually the truth is that you can have a very dynamic life in a small town and you can have a very lonely, dull life in a big city. It’s what you make of it. What your attitude is towards where you live.”

Andrew has lived in London for the last decade but still feels an affinity for his Dublin roots.

“The one thing that I certainly thought about a lot is that feeling of longing for your home town, even when you’re there.

“You think, ‘I belong here.’ But at the same time you can’t really own that feeling of comfort and belonging that you once had because you’ve experienced too much.”

One of the issues Mark has to deal with on his return is his relationship with his 15-year-old sister Jodie, played by Avigail Tlalim.

“The relationship is initially very frosty. When Mark left 10 years ago he would have been about 20 when Jodie was five or six. So they don’t really know each other particularly well.

“That relationship, to me, was really interesting. There’s a huge well of love between them but it’s very difficult to express at the start.

“I’ve got a little sister who I adore, so it was easy for me to have those strong feelings. She’s not a teenager but I remember when she was,” he laughs.

Andrew was impressed with newcomer Avigail.

4 “She’s a great actress and a very articulate girl. This is her first job. So it was a real baptism of fire for her but she certainly learned really quickly. She’s got a wonderful soul in her eyes. I think she’s got a great future ahead of her.”

Julia McKenzie plays Mark’s grandmother Betty.

“I had such a laugh with Julia. Of course she’s hugely loved as a television actress but also she’s got great stories about Stephen Sondheim and all her theatre career. So we had a terrific time.

“The extraordinary thing about Julia is she’s able to show a huge amount without really doing very much at all. She’s just one of the best actresses in this country. It was wonderful to work with her.”

Charlotte Riley plays Mark’s old flame Alice, who is now married with a child.

“It was first love for Mark and Alice. Now it’s that situation where you still have a huge amount of feeling but both people have moved on and have different lives.

“Charlotte is a stunning actress and I think we had great chemistry together. I was really proud that she agreed to play the role.”

Andrew also has scenes with Martin Clunes who plays Len, the alcoholic Mayor of Renton.

“Martin is a really gifted actor. He’s able to do comedy and drama. The Town was a wonderful opportunity for him to show great sadness and pain as well.”

Mayor Len leads the historic bun-throwing ceremony from the Town Hall - an event that really happens in Mike’s home town of Abington.

“I knew nothing about it and thought it can’t be true. But it’s an old tradition. We had a great Sunday filming it in High Wycombe. But it can be dangerous. Buns can be pretty sore on the face, particularly when they’ve been sat out for five hours. But they didn’t offer me a stunt double!”

How has Andrew coped with the public attention that followed his Sherlock role?

“It certainly takes a little bit of getting used to. It’s something that’s very hard to predict actually because some days you don’t get recognised at all and then other days you’re recognised every 10 minutes.

“Also there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme nor reason to it. Around the time of broadcast you’re obviously a little bit more recognisable. But sometimes that’s not true either. You just never know when you’re going to be recognised.

“I feel very proud of Sherlock. Moriarty was a very potent character and one the audience really responded to. But it’s important to me that he doesn’t take over.

“As an actor you want to remain fluid and play as many different things as possible. So you have to be very careful in the choices that you make.

“You have to take risks and turn certain things down because, of course, some people can have limited imaginations.”

5 The finale of Sherlock series two - The Reichenbach Fall - saw Moriarty shoot himself in the head with, it would seem, no chance of a future return, even though Sherlock himself faked his own suicide.

Andrew insists there is no prospect of a surprise return.

“No. Moriarty is dead. I don’t think there could have been any better exit for a character like that.

“The time was right to move on to other things, like The Town, where the challenge is to try and throw a lot of light and shade into a character.

“It’s a very human drama. Everybody has a home town, everybody has a family and everybody has that feeling of loss and longing.”

Andrew’s previous screen credits include: Sherlock, Lennon Naked, Dead Bodies, The Hour, Blackout and The Scapegoat.

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Martin Clunes plays Len

Playing the Mayor of Renton did not give Martin Clunes a thirst for power.

“No, I’ve got enough on, thanks,” he laughs.

The Doc Martin star may be too busy to think about standing for office but he has gained an insight into the mayoral world over the years.

“In the old days before telly these people were the celebrities who stood out. So they would turn up at openings to lend a bit of curiosity.”

Mayor Len is “alcohol-soaked” and lives alone.

