FOREWORD BY WRITER AND CO-CREATOR SALLY WAINWRIGHT
Up on the moors in West Yorkshire filming Unforgiven, I spent hours talking to the show’s designer, Grant Montgomery, who’d worked on See No Evil (Neil McKay’s drama about Myra Hindley and Ian Brady). I had become fascinated with Myra Hindley after seeing Peter Morgan’s film Longford. How did Myra Hindley become Myra Hindley?
“You need to meet Diane Taylor,” said Grant. He was smiling. Broadly.
“Who?” I said.
“She’s a Detective Inspector. She’s worked on more murders than you’ve had hot dinners. They used to send her all over the country to help solve weird murders. She’s amazing”.
I was nervous of meeting Diane, despite Grant’s enthusiastic assurance that we’d get on like a house on fire. I’d never met a Detective Inspector before. One step out of place, and I assumed she’d have my arm up behind my back and my face squashed against the wall. I certainly thought she’d take a dim view of me asking questions about Myra Hindley. I wasn’t honestly ready for someone who bares more resemblance to Liza Tarbuck than Jane Tennison.
Diane walks in the room, and it’s like the sun shining. This jovial, uncomplicated woman really isn’t what you’d expect. Until she gets down to business. “You’re looking for something extra they’ve got, but that’s where you’re slipping up”, Diane explained. She’s an ebullient Mancunian, a compelling raconteur. “They’re not criminal masterminds. They do what they do because they’ve got something missing”. It’s so obvious when she says it. Everything Diane says makes sense. “Cursed” (as she describes it) with a fantastic memory, she habitually thinks outside the box, and with impeccable, uncommon logic. Someone who makes sense of the unspeakable, the unpredictable, the bizarre. “Myra Hindley wasn’t special. She was dead ordinary with something missing, that’s all. A bloody big something missing, granted”.
A year earlier, Nicola Shindler had asked me if I’d write a script based on an idea by Suranne Jones and Sally Lindsay. I met a couple of Detective Sergeants, developed some storylines and wrote a script. There was a hiatus (rare for ITV, a rarity passionately appreciated by writers) then two years later they green lit it.
By this time I had met Diane, and we had become great friends. I got straight on the phone to ask if she’d help me. She was at pains to remind me that drama is about the drama, real murder is about real people, real loss, real tragedy and real heartbreak, and with that knowledge comes great responsibility. We agreed to dump the first script and start again. Instead of Janet and Rachel working in divisional C.I.D., sorting out burglaries, missing persons, abductions, we decided that they would work where Diane worked. In the Major Incident Team. They would solve murders, like every other cop on telly, but what would be different is that right from the inception, we would have a real live D.I. on board, and not just any D.I., but someone who had worked for The National Crime Faculty for many years (which meant being sent all over the country helping to solve difficult murders) and had then become a D.I. with the Major Incident Team in Manchester.
And Diane wasn’t simply going to be an adviser, she was going to be a co-creator; not someone to tell us what we’d got wrong after it’d been written, but someone who was in on it before anything was written. Diane regarded it as an opportunity to right certain wrongs about the way contemporary TV drama still perpetuates myths about how the C.I.D. operates at this level.
For me the joy of the new script was that I wasn’t writing a single line of dialogue that Diane hadn’t influenced. Often the dialogue’s come straight from Diane.
She introduced me to a lot of fascinating people, including two Tier 5 interviewer advisors, Ian and Steve. I was shown an interview Ian had conducted. It was extraordinary. There were no bullish, over-involved Detective Chief Inspectors grabbing the hapless offender by the collar and threatening to rip his head off if he doesn’t confess. It’s all so much more tranquil and subtle than that.
“You don’t get the best out of people by shouting at them”, Ian explained. “That only happens on telly. You get the best out of people if you empathise with them”. The man we were looking at on screen had murdered a small child in a horrific, violent attack. In a very short time the man is talking to Ian about what he’s done as though he’s recounting his holidays. And not a D.C.I. in sight.
