The Responder's cast and creator discuss the new drama about life on the front line of British policing

Written by ex-police officer Tony Schumacher, his first original series for television, The Responder holds a mirror up to the emotional extremes of life on the front line of British policing - sometimes darkly funny, sometimes painfully tragic, always challenging. 

The Responder follows Chris Carson (Martin Freeman), a crisis-stricken, morally compromised, unconventional urgent response officer tackling a series of night shifts on the beat in Liverpool. Whilst trying to keep his head above water both personally and professionally, Chris is forced to take on a new rookie partner Rachel (Adelayo Adedayo). Both soon discover that survival in this high pressure, relentless, night-time world will depend on them either helping or destroying each other.

Interview with Tony Schumacher

Tony is the Creator, Writer and Executive Producer

What is The Responder about?

The Responder covers five nights in Chris Carson’s life – a guy who is struggling to adjust to the modern world. He wants to adjust and be a better person but he is falling apart inside his head whilst trying to deal with what’s going on in his job. His marriage is breaking under the strain of his mental health issues and the way he’s behaving. He hasn’t got any real friends and the one friend he does have is using him. Everything is bubbling up and over in his life and yet he is expected as a copper to go out and do the job, but he is in real danger of being sucked under.

What is a Responder?

A responder is someone who never gives you good news, somebody who kicks in doors, races round town centres and who fights literal and sometimes metaphorical fires. When I first joined the police, I remember on my second or third night, an old bobby called Colin said to me, "you will never knock on someone’s door and tell them they’ve won the lottery". You are only ever going to deliver bad news in this job, so it’s a big responsibility to take on - but conversely it’s incredibly exciting. Occasionally, you do things that change people's lives be it saving someone’s life or locking up a criminal - you and your colleagues are working all night, every night and living constantly on your wits.

Where did the idea for The Responder come from?

In some way I feel that I am The Responder to a degree and that this is my story. I was a police responder who was out in the rain at one o’clock in the morning, two in the morning, three in the morning, chasing people up and down alleyways and running over rats. The Responder is in me, it's in my writing and in my script.

When did you start to put the story down on the paper and why?

I quit the police because, and there’s no getting away from it, I was cracking up in the police force and I had this overwhelming urge to write. I was really struggling mentally and I needed to get away and find myself, but I also needed to buy dog food during that period so I became a taxi driver. It was during that time that I learnt to become a writer. I wrote three books, sold them to Harper Collins and they did okay. That allowed me to step out of the cab, with a slight detour via a garbage dump, to become a full-time writer on the back of the books.

What was the process of taking the idea of The Responder from page to screen?

I wrote three books over the course of three years but I’d always dreamed of writing for television ever since I was a kid. Initially I wrote 30 pages of a speculative script and was introduced to Jimmy McGovern, who advised me to forget about the unfinished script and instead encouraged me to write my story. That was brilliant advice.

I then got involved with an amazing organisation called ScreenSkills who mentored me and introduced me to Laurence Bowen at Dancing Ledge Productions. Laurence read the first episode and fell in love with the story right away. For the last 20 years or so he’d had a great working relationship with Martin Freeman and wanted to give the script to Martin to read. What Laurence didn’t know was that I had written the script with Martin in mind. I knew there was something in Martin that I wanted to bring to the fore, and so I wrote The Responder by dipping my pen into the inkwell of my own darkness but painting Martin’s face on the pages when I was writing.

How did it feel to see Martin inhabit the character of Chris?

Seeing Martin playing Chris - driving round the streets that I once drove around, sitting in a police car I had once driven with the streetlamps strobing on the glass was incredible to watch. Even though the story is inspired by my story, not everything that happens to Chris happened to me, but seeing Martin bringing him to life, totally inhabiting the character that I've created, talking like Chris and moving like Chris was just incredible and very emotional.

I remember during production I’d be watching the dailies and I would literally punch the air at something Martin would do and have a real rush of emotion and think, I am the luckiest man alive that I get to do this for a living now.

What's more stressful - being a responder, or being a writer of a primetime TV series?

I think being a responder brings a very different kind of stress from that of being a writer, but I used to love the old responding stress. Some people cope with it better than others, and some responders are more resilient than others. Being a responder takes a little bit more out of you each day you do it. It's like when you get a new phone, the battery charge is brilliant at first, then 12 months later it’s gone dead by eight o’clock in the morning. That's what it's like being a responder - the battery runs out a little bit at a time.

I was really good at being in the moment as a first responder, at a car accident or a pub fight, but it was the stress that follows all those incidents that wore me down and broke me as a person. The stress associated with being a writer is the deadlines we have to meet, but even that’s not too bad. The stress I put myself under was more that I found myself looking at that amazing cast and thinking to myself, don’t blow this. I’ve been given this amazing palette of paints to work with in Martin, Adelayo, MyAnna, Ian, David etc and that’s what kept me awake at night - being able to deliver the words to them, but I’m less likely to get PTSD from writing.

What makes The Responder different from other shows?

I wanted The Responder to be a cop show that was different, because I didn't particularly want it to be all about police. Coming from a place of knowing that world completely I really wanted it to be as real as it could possibly be. I've still got a lot of really great mates who are bobbies and who are out there still working as responders. I didn't want it to just be about Chris, so I drew in all these amazing characters who I'd meet every single night and give them a story.

I came from a place where I wanted to be able to walk around these characters and show they're not paper thin. People are three-dimensional and it’s not enough to say people are good or bad. It’s not all about blue flashing lights and running down alleyways - that’s not what it’s about. It’s about real people, going through real issues and just trying to get by in the reality they are living in.

Tell us about Chris and Rachel's relationship?

We’ve all seen those films and shows with a grizzled cop and a new young trainee but I wanted to explore the reality of that sort of partnership. After a while in the business you realise that not everyone who commits a crime is going to be arrested or locked up and not everyone’s going to get a hug, because you’ve just not got the time to give everyone a hug. You’ve got to do the best you can whether that means you have to cut a few corners in order to do so. At the beginning of the show Rachel can’t believe that Chris is not off work and sat in bed with a bottle of Lucozade. She doesn’t believe he should be on the streets fighting crime because in her mind he’s not up to it. However, she soon starts thinking that she’s got to be a bit more like him.

How does Liverpool fit into the story as a character?

I've been all around the world in my life doing various jobs, some good and some bad. I did stand-up comedy for a few years and I travelled a lot, but to me Liverpool is unique. I love the city, however the stories I'm trying to tell, could be set in Lagos, Kabul, Sydney or New York because they’re universal. They're stories about people who are doing their best to be better and to be happy.

Why did you decide to set The Responder at night?

I set the story at night-time in Liverpool because there’s a real peace about the night that I love. I worked for ten years as a copper and I drove a taxi for five years working nights in both jobs. I also write at night and I love the stillness of it. I love taking the dog out for a walk at three in the morning. Unless you’ve consistently worked night shifts you won’t know the hangover that comes with working at night. I wanted Chris to really feel the hangover that a response bobby feels.

