Character traits
Elizabeth Berrington shares her love of being a “jobbing actor” as she discusses her career, her recent role in Frauds – the ITV heist drama starring Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker – and why she’s planning to “work until I drop.”
A “jobbing actor” who has been working in British television for more than 30 years, Elizabeth Berrington is a familiar face from shows such as Waterloo Road, Stella, Lost Boys & Fairies and Henpocalypse.
Her numerous guest roles have also included popping up in episodes of Sex Education, Vera, Death in Paradise, Black Mirror and Doctor Who.
“I’ve got my bills to pay. I’m just a jobbing actor,” she tells DQ. “I’m a British supporting actor and I’m just looking to get the work.”
The past 12 months have been particularly busy for Berrington, who has appeared on screen in Bradford-set crime drama Virdee, sitcom The Power of Parker, period detective drama Bookish and Nick Cave adaptation The Death of Bunny Munro across the period. That’s in addition to Frauds, ITV’s Spain-set heist drama she describes as a “thrilling” project to be a part of, joining a cast led by Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker.
“To watch that filmmaking come together, the story just hit every single button we hoped it would, and when that happens, when you’re watching it, you’re suddenly not aware that it’s you on the screen,” she says. “You’re watching it as a member of the audience, totally absorbed in the characters, and you don’t really see yourself. I always think that’s a real sign of success in film and television work, when you’re totally absorbed in the experience. That’s been my experience of watching Frauds.”
The six-parter stars Jones and Whittaker as Bert and Sam, a pair of fraudsters whose intertwined past resurfaces when they are reunited in southern Spain after a decade apart. In the interim, Sam has lived a low-key life away from crime, but Bert’s release from prison and her plans for a multimillion-pound art heist pull Sam out of retirement. Can they work together long enough to pull off one last job, or will their toxic friendship sink them both? The show is produced by Monumental Television and Jones’s TeamAkers, with ITV Studios distributing.
Among the extensive ensemble cast, Berrington plays Jackie Diamond, a quick-witted and sharp-mouthed magician’s assistant to her husband Craig’s The Great Diavolo (Lee Boardman). In fact, Jackie is actually the master illusionist behind their elaborate shows, and first met Bert and Sam years ago when they were petty criminals. When the duo come back into her life, she decides to step out on her own and join the heist.
“It’s brilliant,” she says of the role. “I’m having a great time – diamante unitard, I’ve got feathers in my hair. You start believing the hype. She’s that great character that you get like in The Italian Job, when Michael Caine goes to have a chat in the workshop, when somebody’s like, ‘How are we going to do it? How are we going to pull it off?’ I get to be that person.”
Reading the scripts, which are written by Anne-Marie O’Connor (who also co-created the series with Jones), Berrington was drawn in by the female dynamics, as well as the “truthful” writing. “It’s very conversational, and there’s this sense of jeopardy,” she says. “There’s my dynamic between me and my husband, Lee Boardman. That’s a relationship that’s failing, but how is she going to get out? Because he’s always going to want a piece of her.
“Everything between Suranne and Jodie [as Bert and Sam], those strange, strange women, you don’t know who’s doing what to whom. And then even though it’s a drama that’s very female-led, the male characters are so brilliant. There are lovers who are trouble; there are nutty, bad guys from home [in the UK]. There’s unpredictability. It was just very exciting, and I don’t think the excitement lets up. That makes great storytelling.”
Berrington also highlights the “lovely dynamic” between the Spanish detectives on the trail of Bert and Sam – played by Nansi Nsue (as Amaya) and Iván Henríquez (Luís). “So you’ve got the boss lady who’s super cool and super smart. I absolutely love that actress with this dopey lad who she’s dragging around, and you know how smart she is and you know she’s gonna get it all worked out,” Berrington says. “She’s hot on the tail of everyone, getting closer and closer, so everyone’s being chased, everyone’s on the make. And [as for] whether they’re successful or not, you have to watch the six episodes.”
When the heist does play out in episode six, Berrington’s Jackie is nowhere to be seen at Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía, from which the gang are attempting to steal Salvador Dalí’s The Great Masturbator. Instead, she’s providing intelligence by monitoring CCTV cameras from a van parked nearby.
