As the days get shorter and the nights colder, there’s something deeply satisfying about bingeing on a great British crime series.
Long a fan of Unforgotten, and the incomparable Nicola Walker in the lead role as Cassie, I – and fans of the show – were rightly curious about how a new female lead would step into DCI Stuart’s oh-so-sensible shoes.
Enter Sinéad Keenan as DCI Jessica James, a woman with personal issues of her own to deal with while having to solve a puzzling cold case. Human remains are discovered in a newly renovated period property in Hammersmith, London. But how long have they been there and is this a murder dating back to the 1930’s or has the body been disposed of in more recent times?
Here’s an interview with Keenan on the role and the series.
Tell us a little bit about Jess.
“Jess is the new DCI. She was a fast-tracked cop, one of these ones who have a degree and can skip a few levels. She is very good at her job, very ambitious, and has a promotion. She’s got a husband, two children, perfect life. And then she starts this new job, and on the first day she gets some news on the way to work that completely blindsides her that has implications in terms of how she is at her job. So that’s simmering in the background.”
How does she get through that day?
“I mean, the timing is appalling, let alone anything else. It’s dogged determination to get through the day. And it’s a big day! It’s an awful lot to contend with, to take in, and what should have been a nice couple of easy days launching into a new job, are ruined.”
How do you see her reception from Sunny and the team?
“Naturally, they’re all grieving and they don’t want a new DCI. They want Cassie. They want Cassie to be there. And that’s as it should be. And so, whoever comes into that role of course, they’re going to be reticent about them, and she will be compared to, you know, the incomparable. The bar is so high with Cassie. I wouldn’t say it’s a cold reception by any means, but it is an adjustment for them, and they’re finding their way as well. But also, added to that, she’s doing a bit of a rubbish job, because her whole life…the tectonic plates have shifted for her. She’s not where she should be head wise, because she is good at her job, but she is not showing them that. So to add insult to injury, they’ve lost the brilliant Cassie, and they’ve got this eejit coming in who doesn’t seem to be on the ball.”
How did you feel when you were joining the team?
“If you’re at the start of something, you’re all in together and you’re all running blind a bit. You’re doing your best work, you’re hoping people will like it, but you’re all in the same boat. When you come into an established show, it’s very, very different. And obviously I’d seen the show, and Nicola is brilliant, so I was initially reticent about even reading the scripts. But then I read the scripts, and they were brilliant.
“When I spoke to my agent she said, ‘Apparently it’s really lovely job,’ and I was like, ‘Okay, you’re just trying to sell this now.’ My fear was, that I didn’t want to be filling a Cassie-shaped hole. But obviously, Chris Lang has created a completely different character with their own storyline, and it’s great. So I was very glad to have been wrong, essentially. And the whole team behind Unforgotten is really lovely, I have not had an experience like that on any set. It was so smooth. And I could not have been made to feel more welcome. Which was really lovely. So I’m very lucky.”
And how’s it been working with Sanjeev Bhaskar?
“He is one of the nicest, if not the nicest man in showbiz. We started filming in March, and I had a message from him in the October through Twitter, a lovely message – because we have worked very, very briefly before in a show called Porters, we had one tiny scene together. So anyway, Sanjeev sent me a lovely message, because we were due to have lunch with the producers, and he said, ‘Do you want to have a Zoom beforehand? I know it might be a bit weird for you.’ Which was very kind in and of itself. And then we eventually got around to doing it, and had a lovely chat for over an hour and he was incredibly kind, probably because he was thinking that it could feel a bit weird for whoever is coming into this. And he could not have been nicer, kinder, or more entertaining. Honest to God, in between scenes, you sit down and fold your arms and just wait for him to entertain you with his anecdotes. He’s a dream. He’s so lovely.”
And when you’re at the helm of a show like this, every series you have different guest actors coming in as the suspects or whatever. These people often look to regular cast members to welcome them and to help them out. How did you enjoy that? Did you feel the pressure from that or were you cool with that?
“To be honest, every single one of those characters, or suspects, they’re all so brilliant, and so experienced. Well, certainly the older ones. The younger ones maybe less experienced, but equally brilliant. And nobody needed any handholding or anything like that. It was just a joy to do those interview scenes. Martina used to be in Casualty, I think. You know how some people stand out, I thought, ‘God, you’re very good.’ So I got to work with her. I’d actually worked with Ian six months previously on Derry Girls, so it was lovely to see him again. Then to meet Hayley Mills, my goodness. She is just tiny, and just so beautiful. And she just looks like Pollyanna. Nothing has changed, really. She was so lovely. It was fantastic.”
Sunny, and Jess go on a journey this series. How was that to film?
“It was really lovely to film actually, because established shows like that, which could be seen as a type of procedural, a lot of the time, focus can be on the suspects and so you don’t necessarily get a huge amount of backstory with the regular cast. So to be able to eke that one out… because they start when they first meet, she’s had her news, he’s grieving. And they’re like, ‘Who are you? Why are you being rude?’ They each have stuff going on. And when they meet, it is loggerheads. It’s passive aggressive, jibes, in a way it’s jostling for position. It’s not until episode four, once the shock of her news dissipates a bit, that she really tries to get herself together. And we hope they can start working together as opposed to beside each other.”
What can you tell me about the case? More is revealed about it as time goes on.
“There’s the case, the murder, and then we find out more as we go along because nobody is without sin here; they’ve all got significant skeletons in the closet. But that’s the joy of Unforgotten. There is always something, not even episode to episode, but ad break to ad break. Like, ‘Just in case you were thinking of leaving…’ which of course you wouldn’t be. It’s very clever.”
Jess isn’t really keen on investigating this murder, because she has her own ideas about directions for the team to go in.
“When she initially comes in, like every public body at the moment and over the past however many years, it’s complex; use your money better, use it more effectively, hit these targets, or you don’t get your budget. So, as far as she’s concerned, if this is a body from 20, 30, 40 years ago, she would rather not go down that road and use the money that would inevitably be used on cases that are happening now. We need to get through the present backlog before we consider going that far back. So that’s where she’s coming from. She will be answering to her boss, then they’ll be answering to another higher power. As Chris Lang said about this series, it’s politics with a small p. All those things, policies, trickle down have implications for everyone.”
Is Jess one of those people who puts a lot of pressure on herself?
“I think she is. She would be alpha in that sense, like a high achiever. If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well – not that you would necessarily know that. But in normal times, without dealing with what she’s dealing with in her personal life, yes, that’s what she would be. If it’s not an A plus, it’s not worth it.”
Unforgotten is currently streaming on BritBox in South Africa.