“There are many layers to Len and that’s intriguing. You’re presented with one layer of an alcoholic but then you discover there’s more to him beyond that.

“You see him drink but you never see him suffer the effects. I think his sadness soaks up all the drink.

“He has lonely meals for one at home with a bottle of whisky. And he wears sad cardigans. It’s all pretty tragic.”

Martin was keen to play Len as soon as he read writer Mike Bartlett’s script for the opening episode.

The first time we see Len he is wearing his robes and chain of office, slumped across his desk - a whisky bottle nearby - having slept at the Town Hall.

“It was instantly mystifying and enigmatic and just drew you in. I was completely sold just on the first episode and thought, ‘I’d love to play that man.’

“Len has got that old fashioned Rotary Club way of manipulating events that you’d imagine an old fashioned mayor would have.

“I based him on the accumulative experiences I’ve had of real life mayors and of those in literature as well.

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“I regularly encounter mayors for some reason or another, at charitable events and things. I met one last week. I am quite intrigued by them.

“There’s a strength of personality with a mayor. They are elected, so I don’t think a mouse would get the job. I think being a mayor is a power for good. They do make things happen.

“And I have to bear in mind my physical stature because that always has a bearing on what people are like. It sounds daft, but I only ever play tall characters...”

Len is ex-Army and knows how to handle a shotgun when he goes clay pigeon shooting.

“I’m not a fan of firearms at all. We had a firearms expert there. Just in case you shoot one of the crew. However much they might deserve it, it’s frowned upon,” jokes Martin.

“I’ve been shot with shotguns twice before on screen but I don’t think I’ve used one myself before this.”

Dorset-based Martin is familiar with places like the fictional small town of Renton.

“I can identify with that although I’ve never found them claustrophobic. We used to live in a village of about 90 people before we bought our farm.

“We are a close-knit community and we watch each other’s backs. And I do like that.”

The Town Hall bun-throwing ceremony featured in the drama really happens in writer Mike Bartlett’s home town.

“I hadn’t heard of that before. Mike had written it based on his experiences of Abingdon.

“And we filmed it in High Wycombe where Colin Teague the director had grown up. So it was really good to have the two of them and their experiences.

“Mike also writes great speeches. That’s the treat in having a playwright write a screenplay. By and large TV writers don’t, or can’t, write speeches like that.”

Len’s deputy Shireen, played by Goldy Notay, helps keep him out of trouble.

“She does run him to a certain extent - as far as he wants to be run. He’s obviously got huge faith in her. But there are huge areas of his life she knows nothing about.”

He believes viewers will be drawn in by the drama.

“It’s very intriguing and enigmatic with plausible and interesting characters. Right from the start there’s a mystery and it’s really clever the way it unfolds.

The Town follows on from Martin’s role in A Mother’s Son.

“I still consider myself to be a character actor. That’s what I like to do, to keep ducking and diving. And I think I just got lucky this year.

“Which isn’t to say that it isn’t really nice to stop and settle sometimes. So long as the other stuff comes along.

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“The Town and A Mother’s Son were really different and I was very happy about that.

“I am mindful that if you do a successful show like Doc Martin, it is really great on one hand but there is an impact on the rest of your job and you are perceived as Doc Martin.

“Although having been around for a few years now, I’ve been perceived as a number of things! Synonymous with two or three roles, maybe.

“I heard a kid in the street the other day saying, ‘That’s that bloke from the Churchill ads.’

“So for half an hour I listed him my previous work and smacked him about the head,” he jokes.

Martin is president of equestrian charity the British Horse Society and has been filming a new documentary - Workhorse with Martin Clunes - about the role of the world’s working horses.

He is also making an ITV documentary about “Lion Man” conservationist Tony Fitzjohn and has been to Kenya twice and Tanzania once so far this year.

“We’re following the progress of the lion cubs.”

Filming for a new series of Doc Martin begins in the spring of 2013.

“The Doc and Louisa will finally marry. That’s how it begins...”

Martin’s screen credits include: Doc Martin, A Mother’s Son, William And Mary and Men Behaving Badly.

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Julia McKenzie plays Betty

“I’m rarely offered modern drama as I’ve got a bit of a bonnets and bustle face,” says Julia McKenzie.

“So I jumped at this one when I was offered it,” adds the Olivier award-winning actress.

