Chris Connor chats with Slow Horses star Aimee-Ffion Edwards…
Aimee-Ffion Edwards’ Shirley has been a key member of the Slough House team since the show’s second season. Her relationship with Marcus in particular has resonated with viewers. We sat down with Aimee to discuss Shirley’s arc in this series and the dynamic within the team…
Can you tell us a bit about where we find Shirley in this series and her arc?
Shirley’s in a pretty good place at the start of this season. I think like everybody else, she’s one bad day from falling off the wagon and going off-piste and things falling into chaos. She’s in a good place, and I think her relationship with Marcus has really developed, and they become really, really close. I think that’s why her response to his gambling and his issues is so viral. I think she rejects a lot of her own issues, like a lot of the characters do. I think Slough House is just an echo chamber of everybody’s insecurities. I think she gets on a really good track with Marcus. Obviously it ends in despair and hell.
What’s your response to Marcus’ ending?
From a personal point of view, I found it so hard because I’ve been on this journey with Kadiff from the start. We started at the same time, and I feel like this experience, I’ve had him beside me the entire way, and it’s been a really special experience. It’s been amazing. I’m so proud to be in the show but also really proud of the friendships that I’ve developed. There’s no Shirley without Marcus, no Marcus without Shirley.
I felt really strongly with Kadiff, so that was really hard from a personal point of view, because it becomes a completely different experience. Whenever you’re bought into a show so much of it is the company that you’re in, and that was really hard. And I think in the same way for Shirley, I think it’s absolutely devastating for that to have happened. I think she feels really responsible. I think although, despite all their bickering, I think the relationship she had with Marcus is so important and really unique, but genuine and true.
Yeah, I think it was, it was a really hard shoot actually in the lead-up to it and knowing that was coming as well. But, you know, that’s a privilege to get to feel like that. To feel something so bitterly like in yourself as well as I think it’s a real privilege. I think it says a lot about, you know, the journey you’ve been on.
This series has upped the ante in terms of action, how do you find those sequences?
I love doing the action. I think you’re right. This year, it’s really revved up, and I think the threat feels closer to home. It feels more personal, and the stakes for so much higher. Shirley, she’s capable, what I really love about her character and how its written, she doesn’t necessarily love like having to defend herself and love finding she’s just really good at it. That feels really, I think, really relatable. And it feels quite unique, because you get a lot of superhero things, and they feel they’re quite hard to relate to. They feel quite distant. And I think everybody can see themselves. Or see people they know like anybody could play these characters or be these characters.
How do you balance the tone from intense drama to comedy?
I think it’s got such a unique tone. It’s really hard to put your finger on what that tone is, because it, like you said, it skirts both drama and thrillers and dark comedy. That’s such a hard thing to get right. The scripts reflect the books in lots of ways. Mick Herron, his imagination is exceptional. I read them and I could never come up with that. It’s really exciting to play characters that give you opportunities to discuss and learn from, because they’re so important. Will Smith our head writer, is one of the funniest, most generous, cleverest people ever met. He gives us a lot of faith, to find those dynamics. Sometimes it’s not what is said, it’s the beats and it’s the responses.
It’s really hard to put your finger on it, I guess. But you know, you can feel it. You feel it on the face. I think the more that we do, the more we know our characters and that we can bring a little something ourselves as well. It’s great to get to do that.
You mentioned Mick Herron, did you meet him?
Yeah, he’s been to set quite a bit, and he’s he’s really generous, and I think you can see this enthusiasm and it is so exciting for him to get to watch this be created and for it to unfold in front of him, I can’t imagine what that feels like, and it’s a real privilege to be a part of that. He feels like a really big part of the family.
Did you have any particular moments this series that you’re especially fond of?
There’s so much stuff that I really enjoy. I really love the scenes with lots of the slow horses and Slough House. I just think they’re so brilliantly written and the dynamics between all the characters, they’re just so important. I think from what I’ve heard, it’s those scenes, those mundane, boring, bickering scenes, are often the ones that people love the most. I think because it feels like any office and any bunch of colleagues just having a go at each other, I do think they’re really fun to do, and it’s great to work with everybody. Really the scenes when everyone’s in, I think the dynamic and the fun, the way that we bounce off each other, the insults to get or to give us the real joy to do.
The show’s cast is more split up this season, how did you find the your group?
I spent a lot of time with Kadiff, which was great, you know, we got to do a lot of stuff together. So, you know, having the comfort of knowing each other and understanding work and just having their own language. The more of it you do, the richer it becomes, and so the more fun it gets to work with each other. We’ve had new people join like Tom Brooke and Joanna Scanlan who bring new energy and that shifts everyone else’s energy and dynamic as well, which is really great.
You shoot the series very closely. Having shot series 5, how do you manage to stay in the moment?
Once you’ve filmed the season, and then on to the next. I think quite easy to stay in the moment, and you have to, it’s, you have to try and remember what has been out to not give anyone any spoilers. So many of my friends are genuinely big fans, and I have to keep trying to remember what is in which season so to not give any spoilers. And every now and again, I’m like, Oh, was that a spoiler? So I try to not to talk about it too much.
Everyone is really wrapped up and excited about the next season, and don’t want any spoilers, because they just want to enjoy it in the moment, that that’s really brilliant. So, you know, as we’re filming, we just, we have the books, we have scripts, and we just crack on really, and just, you know, use whatever we’ve filmed before that’s in our muscle memory, and it’s really fun to get to use the development in that in your next bit of the path.
Many thanks to Aimee-Ffion Edwards for taking the time for this interview.
SEE ALSO: Read our exclusive interviews with Slow Horses stars James Callis, Joanna Scanlan, Ruth Bradley and Kadiff Kirwan
Chris Connor
