Come Monday we will all be feeling the Broadchurch blues, so how about sharpening your detective skills with a new seafront crime drama? Set in Brighton, DCI Banks actress Lorraine Burroughs stars opposite Jodhi May (I, Anna) in ITV's haunting thriller The Ice Cream Girls (Friday, 9pm) about a teenage friendship torn apart by an abusive and manipulative teacher.
Popular, outgoing 16-year-old Serena Gorringe comes from a successful background but grows up awfully fast when she strikes up a relationship with her maths teacher Marcus Halnsley, especially when his loving attentiveness evaporates to reveal a shady, controlling character. Through Marcus, Serena meets Poppy Carlisle - an 18-year-old waitress from the wrong side of the tracks, whose bad-tempered stepdad has no patience for her. But their fledgling union is blown apart when Marcus is murdered and the two girls end up on trial. Poppy is convicted but Serena gets off and now, seventeen years later, both return to Brighton and come face-to-face for the first time.
RadioTimes.com caught up with Lorraine (who plays Serena) for a chat about dealing with a dark past, filming in chilly Dublin and why The Ice Cream Girls isn't any old crime drama...
What first attracted you to your role in The Ice Cream Girls?
I think it was the challenge of playing a part with two faces and this huge secret that only a few people know.
What was it like working with Jodhi May (who plays Poppy Carlisle)?
I'd not met Jodhi before so that was quite exciting. It worked quite well for the characters because they'd been apart all these years, growing into women and not being in each other's lives and we had no history between us as actors. The scenes where they first meet each other after seventeen years were shot on our first day of filming so it was scary having to play all these emotions with someone you'd just met.
The Ice Cream Girls is based on a novel by Dorothy Koomson - had you read it before you began filming?
No, I hadn't and then I purposefully chose not to read it because sometimes you can read a novel and it's slightly different to the script and it can change your perspective so you make prejudged decisions. Then when you get on set, the decisions you made from the novel don't quite fit with what the script editor's chosen to focus on. In the book I have two children but it's nice just having a daughter [Vee] in our adaptation because the connection in their relationship is really focused.
Did you end up having a mother/daughter relationship with actress Dominique Jackson who plays Vee?
We instantly had this crazy bond. I'm not a mum - I'd have to have been ten or something to give birth to her - but something happened and we both believed in and created it. She really looked up to me as a mixed race actress. She was like my shadow the whole time we were on set and I love her for it. She's the funniest little actress I've ever met.
Your character, Serena, has a perfect life on the surface - enjoying a comfortable existence with her husband and daughter - but she's troubled on the inside by a dark secret she hasn't shared with either of them. Was that difficult to convey?
It was hard. The majority of my acting was within and it was so draining, but good because it meant I really felt it. You have to literally walk around with this fret inside you all the time. I realised I was holding my breath a lot of the time because I was was doing what I would do if I was panicking about someone finding out a huge secret that cannot be exposed. After one of the takes I nearly passed out - I remember having to hold on to the side of the kitchen counter!
Did you and Georgina [Campbell who plays young Serena] spend time discussing the character you were both playing?
We only did it after we'd finished filming. It was difficult because we weren't ever together physically at the same time and then it got to a point when I thought maybe we weren't meant to do that. I'm meant to have what I've got in my head as the older Serena and she's got younger Serena and I think it worked.
So how has Serena changed in the seventeen years since the trial?
When you see her as a younger character, she's far more confident. She's a leader and she's too grown up for her own age. I think the break away from Brighton has made her more self-aware, not as confident within herself, and a little bit more timid than when she was younger.
What about her relationship with her sister, Fez?
It's not the best relationship - they're polar opposites. Serena's the cooler cat of the two while Fez was left to look after their mum with no relationships on the horizon. She's a little bit fed up with Serena as it's always been about her. She's got this perfect life and family and yet she's still causing havoc.
But a lot of Serena's repression of her secret is down to her mother and sister...
Definitely. Her moving away and going to university was all planned by her family. If Serena had had her way she would probably have stuck around and tried to understand it, but I think she came around to their way of thinking and understood it was the best thing for her to do at that time.
And what about Serena's teenage relationship with her teacher, Marcus - was he genuinely in love with her or using her as an innocent girl he could abuse?
I think he was. He didn't set out to harm her or have this ridiculously abusive relationship. He lost control of himself and was crazily in love with her and at points thought he was helping her, which does not excuse it in any way, but I do think that he had truthful feelings for her.
Did Martin Compson find it hard to play a character who was so dark and manipulative?
He found it pretty tough, also because he's the age he is and Georgina's younger. It's not really fun but he just committed to the character and went for it.
Although The Ice Cream Girls is set in sunny Brighton, you filmed on the beaches in Dublin - was there lots of sunbathing or were you all wrapping up warm?
It was freezing cold! I remember there being mornings when it was pitch black with grey waves that looked like they could cover your trailer. It was crazy but perfect for the setting. There was a day when we had to do scenes with me walking along the beach and I'm getting flashbacks of when I was there with Marcus. That day was the darkest, gloomiest weather and the sea was roaring - for me it was so perfect for what to think about and what was bubbling away inside me. I hardly had to do any emotional work because it just took me there straight away.
In The Ice Cream Girls you and Jodhi play two detailed female leads exploring issues experienced by women - was that something you were glad to have been given the chance to do?
Definitely. Jodhi and I sat there on our first day of filming and said, "Oh my god, it's just us two. There's no man..." It doesn't really happen and with race as well, it's brilliant and such a joy to be given that massive responsibility. I think we both just took it by the horns and ran with it. We felt really blessed to be given those roles.
We see a lot of crime dramas on TV - why is this one different to the rest?
This is different because it's very personal with a delicate subject and it's a one-off because of the class difference between these girls, but then it's also got huge twists in it so it's very gripping...