I used to work six 12-hour night shifts on the trot and on the final night you always felt like you were walking through mud. Occasionally, you'd have these little spikes of adrenaline, which would just push you on a little bit further. It was like running the marathon. That’s what I wanted it to feel like for Chris. When you're that tired, that's when you're at your weakest, that's when the most vulnerable, and that's when you're not thinking straight which exacerbates Chris’ mental health even more. Also, in every night job I've ever done I've invariably met many more interesting people. The real characters come out of the night, like bats that the sensible people with sensible jobs never get to meet.

Our director, Tim Mielants, really understands Liverpool - he knows it like the back of his hand because of his work on Peaky Blinders, and really gets the ‘darkness’ of the night. He has a real eye for the darkness and mood that the can only be found at night-time. It’s far more interesting.

Why is the theme of mental health important to write into the character of Chris?

The Responder doesn’t just focus on the physical darkness of working at night; it also looks at Chris' own struggle with his mental darkness. He feels like he has a black hole inside of him, burning its way right out of his forehead. Martin really does such great work with the fear of hopelessness and helplessness that comes from having that sense of darkness inside. When I wrote that element in the script it was like having paid therapy, because it was in me. I got to write it down on the page and see Martin play it out on screen.

When I was a cab driver, I’d get to about six in the morning and having dealt with people’s lives all night long I couldn’t cope with it and would find myself crying. I’d drive home and cry all the way home. The darkness eats you from the inside and I didn’t deal with it well. Martin captures it beautifully in that we see him consumed but there’s that little glimmer of light, like the diamond ring effect that you see on an eclipse that signifies that he’s not all lost. The humour is still there.

What is Chris' home life like?

Chris' home life is one of the things that he hates himself for more than anything else he does in his life. Chris does terrible things as a copper, but he hates himself most of all for the way he treats his wife and child. He just lacks the ability to communicate with his wife Kate, played brilliantly by MyAnna Buring who brings such an understanding of pain, anger and love all in one look. She feels for Chris and loves him dearly, yet she hates him at the same time because he’s horrible to live with.

Kate is intelligent and beautiful; she's clever and independent with a great job. She used to have a great husband but doesn’t any longer. As well as being this amazing woman who's trying to get him back to health, she’s also keeping a secret from him, so theirs is a complex relationship.

Who are Casey and Marco?

Sometimes we shy away from these sorts of characters because they have to be prickly because that’s the only way they can survive on the streets. They don’t want to live the way they live. Casey doesn’t want to be homeless living amongst binbags. They just want to get through and get by, like everyone else. Chris likes Marco and Casey and really empathises with them. She’s as wily as a fox and Chris really admires that in her - he has more in common with this pair than anyone else in the series. I really enjoyed writing their scenes and Emily and Josh, who play Casey and Marco, are two magic-making, charismatic young people who bring so much life to these characters, they’re such fine, talented young actors.

What is Chris and Carl's relationship history?

Chris joined the police force and Carl became a drug dealer. In terms of their relationship Chris looked up to Carl, probably because Carl was the cool kid who would walk around the estate and be a leader. For reasons that will be revealed, Chris ends up becoming a copper and Carl ends up becoming a drug dealer but they're still old mates and still close. Theirs is such a strong relationship and yet Carl is using Chris. Like Chris, Carl loves his wife and his kids and he loves Chris. Like everyone else he's doing his best to just get through to the end of the week every week. Ian Hart, who plays Carl, grew up about two miles away from where I grew up in Huyton, so Ian knows Carl and Chris just as much as I know them. Every time I watched Ian act on set I was blown away because he’s totally got the character of Carl.

Why should people watch The Responder?

It’s funny, it's dramatic, it's exciting. It is beautifully acted and it's something that you probably haven't seen before and you will really enjoy it.

Interview with Martin Freeman

Martin Freeman plays Chris Carson

What is a responder?

Responders are the coppers who literally respond to emergency calls coming in. In Chris’ case he works nights, and during the course of a night shift he could be called to all sorts of situations - whether it's a report of an old woman who's died or someone has set fire to something or a burglary. It could literally be anything and everything.

What was your reaction when you read Tony Schumacher’s scripts?

When Laurence Bowen first sent me the scripts he was very excited and after reading the first few pages, and I felt this was really something else. It wasn’t a drama that was written by committee, it was unfiltered Tony Schumacher, and I really liked that he put whatever he wanted on the page. Tony has been writing for a long time but the fact that this is his first television drama means he is far from having gotten into a comfortable groove or formulaic. He just put on the page whatever the hell he thought needed to be there and that is really exciting.

What stood out to you about the character of Chris Carson?

The reason I wanted to play Chris is that he is a great mixture of vulnerability and strength. I think there is something about a man of few words that is attractive. There's a reason why people like characters that don't have to over-explain themselves and I think Chris is one of them.

He's very intelligent, he's emotionally smart, but he's a copper. He finds it hard to be open at home and with his counsellor, and in his job it’s probably wise not to be open, so he picks his moments when he can let off steam and talk to people. But those are few and far between and the amount of plates he is spinning is frightening. So much so that if he drops even one of those plates he could wind up dead.

What is The Responder about?

The story takes place across five nights, one night per episode. There’s a lot packed into each episode and there's a lot packed into each night for dramatic effect as well. In fact, a lot goes on across a 12-hour night shift and Chris being the solitary figure he is, he doesn’t want to work with a partner - but that’s where he finds himself, against both his and Rachel’s wills.

How did you find playing Chris with a Scouse accent?

I haven't played a character with a Scouse accent before and I was incredibly mindful of that when I was reading the script. It read pure Liverpudlian to me and I knew Tony was from Liverpool. He always said to me that the character didn’t have to be from Liverpool - that not all coppers in Merseyside are from Merseyside, but I really felt Chris had to be from the city. I also knew that if I couldn't do it properly then I wouldn't do the accent, I would just have done my own version of my own voice.

I was really pleased when I heard that some of the Scouse actors asked if I was from Merseyside - it was like I’d passed some sort of test. I worked really hard at it because there was no way I was prepared to go on telly doing a terrible Scouse accent in Liverpool with a load of Liverpudlian actors. There's just no way. I'd get taken to the cleaners and rightly so. Coming from where I come from, you have to earn your stripes no matter where you are and you just can't be doing a bad Liverpool accent.

What is the character facing when we meet him?

Chris has got himself mixed up in activity that he shouldn't be involved in, and he's been partnered with a new trainee police officer who doesn’t like him and who suspects him of being bent. He’s got very little time for some trainee who judges him on what he's been doing these past 20 years so there's a lot going on. Plus, his marriage is falling apart. He wants to be a good dad and I like his dynamic with the family, he’s such a loving person but he just can’t seem to make it work. I've not played many cool characters before - not that Chris is cool, but I don’t often play characters without problems. I never seem to play the guy getting off the yacht with a mojito in his hand. It would be nice to wear linen and sunglasses, but no I always seem to put myself in situations where I’m trying to stay alive.