Julia plays Betty, a retired psychotherapist who is grandmother to architect Mark (Andrew Scott) and teenage schoolgirl Jodie (Avigail Tlalim).

“I like Betty because she represents a lot of women in their early seventies who are suddenly redundant in life - and not just from work.

“Suddenly they find they’ve reached 70 and people expect them to wear cardigans and skirts and behave like grandmas.

“Well, Betty doesn’t want to do that. She’s had a very active life, working as a psychotherapist, had a rocky marriage and she’s ready to have her own life.

“But through circumstances, finance and so on, she’s been forced to go and live with her daughter and her husband.

“What happens in the first episode is such a shock to her...”

Adds Julia: “I was so amazed by the whole thing when I got Mike Bartlett’s scripts. He was a new writer to me but really does have his own voice.

“He has had terrific success in theatre and this is the first thing he’s written for television. It’s unusual, ambitious and really works.

“Mike has certainly got his finger on the pulse of modern speech. That was one of the things that was very attractive about it.

“For an actor, you can always tell if it’s a good script because it’s not difficult to learn. Not all writers are absolutely as correct as I think Mike is. His writing is excellent.”

10 In one scene Betty says, ‘None of us know the ones we love.’

Julia explains: “I suppose it depends on what sort of life you’ve had and the people you have around you. It’s very true in her circumstance. And she certainly doesn’t know her grandchildren. There is a big age gap there.”

She was keen to work with co-star Andrew Scott.

“Andrew Scott was one of the reasons I took the job. It’s rare that you’re knocked sideways by a performance. When I saw him do Moriarty in Sherlock I thought, ‘My God, this chap is fantastic. Where’s he been? I’ve got to work with him.’

“It was also great to work with Avigail, who was just a delight. Very eager to learn everything, watched a great deal and I think learned a great deal. She’s a really lovely girl.”

The Town was Avigail’s first professional job and Julia gave her plenty of support and advice during filming.

“Well, you would, wouldn’t you? She’s bright as a button and I hope this does a lot for her.”

Can Julia recall her own first professional role?

“It was a pantomime in London, playing principal girl or something. My first television job was with Stanley Baxter who gave me a job in a sketch. And Stanley and I are great friends to this day.”

Betty’s desire to be useful and earn some money results in her getting a job at a local hotel.

“She was rather hoping for a job in a garden centre but ends up cleaning the hotel bedrooms.

“I did lots of different jobs in my younger days. I actually cleaned some ovens at a business - a managers’ dining room. My father worked at the same place.

“And I never minded waiting table there either because it was a sort of performance. I quite liked that. I think I’d have been a very good waitress.”

Betty is on Facebook. Does Julia get involved with online social networking?

“I’m not greatly technical. I can text and stuff like that. But I wouldn’t go on Facebook or Twitter. I twitter in real life!”

Julia recently filmed a new Marple film - A Caribbean Mystery - on location in South Africa and is currently working on the first of two further ITV1 stories involving Agatha Christie’s spinster sleuth.

She also played a very special role in the show-stealing London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony film Happy & Glorious, starring the Queen and Daniel Craig as James Bond.

Julia doubled for the Queen, sitting next to 007 in the helicopter seen taking off from the back garden of Buckingham Palace.

It then flew over central London, through Tower Bridge and parachuted a stuntman, posing as Her Majesty, over the Olympic Stadium at Stratford.

11 Julia also stood in for the Queen during filming inside the Palace.

“I was contacted by somebody working on the film who had worked with me before,” she reveals.

“They said, ‘We don’t just want a Queen double. We’d like an actress. Why don’t you do it?’ I don’t really look like the Queen but I was a physical match.

“So I went and met the director Danny Boyle and we had a laugh. It was a couple of days at Buckingham Palace and huge fun meeting Daniel Craig. I mean, who wouldn’t do it?

“I didn’t meet the Queen, although I’ve met her several times before. But I did sit at her desk in her lovely sitting room.

“Daniel Craig and I spent a lot of time sitting in the helicopter but it didn’t take off with us in it - it just looked as though it did. I’m not a very good flyer!

“A lot of it was edited out but what was there was very funny.”

Julia’s previous screen credits include: Marple, Cranford, Fresh Fields and The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

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Charlotte Riley plays Alice

Charlotte Riley and co-star Andrew Scott drew up a shopping list before filming a love scene.

“We seemed to hit it off straight away which was lucky because on one of the first days we had to do quite an intimate scene together,” explains Charlotte.

