Playing Two Characters

- Alan Conway, the author who lives in Abbey Grange, in the modern world, has used everybody around him as inspiration for characters who are often less pleasant.

So for example, his sister Clare, who has no money, and who has worked as his secretary for a time, and is a rather sad character, he has turned into Clarissa Pye, who is the sister of one of the main characters who didn't inherit the estate, who has no money, who lives on her own in sort of rancorous jealousy of her older brother.

And into that example, you can see what he's doing.

He's taking a real person and spinning a rather unpleasant story out of them.

- The way that Alan Conway has certainly taken revenge against particular people by being quite cruel about them and putting them in his novels.

But, I mean actually, what he's done is he's touched, in some cases, the truth about those people.

So, actually their characters are also amplified to some extent by being in two timeframes.

- So I play Clare Jenkins and Clarissa PYe, and they're both very sad, lonely characters, but whereas Clarissa is sort of no nonsense and a school teacher and campaigning to save Dingle Dell, and very forthright.

Clare is much more retiring and less sure of herself, and seems utterly without friends.

There's lovely nuances to play as an actor, of having similar situations for both characters, but with the different experiences and life experiences ending up with different characterizations.

This is very hard on me.

- Oh, you do surprise me.

- James Fraser and James Taylor are two very different people.

James Fraser is in 1955 and he is the assistant to Atticus Pund, our main detective.

James Taylor is in a relationship with Alan Conway, the author of the novels.

But, Alan being Alan, who thinks everyone's stupid compared to him, writes James Taylor into the book as James Fraser, who is the slightly dim assistant to Atticus.

- I've never played two characters in the same thing.

With the unique format of the show, it lends itself beautifully to him, to the writer, using the characters from true life and then projecting them into his book, and then getting the same actors to play those characters.

It works really well.

I'm struggling to think when I've seen this before.

- Without a shadow of a doubt, I think the main reason why I wanted to do Magpie Murders was exactly that concept of playing two characters.

It sounds like such an eccentric thing for an actor to come out with, but I couldn't remember anything that I'd seen where a project asks one actor to bring to life two roles, across such a huge ensemble that we have in Magpie Murders.

And, I think to play around with that, to bring those two characters to life, how similar the two characters are, how different they are, that just lends itself to great comedy, certainly with the characters that I'm playing, you know, because Detective Inspector Locke, who's the modern day cop, he's like a bear of a sore head, he's very alpha male.

- [Narrator] But, Alan Conway has turned him into Chubb.

Obviously there's a play on words there, and Chubb is your typical le Strade or Japp, you know, the sort of bumbling village cop who never gets anything right.

It's the same actor, two very different roles, and yet very much connected.

- [Director] Mark.

- Transitioning between the two characters can be difficult, but hair and makeup and costume does a lot of that work for me.

I mean, when I put the 50s suit on, and immediately the collar's up and the tie's tight, it affects your posture and pulls your shoulders back, and you sort of grow, and then your hair's slicked back, and every single hair is in place.

So, immediately that adds to your character as someone who's more together and constrained, and sort of, straight laced.

Whereas, in James Taylor, all the clothes are quite free flowing, his hair's all over the place and just a bit of a mess.

And again, that instantly gives you a character because it's someone who's quite laid back and quite sloppy in their way of being.

- And, even things like the echoing of the costumes in color and texture, and there's feathers everywhere.

The costumes are just so beautiful.

- With different accents, with different clothes, I mean, it's great fun to be able to just explore versions of the same person.

- It's just such a lovely project.

You know, nobody had to think very long before they agreed to take part in it.

- Apart from nothing else, you know, a challenge, but also really good fun.

- It's great.

It feels like a very close knit supportive company of actors.

It's been a wondrous time.

(dramatic music)