I shouldn’t love him but I do. Who amongst us hasn’t messed up at some point? Perhaps not to the same extent that Chris has, but who amongst us wouldn’t do some of the things he does if faced with the same circumstances? His family situation is precarious and his marriage is hanging by a thread. I think both he and his wife, Kate, are trying to make it work in that way that sometimes you can see each other through a fog but you’ve grown too far apart to see each through the crisis. He speaks to a counsellor at work, who is herself overworked and not functioning at full tilt because she's seeing loads of people. As a result, Chris is being underserved and isn’t firing on all cylinders at home as either a dad or as a husband. He knows it and feels wretched about it but can't really break that cycle.

What sort of relationship does Chris have with his police partner Rachel?

Neither of them wants to be each other's partner because Chris knows that Rachel doesn't respect him. She gets a bad vibe off him and he believes it's likely to do with the fact that he has a bit of a sketchy past on the job and she knows it. There's a barely disguised antipathy between them for much of the series. However, as the series progresses Rachel begins to find out more and more about Chris and discovers he may not be as bad as he’s been made out to be. We see a mentee/mentor relationship begin to develop between them and they begin to thaw each other out.

Even if you see a tiny glimmer of light, it’s still very hard for them because they’re really not at ease with each other at all. They’re coppers and they are not going to be best mates. They’re both very defensive and neither want to open up to the other for their own reasons which is fair enough.

What sort of world does Chris find himself being drawn into?

Chris knows his own city and is familiar with his beat, so he has got to know lots of the characters he relies on for local information. His contacts Casey and Marco are just trying to make their way through any means they can, they’re not violent or horrible people. They’ve just got caught up in either their addictions or thieving or whatever their vice is.

Chris is quite a softie really and wants them to be ok and get by. He wants to take people like Casey, a street kid with a heroin addict under his wing, and if he can help her, he will. Having said that he can be cruel too. People like Chris are called into situations that are not going to play out well and that tension has to build up somehow. There are a lot of mental health issues, homelessness, addiction, violence and a lot of humour as well. That gallows sense of humour is prevalent across all the emergency services where responders are dealing with life and death situations. He deals with a lot of people who are forgotten, neglected or ignored and that has to have an effect on him.

What insight do we get to Chris in the therapy sessions?

I always feel that without vulnerability, you're useless. You're useless as an actor, and drama without vulnerable characters is very boring because it's just a lot of cardboard cut-outs of people being heroic. There are versions of coppers being heroic but the job does take a massive toll on people.

Chris is just one of them, and the one whose story we follow. He isn’t connecting with his wife, even though we see him trying, so his counselling sessions are his only means of letting go. We get the sense that he really wants the therapy to work but a), it's finite and he will only get a certain number of sessions and b) the therapist herself is completely overwhelmed by her workload and despite everyone trying to do their best, it’s never enough. Chris is a hard person and he can handle himself as well as dole out the punishment when necessary. But he's really not in a good way at all. We have tiny little glimpses of enjoyment in his life and we know the things that he values - his wife and child above himself - but he just doesn't know how to make that work.

Describe Chris’ relationship with Carl?

Chris and Carl have known each other since their school days and grew up in the same area and had the same life. As often happens in life with school pals is that they go their separate ways and their lives take them in different directions. Chris could easily have gone the same way as Carl but he just didn’t. Something took him down a straight path in life. Carl is the local mid-range drug dealer who’s doing alright for himself. As Carl himself says, he’s not Pablo Escobar and there are more powerful people than him up the drug chain but he has become a massive pain for Chris, which we see from the very first episode when Chris won’t take his calls when he’s on duty. It’s all angels with dirty faces - one brother becomes a gangster and another becomes a priest. They still love each other but they find themselves on either side of this chasm.

Chris and Casey have a unique relationship. What was it like to work with newcomer Emily Fairn, who plays Casey?

I saw Emily’s audition tape and her strength was that we didn't know what she was going to do next - that was genuinely exciting. She came out with actions and reactions that were completely unexpected and I really wanted to play with that. Emily brought a real lightness and freshness to the part of Casey that could have been played in the usual depressing, heavy and earnest way, which isn’t necessarily the wrong way to play it, but Emily’s instincts were different.

She plays Casey as very much alive, funny, irreverent and surprising and that’s her skill as an actor, to be surprising. I hardly ever give advice, but I did say to her to hang on to that wonder and that instinct to surprise, because it’s the right instinct to have, and not everyone has it.

Does that sense of ‘wonder’ come back to you when you read a script like this?

I'm lucky in that I do still get to play great parts and I get to choose when to work and when not to work. So yes, I do have that sense of enthusiasm when I read a great script like The Responder. I haven't read anything like it before and I love being excited by scripts because every time you get a script you do want it to be The Godfather. You do want it to be amazing and you live in eternal hope. Then very occasionally when your ability aligns with other people’s skills and when someone has such faith in you, it's lovely.

I have a reasonably healthy ego but there were several times in the run up to filming that I asked Tony, Chris and Lawrence if they were sure they had the right man for the job and couldn’t they get someone better than me? Then Tony said that he’d had me in mind when he wrote it and kept seeing me in scenes when he was writing it, so that really relaxed me.

Actors often say they have to find something likeable in a character in order to play them - do you agree with that?

With most protagonists you have to want to follow their story and stay with them for the whole film or series so in some way you have to like them or find something about them that is at least interesting to play. I think Chris is likeable and I have to root for him as the protagonist and follow him into battle for the next five episodes so I’m very pleased to have been the person they chose to play him.

What was it like to work with lead director Tim Mielants?

Tim Mielants is a poet with an artist’s soul, and he really puts his heart into every shot. In some ways he is like a big kid with a beard and I mean that in the nicest possible way. He has a great enthusiasm for making work that we all have when we're children. He is a very smart ‘big kid’ and he doesn't mind being vulnerable which I really like. He has no ego and is a lovely human being. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him and I think we had a lot of respect for each other. We also had a lot of laughter too, which is vital when shooting something that is so serious.

What is unique about this show?

I think it’s a drama that doesn't offer answers but asks a lot of questions. There is nothing neat about it - it’s chaotic and unsettling and there’s an underlying authenticity to it. We all wanted to make something different that was exciting and unformulaic.

Interview with Adelayo Adedayo

Adelayo Adedayo plays Rachel Hargreaves

What was your reaction when you first read Tony Schumacher’s scripts?

My first reaction was to fall in love with the human relationships in it. They're so real and so what you see every day; like the way you relate to people, the way you talk to people and the complications that sometimes arise from that. It goes really quickly from dark to light, and crisis to humour, and that is so poignant and real.

What was it about, Rachel that made you want to take on the role?

What drew me to Rachel was the authenticity of her character. There's a deep sense of honesty to her plus a desperate need to get things right or, to at least, have things around her go right. She has a need to be good and she feels like she has some control over that.

When I was reading the scripts, I had no idea what was going to happen. I feel that Rachel would come to the job thinking she knows what she should do, but in fact Chris throws away the rule book. It still makes sense but anything can happen if the rules go out the door and she has no control over that. Things will not get done the ‘right’ way and in some ways that’s life. It’s her awakening and her reactions to that, and how she deals with that that I was drawn to.