“We got through it by promising ourselves a Twirl chocolate bar and some Monster Munch after doing the scene. Then we did the scene and rewarded ourselves by eating them! We had pickled onion flavour but I promised Andrew I wouldn’t eat them before I had to kiss him!”

Charlotte and Andrew play Alice and Mark, old flames from their teenage years who appeared destined for each other. But Mark moved to London and returns years later to find Alice married with a young child.

“Alice is a mum with a little daughter called Sophie,” says Charlotte.

“They were each other’s first love and meant to go the whole way together. Then something happened, Mark left her in the town and she’s moved on without him.

“You get the sense that he completely broke her heart and made a decision that affected both of them as a couple. It’s been pretty much seven years since they’ve seen each other and she has a family now.”

Alice is unsettled by Mark’s return.

“He comes back into her life and wants to jump back into the closeness that they had. She’s the one who knew him best when he was younger and there’s a resentment there from her.

“She thinks, ‘You can’t just pick me up seven years on just because you’re back and you need someone to be close to. You can’t just pick me up and drop me again.’

“It’s an interesting dynamic of a huge amount of love for each other but she has moved on and is trying to make a go of her life.

“Half of her is the 16-year-old that still exists in all of us. Her heart almost skips a beat.

“But then there’s another part of her that is a mother and a wife, that older woman who can see now that what he did when they were younger was really immature and unfair. 13

“Part of her still cares for him but she tries to keep him at a distance. It’s the right thing to do as she’s been really hurt by him in the past.”

Mark reminds Alice of how her future might have taken a different path.

“Her life hasn’t turned out how she hoped it would but she’s not necessarily unhappy at the start of the story. Things are fine with her husband Karl and her life was probably all right, if a bit boring.

“But when someone returns into your life, it’s like a ghost coming back - she’d forgotten what could have been. They remind you of all the dreams that you had and the things that you were going to do, that you didn’t get to do.”

The Teeside-born actress identified with Renton, the fictional setting for The Town.

“Middlesbrough is very much like that for me. It’s the place that you absolutely love because it’s home. But it’s the place that, for some people, you need to grow and move on from and have different experiences and then come back to it.

“I think that’s the case for a lot of people, where you need to go and experience different places, different towns, different countries. And I think it’s nice because then you get to come home and really appreciate home for what it is.”

London-based Charlotte agrees that there is no right or wrong about leaving your home town or deciding to stay put.

“I have a few friends who came to London, had a student life there, stayed for a couple of years and then went back home.

“It’s whatever suits you. For me, living in London is necessary for my job. While other friends get more value out of their jobs and time by living in Middlesbrough and they absolutely love it.

“I know people who still drink in the same pubs and go to the same places every week. And I still go to the same places when I go home.”

Charlotte was already a fan of award-winning playwright Mike Bartlett before she saw the scripts for The Town, his first television project.

“I’ve seen a lot of his plays and really loved how brilliant the dialogue was in The Town and how strong the characters are.

“The sign of a good script, for me, is when the lines are really easy to learn. These were some of the easiest lines I’ve had to learn. It all worked very well.

“Often you come to a set and people like to change this word or that word, just to make it work a little bit easier. But all of Mike’s script worked brilliantly. There was no desire to change anything. That’s quite a rare thing.

“When the scripts are really fantastic and juicy, then the job’s a good ‘un, as they say.

“Also Mike sat in on rehearsals and often incorporated little nuances that we had as actors into the script. It was lovely having him there.”

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One scene sees Alice singing Adele’s ‘Rolling In The Deep’ to Mark in their local pub.

“When I first read the script that was the scene I loved most because of the dialogue and how free they are with each other. It’s just a really beautiful scene.

“But at the same time the singing was going to make it one of the scenes that I was dreading doing.

“People don’t just break into song in real life and I had to find a fun way of doing it where it wasn’t like, ‘And now I’m singing a song.’ That was quite a nice challenge.

“Andrew and I had a good laugh with it. I was so nervous that I kept forgetting some of the lines. So we managed that by Andrew’s character joining in a little bit. Any time I forgot the lines he’d be there singing along a little with me!”

Charlotte already has some musical experience via her group The Flirtinis.

