David Tennant ‘Inside Man’ Q&A

David Tennant explains a bit more about his character, Harry Watling, in the new thriller, Inside Man.

David, what’s the premise of Inside Man?

Very hard to sum up, because there are two separate worlds going side by side. Part of the joy of watching the show is wondering if these worlds are ever going to collide. But from my character’s point of view, it’s a story about a man who, in pursuit of doing the right thing, makes a series of catastrophically bad decisions.

Tell us a bit about your character Harry.

Harry is a vicar in a rather picturesque English village. He seems to have a very happy life, secure in himself, popular with his parishioners and quite a modern vicar. He’s not afraid to use the odd swear word and talk about the world as it is. He has a wife and a teenage son and they seem to be living a fairly normal, happy life.

How does Harry’s family dynamic shift?

Quite early on in our story, something pretty awful occurs and the family dynamic can never be the same again after that.

What attracted you to the project?

I just read the script and wanted to be part of it, it’s very particular to Steven Moffat’s brain. When you read that first episode it’s hugely intriguing. These two very distinct storylines are both entirely plausible, textured and fascinating in themselves and they are running side by side. It’s very difficult I think to immediately imagine how they will ever come together on different sides of the world, for these characters living entirely separate existence, they couldn’t seem to be more different.

Yet as an audience we assume there must be some link but really we’re quite far into the story before those links start to appear. It’s part of the set- up of the sort of puzzle of that along with the almost breath-taking awfulness of what occurs, the incremental steps to doom that Harry takes, the unravelling of normality. Steven described it as a sitcom that goes terribly wrong.

Inside Man follows a prisoner on death row in the US, a Vicar in a quiet English town, and a maths teacher trapped in a cellar, as they cross paths in the most unexpected way.

The star-studded cast is led by David Tennant (Des), Dolly Wells (The Pursuit Of Love) and Lydia West (It’s A Sin) alongside Stanley Tucci (Feud) in the title role of the Inside Man.

Further casting includes Lyndsey Marshal (Dracula), Atkins Estimond (Hightown), Mark Quarterly (Cursed), Tilly Vosburgh (Maigret), Louis Oliver (Midnight Mass), Kate Dickie (The Witch) and Dylan Baker (Hunters).

Created and written by Steven Moffat, Inside Man is directed by Paul McGuigan, with Alex Mercer as producer. Executive producers are Sue Vertue for Hartswood Films and Ben Irving for the BBC.

The four-part thriller will launch on BBC One at 9pm BST on Monday 26th September with episode 2 at the same time on Tuesday 27th September. The series will conclude on the Monday and Tuesday of the following week.