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Cast Interviews

Christopher Fulford as Jarvis

 

"Jarvis is everyone’s rock and commands total respect," says Christopher Fulford of his latest television role, which is a million miles away from his recent incarnation as a serial killer in the blockbuster attention to detail, read ES Turner’s classic historical trait, What The Butler Saw, from cover to cover. "What comes over from the book is that service was the first service industry," notes Fulford. "Mr Jarvis is really managing a gigantic hotel complex and knows all about the needs of his clients, even before they do. He is the professional’s professional. It’s a high-status job of which he can be proud, and it’s a means of self-improvement, no more, no less."

 

Jarvis’s realistic approach to his position is the right one, says Fulford, especially when we learn that his real name is Walter Cory. "The Earl renamed him because it is the tradition at Taplows that the butler is called Jarvis. One of the many breaks with received wisdom is that the butler and master aren’t personally close, despite the years they have known each other. The bottom line is that the Earl is his client, not his friend." Playing Jarvis was a challenge, acknowledges  the actor. "He’s a complex and very astute man. Despite being a cynic, he still manages to not only see the best in people but also to get the best out of them. He demands very exacting standards from his staff but we’ve got to understand how far he’s come in life. No expensive schooling for him – Jarvis would have come from very humble roots, perhaps from a small-holding somewhere. What he’s achieved is through hard work and dedication and that’s what he expects from others. Through his devotion to duty and other people, he’s gained an education both formally and in the university of life." The actor adds that he sees Jarvis as an essentially kind man. "He wants to do right by his staff, even if his footmen and his housekeeper do seriously try his patience! Whether he will ever come to terms with his more complicated feelings for Flora Ryan is anyone’s guess."

 

Orla Brady as Flora Ryan 

Flora Ryan is the senior female member of staff, permanently resident at Taplows, and in charge of all the female servants. She has considerable managerial and pastoral skills but the stresses of the job can get to her. She has chosen career and security over romance and marriage – a choice she tries not to regret.

 

"You know Flora’s never going to be the paragon of efficiency and organisation she feels she should be. She’s just not the right temperament for the job," Orla Brady says affectionately of her character. "She should be a good Catholic girl, a farmer’s wife in the West of Ireland with a brood of kids clutching at her skirts. "She does her job conscientiously and well, but there’s just that feeling that some of the pragmatic choices she’s made in her life have come back to haunt her – she has a thirst for the things beyond the mundane." Brady is full of praise for the brilliant way in which writer Lucy Gannon conveys Flora’s repressed and confused feelings for Mr Jarvis.

"She doesn’t always like him but there are heart-stopping moments between them when she longs for things to be different." And while Flora’s job brings absolute status, high pay, her own quarters and beautiful silk clothes and jewellery, Brady feels that the housekeeper is lonely in her gilded cage. "I think the defensiveness we see in her sometimes comes from a sense of disillusionment about love, men and God. Flora knows that if she had chosen another path, then she would lose her job. The masters didn’t like ‘divided loyalty’ – if you were married, you were out." Flora’s predicament reminds Brady of the situations in which women can find themselves today. "Her latent loneliness reminds me of some of the seemingly glittering senior corporate executives I’ve met when in the States: mature career women, who enjoy beautiful homes, cars and gorgeous bodies. But at the end of very long working days, they go home to an empty apartment, sentenced to being single because it’s so hard to meet prospective partners." Brady explains that she sees Flora as a kind of sheriff, trying to keep an opportunistic town of pioneers in order. "She would have managed up to 50 resident female staff, as well as the supplies from local tradesmen, and overseen all the domestic tasks of the estate out-workers. It’s terrifying to think about her daily routines – it must have been like co-ordinating a state event every day during which the peace must be preserved and everyone kept happy!" 

 

Brady is delighted to be in a Lucy Gannon drama again, her first since Pure Wickedness. "What I love about Lucy’s work is that she sees the invisible people. She’ll write about the cab driver that you ignored because you were chatting on your mobile phone. She’s very egalitarian. What’s even more fortunate for us is that she can show us ourselves with a deftness of touch, regardless of whether it’s in our time or the past." Brady’s own romantic prospects couldn’t be further away from Flora’s. Her joyful excitement about her recent marriage to photographer Nick is infectious. As soon as filming ended last Christmas, the pair jetted to Tanzania to exchange vows in the shadow of Kilimanjaro: "The most beautiful place on earth."

