Luke Knowles from the Custard TV has had a chat with the always
entertaining Joe Sims on Tuesday. Joe plays “crossbow-toting crazy man” Nige
Carter in the ITV crime drama series Broadchurch,
which also stars David Tennant, Olivia Colman and Pauline Quirke.
The interview was recorded just a day after Nige was last
seen levelling his crossbow at the chocolate labrador owned by current chief
suspect Susan Wright (Pauline Quirke). Joe was amazed that people were more
traumatised by the dog then any of the other horrible things that had happened
in the drama so far, joking that he was worried to go out and get milk in case
he got lynched in the street. He assured listeners that no animals were harmed:
“It’s salacious gossip. Nothing has been proved.”
Joe was asked about how not knowing who the culprit was
affected their performances while filming the drama. “I thought it was
fantastic,” he said, “It gave us a lot of creative license to take it in
directions that we wanted to and I think that ultimately for a whodunit every
character is played so much more honestly. For example, the wonderful David
Tennant didn’t want to know because when he’s interrogating people, when he’s
piecing things together you can actually see that he’s really, really doing it,
and I think that leads to such a multi-layered and structured performance.”
The cast were given the bare bones of their characters and
knew vaguely in which direction the story would go. Occasionally the directors
would call a member of the cast out just before filming a scene to give them a
few extra pointers on what was coming up for their character to help them to
play the scene. Otherwise they just put their trust in the show’s creators. Joe
said:
“The first scripts were just mesmerising – when you read
something that good it’s very easy to put your faith in people who are
absolutely at the top of their game. Plus looking at that fantastic cast, you
knew it was going to be the cheapest drama school ever – just watch and learn.
“What Chris has come up with is nothing short of an
exceptional piece of writing and I’m very proud and privileged to have been
involved.”
As a member of the BBC’s Radio Drama Company, this wasn’t
the first time that Joe had worked with David. He was among the cast of last
year’s Radio 3 production of Romeo and Juliet. “I’ve had the privilege of working
with David Tennant before,” he said, “He’s very, very friendly, a very
inclusive man and was very keen to get me involved and introduce me to people,
which lightens your load because when you’re working with heavyweights in terms
of writing and direction and performance then it was very daunting for me. But
David was kind enough to put me immediately at ease, as did the rest of the
cast and crew.”
Joe also revealed one of his most memorable incidents from
the set, which made it onto the bloopers reel watched by the cast and crew at
the wrap party: “It’s where David is having his dream and urging us to get out of
the water, so me, Will, Andy and Arthur are stood there. We were meant to be
actually in the water but the waves were so strong at the time that we were
told just to have it licking at our feet. Anyway, this massive wave came in
from nowhere and absolutely covered us. So promptly I went shrieking like a
banshee up the beach, waving my hands and screaming up the beach because I’d
been covered in water only to find that the other three were real men and they
just stood stock still and laughed at me. Unfortunately the director had to cut
because it could have been a really good shot but I was less than an alpha male
that day and they’ve never let me live it down!”
Broadchurch
regularly enjoys 7million viewers weekly. Joe puts this down to the way that it
has tapped into the public imagination. Everybody knows a Nige, a Mark, an
Olly, and it makes it very easy for audiences to relate to their own
communities, while the slow and steady pace allows people to really get to know
the characters and invest in them. The infighting and finger pointing within
the small community feels very real. However, Joe couldn’t be tempted to give
away any hints about what is coming up in the final two episodes of Broadchurch.
“At this stage, what you’ve seen now, at the time we didn’t
necessarily know exactly in what direction it was going and I think a lot of
the fun is in the finding out. To get to this stage and to see some
fantastically layered and structured performances it would seem like a shame to
give anything away and I’m loath to do that,” he explained, and added that even
knowing what is going to happen wouldn’t take away from enjoying the finale, “I’ve
been involved the whole way through and I do know what’s going to happen but
that hasn’t in any way hampered my enjoyment of it. I remember Chris telling us
from the start that the clues are all in there, and we were racking our brains,
going through the script in minute detail to see if there was anything that
gave us a little bit of a clue. Buy the DVD, because there’s so much in there
that when you look back you’ll be kicking yourself!
“It was a fantastic group of people that were assembled. It’s
humbling to see the public response, I’m absolutely thrilled that people are
enjoying it and there’s so much more fun, excitement, twists and turns in the
last two episodes I couldn’t possible dream of telling you where to begin.”
Broadchurch
continues on Monday 15th April at 9pm on ITV
The DVD of the series, including a behind-the-scenes feature, is released on Monday 20th May. Pre-order your copy now
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