Suspect interviews are almost always carried out by Detective Constables or Detective Sergeants. It’s D.C.s and D.S.s who are trained to deliver death messages to the family when someone’s been murdered, to knock on people’s doors asking sensitive and difficult questions, to work out the detailed strategy of exactly how someone is going be arrested. “Don’t mistake rank for experience, skills or talent”, Diane told me. “People often choose to stay at the level of D.C. because the job’s more varied”.
A D.I., or a D.C.I., like our Senior Investigating Officer, Gill Murray, is essentially a desk job. She’s a manager. She manages people and budgets. She directs operations. She carries a huge weight of responsibility, but she rarely comes face to face with the offender, even if, ultimately, it’s her decision-making that’s caught him. Or her.
The one big thing the Senior Investigating Officer does do that D.C.s and D.S.s don’t is come face to face with the victim at the crime scene. The only time the D.C.s usually see the body is in C.S.I. photographs at the briefing.
Diane says being a detective is “Not about what you’re called or what label you’re given. Some of the best ‘detectives’ I’ve ever met are in uniform and always will be because that’s what they want to do. Being a detective is a state of mind. Being a detective is about wanting to know something, to push something sometimes just because you know you’re being lied to. You may not know what about, but you know you’re being lied to. Some detectives can be trained, created, but others are just made for it, born for it”.
Diane describes D.C. Janet Scott (Lesley Sharp) as “an intelligent, emotionally mature woman, absolutely professional, with an amazing ability to see things from other people’s position. She is a woman with a drive and desire to do things the right way”, and D.C. Rachel Bailey (Suranne Jones) as “a character who can and frequently does drive her colleagues to distraction, but she’s a ‘born’ detective. Rachel has just ‘got it’, even though she doesn’t always ‘get it’ when it comes to the bigger picture”.
And D.C.I. Gill Murray (Amelia Bullmore) is, more or less, Diane. Who needs no further introduction.
Collaborating with Diane has been fascinating, and a privilege. I hope this comes across in the stories we have come up with, and in the exuberance and depth of the characters, particularly the three central women. Through Diane’s extraordinary contribution I also hope the show gives an authentic glimpse of the reality and responsibility of investigating the untimely, unnatural end of someone’s life.
INTRODUCTION
Scott & Bailey is a new six-part series that explores the personal and professional lives of Detective Constable Rachel Bailey (Suranne Jones) and Detective Constable Janet Scott (Lesley Sharp).
The two women are members of Manchester Metropolitan Police’s Major Incident Team, whose task is to track down killers. They enjoy a warm, engaging, robust friendship.
Rachel Bailey is intuitive, bright, bold, funny. She’s passionate about her job. Her one big flaw is her impulsiveness, which occasionally leads her boss, Detective Chief Inspector Gill Murray (Amelia Bullmore), to view her as a liability. Rachel persistently burns the candle at both ends, and as the series opens, she is in a fiery relationship with duplicitous barrister Nick Savage (Rupert Graves). Her spur of the moment ideas and emotional vulnerability lead to dramatic consequences first in her private life, and then at work.
Janet Scott is subtle, deep, reliable, a diplomat and a thinker. She has two teenage daughters and is in a marriage that over the years has become little more than a convenient arrangement for both her and husband Adrian (Tony Pitts). Janet’s a very private person; not even Rachel knows that she has been sexually involved with her immediate boss, Detective Sergeant Andy Roper (Nicholas Gleaves). The unsolved murder of a childhood friend caused Janet to have a break-down as a teenager, but then spurred her to join the police force. She remains determined to track down the killer.
Detective Chief Inspector Gill Murray leads a team of over thirty detectives, including Rachel, Janet and Detective Sergeant Andy Roper. A divorced single parent, Gill is a hugely capable woman, whose speedy thought processes require everyone around her to raise their game to keep up with her. Charismatic, funny, clever, fair-minded, occasionally scary, a paradigm of professionalism, Gill is an inspiring detective and leader, always at the centre of the office scene.
Scott & Bailey are both competent, ambitious women, passionate about getting the job done effectively. Neither of them suffer fools. They draw on each other’s strengths every day to deal with extreme and horrific crimes.