“The Flirtinis are very much me and my girlfriends, just a bit of a hobby that we have when we get together now and again, whenever we’re all in the same country. Two of the Flirtinis are American, one of them lives in LA and the other one lives here and in America. But when we’re all together we have a little sing song.”

Charlotte was also involved in filming The Town’s bun-throwing ceremony, based on a real life annual event in writer Mike’s home town of Abingdon.

“Martin Clunes, who plays the Mayor, got me square in the face at least three times with those hot cross buns,“ she laughs.

“I don’t think Martin was deliberately aiming at me. Or maybe he was and I just didn’t realise! Every time I turned around I’d get one in the face.

“At one point the crowd rebelled and we all started picking them up and throwing them back at them.”

Charlotte plays Caris in a forthcoming Channel 4 adaptation of Ken Follett’s bestseller World Without End.

She is also currently filming a role in the new Tom Cruise movie All You Need Is Kill, due to be released in 2014.

“I’m really enjoying it. It’s great because it involves a lot of physical training which I’ve never had to do for a project before. So that’s a side that I’m really loving.

“The character is very different from anything I’ve done before. And there’s a lot of filming outdoors in this ‘lovely’ weather,” she jokes. “I finish filming in February.

“I’ve been very lucky to do all the stuff that I’ve done. It’s been a bit mad but I’ve loved it. And to play so many different characters has been really good fun.”

Charlotte’s previous screen credits include: Wuthering Heights, Entity, Easy Virtue, Grand Street, The Take, DCI Banks and Marple.

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Avigail Tlalim plays Jodie

Plenty of expert judges are predicting big things ahead for newcomer Avigail Tlalim.

“This is my first screen role and my first professional job,” explains the London-based actress who plays troubled Jodie.

Just 16 when she filmed the role - and now 17 - Avigail adds: “I’ve wanted to be an actress since around the age of three.

“My dad makes documentary films and quite a few fiction films in Israel. So he always did home videos and I was used to having cameras in my face. I think that’s the reason why I found it easy to slip into screen acting.

“It meant I was able to forget the camera was there and it didn’t scare me perhaps as much as it might have done!

“But obviously it’s the first time I’ve seen myself on screen in costume. My heart was racing when I watched it and I was also picturing everything else that went on that day.”

Avigail is a member of the National Youth Theatre and also trained with the RADA Youth Company.

“I had a fateful encounter about a year ago when I first met my agent Olivia Homan after a Q&A session following a screening of Channel 4’s The Promise.

“I got talking to some of the actors there, met her and mentioned that I wanted to be an actress. She said, ‘It’s a hard world out there and it’s good to have someone to hold your hand.’ And offered me her card. We later met for tea and now she’s my agent.”

Avigail was studying for her GCSEs when she auditioned for The Town and was told she had got the role in the middle of the exams.

“I came out of a science exam and had a missed call from my agent. And I thought, ‘There’s only one thing this can be.’ But I was trying not to get too excited.

“So I called her and she just said, ‘They want you for The Town. It’s an offer.’ And I wasn’t sure what that meant and said, ‘An offer? Does that mean that I’ve got it?’ I couldn’t really believe it. Then I understood what it meant.

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“I was on a small patch of grass outside my school and I started rolling around on the grass. I was really happy.

“My parents were delighted and they came on set. My friends have also been amazing but I don’t think they’ll really believe it until it’s on TV.”

Jodie is a headstrong “clever and mouthy” 15-year-old, the younger sister of Mark, played by Andrew Scott. “I had a lot of sympathy for Jodie. When I first read the script I was struck by how little love she gets and what little joy and happiness she’s given.

“I was shocked at everything that happened to her. I don’t think she’s the teenager from hell. I think she’s the teenager in hell.

“The world attacks her and she attacks back. And she can do it because she’s so intelligent. I found her fascinating to get to know.”

Two very different young men feature in Jodie’s story.

“Harry (Toby Regbo) is the first. He’s a good guy from a posh school and will do things because he cares and is so contrasting to her family and her home life. Being with Harry means facing that she really does like someone else.

“And then there’s Ashley (Callum Turner) who is plainly not as good for her in the long run. But he’s really just what she needs at that time. Ashley offers that familiarity and a game she knows how to play. Whereas Harry comes from an unknown world.”

In one scene Jodie takes Harry to a local lido and they both jump in to the water.

“That was really good fun to shoot. It was filmed at a lido in High Wycombe that the director Colin Teague used to go swimming in.