“I love the heist. It really had you on the edge of your seat,” she says. She particularly liked the fact that Thais Martin’s Caitlin pretends to be a new mum – and her fake baby is the perfect disguise. “It’s so clever that she’s there with the baby. That’s just brilliant writing,” she continues. “How do you make women invisible? Make them old or make them pregnant, because nobody wants to know. But in this case, it works to everyone’s advantage. Then there’s the brilliant jump-scare at the end of that sequence, with Christian Cooke [as loan shark Deggs], because you’re not expecting him to rock up at that moment. That’s genuinely frightening. That’s a genuine scream inside the van. He comes banging on the door. That was for real.”
When she was filming those scenes in the van, she was able to watch real footage on the small screens, which had been recorded earlier, rather than pretending to watch clips that would be added in post-production. “And, of course, the audience get to see outside the museum in Madrid, and that’s the real deal. They asked, ‘Can we film? Can we come and shoot?’ And the museum just said, ‘Yeah.’ You don’t ask, you don’t get. The production company couldn’t believe what a coup they had.”
The “tension” in the show’s writing meant Berrington was really invested in those scenes. “Your heart’s in your mouth and you’re having to do a delivery,” she adds. “I was watching all those screens of footage that had been shot and you’re having to deliver that intensity, and you’re having to do it sotto voce, because Jackie can’t be in that van shouting her head off. So by the end of it, you’re a big sweaty mess. You believe it all.”
The majority of Frauds was filmed in Tenerife, which the actor admits “wasn’t awful,” particularly as she had stepped off the set of Good Omens in Edinburgh in mid-January last year, boarded a plane amid the freezing cold and pouring rain, and several hours later arrived on the sunny Canary Island.
“It was gorgeous. We were all staying in Northern Tenerife, in Santa Cruz, so it was really lovely to be on that side of the island, up in the mountains and all of the pine forests. It’s so beautiful there,” Berrington says. She was also well looked after by Jones, who was an executive producer on the show. “She’s so generous. She’s had that huge role to play and perform, yet she’s wanting to make sure everybody’s having an experience that’s going really well. ‘Is your hotel alright? Was your flight alright?’ She was wanting you to report back to her to make sure everything’s running smoothly for you, so [she was] just very kind and lovely and funny. She’s charming and fabulous. I can’t say enough words.”
Meanwhile, a month after Frauds hit screens, Berrington could be seen as Charlotte Parnovar in The Death of Bunny Munro, an “extraordinary” adaptation of Nick Cave’s novel, produced by Clerkenwell Films for Sky.
Matt Smith stars as Bunny, a sex-addicted door-to-door beauty product salesman and self-professed lothario who finds himself saddled with a young son and only a loose concept of parenting following his wife Libby’s suicide. Together with nine-year-old Bunny Junior, he embarks on an epic and increasingly out-of-control road trip across Southern England as the two struggle to contain their grief in very different ways.
Charlotte is one of the few characters who sees through Bunny’s façade, and the highlight of making the series for Berrington was reuniting with Smith. “Obviously, everyone’s done their version of Doctor Who, so I did mine with Matt. And then on Last Night in Soho, I had a small part in that movie as well, which he’s just so exquisite in. Now I get to kick his ass. We have a full-on fist fight. That was fun.”
Next up for the actor is a role in Tip Toe, Russell T Davies’ new series for Channel 4, which “couldn’t be more different from Frauds.” Alan Cumming plays Leo, the vivid, funny and dynamic owner of a bar called Spit & Polish in Manchester’s Gay Village, with David Morrissey as Clive, Leo’s unsmiling and troubled next-door neighbour. In a world that is becoming more tense, with words becoming weapons and opinions becoming radicalised, the two neighbours gradually become deadly enemies in a tense suburban thriller that seeks to challenge everything we consider to be safe.
“It feels like a real state-of-the-nation piece, politically and emotionally, and really brave and important writing,” Berrington says. “That’s with the amazing Alan Cumming and David Morrissey. I feel very honoured to be part of that mix.”
Turning to what the future may hold, the actor certainly has no plans to retire at any point, joking that she hopes to “just keep working until I drop.”
“I just love the work and the variety. I still find it just a big thrill and a buzz to be truthful and believable on screen. That’s my job, to keep working at that and deliver the best performances I can.”
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tagged in: Elizabeth Berrington, Frauds, ITV, Sky, The Death of Bunny Munro