Directors, Sarah Pia Anderson (Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy), Syd Macartney (Hounded, New Tricks) and Ben Caron (Derren Brown: Trick or Treat, The Cube), with Producer Yvonne Francas (A Passionate Woman, Strictly Confidential, Between the Sheets), have brought this intelligent, engaging series to life.
Scott & Bailey is based on an original idea by Suranne Jones and Sally Lindsay.
Working closely alongside writer Sally Wainwright as co-creator is Diane Taylor, a retired Detective Inspector from the Greater Manchester Police Force’s Major Incident Team.
Scott & Bailey has been commissioned by Director of Drama Commissioning Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes, Controller of Drama Commissioning, and is executive produced for ITV by Nicola Shindler, Director of Red Production Company.
REGULAR CHARACTERS
Charismatic, well-off, successful barrister Nick Savage (Rupert Graves) has been sleeping with Rachel for the last two years. Anticipating a proposal, Rachel has no idea that Nick is married with children. Cheated and humiliated, she embarks on an unorthodox revenge strategy, and a series of ugly events is unleashed. As the series develops, Nick’s professional and personal ethics come under scrutiny while his home life and career are shattered. In a roller-coaster episode 6, desperate Nick proves himself to be just as unscrupulous and angry and imaginatively dangerous as Rachel.
Detective Sergeant Andy Roper (Nicholas Gleaves) has a quiet authority. Andy’s job is to line manage the Detective Constables, including Janet and Rachel. He allocates the jobs once Gill has decided on a strategy. Andy has never married. He had a fling with Janet when they were training together at Bruche in Warrington. Twenty years later, he still has very deep feelings for her. Last Christmas Andy and Janet slept together again. Partly a symptom of Janet’s stagnant marriage to Adrian, it’s something she regrets, but quiet Andy isn’t a man to give up lightly. He’s spent twenty years waiting for her, and Janet’s unaware of the fact that it’s no coincidence that they’ve ended up on the same team. Andy sometimes looks like he’s treading a fine line between hopeless romantic and stalker.
Besides D.C.Scott, D.C.Bailey and D.S. Andy Roper, other members of D.C.I. Gill Murray’s Major Incident Team Syndicate 9 include:
Detective Constable Kevin Lumb (Ben Batt), hobbies include winding Rachel up, not making notes, and not listening. Giving Rachel a backhand compliment in a ride home from the mortuary one day, Gill tells her, “You’re not Kevin”. Kevin is on a ‘developmental action plan’ for his communication skills as there is some doubt about whether he can hack it as a detective on a Major Incident Team. The thinking from Force Command is that if Gill Murray can’t sort him out, no-one can.
Detective Constable Ian Mitchell (Steve Prosho), ex- Army and ex- police firearms officer. His hobbies include opening doors with his head. Mitch is a gentle giant; reliable, tough, thoughtful, meticulous. A Tier 3 interviewer like Janet, with a range of skills accumulated through a decade of service as a Major Incident Team detective. Mitch is on his second marriage and has a grown-up son who followed him into the army. He is re-married but because of the job he now has “small children I haven’t seen for three weeks”. But only because Gill keeps him so busy doing over time.
Detective Constable Pete Readyough (Tony Mooney), hobbies include eating pies, cake, sandwiches and anything else that doesn’t move fast enough. Another comedian along with Kevin, Pete has his heart solidly in the right place. He works hard and eats a lot. He’s divorced with two grown-up children, who he sees regularly. At their urging he is putting himself back on the dating scene.
Detective Constable Lee Broadhurst (Delroy Brown) joined the police 9 years ago after initially having a career in psychiatric nursing. He has 2 degrees and could easily have joined the service as a ‘graduate entry’ assuring quick promotion. He decided against it. He is one of the most popular members of the team. Dedicated, hard-working, ambitious, personable, Lee’s going places within the Manchester Metropolitan Police.
SURANNE JONES IS D.C. RACHEL BAILEY
The original idea for Scott & Bailey came from Suranne Jones, who stars in the series as D.C. Rachel Bailey, and Sally Lindsey, her on screen sister, Alison.
