Q & A - Haydn Gwynne
How did you prepare for your role as Superintendent Susan Blake?
In the town where we're filming, there is a female superintendent with young kids who I was able to speak to. I felt I'd learnt a lot in a short period of time, and I began to see it as more of a viable career option.
How about your own experience as a working mother?
When I was starting Merseybeat, it was my first job back after the birth of my second child so there was no research required - and no make-up for the sleepless nights required, either!
The characters seem to have their fair share of personal dramas.
Merseybeat is not particularly focused on a 'crime of the week'. Often there's more drama going on at home than there is on the floor, which is reasonable in that a lot of the policing can be quite mundane stuff.
You've had quite a diverse career, from Drop The Dead Donkey to theatre and drama. Why's that?
Pre-kids, I pretty much pleased myself - theatre, comedies, musicals. Since the kids, there's a financial imperative to keep us all going, and multi-episodic TV is one of the few ways you can do that. But I prefer to do things in shorter bursts.
In the town where we're filming, there is a female superintendent with young kids who I was able to speak to. I felt I'd learnt a lot in a short period of time, and I began to see it as more of a viable career option.
How about your own experience as a working mother?
When I was starting Merseybeat, it was my first job back after the birth of my second child so there was no research required - and no make-up for the sleepless nights required, either!
The characters seem to have their fair share of personal dramas.
Merseybeat is not particularly focused on a 'crime of the week'. Often there's more drama going on at home than there is on the floor, which is reasonable in that a lot of the policing can be quite mundane stuff.
You've had quite a diverse career, from Drop The Dead Donkey to theatre and drama. Why's that?
Pre-kids, I pretty much pleased myself - theatre, comedies, musicals. Since the kids, there's a financial imperative to keep us all going, and multi-episodic TV is one of the few ways you can do that. But I prefer to do things in shorter bursts.