New Ashes Interview

Whats on TV, March 23, 2010.

Where do we find Alex?
"We open with Gene on the run and he has to get her out of this coma to get himself out of the situation. Acting in a coma isn’t like acting dead because you can breathe. I just shut my eyes and think of England."

Is she more settled in the 1980s?
"Well, her confidence has been shaken before and things have been completely turned on their head, but in episode one something happens that takes her a step even further away from her real life. She now has a reason behind her forgetting about her past and this becoming her world. A new character called Jim Keats [played by Daniel Mays] shakes things up because he seems to know a lot more about things than perhaps she thought was possible."

How has she changed?
"She’s not as much of a feminist any more, she is Alex Drake, she is a male bird. I always knew that this would go for three years so it had to go from one extreme to the other so she has changed a lot and I think it’s quite obvious by now that she is hopelessly in love with the Gene Genie whether or not she knows it."

What is Alex’s look like this time?
"It’s slightly smarter. By now Alex has definitely had time to go out shopping and create a look of her own rather than getting her clothes from the back of a dead woman, so it is more grown-up and a very good fresh look."

Is this series darker?
Yes, it was dark last year, but now with the Keats character coming in, it’s even more so. It’s very difficult to get the balance right. You want to see the Quattro come screeching around the corner and the boots come out of the door, but you want the dark side, too. There is a bit of everything in here; I think it is the best one yet."

Are you pleased with the ending?
"Oh yes. It is something that has been speculated about so much that I’m sure someone is going to work it out what happens, but we didn’t. It is such a great ending. The scripts for the last two episodes are just so fantastic and mind-boggling. I don’t think there is anything else like Ashes on telly. It’s so inventive."

Will you miss the show?
"I was absolutely dreading the last couple of weeks because I love the cast so much. Also, Ashes is a job unlike any other. With this, you finish filming and it just doesn’t go away. People shout at you in the street... It's been life-changing for me."