Who is Rachel?

Rachel is a new police trainee with all that fiery sense of righteousness and eagerness to do things by the book. That sensibility doesn't really take into account the many variables that come along when you're doing a job like this. So much can change because you're dealing with human beings, and they're not predictable and I think that's something to do with her need to do things right and have control - possibly because there are other areas of her life that she doesn’t have control over.

What is her job?

Rachel is a police night responder, which means that anything that happens at night she could get called to with her partner. At first she’s working with Phil, and then she’s partnered with Chris and they never know what they’re walking into at any given time. So despite hearing the basics over the radio when she arrives at a scene there can be so many other factors at play that no job is ever what it seems. That’s exciting to her but also terrifying.

How does her personal life conflict with her professional life?

Rachel doesn’t have much control, if any, in her personal life. We see her home life contrast greatly with her professional life when she pushes back against Chris and keeps on trying to do the right thing every time. It's heartbreaking to then see her not being able to do that at home. We see her unable to stand up to her father, so there is a pattern emerging that she’s being belittled by significant males in her life and you have to ask what drove her to become a responder.

We see her at work trying to have control over at least one aspect of her life.

Where do we find Rachel at the beginning of the series?

When Rachel first meets Chris, she's already heard the stories about him and has decided that she doesn't like him. She’s also weirdly drawn to him and in that sense she’s curious and can’t help asking questions about him. They end up in a high-intensity situation where she and her partner Phil are under attack and Chris comes to their rescue. Her partner is off the job for a few weeks so she ends up partnered with Chris - much to their mutual disdain.

When they become partners, Chris and Rachel can't hide from each other. She can't get away from him and you can feel that in the tension that exists between them. They're in the car together when responding to situations and they have no choice but to go in together. She feels drawn to him probably because in a way there are similarities between them. They don't necessarily want to like each other but they do kind of get each other as time goes along.

What is Rachel’s journey and how does she develop?

She experiences an awakening, influenced by Chris, when she realizes the people she's dealing with are human beings too. She also learns very quickly that she has no idea what Chris is going to do next, which is evident in the situations they find themselves in. She realizes that who she is and the decisions she makes are more important than always doing things the way she thinks they should be done, because life just isn't linear.

By the end of the series she comes to the conclusion that her job and life are actually very complicated, and if she does things by the book all of the time, yet isn’t happy or proud of her decisions, then what is the point?

What is unique about The Responder in the crime drama genre?

I think what's unique is the extremely poignant relationships between the characters. The Responder explores Chris’ mental health and what that means for him on a daily basis. Doing a job like his shows he can function on the outside but can be breaking down on the inside, and he’s just searching for that life raft to hold him up. But still, he gets up every day and goes out to do the job.

Rachel does too, and we see them interact with the people they meet through the job who on the surface appear to be the law breakers, but in fact they are breaking down too, just trying to get by, and it is society that has failed them. While it falls into the crime genre, it’s more about relationships and resilience and the comedy and the darkness that come out of those relationships which makes it exciting.

How did you find working with director Tim Mielants?

Tim Mielants is a brilliant actor's director, who is so collaborative. When I had my recall audition I emerged really wanting to work with him because he made me forget I was in an audition and we just had loads of fun. The notes he gives are sometimes completely wild and bonkers and the opposite of what you think is on the page but they all work and he pulls an even better performance out of the actor because of them.

Did you do much research to prepare for the character of Rachel?

I didn't actually have to do any preparation for Rachel because it was all in the script. I did explore what kind of training someone like her would do and figured out how she would be feeling when she starts on the job. I wanted to feel as confident as she would be feeling to do a job like this, but in terms of the actual character she was all there on the page.

Is Rachel a different character to ones you've played before?

Rachel is definitely very different to any character I've ever played before which was so appealing. I loved the idea that, by society’s standard, Rachel can be both a victim of crime and an enforcer of the law. She’s in denial that she needs to address things in her personal life and there’s a fight in her that she just won’t give up or let go of. In her professional life a trainee would usually listen to their superior, but her judgement has been tainted by rumours about Chris. Despite this she keeps on pushing back against his actions, sometimes at risk to her own safety.

What is it like to wear a police uniform?

Putting the uniform on was so stressful and I really don't know how they get around let alone do the job. Putting on a police uniform is like putting on ten layers of rice bags - there's so much going on! I take my hat off to them because there’s a lot going on, and those heavy boots. I had to run up the steps of building and it really felt like I was running in slow motion because I had all this police kit on me. However, it is true that when you put it on and push your shoulders back it really does help you feel authoritative and very much in character.

What do you think The Responder will offer audiences?

I hope audiences will be thoroughly entertained, completely gripped. I think the rapid shifts between comedy and terror will be interesting to watch, and I think seeing these characters in authentic situations struggling, dealing and getting through - sometimes winning, sometimes losing - is very attractive to watch.

Interview with Emily Fairn 

Emily Fairn plays Casey

How did you come to be involved with The Responder?

I graduated from drama school in July 2020, during the pandemic, so my final year play got cancelled. I already had an agent and was doing the odd self-tape here and there but nothing was happening at the time. Then in October my agent rang to say she’d heard about this Liverpool-based drama that was on the horizon and the producers wanted me to audition for the role of a young heroin addict. I really loved the sound of the character Casey, and after three rounds of auditions I was told I had the part.

What was it about Tony Schumacher’s script that appealed to you?

I remember when I first read episode one there was a particular scene between Marco and Chris in the police car, and I recall laughing out loud and thinking this is so unsentimental and so very typically Scouse. It felt so different to other television shows out there, and I just thought it was the best thing ever.

What was your reaction after learning that you would be playing a lot of your scenes alongside Martin Freeman?

I thought it was absolutely insane. I had to do a zoom chemistry-read with him, and I remember logging on in my bedroom thinking that this was the biggest day of my life. I was trying to act out the scene and all I could think about was, that’s Martin Freeman’s house, and, what’s that on his wall? At the end of the meeting when I pressed ‘Leave Meeting’ I burst into tears thinking, wow this is my life - how mad was that.

On my first day my first scene was me by myself, which was terrifying, and the second was me and Martin in a police car together which was also the first time I met him. He had his mask on and was in police uniform so I thought he was a real policeman and I didn’t recognise him. I didn’t want to sit in my trailer so I sat on the side of the road just watching everything that was going on.

Did you get any acting tips or advice from Martin?

From my very first day on set, I wanted to be like a sponge with Martin and just watch everything he did. Tim Mielants asked Martin how he liked to structure his takes/notes and Martin told him how he liked to work, so when it was my turn and Tim asked me how I liked to take notes etc I just copied Martin. He was so encouraging with me and told me all about his first acting jobs and said that I could ask him anything I liked which was just as well because when the first AD called for a ‘crew show’ I didn’t know what that meant. He was sound and I felt in such safe hands, which was a relief.

How did you find working with director, Tim Mielants?

