[spoilers] Spooks Actors - New Projects Thread

[Nia M]

Identity press pack is now available:
http://www.itv.com/presscentre/presspack...fault.html

Specific bits on Keeley's character (taken from the Word document avalable to download on that page):

Quote:

Spoiler: show

IDENTITY, a new six part ITV drama series starring Aidan Gillen and Keeley Hawes, follows an elite police unit formed to combat the explosion of identity-related crime.

Ed Whitmore’s newly created IDENTITY is here to tackle the darker side of reinvention: murderers who literally take other people’s lives, criminals who create new personas to escape evil pasts, impostors who look, talk and sound just like us but would kill you in a heartbeat.

The unit, lead by DSI Martha Lawson, (Keeley Hawes - Ashes to Ashes, Mutual Friends), works any case where making an identification is a significant part of solving the crime by outsmarting, hunting down and unmasking the modern day Jekyll and Hydes.

Spoiler: show

“In Keeley Hawes we were blessed to have an actress who could perfectly encapsulate the character of Martha Lawson’s mixture of single mindedness and vulnerability, professional dynamism and private weariness.”

Spoiler: show

Keeley Hawes plays Detective Superintendent Martha Lawson
Martha Lawson is a tough, committed investigator and the head of the Identity Unit which she fought long and hard to create. In appointing Bloom, Martha knows she took a gamble. She recognizes that the very qualities that made him such an effective undercover officer - fearlessness, independence, a talent for barefaced lying and sudden lethal force – make him both the team’s greatest asset and its greatest liability.

Interview with Keeley Hawes:

Spoiler: show

Keeley Hawes is DSI Martha Lawson

Having played a police officer in Ashes to Ashes and now IDENTITY, Keeley Hawes admits in another life she could have joined the Force…

“I could definitely have been a policewoman; I think they have an interesting time of it. Of course the way we portray the job is heightened and I’m sure in the normal way of things officers would only get to investigate the sort of cases we deal with in the Identity Unit a few times in their careers rather than every week so maybe I have a peculiar slant on the life of a policewoman. I’m sure there is a lot more pen pushing than we think but the basic investigating skills seem appealing to me. So yes maybe the police force or even a spy…”

Keeley’s character DSI Martha Lawson heads up the Identity Unit; a position she has worked hard to achieve. Says Keeley: “It has taken a lot of time and effort for Martha to gather her unit together. They’re all talented operatives in their own areas but she’s a born team leader. And while they don’t all always get on famously they do unite behind her: she sparks loyalty in the team even though sometimes they doubt her judgement, mainly on the question of John Bloom.

“The Unit is Martha’s baby and the buck stops with her at every turn – she has to navigate the politics of the Force. She has risked a lot to set up this unit, she’s taken over parts of other units and people have lost their jobs as the lines are blurry about what areas the Identity Unit covers so her neck is on the line every day. Generally it works very well.

“In appointing DI John Bloom, played by Aidan Gillen, Martha knows she took a gamble. She doesn’t want to tame him and yet neither can she let him destroy what she’s so painstakingly created.” Keeley continues: “Martha is a tough, committed investigator but whereas Bloom’s out-of-office life is a power keg of dangerous activity, Martha has no life beyond work something which begins to gnaw away at her sense of self and fuels her fascination with Bloom.

“She respects Bloom hugely but she does let him get away with murder because she knows what he’s capable of; his instincts are brilliant and he generally gets his man. She’s learnt to trust his intelligence but he definitely gets away with more than anyone else would. Not turning up for days on end, switching off his mobile – anyone else would get the chop.”

Explaining her interest in the role Keeley says: “When I took this job it struck me as bizarre that there is no real Identity Unit. Identity theft is something we hear about every day on the news or from friends. A group of us sat about discussing this issue and there wasn’t a person present who hadn’t been affected by it in one way or another. Police dramas are ever so popular but this is such a fresh take on the genre. It’s genius in its inception.

“I myself have been affected at the most basic level. I’ve been called by the fraud department of my bank asking if I’m in Spain as someone has stolen my details and is spending willy-nilly across the Costa Brava.

“Another time someone stole a credit card while working in my home and got away with using it for two months. But this is the way we live now; the way we have to live. We all use the internet and various cards on a day-to-day basis so it is bound to happen to us all at some time or another.”

Keeley is pleased to have had the chance to portray two very different women in the police force. “Both Alex Drake, in Ashes to Ashes, and Martha Lawson are strong women - in the jobs they do they have to be - but that is where the similarities between them stop. That’s why I chose to take on the role of Martha as they are both in completely different worlds playing by different rules. Drake is constantly in a life threatening position, Martha’s situation is less dramatic. That’s the great thing about what I do, you get to inhabit such different worlds.

“The way they operate with the men in their lives is completely different too. For each of them the relationship with the man they work closest with is central to their story but while they are in a similar position they have totally different ways of dealing with it.

“And what great characters to play opposite – John Bloom and Gene Hunt. Aidan Gillen has really raised the bar as far as I’m concerned. He’s been a joy to work with.”

Praising IDENTITY creator and writer, Ed Whitmore, Keeley concludes: “Ed’s writing is brilliant. There hasn’t been a single unsayable speech in the whole drama. His speech is so easy to learn and that is always the giveaway, if it flows and you can remember it easily, it’s good. I was learning a scene with Matthew and he said ‘this is really well written’. That’s why I took the role…”