“Sally Lindsey and I first started talking about the idea six years ago. We had left Corrie and were discussing roles for women on television, and particularly those for women in their mid-thirties to late forties. Sometimes there will be a brilliant role, and there are much more nowadays, but other times the roles will be ‘wife or sidekick’ or ‘mistress of’. Our idea was a drama set in Manchester with women in high-ranking roles, one with a family and one that was living a single life, creating characters that would appeal to women.
“We pitched the idea and eventually, Nicola Shindler at Red Production Company got writer Sally Wainwright on board, and she met with Diane Taylor. Sally and Diane worked on the scripts to create Scott & Bailey. So, the original idea came from us but Sally and Diane made it their own.
“However, I hope to take quite a lot of credit for my character, Rachel Bailey, because she has stayed quite close to the original part I wanted to play, she’s a bit of a loose cannon, a maverick. Sally wrote her brilliantly.”
Suranne is thrilled to be working with Red Production Company on Scott & Bailey. “I’ve done several projects with Nicola Shindler and Red Production Company including Unforgiven and Single Father. Nicola and Red Production Company has been such a formative part of my post-Corrie career and I owe them a lot for that. I think our collaborations have been brilliant over the three years.
“Nicola is an amazing woman to be at the helm of this project and Sally Wainwright’s scripts are fantastic. The series was made with so much love and passion. We’re not trying to break any boundaries with it; it’s not too gritty or edgy, but hopefully it’s a good insight into that world. It’s good and funny, and heartbreaking in places.”
Scott & Bailey was created, written, produced, and commissioned by women. Touching on this wholly female achievement to bring it to screen, Suranne says: “You’ve got a real bunch of strong women making it happen. And then there are the three main characters, all of which are female.”
Suranne hopes female audiences will identify with the three central characters, Rachel Bailey, Janet Scott and Gill Murray.
“They are three different ages, one is single, one has a family and one is divorced. Each of them dress in their own way, talk in their own particular way and live their lives very differently. Fingers crossed they will appeal to all women out there of all different ages – they might not like one of us, but they might like the others or find an affinity with one of us. That would be fantastic.”
Suranne believes what makes Scott & Bailey different from other crime drama is its look into the character’s personal lives, away from the police incident room.
“Scott & Bailey is equally about the crimes and the personal lives of the characters. We get to peak behind their doors. Each time we see couple of police scenes it’s followed up by a peak behind the emotional and personal world of each of the characters. That makes a difference because we get to know them inside out.
Speaking about Rachel Bailey, Suranne says: “Rachel is ballsy, she’s got a little bit of rough diamond in her but she’s refined that through moving up the ranks of the police world. She’s very bright, she knew what she wanted to do ever since she was a little girl. She’s intuitive but yet she’s vulnerable, she’s funny with a slight dark sense of humour and she’s complicated.
“You get the feeling Rachel is a bit of a loner. And she takes that into her work, she tries to be a team player but her intuition sets her aside. She’s instinctive but she doesn’t really know how to hone it. Her intuition is her strength and her downfall.
“Professionally she’s quite well-tuned but her personal life doesn’t reflect that. I think she doesn’t know how to be herself in a relationship. She’d like her professional and personal life to marry up but it doesn’t and that makes her sad.”
Suranne goes on to explain Rachel Bailey’s relationship troubles: “Rachel’s life is falling apart when we first meet her. The first episode opens with what I think is a really brave scene to begin a series with, that of Rachel getting dumped by her partner Nick (played by Rupert Graves). And we see this before learning anything about any of the characters or establishing the team.
“Rachel and Nick had been together for two years and Rachel was happy to be in a relationship for so long, especially with the job she does. When he breaks up with her she wants an explanation and uses her job in a way she shouldn’t. She then finds out he’s married and been lying to her. She’s heartbroken, then angry, and then she finds out she’s pregnant…everything in her personal life just tumbles downhill.”
A firm figure in Rachel’s life is her colleague and best friend, Janet Scott, played by Lesley Sharp.
“Rachel and Janet are good friends and colleagues and look out for each other. They are different characters, but it’s their differences that make them stronger in their relationship.