“We had stunt doubles dressed in school uniforms who did the actual jump. I have naturally very curly hair but for Jodie that was straightened. So if I’d had to jump in myself and do another take it would have meant two hours out just to re-straighten my hair.

“Once in the water we liked it so much that we were still swimming for about 20 minutes after the cameras stopped.”

Jodie also smokes, which meant Avigail had to deal with herbal cigarettes used for filming.

“They were absolutely disgusting. I had to pretend that I was loving it and smoke herbal cigarettes the whole time for the duration of the camera rolling. And the second they would cut I’d be coughing and spluttering and drinking water.”

Could Avigail identify with life in Jodie’s town of Renton?

“That was something I had to think about because I live in London and my life is not like town life at all. So I called up all my friends who live in towns and asked them to explain what living in a town means to them.

17 “There are things that everyone has experienced that are easy to relate to, where you feel like everyone knows what’s going on. But just in a slighly more claustrophobic way.

“If I walk around London I’m very conscious of the fact that I’m totally surrounded by strangers. But this has that idea of when you walk around your town, you’ve been there a million times, you don’t care, everyone knows everyone.”

Avigail enjoyed the experience of working with Andrew Scott.

“I’d watched Sherlock and when I met him in the audition and shook his hand I was really nervous. When you’re young you don’t often get the opportunity to do great work with great people and Andrew is absolutely incredible.

“At my audition with Andrew we went into improvising one of the scenes. It just went so well and I walked out of that one skipping because it seemed as if we had a really good brother and sister link. It clicked with Toby as well and felt really good.

“It’s my first job so when you start off you feel like you’re barging into this brick wall that won’t move. And then suddenly you feel what it’s like to break it down a bit. That’s a really nice feeling.”

Julia McKenzie plays Jodie’s grandmother Betty.

“She became like my grandma figure in real life and I’d go to her for a hug when I felt like one. Julia was aware that this was my first job so she gave me lots of confidence and was really encouraging.”

Now studying for her A-levels, Avigail hopes to fit in more acting jobs between her academic work.

“Then I’d like to take English at university but I’m open to see where the flow takes me. It’s a question for me of where I think I’ll develop myself best.”

Avigail says she learned a great deal from working alongside both Andrew and Julia.

“Just to see the things they are able to read and understand about the characters and the script, as well as the arc of the story. Especially because you don’t shoot in chronological order.

“I found it so fascinating and inspiring and it really showed me what I wanted to aim for.

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Gerard Kearns plays Daniel

The first day in a new job is always a nerve-wracking affair. Some go better than others.

Gerard Kearns plays Daniel, who is working on his first day as an undertaker when we first see him. Not the best time to drop a body.

“That scene was tough,” recalls the former Shameless star. “Trying to make something like that look authentic is a real challenge.

“You want it to be believable. So in the end I played it like this character is seconds away from fainting and he knows it.

“It’s that moment when you’ve just got to sit down no matter what. Then he sits there with his head in his hands.”

Daniel survives that mishap to help out at a later funeral. “I’ve been to quite a few funerals and spoke to an undertaker on the day about how to carry the coffin.

“But at the same time Daniel is new to this game so it would have been a bit foolish to do too much research. It was good to approach it with quite a blank canvas.”

Dealing with death every day requires an element of dignified respect, although undertakers often have their own brand of private black humour.

“It’s the same as if you’re in the Army, NHS and emergency services. They always have a fantastically warped sense of humour. It’s a vital release to get them through.”

Gerard worked with award-winning writer Mike Bartlett to create a back story for Daniel, explaining how he ended up in the town of Renton.

“Daniel and his mum moved there from Manchester because of a new partner his mum had in her life. Daniel enrolled in college and slowly got pushed out into his own flat.

19 “Now his mum has gone back up north and he’s been left isolated and vulnerable.

“I’d never done that with a writer before and I thoroughly enjoyed helping to create this character who had no real education or life skills when he was brought up.

“I also loved filming in High Wycombe and staying there with the Chilterns nearby. I’d never been to that part of the world before.”

Gerard says he can relate to The Town, having been raised on the border between Mossley and Greenfield near Oldham. “You know all the families, all the stories, all the people.”

He also identified with Mark (Andrew Scott) returning home to the town from his new life in London.

“There’s this force that drives Mark. And then he becomes so quickly attached to everything that he’d lost and forgotten about. It shows what little control human beings have of their life sometimes.