I remember my first audition with Tim, as well as his reaction when he realised I was actually from Liverpool and a proper Scouser. He was so much fun to work with and he totally threw himself into the job. My favourite moment with Tim on set was when Martin and I were in the police car, driving round in circles doing the scene, and I had to be being horrible to him. Tim had squeezed himself into the boot and was giving us notes and every time we hit a bump or go round a bend you’d hear this yelp from the boot. It was hilarious. I remember when we finished the scene he said it felt like he was in the car with a real drug addict - which was good… I think.

What is Casey’s story and where do we find her at the beginning of The Responder?

Casey is a 19 year-old from Liverpool who's sleeping rough in the town center. She's a pretty serious heroin addict. We first meet her when Chris is searching for her at the request of the big bad drug dealer Karl Sweeney. At the point Chris doesn’t know why Karl wants to see Casey but it can’t be good news for her. It turns out that Casey has robbed all of Karl’s cocaine, and intends to sell it on.

Chris does find her, but when he discovers what she’s done he puts her on a train to Leeds to get away from Karl. Chris and Casey's relationship is a kind of father-daughter relationship that she doesn't want. That's a really uncomfortable and sad thing about their relationship because Chris is probably the most consistent person in her life. She says at one point that she’s known him for four years which means she’s been living like that and not doing so well since she was 15. He does look out for her but she pushes back against that at times, and yet she desperately needs his help.

What research did you do for this role?

I knew I didn’t want her to be a cartoon version of what was on the page, and I didn’t want her to be stereotyped, so I watched lots of documentaries. There are so many real Casey’s out there that I wanted to be true to her. It wouldn’t be fair to all those real Caseys if I didn’t play her realistically so that was my main objective. She is a person dealing with a real problem that affects lots of people, and I wanted to play not just the junkie or the homeless side of Casey, because I didn’t feel that was fair.

I also wanted to really look at her physical reactions to the time between her hits and look at what her body and mind would be doing to her in those moments. If she’d taken a hit recently then she would be sleepy and very chilled out, but if it was four or five hours between hits then she would become more fidgety when she’s coming off the drugs. One of the things I found useful came from one of the other actors who remembered me from a zoom meeting and described me, Emily, as ‘fizzy', which I thought was interesting. I am bubbly person, a bit jittery and a bit fizzy so I used all that to translate Casey’s behaviour.

What physical changes did you go through to become Casey?

The make-up team is insanely talented so much so that when I went for my make-up test I started crying when I saw what they had created. They also shaved the side of my head, which was a bit mad. I looked in the mirror and could see my eyes and face looking back at me but it really didn’t look like me. If I saw that face on the street I would feel very sorry for her and want to know that she was ok.

It’s not a far stretch to imagine that if I’d taken a completely different road in life, and didn't do what I'm now doing, that could have been me. Casey probably hasn’t looked in the mirror for ages and has no idea what she looks like anymore, which I thought was really interesting. I do think underneath the façade she is extremely vulnerable.

How would you describe Marco and Casey's relationship?

Marco and Casey are two peas in a pod, but one's a mushy pea and the other’s a petit-pois! They’re together but really not meant to be together. He can be really lovely and sweet and she’s like a goblin to him, but he's always still there bouncing around with her. We get the impression that Marco is starting to think about Casey in a different way, but she’s not there. She’s never been in love and it’s not on her radar either. However, despite his actions earlier in the series when he tells Karl where to find her, he does really stand up for her later, which choked me up when I read it in the script. Josh who plays Marco is brilliant and we had a ball together. We take the mick out of each other all the time and we proper get on.

What do you think people will like about Casey?

I want the audience to see the real person in Casey and not just the drug addict. I want mums of young addicts to see their daughters. I really want her vulnerability to come out, and how scared she is living her life. But in the same breath I want audiences to see how fearless she is too. I don't think she's afraid of death. One of the amazing things about her is that she’s on the edge of being so liberated yet at the same time trapped and scared. It’s almost like she’s on fire, she’s so alive and that’s what I want people to connect with.

How would you describe The Responder?

I think all the scenes are electric and this whole show is just fizzing like Liverpool. It is Liverpool and it’s on fire.

Interview with Ian Hart

Ian Hart plays Carl Sweeney

How would you describe The Responder?

The Responder is watching these people who’ve got problems, who have obstacles to overcome, who have physical and emotional issues, interact with each other. Throughout you're watching real human beings, like Karl, Marco and Casey, get on with their lives.

Take Casey; she's in a dire situation but she’s not miserable. We look at the degradation, the sadness and the poverty of the situation and how she's effectively a homeless person living in an alleyway and isn't that tragic. Yes, while the situation is tragic, the individual who is living in that situation still goes and gets a pie and when she's talking to the girl behind the counter, she doesn't tell how miserable her life is. She’s not about injecting misery into the interaction. This is about real people who tend to want to see some positive in their day-to-day existence, even if that day-to-day existence is going to get your next bag of drugs.

What made you want to be a part of this series?

This script was a page-turner that I couldn’t put down. It was like getting a really good novel from a writer that you've never heard of before, and with every page you wanted to find out more. Every character had a voice. Tony's writing makes you laugh, feel sad and it makes you feel completely engaged with a need to know where the story is going.

Tony has a unique voice, and without sounding simplistic you get a real sense of who the characters are immediately, in the same way that children’s literature hooks you in so much better and quicker than adult literature. Straightaway you are attracted to all the characters, regardless of the behaviour and the darkness they are involved with. They are all appealing as human beings, which means they’re very real. It’s not a cops and robbers drama and it doesn’t make that demarcation between good and bad people. They’re all just people, trying to make their own way through life by whatever means they can.

The script is always the jumping off-point, and when I read Tony’s scripts everything was there on the page. I knew exactly who these characters were instantaneously. I wanted to find out what their journey was going to be. Tony writes in a way that you are in no doubt as to who a character is, and because none of us are playing stereotypes, or in my case the typical arch criminal. The characters are multi-dimensional; everyone is human, and it isn’t hard to play human. It’s actually one of the easiest qualities to pick up because you can ditch all the extraneous archetypes. It was a real pleasure to work on this show.

Who is Carl and how does he fit into the story?

Carl is a small-time drug dealer and a grafter who’s just trying to get by. He’s not some huge criminal mastermind. He's just a fella who buys and sells things, including drugs, and the odd car that someone else's cousin used to own. He lives in a very modest environment and it’s just like everywhere else in the world - people know each other from school or college and go in different directions. With Carl and Chris – one has ended up a cop and the other is definitely not a cop but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a relationship of sorts. In an odd way they are friends, and they could argue about the morality of who has who in whose pocket, but that’s not what Tony does. We just address them as two individuals trying to make the best of the bad things that happen in life.

What is Carl’s relationship to Casey?

Casey is one of the most engaging characters in the script. I've not worked with Emily before but she's absolutely fabulous and I adore her character. Casey comes along and fortuitously for her picks up a big bag full of drugs. She doesn't know what to do with them because that amount of cocaine equals a lot of money, and very few people can handle that distribution. That’s where Carl comes in to play, because they are his drugs and obviously he owes money to somebody else. He drags Chris into it because he wants him to do his dirty work and pick up Casey for him and that’s a cop sort of thing to do. If he gets his drugs back, he will be able to pay off his debt and not get killed and everyone will be happy. Casey being Casey though doesn’t play ball, and none of what plays out is ever what you think might happen.