“I think this drama shows the love of these two women who are reliant on each other and have a huge respect for one another’s character and how they choose to deal with their life. They talk to one another, but also kick each other into shape when they need to. It’s great to see that kind of relationship on television and I hope we’ve done it justice.”
Rachel doesn’t share the same bond with her boss, D.C.I. Gill Murray, played by Amelia Bullmore.
“Amelia Bullmore and I had some great scenes together where her character Gill hardly looks at me or she’ll talk to Janet instead.
“Even when Rachel does well Gill will slap her down and as a result Rachel can’t stand her. But Gill’s actions are all to do with ‘building Rachel up’ because Rachel has got a lot of the tools that will make Gill’s syndicate work and tick along brilliantly.
“Gill believes Rachel is the brightest button on the team but she’s sad that Rachel needs to be kept in line.”
When researching for her role in Scott & Bailey Suranne turned to members of her family as well as speaking to the heads of different murder investigation teams.
“I could speak to a couple of members of my family because one is in C.I.D. and one is Forensic. And before filming we did a lot of research. During that process we went to some police stations and talked to various heads of murder investigation teams. We looked into some real crimes and watched DVDs of police interviews taking place.
“Doing the research and talking to people, I could see that with the job, in time, comes a gallows humour and de-sensitisation. It also comes with a passion of wanting to catch the criminals of our world and do the best by the families of the victims.
“I have a huge respect for people in that profession. As when I did Unforgiven, I suddenly opened my eyes to people who have very different lives. It took me out of the bubble of my life and allowed me to jump into a different world.”
Suranne admits one of the challenges she faced during filming was an intense action scene.
“On my last day of filming I had to do a chase sequence. Usually if you’re doing a running scene it will be on a fast-track or there will be a brilliant Steady-Cam Operator running backwards at a fast pace, but when I arrived I spotted a quad bike.
“The plan was for me to run the length of three streets with the quad bike filming in front of me. From this I knew I’d be running fast, and my first thought was, to my shame, ‘I haven’t been to the gym in about a year because I’ve been so busy.’ Although my work keeps me fit it doesn’t keep me fit to the level of sprinting down streets and jumping over bins and a high gate! It did it, but by the end my legs were killing me.”
Suranne’s credits include: Single Father, Five Days, Unforgiven, Harley Street, Strictly Confidential, Vincent and Coronation Street. From May Suranne will be starring on stage in Top Girls at the Chichester Theatre.
LESLEY SHARP IS D.C. JANET SCOTT
Scott & Bailey is a drama that champions successful women on and off-screen and at the heart is three female characters, D.C. Janet Scott, D.C. Rachel Bailey and D.C.I. Gill Murray.
Speaking about her role, Lesley Sharp reveals that being a female-led drama was one of many reasons why she was keen to take on D.C. Janet Scott in Scott & Bailey.
“I loved that it was so female centric and that there was a cracking part for older women in there, for both me and my co-star Amelia (Bullmore). It’s a drama about women, real women”, says Lesley.
“I’m always surprised by the lack of roles for proactive women. Half the population is female and I think there are an awful lot of women out there who love watching really great TV and love watching stories about other women. There is an appetite for really good stories about women.”
Lesley continues: “I hope women can identify with the characters and are attracted to our show because they like watching me, Suranne and Amelia going about our police work and our character’s relationships as much as they like the unfolding narrative. But I also hope all audiences, men and women, enjoy watching the series because there are some really cracking good stories. I think it’s quite a different take on policing, so it’s something new for everyone to enjoy. It is no accident the genre is so successful because you can tell fantastic moral fables through that medium because all of humankind can be represented.
“Scott & Bailey is punchy and fast-paced but it’s also funny and tender. It’s about comradeship, strong, loyal comradeship.”
Another strong pull for Lesley was the opportunity to work with the writer and producer behind the series, and fellow actress, Suranne Jones.
“I was drawn by the chance of working with writer Sally Wainwright and being reacquainted with Nicola Shindler, the executive producer at Red Production Company, who I’d previously worked with on Clocking Off, Bob & Rose and The Second Coming. I also wanted to work with Suranne because I’ve always been a big fan of hers. The project was too good to be true. I felt very lucky.”