“You always have that affinity with where you’re from. It calls you home.

“The scenes that we did together, Andrew was just so right. Every mark, every beat, every line, every step - he’s really professional. And his style of working really suited me. He sets such a high marker for everyone else to work on his level. It was a real joy to do that.”

Daniel later moves on to a job at a local hotel carrying out cleaning and other duties.

“I’ve not worked in a hotel before. I was on the dole when I got the role in Shameless. Before that I went to college for a year and then I sprayed metals, worked in electrics. I’ve done all sorts.”

What was it like acting alongside Julia McKenzie, who plays Betty?

“She is really lovely and she was giving me notes as well, which was really helpful. She’s fantastic. I really enjoyed working with her.”

Gerard adds: “The way I played Daniel was as an introverted, inward character.

“The lack of a father figure in Daniel’s life remains a very topical issue. I was very fortunate in my life. But it’s no coincidence when you see people locked up in the penal system - you only need to look at the family or the structure in their life.”

Gerard also appears in a new feature film called Wasteland, which saw his character being set on fire in a stunt he did himself.

“I play a character called Charlie who gets beaten up by a gangster and set on fire.

“They put me in a suit, doused me in a load of white stuff which they said was fire repellent and told me to lie down.

“Then they lit up a petrol bomb and threw it at me. I had to wait until someone shouted, ‘You’re on fire.’ And then I had to roll myself out. And we did it twice.

“I should have said a line at the same time but I didn’t. I just went, ‘Oh my God!’

20 “I can’t deny that I was excited about doing it but I was also quite nervous. But after I’d done it the first time I was like, ‘Come on, set me on fire again!’

“There were no burns or singes and the stuntmen were fantastic. They had to wear balaclavas and pretended to be thugs so they could be close by with fire extinguishers.”

Gerard is still remembered as Ian Gallagher, one of the original characters in Shameless, who left the Chatsworth estate in 2010 in dramatic circumstances.

Would he consider returning for a guest role in the last ever series, to be screened in 2013?

“No I wouldn’t. Hopefully my career will be a long one and a long haul and it’s a marathon not a sprint.

“Shameless was a fantastic stepping stone but now I want to move forward and carve out a career that I want to be happy with.

“I don’t think I could go back. You can only go forwards.”

Gerard’s screen credits include: Shameless, Wasteland, The Commander and The Mark of Cain.

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Kelly Adams plays Lucy

“Small towns fascinate me because there is an unbelievable amount of stuff going on behind closed doors,” says Kelly Adams.

“The prettiest country places can have massive drug problems. The nicest communities can be rife with drama,” adds the London based actress.

“I’m from Lincoln which isn’t that small but not far off. When I go back I’m always amazed by things and people feeling so familiar and alien at the same time.

“Roads I cycled down every day of my life as a kid look different now but that hole you always avoided on your bike is still there.

“I always feel older in Lincoln. The houses are smaller and my ‘massive’ school isn’t massive.

“I miss having a community. There basically isn’t one where I live in London. It’s every person for themselves.

“Having a sense of community gave me a security as a child that I didn’t realise I had. There were always fetes and sports days. I remember our first shopping centre opening in Lincoln and everyone turned out. It was a really big deal.

“My best friend from primary school is still there with two children and a husband, which I respect hugely. We have opposite lives and both think the other is all the more cool for it.

“I think your life can turn out any one of an infintesimal number of ways and going home always makes that real.”

Kelly plays Lucy, who runs a florist shop in Renton with her assistant Carly (Aisling Bea).

“Lucy is the town florist which puts her in a handy position to get the lowdown on what’s going on. People buy flowers for lots of reasons so it keeps her in the loop, gossip-wise. 22

“Each character in the story has their own journey and Lucy’s is a massive life changer. She shows the bleakness of not being able to be who you really are. The everyday denial that eats away at you, making you half the person you should be.

“She’s the person you bump into when you go back to your home town who makes you realise you made the right choice in leaving. She repels Mark and shows him who he could have been.”

Lucy has a reputation in Renton as a young woman who sleeps around and she sets her sights on Mark (Andrew Scott).

“She wears the opposite to me, which helped a lot. Too revealing, too tight, too attention grabbing, which all helps with the feeling of being ungrounded. Literally nothing fits.

“Lucy exists in that feeling of the morning after. All her clothes are designed to make her appealing to men in the most obvious way possible.