 

Joe Absolom plays second footman George Cosmo

 

George Cosmo arrives at Great Taplows and inveigles his way into the job of second footman. He is attractive, ambitious and amoral, yet always charming and amusing. But, at heart, George works the system and is loyal to no one but himself. He taught himself to read and write as a boy and has always been quick to learn – he’s even tried to pick up some French.

 

"George is a happy, clever chap who wants to get the job done and sees being a footman as his way to move on to bigger and better things," says 24- year-old Joe Absolom, whom viewers will remember as Matthew in EastEnders and, most recently, as the kidnapper in ITV1’s Unconditional Love, opposite Robson Green and Sarah Parish. The fact that George can be amoral at times endeared the character to Absolom. "That’s what makes him human, the fact that his relationships with everyone in the house aren’t clear cut. He’s a rival of Will [first footman William Forest] but he’s also his companion and good friend. That’s what I like about Lucy’s writing – she never paints characters black and white," says the actor. In Servants, Lucy’s characters are realistic, believable and recognisable, says Absolom. "The way the servants are together reminds me of that programme last year, Lad’s Army, when they put those young blokes into barracks to do National Service and they went through thick and thin together. At the end of the day, all they had for fun was a piano in the mess and a fantastic camaraderie, which saw them through it all. "I see we servants like those blokes. All day we’re charging around, jumping to orders and serving the Earl, but as soon as he falls asleep we relax and sit around to have a good banter.

 

"I like the way Lucy shows what happens when you put a group of birds and blokes together in a room with a few beers and they’re all good friends. It’s exactly like it would be today; the only difference is our characters happen to be wearing period costumes." He continues: "George loves being part of that scene – part of a team – even though he’s out for himself, too. He’s a wheeler-dealer, always on the look out for the next scam, trying to make a quick buck. He definitely watches his back first but he’d never let anyone else get sacked because of his antics. Though he wouldn’t think twice if he had the chance to better himself at the expense of someone else." There is a special bond between the servants which few other occupations allowed, says Absolom. "If you imagine three blokes working all day together then sharing a piss pot and a room – not much bigger than a cupboard – well, they would get to know each other pretty well! Privacy just isn’t on the agenda."

 

George’s friendship and professional rivalry with William Forest is dictated by his relationship with nursemaid Grace May. "George turns up just at the right time, when Grace breaks up with Keneally, the under butler. He’s interested in her straight away and goes after her on day one, two, three, four and five…" laughs the actor. "George has always been pretty footloose and fancy-free but then things develop with Grace in a way that he doesn’t anticipate." 

 

Absolom has shown that he is no shirker on the career front. The actor is based in Lewisham, where he lives with his mum and dad, and jokes that he will have to leave home soon before his parents kick him out. His success as EastEnder Matthew Rose clearly hasn’t gone to his head and Absolom is grateful for the break and recognition the role gave him. The actor started working when he was around 10 years old and, for a few years, he and his brother and sister acted in advertisements. His siblings went off the idea but he stuck with it, and soon moved on to speaking parts, which were much more enjoyable. He liked going to the auditions: "You’d just turn up and read scripts," he says, matter-of-factly. His hard work has paid off. Now, he says, he can’t believe his luck. "What other profession allows you such a range of experience and fun?" he asks. "I’ve been air-lifted to safety, chased by the police, shot at, stabbed and, in this drama, we’ve skinny-dipped in February!

 

"Making Servants has been a real laugh," he says. "It’s been a great opportunity to enjoy tremendous scripts and there’s been loads of socialising with everyone on the shoot." The actor reveals that the cast are off again tonight to The Famous Old Duke, where the born-and-bred Londoner is trying to acquire the taste for West Country cider. But tomorrow, in between scenes and during their lunchtimes, he and his "footmen colleagues" will be straight back to their latest, decidedly 21st-century, craze: PlayStation 2.

 

Felicity Jones plays Lord Harry’s nursemaid, Grace May, later to become fifth housemaid

 

Beautiful, clever and sharp, Grace May is practical, resilient and determined. She understands the ambitions and ruthlessness of the servants around her, but she has always believed that there is more to life than the daily drudge and acquisition of power and money.