Lesley admits she found two firm friends in her co-stars, Suranne Jones and Amelia Bullmore.
“It’s always a surprise and delight to come away from a job having made a friend. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that the big bonus of Scott and Bailey was making two new friends, Suranne and Amelia. The three of us got on incredibly well. Both of them I admire hugely as actresses and as people; they are very smart, very funny and very, very clever. The fact we got on so well off screen was also great for our chemistry on screen.”
Speaking of her character, Lesley says: “My character, Janet Scott, is loyal, conscious, loves her job, really loves her children and has no problem at all being a working mother and doesn’t feel guilty about it. She’s got the usual sorts of pressures on her, but handles it very well in the circumstances. I think she appears to be very much in control of her life but she’s rather like a swan whose legs are paddling very hard underneath the water to keep looking serene and in charge on the surface. Therefore, what you see on the surface isn’t necessarily what’s going on inside.
“She is married to Ade, who is a geography teacher, and together they have two daughters. The marriage is in a little bit of trouble. They met and married when they were young and things have gone off the boil over the past couple of years. As a result of that Scott made the mistake of having an affair with a colleague. She’s keen to box up and hide it away but it keeps coming back to remind her of how imperfect her personal life is.
“Janet is very good at her job as a detective constable. Her strength is her great attention to detail. She plays things by the book, even though that can sometimes mean she’s too rigid about the way she goes about things. I think she can afford to loosen up a little bit. She’s 100% reliable and utterly meticulous about the way she goes about collating information so if they are getting a very difficult case together all of the evidence she has acquired can be guaranteed to stand up in court. She makes sure it’s watertight.
“Janet and I are very different. I am certainly not as organised or as prepared. I’m not as rigid either. One of the things I feel about acting is that you should always leave something to chance; you should always leave something to that magical moment where you are inspired about the way to play out a scene. I don’t think Janet would ever leave anything to chance; she is always prepared in every situation.
“The big thing that she and I have in common is that we both absolutely love our job. It’s delightful to work really hard at something you enjoy doing and find it very satisfying.”
Janet Scott is partnered in the drama’s title role with D.C. Rachel Bailey, played by Suranne. Lesley admits both characters complement each other because of their differences as people and in their approach to police work.
“As partners they work very well. Rachel Bailey has a lot of characteristics that Janet, in her dreams, would have. Rachel is more instinctive. Whereas, Janet’s strength lies in the fact that she’s able to focus and concentrate on the experience she’s gained from having a great number of years in the force.
“Janet admires Rachel’s intuition and the way she handles herself. She sees in Rachel elements of herself when she was a younger woman and recognises Rachel is someone who’s really good at her job. She’s got a lot of respect for Rachel even though Rachel sometimes doesn’t do things as she would.
“When we first meet them in episode one they have been together for just eight months. Over the course of the series you see their relationship develop over several months as they find out more about each other, and how their lives outside become more and more entwined.”
Leading the team is D.C.I. Gill Murray, played by Amelia Bullmore. Janet and Gill have a close relationship on screen as old friends and work colleagues.
“Sally Wainwright, Amelia and I decided Janet and Gill were friends from back in the day during early training,” Lesley explains. “They have a lot of mutual respect for each other even though their lives have gone in different directions. Gill’s trajectory through policing has been very different to Janet’s. She is now one of the bosses whereas Janet’s function, and the thing she really loves doing, is the police work on the ground on a day to day basis.
“Being a part of Gill’s team means sometimes the lines cross and their friendship is allowed to shine through. At other times they are both very good at shutting that down and making sure that they are colleagues. It’s a very interesting dynamic.”
In Scott & Bailey we learn that Janet decided to join the police force following the unsolved murder of a friend when she was a small child.
“When Janet was a little girl her friend, Veronica disappeared and was subsequently found to have been murdered. Because the case was an unsolved murder and she had been very close to Veronica, but was helpless in doing anything about her death, it sparked her to join the police force. She was inspired to do good and to maybe, one day, find out what had happened to Veronica.