“She wants to hand it to them on a plate so she can feel secure in the knowledge that she’s fancied and desired.

“I wanted bruises on my legs, cellulite under those tiny shorts and ratty hair extensions.”

Adds Kelly: “Lucy knows that men don’t respect her, which hurts her deep down but she wouldn’t show it. She needs to keep everything light.

“Mark is out of her league but she hopes he might fall for a bit of rough for the night which she can boast about later.”

There is also an attraction between Lucy and Carly.

“Carly and Lucy have been in a long term relationship and in love for years, they’ve just never acknowledged that to themselves or to each other.

“They’ve worked together in the shop with Lucy being the manager but Carly actually pulling the strings. Lucy has basically always loved her but has never known it.

“There is such a stigma attached to being a gay woman that Lucy hasn’t allowed the thoughts to even form in her own head.

“In my research I found that a lot of gay women don’t realise or accept that they’re gay until well into their thirties. And even then, they don’t ‘come out’.

“Lucy has never really felt right in herself. She’s insecure, so she sleeps around to try and find gratification, to have fun and feel something.

“The empty feelings that come after the event scare her so much that she ignores them and carries on ten fold. She refused to address her long term needs and so carries on sleeping with anything with a pulse to affirm that everything is alright.

“Lucy has to go on a steep journey to accept who she really is and realise that if she wants a shot at a happy life, she’s going to have to be honest for the first time.”

23 Explains Kelly: “Lucy’s progression from such dark self-loathing and denial to being who she really is in all her resplendent glory is like a gasp of air after being trapped underwater.

“People often go round in circles in a destructive pattern, so breaking that pattern in the bravest way anyone can was great to play. I kept writing, ‘She’s nearly there, one more push, one more day,’ in my scripts.”

Lucy and Carly eventually kiss.

“Kissing a woman is always treated with added respect on set which is always quite amusing. Me and Aisling got on very well and laughed a lot so there were never going to be any issues.

“The moment of that kiss in the story is such a massive milestone for both characters. In that respect kissing Aisling was a big deal, because it was a big deal for Lucy.”

Kelly was involved in a scene depicting a historic bun-throwing ceremony at the Town Hall, something that actually happens in Mike Bartlett’s home town of Abingdon.

“We all said, “Is this a real thing?” It was hysterical to film. We basically spent a day screaming and pounding each other with mangled buns.

“We then did a few silent mimed takes so you could hear the dialogue. The good people of High Wycombe thought we were nuts.

“I love those old traditions though. I rode through Lincoln High Street in a sawn in half caravan at Christmas to switch on the Christmas lights! Not quite the same but...”

Did Kelly bloom as a florist?

“You get quite a few flowers as an actor. I oddly feel too guilty to buy flowers because they’ll only die. Ridiculous. My best mate often brings a few lillies with her if she’s coming over, which I love. They smell amazing and lift the room.”

She recently filmed a guest role in the new series of Death In Paradise.

“Guadeloupe for two weeks with a lot of the crew and actors from Hustle. It was great fun. We filmed deep in the jungle at nightfall with humming birds and a chorus of frogs. The cast are great and the setting made it a very happy show to work on.”

Kelly believes viewers will be intrigued by The Town.

“My initial thoughts about the scripts were, God, they've sent me three hour long episodes to read which is going to take ages’ and then I couldn't put them down.

“I love stories about families and friendships and I loved the way Mike had written it quite darkly but with humour too.

“I couldn't pin it down, its not like anything I've read. The characters weren’t very nice and the town wasn't quaint. I liked it because it felt real, creepy, funny and odd all at the same time.”

She concludes: “I'm very proud to be part of The Town. The cast are worryingly talented and the director Colin Teague is just brilliant.

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“There's nothing better then doing ADR after filming has finished and being very over excited that you're in something so great.

“The cast was so big that we were all called at different times so it really did feel like a gang of very separate lives all intertwined in this odd story.

“In a dreamlike way I almost feel like it didn't really happen, we crept in to this town, had a look at a story and then crept away again.”

Kelly’s previous screen credits include: Hustle, Holby City and The Cricklewood Greats.

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Press contact: Natalie Cheary Tel: 0207 157 3040 Email: Natalie.cheary1@itv.com

Picture contact: Patrick Smith Tel: 0207 157 3044 Email [email protected]

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