How does the character of Carl develop?

I don't think Carl is that bright, but let's not underestimate how pressurised it must be to be a drug dealer. Can you imagine the tension of always having the possibility of going to prison or being killed or having your drugs stolen? That stress must be immense, and yet he’s still trying to run a business. Carl is a businessman, and while the product that he buys and sells is illegal, the dynamics of what he is doing is very similar to other businesses.

Can you tell us about Carl's set up with Ian and Barry?

Everyone thinks they've got someone slightly lower down the totem pole. It's again just ego. And, you know, the thing is he's got someone above him and they've got someone above them. That's always the power dynamic in any kind of any kind of relationship, and Carl thinks Ian and Barry are knob heads. Everyone needs to earn a living. They're getting paid for what they do, and keep turning up for work, even though they're disenchanted with their job and their boss, they still turn up on Monday morning. It's what they do. These two fellas are probably thinking Carl is an absolute waste of space and he is useless at what he does and he's lost everything, but still turn up on Monday. What we're doing today then? Robbing cars, OK yeah, smashing, let's rob cars. Substitute the function of a workplace environment for an alternate workplace environment and on any other given day, Casey would be the manager of Topshop or something.

Are Chris and Carl friends?

We understand that Chris and Carl go way back. I don't know what happened to most of the people I went to school with, but I imagine they all went in very different ways. It’s the same for Chris and Carl. If you don’t judge or ask certain questions then you won’t ever know what your friends do. Tony has a way of writing each character in a manner that they aren’t judged by what they do. It's quite believable for two people who are on either side of that sort of divide to still be friends - what Tony has done is undermine that divide.

Policemen are human too and the things they see and have to do must have a negative impact on them emotionally and psychologically. It’s wrong to assume that by going to police training college for 16 weeks that you are guaranteed a work-life free of pain and suffering because that’s just not true to life. Carl doesn’t take Chris's mental state into account and he neither intellectualizes it nor emotionally connects with it. He thinks Chris is just having a wobbly. It’s just not high on Carl’s agenda. His way of dealing with bad days is to say, “have a pint or a line lad” which is why things probably catch up with you, because you don't deal with the long-term implications of your actions. For Chris there are a lot of implications to his actions. Things that have happened in his family; things that have happened in his work and they’re catching up with him - whereas Carl avoids that.

How was it working with Martin Freeman?

I haven't worked with Martin before but he's a lovely fella. Most of our scenes are on the phone or shouting through a car window and the likes, but he’s been professional, kind, courteous and lovely.

How is Martin’s Scouse accent?

God he's great at it! He's played an American, a Scotsman so why would this be any different? People think that somehow it's impenetrable, like you got to start learning Taiwanese but it's not that hard. It's just like singing you just have to learn the melody and then the tune.

What was it like working with director Tim Mielants?

I’d worked with Tim before so I knew his style, which is to do things his own way, which is a very good thing. He’s hilarious, and what Tim's more interested in is engaging the audience in something they may not have seen before or they're not used to seeing. Tim has incredible ideas and doesn’t want to tread the same path as other directors.

What was it like filming in Liverpool and what does it bring to the show?

Liverpool is an interesting city. I haven't lived here for quite some time and in fact I've lived in London longer than I lived in Liverpool. It's changed in those years I've been away and it was hard to work there during Covid because you can't get the same sense of the city that you would do pre-pandemic. Liverpool's got its own flavour and while you could have set this drama anywhere, it would not be the same because of the uniqueness of Liverpool.

How is that reflected in the dialogue and the dialect?

Tony has a real ear for writing dialogue that feels fresh and almost like it’s another language. It almost feels like it’s a subsection of the English, in that the Liverpool dialect has its own rhythm and punctuation that is a lot of swearing. Where you place an expletive in a sentence changes the dynamic of the sentence. If you remove it because someone might be offended by it the result is a change in the structure of the sentence and how it’s intended to be received by the audience.

What Tony has done is keep the language alive with its unique rhythmic patterns and it’s in every line of the script. It has unique idiomatic speech patterns and if you don't invest in that then you're only getting a percentage of the story. A ‘baghead’ - heroin addict - is an expression that probably doesn't translate or doesn't travel very far but, if you said a heroin addict it becomes utilitarianism as a descriptive term. It undermines what you're trying to do. It has to be a ‘baghead’ because ‘baghead’ means something that a heroin addict doesn't. It’s those kinds of observations that make the script unique and not just a cop drama.

Why is it important to include Chris' time in therapy in this drama?

The police need the services that they're offered, because the job they do can be horrific. They get called out and may have to break down a door and there's a dead body or get called to a horrific road traffic accident or they might have watched some brutal individual mutilate and kill people. It's a horrific position to put oneself in and the expectation to be constantly strong is an unrealistic one. Of course, that has to have consequences and repercussions for their mental health and that needs to be taken care of. It's traumatic and trauma has a way of biting back if you don't deal with it.

How do you think The Responder will be perceived internationally?

I think it will do well outside of the UK because there's no prejudice. What Tony is doing is not apologizing for these characters and their reality. International audiences will be open to receiving the story without any pre-conceived ideas about Liverpool.

Interview with Josh Finan

Josh Finan plays Marco

What was it about Tony Schumacher’s script that made you want to be a part of The Responder?

When I first started reading the script it felt very familiar straight off the bat, and packed full with phrases and idioms that are inherently from Liverpool and Merseyside in a way that I had not seen before on television. The characters Tony has created just felt very real, identifiable and made me laugh a lot.

Who is Marco?

Marco is a young lad who has found himself adrift socially. He is walking on a bit of a knife-edge and is on the brink of messing up his life entirely. He is involved on the fringes of petty criminality, dealing in a bit of weed and selling anything he gets his hands on. We see how Marco’s vulnerability is taken advantage of by the bigger gangsters and hard men operating in the neighbourhood. He also feels the weight of certain social forces upon him are far too great for him to really be able to do anything about. Yet, in spite of all that, he is incredibly emotionally resilient and trying to keep it together by being cheeky and clever. He tries to be a good version of himself but often that's made impossible by the kinds of social forces that are weighing upon him all the time.

What does Marco represent as a character?

At first, you may think you’ve met Marco before, but what Tony does quite cleverly is to give him a beating heart. All the posturing and attempts at being hyper masculine is really not Marco at all. The Marco you meet at the beginning is not the Marco we see at the end. He becomes more nuanced by the end of the series and the complexity of Tony’s scripts really shines through by then too. It’s a gift of a script for actors. It’s not only fun because of the humorous dialogue Tony has written but there’s an added layer of complexity in the way these characters speak and interact with each other that is unique to Liverpool, and tracking those moments is a genuine gift.

What is the relationship like between Chris and Marco?