“In the first episode Veronica’s brother, Geoff, played by Kevin Doyle, turns up to see Janet. He’s managed to find her knowing she’s joined the police, and asks her if there’s anything she can do to get the case reopened. Janet agrees to do it as a favour part-time. The story unfolds to show the relationship between Janet and Geoff and their quest to find out what happened to Veronica.”
When researching for her role, Lesley met with two police officers skilled in interviewing murder suspects.
“I met two amazing officers who are experts in the field of interviewing. It was really fascinating talking to them about the way in which they do their job and do it unthinkingly. It was interesting to hear about how they have to be incredibly focused and not bring into an interview situation the way you feel about a suspect.
“I loved having a look into the world of the police. I find police work fascinating. Usually when we see cases on television we only see glimpses of what is going on but all the intricacies are really interesting. The police have to find out motives and fit a very intricate jigsaw puzzle together in trying to solve the case.
“Those that work for the police put themselves at risk everyday when they go to work. It’s actually quite moving because on a day to day basis they are potentially putting themselves in danger and don’t think twice about it. Obviously they are trained to avoid being in situations where they can get hurt, but it’s part of their job and they do it unflinchingly and unquestioningly. I think we are very lucky that we’ve got the police force that we have.”
Lesley also spent time with Diane Taylor.
“The police advisor, a retired D.I. called Diane Taylor, was really fascinating and had some amazing stories to tell about the work she had done. She was an expert in advising different police forces on cold cases that she’d reopened and her team were responsible in trying to solve.”
Lesley Sharp’s credits include The Shadow Line which has just screened on BBC2 and was written, directed and produced by Hugo Blick and starred Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Eccleston and Stephen Rea, Cranford, The Diary of Anne Frank and Red Riding. She will also feature in the forthcoming series of Merlin on BBC1.
AMELIA BULLMORE IS D.C.I. GILL MURRAY
Amelia Bullmore reveals she had an invaluable source when researching for her role in Scott & Bailey.
Amelia, who plays D.C.I. Gill Murray, worked closely on her character with co-creator, Di Taylor, a retired D.I. who once worked with the Greater Manchester Police, major incident team.
“Diane Taylor, who developed Scott & Bailey with Sally Wainwright, used to do the same job as Gill Murray before she retired,” Amelia explains. “She was an advisor on set so I tried to sit next to her whenever possible so I could scoop her brains out and see if I could get inside her head.
“Di is a very animated, jolly woman. She’s not at all serious or glum, and she had an enormous appetite for the job when she was working as a D.I. She’s bright as a button, even when she’s talking about the most grizzly things she’s got a glint in her eye because it’s her favourite subject; it’s what she’s best at. So I took her glint and used it.
“Di is also very sure about life, she sees things as black or white and she has a right to say that because she’s seen it all. She has seen things that most of us are protected from, she’s seen some very dark corners of human behaviour but she’s very jolly with it and I think that’s the essence of the character.
“I feel very lucky that I was able to talk to Di and pick up these cues from her to use for creating Gill.”
Di Taylor also inspired Amelia with a couple of extra touches for creating Gill Murray…
“Di has got blood red fingernails, so I stole her nail polish!” Amelia laughs. “And she has got very busy communicative hands so I stole that characteristic as well.”
Speaking further about her character Amelia says: “Gill Murray is a workaholic who doesn’t suffer fools. She’s a really good detective and she is now in charge of a syndicate; she conducts the operation. One of her main strengths is she’s really observant, she always thinks 10 steps ahead and thinks about how the evidence is going to hold in court.
“She is the type of boss who always sets a good example; she’s always there early, is always ready, and always looks the part. She sets high standards for her team but it’s justified because she sets high standards for herself. She’s not a soft and cuddly boss, she can have a fowl temper, but she can also be a good laugh in lighter moments.
“Gill gave up being on the front line because her life got quite complicated. Later on in the series we find what makes her tick, she’s a single mother with a teenage boy, she once had a great marriage with a very powerful police officer but they separated.”