 

Nineteen-year-old actress Felicity Jones is no stranger to working in country houses. As Emma Carter in the world’s longest-running radio drama, Radio 4’s The Archers, she works in the shop at Loxley Hall. In fact, explains Jones, Emma Carter’s accent helped her gain the role of Grace May. "Luckily for me, the production team wasn’t looking for pronounced olde-worlde accents – they were after something much softer. "Apparently, in those days, the servants came from all over the country, so below stairs would be a melting-pot of accents and dialects. Accents probably wouldn’t have stayed really strong and must have merged a bit and, fortunately, Emma’s West Country accent fits the bill." 

 

The young, gently spoken actress is clearly thrilled to have landed the part of Grace and has conscientiously researched the period in which the drama is set. "I’ve really enjoyed reading about lives back then, and our historical advisor Pamela Sambrook’s book, The Country House Servant, is full of wonderful insights. What really comes through is how little we’ve changed and I think Lucy really captures that brilliantly in her scripts." Jones’s enthusiasm for drama began at an early age and was consolidated when she joined the Carlton Television Junior workshop in her hometown of Birmingham. Her first break came as a schoolgirl, when she played Alice Bastable in The Treasure Seekers, but her best-known role from her school days was as Ethel Hallow in The Worst Witch and its sequel, Weird Sister College, both successful television adaptations of Jill Murphy’s children’s books. But juggling a burgeoning acting career with school work caused few problems for the talented Jones, who has always kept up with her local friends and enjoyed a good social life. She does admit, however, that it has been stressful from time to time. "I suppose it’s wanting everything and learning how to balance responsibilities and fun without letting anyone down," she says with a maturity that belies her years. Jones is full of admiration for her character. "I don’t think I could do what she does – having to get up at 4am to light all the household fires and coping with the loss of her position as nursemaid. Sometimes, acting feels like really long hours but then you look at the length of the servant’s day and it’s humble pie time. "We’ve all had great fun making this drama – I’ll be sorry when filming ends. I’ve even got used to wearing a corset 10 hours a day. I shall miss all the fun and games we’ve had on and off set."

 

Kenny Doughty plays first footman William Forest

 

William Forest is the most senior of the footmen. He has done well to achieve the position so young, but he is becoming impatient for promotion.

It was the quality of the Servants scripts that attracted actor Kenny Doughty to the project. "Lucy’s storytelling is just fantastic – it’s energetic, compelling and emotionally charged," he says. Doughty also applauds the approach of the creative team, who tackled a period drama from a new perspective, putting the spotlight on the "underlings". "It’s refreshing to look at working-class lives rather than those of languid aristocrats." Doughty describes making Servants as: "Having a ball with your mates on a speedboat running at full throttle. The pace of the schedule has been gruelling but I’ve been a part of a friendly and supportive team. There are no egos, no tantrums. Everyone’s pulled together to get the job done." Doughty admits that he undertook little research before starting filming … but felt it his duty to try the local West Country cider. "It’s called Black Rat and I felt sure that William would have had a taste for it!"

 

Drinking habits aside, there are some aspects of William’s character that Doughty feels little connection with." His attitude to disability is ugly and totally unacceptable. He’s also negative and sexist when it comes to women, but we have to remember he’s from another period. Lucy writes with such immediacy that it’s easy to forget we’re in the 1850s," he comments. "William is a real challenge to play and we see him go on a dark psychological journey. I love getting my teeth into multi-layered, realistic characters with conflicts to solve."

 

Doughty compares the footman’s life to playing in a football team. "The enemy of both is time. The two professions demand athletic prowess and finely tuned skills, which inevitably diminish with time. This means that, despite the camaraderie and pulling together of teamwork, scratch the surface and everyone’s out for himself. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Life has made William selfish and tough and afraid of emotion and tenderness – traits he sees as weak. Women equal conquest, so it’s not surprising that he has no female friends!"

Doughty, a graduate of London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama, clearly does not have such a cutthroat attitude to life. "I’ve had lucky breaks that have enabled me not only to travel, but to work across television, film and theatre. William’s been stuck in the same job and in the same place for seven years! The only downside of my freedom are those inevitable periods away from my home and my girlfriend."