The Marlow Murder Club's Jo Martin Answers Fan Questions
Stunt training secrets, favorite canine co-stars, and stray poop bag hazard stories! The Marlow Murder Club star Jo Martin tackles fan questions in this candid and hilarious interview just as she finished filming Season 4. [Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
MASTERPIECE:
Many fans want to know how you feel about dogs personally and whether or not you own one?
Jo Martin:
I don't have a dog…but I'm very much a dog person. I love dogs…I've been thinking about getting a dog. It's very much on the list of things that we may be doing as a family, but because we all travel so much with work, you have to be around [to own a dog].
MASTERPIECE:
Pat L. asks: You work with many different dogs on set. Do you have favorites, large dogs, small dogs, obedient dogs, not so much?
Jo Martin:
Well, everyone loves an obedient dog. There are some dogs that we've had who just want to do their own thing. They're not listening to any instructions, but most of the dogs we've had on set have been incredible. They're so well-trained. They've got great handlers.
It's not fair to say I've got a favorite, but I worked with one dog, he was a bit deaf and he was a bit blind in one eye…I fell in love with him. He had a bit of a limp and he was just a mess, but so cute and tiny that when you held him, he'd lick your face. But obviously my hero dog, Luna, and she's a big dog, but I adore her also. So no, I'm not going to pick a favorite. You can't make me [laughs].
MASTERPIECE:
F. Palma wonders: You wear some dog-walking gear as part of your wardrobe. Does it bother you or get in your way as you're acting?
Jo Martin:
A few bits and pieces do get in my way because you have these things hanging off your shoulder bag, and you've got the poop bags hanging out…and if you're running or you do anything like that, they suddenly flip up and hit you in the face…I've got to say in this Season 4 that we just filmed, the director has kind of done away with a lot of the stuff I used to have…I don't have a lot of the paraphernalia that I had in Seasons one, two, and three that can kind of hinder me a bit.
MASTERPIECE:
A. Duncan asks: Do you have to train for scenes involving running, climbing walls, chasing suspects, how does that work?
Jo Martin:
I'm going to stop you there. How dare you? Training? Have you seen how fit I look? I don't need to train [laughs]…For some reason they've always got Suzie running in every season….About a month before we start shooting, I hit the gym hard. I do my weights. I do all of that kind of thing to get me to some level of fitness because it is so active what we're doing and jumping over walls. I'm like, "Are they crazy? They're trying to kill me here, but they haven't done it yet." And I actually do love it.
MASTERPIECE:
Fans notice the bold, bright-colored outfits you wear in the show and wonder if this is your go-to look when you're not in character.
Jo Martin:
Oh no. The thing is Suzie is so different from me in terms of what she wears. I'm a bit understated…I think if you saw me, you'd say, "Oh, Jo looks quite stylish," but it's quite kind of demure and a bit more muted. I wear a lot of black, which is a bit boring for some people, but stylishly. Whereas Suzie, she wants color, she wants drama in her outfit, she wants to be seen.
MASTERPIECE:
G. Harville wonders about your life with the cast off set. Do you hang out with the other women and do things when you're not on set?
Jo Martin:
We're drinking every night. No, I'm joking. No, we do like a little drink when we get a chance. But the thing is, I can't lie that the schedule is very intense. We get very little time off to enjoy Marlow or to enjoy spending time with each other off set. But when we do, we like to go for a nice meal.
MASTERPIECE:
Carole T. asks: Given that the characters are such distinctly different personalities, how close do your on-air personalities align with those of you as actors?
Jo Martin:
Sam [Samantha Bond] does love a crossword. She'll do that in her downtime…Sam is a bit more lively than Judith in a sense that I think she's more playful, whereas Judith's quite serious some of the time. With Cara [Horgan], she's very different to her character, I would say. She's not as straight laced…Natalie [Dew], our detective, she's definitely not like that detective. She is mischievous, naughty…I'd say she's very playful. And my character, I would say our humor is similar. We have a kind of dark humor and we have a playful humor and we like to tease people.
MASTERPIECE:
Suzie is so resourceful and courageous in so many areas of her life, a single mom, an entrepreneur, she's dating, and this fan wondered what of Suzie's qualities that you find most inspiring.
Jo Martin:
She's quite courageous and she's so outgoing…She will step into any environment and feel at home, be it if she was in the presence of royalty, the presence of paupers, the presence of murderers, whoever, she fits right in and she speaks her mind.
MASTERPIECE:
K. Marks asks: We know that Judith has a budding romance, and fans want to know if there's going to be someone new for your character?
Jo Martin:
She's on these dating apps now, and she went to the speed dating thing, and then she came across Brendan, our detective…There's a little something…there's a little fire, little embers, should I say? It's not even a fire yet. Little embers of something that could or could not develop.
MASTERPIECE:
Marilyn B asks: How old were you when you knew that acting was what you wanted to do, and what was your first job?
Jo Martin:
I would've been about eight or nine when I did a show at the school and I was just entranced... My parents always thought, "It's a hobby and it will build her confidence," because I used to have a stammer, which I still have, and it only comes out when I am super nervous or if I’m super tired…When I finally went professional, against my parents' wishes, they said, "You're going to die a pauper. Everyone's a doctor, everyone's a teacher, everyone's a lawyer and accountant."
When I got my first TV job, it was a series called “Birds of a Feather.” My mother didn't seem that impressed. She said, "Is this a regular part or are you just guesting?" I thought, "Tough crowd!" The only time she was impressed was when I auditioned to do the Royal Shakespeare Company and I got booked. "Oh, wait, you're working for the queen!" she said. That's how she interpreted it. And I was saying, "Well, I'm not really working for the queen.” She said, "But it's the Royal Shakespeare. It's royal!" And from that moment on, she was on board.
MASTERPIECE:
L. Blanchard wonders: Have you ever thought about what you would be doing if you weren’t an actor?
Jo Martin:
Crime [laughs]. No, that's a joke. What would I have been? I do still write, even though I wouldn't say, "Oh, I'm a writer." I'm an actor, but I've written plays, I've written shows for Radio 4, I write comedy sketches for people, and I still write. I think I would've leaned harder into my writing maybe, and failing that, I may have gone into medicine because a lot of my family is in medicine.
MASTERPIECE:
R. Parthasarathy asks: If you see any similarities between Suzie and one of your other characters, the Fugitive Doctor?
Jo Martin:
They are both straight talkers. The Fugitive Doctor does not suffer fools gladly, and neither does Suzie…and also that they have a similar kind of dark humor. As serious as the Fugitive Doctor is, because she's got serious things to do, she's a busy lady, she also has this kind of humor, which I think softens it a bit. I think if I'd had more air time with the Fugitive Doctor, I think we would've been leaning a bit more into her vulnerabilities, which we have explored in the audio versions that we've done with the Fugitive Doctor, which is really kind of interesting…I've recently written a book called The Kaleidoscope, which is all about the Fugitive Doctor…In the book, I have explored a little bit more of her vulnerable side that we didn't or we don't get to see on the on-screen version of my Doctor.