Amelia admits she’s not much like her character on-screen. “Gill Murray is much more certain about the world than I am. She’s much bossier than I would dare to be, I’m not saying that I don’t have my bossy moments but I would be concerned about offending people! However, she can’t afford to be bothered about what people think of her.”
In the series Gill has a close friendship with Janet Scott, but often clashes with Rachel Bailey.
“Gill has an interestingly interwoven private and professional relationship with Janet Scott. They are very good friends and go back a long way, to the days when they trained together.
“In comparison, Gill sees Rachel Bailey as a brilliant but exasperating prodigy. Gill believes what Rachel needs to learn is consistency and discipline. Rachel is too flaky.
“Gill can see a lot of herself in Rachel, particularly in her younger days. But Rachel is still a bit rough around the edges. She’s nearly brilliant but she’s got to polish it because she’s a bit of a loose cannon. I think Gill would like to knock Rachel into shape!”
Taking on the role as D.C.I. Gill Murray gave Amelia an insight into the Police Force and admits it’s a job she couldn’t do…
“Doing Scott & Bailey I got to see a glimpse of the skill required to do that sort of job. It gave me the keen sense of how lucky we are to have the police. I’m not convinced I’m made of the right stuff to be in the police, but clearly the good ones are diamonds. We are so lucky to have them and working on this drama gave me a very keen appreciation of them.
“My mind boggles thinking about the horrible things the police deal with. Playing a D.C.I. I recognised my character had to be someone who is very together about the material and not disturbed by it. That doesn’t mean those in the role aren’t dealing with it somehow, they must have a way of processing it but certainly can’t go to pieces over it because they have a job to do.”
Amelia was keen to star in Scott & Bailey because of the scripts and her character, D.C.I. Gill Murray.
“I thought the scripts were beautifully written and the characters were fantastic. Gill Murray is particularly fresh, she’s so lively. I love that she’s so in love with her job and an enthusiast. She’s also a quick thinker and very smart. She’s a very well drawn character.”
Amelia believes audiences will want to watch Scott & Bailey because of its fresh approach to the crime thriller genre.
“The crimes are unusual, intriguing and brilliantly plotted. I think audiences will be gripped to know what happens.
“One of the reasons Scott & Bailey is so refreshing is that the characters are not warn down by their job. For them, it’s the best job in the world and that’s why their doing it.
“It shows a real appetite and has got attention to detail for the crimes and policing in its proper and fascinating form. It’s also got really strong-flavoured characters who have tangled love lives but maintain being really good at their jobs. I think it’s a rich mix and very fresh.
On the topic of Scott & Bailey’s female-led production team and cast Amelia says: “I wonder if it isn’t so extraordinary. The television industry is full of women with lots of producers and people behind the scenes who are women.
“It is true to say the story Sally Wainwright was particularly interested in was Scott and Bailey, these two friends and great detectives, and she’s also given them a female boss, Gill Murray. I think it’s a world that’s very real and audiences will identify with this.
“Women love drama so I think it’ll be something that women will tune in to and watch. But hopefully it’s appealing because it’s good television. They are great scripts it’s a police drama, which a lot of people love to watch. I think it’s a cut above because of the quality of the writing. I’m not sure if audiences will make much of it having strong female leads, particularly as there have been a few female-led dramas on TV recently.”
Amelia’s credits include: Twenty Twelve, Lewis, Ashes to Ashes, and I’m Alan Partridge.
CAST LIST
D.C. Rachel Bailey - Suranne Jones
D.C. Janet Scott - Lesley Sharp
D.C.I. Gill Murray - Amelia Bullmore
D.S. Andy Roper - Nicholas Gleaves
Nick Savage - Rupert Graves
Geoff Hastings - Kevin Doyle
Adrian Scott - Tony Pitts
D.C. Kevin Lumb - Ben Batt
D.C. Ian Mitchell - David Prosho
D.C. Pete Readyough - Tony Mooney
D.C. Lee Broadhurst. - Delroy Brown
Alison - Sally Lindsay
Taisie Scott - Harriet Waters
Elise Scott - Shannon Flynn