That depends largely on how either of them woke up that morning. It can be volatile one minute, and the next cheeky and playful. It's like there's a constant game going on between them on who can get one over on the other. Usually Chris wins. It was a lot of fun to be around Martin to play all those dynamics out. There are a lot of negative, destructive and toxic male forces in Marco’s life. However, Chris, despite his flaws and problems, is one of the most positive forces in Marco’s world and he feels reasonably comfortable in Chris’ company.

In terms of their personal lives, they’re both dads who aren’t doing that job as well as they want to. Marco would love to be a better, more present dad, but can’t, for a lot of practical reasons. We get the impression Chris feels similarly about his daughter. There’s a moment in the first episode where we think they might talk about this thing they have in common but that’s quickly shut down. Tony cleverly lets us see there is potential for them to build a conversation, then snatches it away from us. He plants little seeds of hope that don’t deliver, and that’s the quality in this drama that makes you lean in as an actor and hopefully as a viewer.

What’s it like working with Martin Freeman?

I was fascinated to see Martin playing this character. He's an incredibly versatile actor and played a wide variety of wildly different characters that seem to me to be extremely truthful. I was very excited to see what he was going to do with the role of Chris. Working with him was honestly a quality learning experience and really fun and dynamic. He brought something different to every single take which keeps things fresh and alive, not to mention he always turned up having done his homework.

What research did you undertake to play the role of Marco?

There's something I always do when I get a script which is to read it over quite a few times. Once I’ve done that, I go back over it again with a fine-tooth comb and jot down all the questions that pop into my head. I write down facts that appear in the lines of the script that I know to be definite. It’s all there on the page and I just need to unlock it. I was already familiar with the territory and the nature of the young lads represented on the page. I always like to think of a wide spectrum of possible things that could reasonably happen in a scene along with ways in which the lines could represent what’s going on in the character’s head. I’ve found that working with Martin and Emily that process was almost quite easy to do and a lot of fun things happened naturally which was cool.

What is the relationship like between Marco and Casey?

When we meet Marco and Casey it's clear they've got some sort of shared history together. Emily and I talked about it quite a lot on our first day and decided that it was probably likely that they would have hung out a little bit growing up. Casey obviously goes in one direction and Marco goes in another. They still cross paths, but they've both got their own things going on. When you have those sorts of friendships as a kid, getting wrecked together or doing what kids do, there's a fondness there. In his circles though, there’s quite a misogynistic view of women who are addicted to smack and reluctantly and sadly, Marco resigns himself to that viewpoint too. What we see throughout the series however is Marco and Casey trying to get back to having that fondness, that mutual admiration, again between them.

What does Emily Fairn bring to the role of Casey?

Emily Fairn is an amazing natural performer who can effortlessly play curious and playful. She is also one of the best listeners, which was important since we were playing characters that were so closely entwined. We were on the same page about where our characters had come from and where they were going. It was a real pleasure to work with her. We had a lot of fun.

What was it like to film in Liverpool?

Filming in Liverpool was class for loads of reasons. I was both nervous and excited because it’s the first job I’ve filmed in my home city. I stayed with my mum and dad prior to filming for the quarantine period and I got picked up and was driven a stone's throw away start work. We filmed in Lark Lane and Toxteth and it was just great to see all the unit vans and camera equipment. There were always a lot of locals watching us working which was really lovely. I often talk to people who aren’t from Liverpool about Liverpool, and sometimes think I romanticise the Scouse sense of humour, but actually working in Liverpool in particular and seeing the support of the locals was a brilliant experience. It was really class.

Why is the humour so important within the show?

There's a lot of humour that bursts out of the script and is deployed quite cleverly. Humour is part and parcel of the DNA of Liverpool and Tony couldn’t have written it any other way. There's a lot of different types of humour in the show too which is specific Scouse humour. Then there is the broader kind of gallows humour that exists within these characters who are pushed to the edge and can't deal with what's been given to them in any other way but with humour. They have to crack a joke or be sarcastic because, in Marco’s case for example, it’s a lifeline and partly one of the reasons he hasn’t had his head kicked in.

In the drama we use it as a tool and it helps with the pathos of the show. If you get audiences laughing and caring about the lives and personalities of these characters, then later on down the line, they’ll be rooting for them.

Did you have a favourite moment on set?

One of my favourite moments was actually my first day on the job when I got picked up from my mum and dad's and taken to the set. I hopped out of the car in my costume and I just launched into running my lines and blocking with Tim and Martin. I remember thinking it was all coming together and it was better than I ever thought it would be.

What would you like audiences to get from watching this show?

I was thinking about what The Responder is, and what audiences might take away from it that's perhaps different to what they've seen before. What Tony has created is a drama that’s full of characters who are from vastly different walks of life and who go through really extreme experiences, as well as the more mundane. Scousers have often been portrayed in a certain way, often as the criminal or the mouthy one, but in this we portray all sides of the human condition. I think it is a true reflection of Scousers.

Will The Responder resonate internationally?

Despite The Responder being located so firmly in Liverpool it’s still quite relatable in terms of its humour and universality of what humans go through on a day-to-day basis. It will feel like a very British programme which should resonate with all kinds of audiences overseas. It's not uncharted territory but it is unique territory in that it’s a spotlight on a part of the UK that doesn't always get the attention.

Why is it the right time to highlight the themes within this story?

It feels like a very modern story, not only in terms of when and where it is set and the subjects the story explores, but also in terms of its politics. It wears the costume of being a hyper masculine show, but it pulls the rug from under you. As soon as you think you know what it is, then you have these moments of real vulnerability in Martin's character that make you sit up. We also have these other archetypal gangster criminals doing something really humane and empathetic which all rock the stereotype.

In terms of the representation of the female characters in the show, the wives of the policemen and gangsters in the show have their own worlds and their own realities going on. It acknowledges the way those roles have been stereotyped in the past and comes at them with a whole new light. It shows their vulnerabilities and their nuances with just as much attention and care.

Parallel to Chris's journey we've got the character of Rachel, who's juggling as many balls as Chris is at home, but in a very different way. Then there’s Casey, whom we think we’ve seen before and know from characters in films like Trainspotting, but we soon see she is not what she seems. Casey is one of the most interesting characters in this show. She's so well crafted and well played by Emily, and Tony doesn’t shy away from the fact that these characters really exist in every city in every country in the world.

Interview with MyAnna Buring 

MyAnna Buring plays Kate Carson

How did The Responder come to your attention?

I had worked with Dancing Ledge Productions on The Salisbury Poisonings, which was such a sensitive and important story to tell, and Dancing Ledge did it so mindfully, carefully and considerately - so when this came up I knew straight away that I wanted to audition for the part.

When I read Tony's scripts, they felt incredibly fresh and I could hear his very strong voice coming through in the writing. There are a lot of really good cop dramas out there, but this comes in from a lot of different angles and that felt very new and personal. Tony's experience of policing and his experience of that world and all the characters jumped off the pages, it was really exciting and thrilling read.

What was it about the character of Kate that appealed to you?

Kate is the wife of our main character Chris, who is a police responder. When we meet Chris we see that he is having a mental health crisis and Kate is suffering just as much as him, because she's living with it too. She’s living with a man that she loves very much, but who is falling apart at the seams. They have a daughter together and Kate is trying to hold her family together throughout.

Most people have either experienced mental health issues, know of people who have mental health issues, or live with people who do. I think it's important when talking about anything to do with mental health, to also talk about the people who live with them because they are going through this too. That's what struck home for me with Kate. It really resonated and broke my heart - it still does. Chris is getting some help at work, but Kate doesn’t get any support, and that’s pretty true to life. Family members rarely get support. We begin to see Kate unravel too and that felt like an honest way to understand these characters and approach the whole area of mental health.

Where do we meet Kate in the series?

We first meet Kate and Chris at a dark point in their relationship. Chris has been suffering for a long time, while Kate is trying to be supportive. She’s been holding things together but is desperate to have her husband back. I think what's so hard for her is that she thinks if she just holds on for a bit longer, he’ll get better. However, the crucial thing about mental health in lots of cases is that you give so much, walk on eggshells for so long and find yourself in these deep, dark holes before suddenly realising that it might never get better. That's where we find Kate and Chris.

She’s also lonely and just wants to be held for once, as opposed to be holding all the time. We do know that she loves Chris and wants nothing more than to have the man she married back, so for her it’s not the case that this relationship is over. That’s what makes it so sad.

How was it working with Martin Freeman?

I’d never worked with Martin before and it was a lovely experience. This is a hard and challenging show to lead because what Chris is going through is so traumatic, but Martin just did it with ease and great humour.

How important is it to bring the humour to what is serious subject matter?

The humour that underpins this subject matter is what's wonderful about Tony's writing. The story is dark and heavy with emotional undercurrents but that witty Liverpool humour undercuts and helps people through the darkness, which is very true to life if my experience of Liverpool is anything to go by.

It’s been fantastic to make a show in Liverpool that is so Liverpudlian in its DNA. There seems to be a lot filming in Liverpool at the moment and it's such a great place to shoot. There are so many wonderful locations and an array of different styles of buildings. Each area of Liverpool feels so incredibly different and the people here are fantastic.

Kate’s friendships are also put to the test - how were those scenes to play?

Friends are our support in life when things get hard, but there’s not a lot of evidence in the script to suggest that Kate is supported by her family, nor does she seem to have loads of other friends buzzing around except for Ellie.

Mullen (Warren Brown) is married to Kate’s best friend Ellie (Kerry Hayes) - I’ve worked with Kerry and Warren previously so the three of us had a history of knowing and working with each other, which really helped which we use in the story.

Tony is really good at presenting the ambiguity of both his characters and their morals in his writing. That's always what actors look for and what’s thrilling when you find it. That's always what you want to play. You know, if it's not there in the writing, then you're desperately trying to scramble to create it yourself. If it is there in the writing, which it absolutely is here, then it's just a joy. It makes your life really easy because you come to work and you just you turn up and you play.

How was working with Tim Mielants?

Tim Mielants is just a joyous director who makes it all seem easy and fun. He's very caring and his direction is really thought through. He often gives quite surprising and contradictory notes just to see what might happen, and the outcome is always wonderful. It’s been a job where every member of the production team has been very present. All our crew from make-up and costume to the props team have really brought this script to life with the finest details, right down to Kate and Chris’ wedding photo.

How was it taking on the accent?

We worked with an amazing voice coach called Helen Ashton. What I found worked for me was to stay in the accent for as long as possible before a take. That helped me get the sound and right sort of placement of my mouth. I also learnt all my lines phonetically so that when I got to work I wasn’t really thinking about it. I really like the sound of the Liverpool accent - it feels like rocking

What do you think audiences will find appealing about the show?

I think the main thing that’s appealing about The Responder is the rich plethora of characters that Tony has created. They are interesting and surprising and the audience will go on a great journey getting to know all of them. There are so many police shows out there because we all love them, but this is a really different take on the genre. It comes from very different and personal angles that allow a certain amount of ambiguity. It makes us question who's wrong and who's right. We watch the characters really tussle with the sense of right and wrong and I think that's going to be really exciting for an audience to watch.

Interview with Warren Brown

Warren Brown plays Ray Mullen

What was it about Tony Schumacher's script that made you want to play the character of Ray Mullen?

I read the first three scripts and thought it was fantastic. On the surface it’s a crime drama, but at its core it's an examination of the human condition, of relationships and of a man's life spiraling out of control. The scripts and this world that Tony has created is very, very real. One of the things that interested me about Ray is the fact that he's not well liked. I've played the good guys and to play somebody like Ray was interesting to delve into. Scripts, like this one, grab your attention immediately.

How different does it feel to other crime dramas out there?

I’ve been in a couple of crime dramas and as an actor you do always want to try to make as much varied work as possible, but Tony’s scripts really stood out. It’s largely based on a lot of experiences that happened to Tony when he was a responder, and it feels very raw in that respect. His story is a heck of a story and a lot of that is encompassed in the script. It's focused on the central character of Chris Carson, played by the magnificent Martin Freeman, but all the characters dotted around in this world were all so well laid out and believable.

Who is Ray Mullen?

Ray Mullen is a police officer, and we soon learn that there’s a bit of history between him and Chris. He’s watching Chris and you can see straight from the off that he's clearly got it in for Chris. His sole mission is to go after Chris and do anything and manipulate anyone he can to bring him down. We will learn more as the story progresses why that is.

Is Ray uniformed police?

Ray is a plain-clothes policeman, and on the surface it might appear to others that he is a detective, and we do see him playing on that with Rachel. She's under the impression that he's a more senior police officer, and we find out later that he tries to manipulate her in order to get information on Chris. His deception and underhand tactics may well come back to bite him.

What was it like to work with Martin Freeman?

Martin was amazing to work with and his Scouse accent is fantastic. I'm a huge fan of his and think he's a phenomenal actor. He also happens to be the nicest guy in the world so another challenge for me was to hate him. It’s really difficult to hate Martin Freeman.

Have you worked with MyAnna Buring before?

We worked together about 10 years ago when we did a Miss Marple in Cape Town, which was a wonderful experience. She's a wonderful actor and a wonderful person. So that was great to be able to just jump straight into it again with these characters.

What does setting the drama in Liverpool bring to the show?

Liverpool is a very different city to somewhere like London, where quite a lot of crime dramas are set. Fundamentally, it had to be set in Liverpool because it’s Tony's story and his life experience is in Liverpool. Although it’s quintessentially Scouse, ultimately it's about humans and human relationships and so I think no matter where you are in the world people can relate to that and how the pressures of work and the pressures of life affect the other.

Why is the story ready to be told now and why is it relevant?

For the last few years I've been involved in a few campaigns about raising awareness around mental health. After the last two years we have all gone through now, more than ever, conversations about mental health are very important. Certainly, speaking as a man from a working-class background we don't really show our feelings. I think that now in society that is encouraged and is more acceptable to talk about it and I think that's vital. So many people have been really badly affected by the pandemic and I think it's really important that people are encouraged to talk about their mental health. Not asking for help is not ok anymore.

Programme Information

• Episode one
• Episode two
• Episode three
• Episode four