Michelle Keegan has said she was 'hooked' when she got the scripts for her new drama, marking her return to ITV for the first time since 2017. It is also a surprising first for the Stockport star's career.
After shooting to fame in Coronation Street in the role of Tina McIntyre back in 2008, Michelle has gone on to play the likes of army medic Georgie Lane in the BBC's Our Girl and ex-army captain Maya Stern in Netflix's adaptation of Harlen Coben's Fool Me Once. Despite taking on an array of characters since departing Weatherfield in 2014, one role Michelle was yet to take on was a police officer. That was until now.
A New Role in The Blame
She is set to lead ITV's new Sunday night drama, The Blame, alongside The Sandman and The Dirt star Douglas Booth. Michelle takes on the role of DI Emma Crane, while her co-star portrays DI Tom Radley, and the duo will be seen investigating the death of a teenage figure skater.
Speaking about why she took on the role, Michelle told the Manchester Evening News and other press at a screening: "Well, first of all, I read the script. I mean, like Nicola said, like, Megan's [Gallagher] a fantastic writer and it just got me hooked to the end. I just wanted to carry on reading it. I was like, 'This is a project I definitely want to be on board with!'"
She added: "Emma as a character, you know, she's a very strong female in a male-dominated environment, and I feel like she holds her own. She's one of those girls who will take no nonsense, and I just found that so exciting. We love to see it, and there's not enough of it on screen. So, I was very excited for the opportunity."
Cast and Creators on the Story
Douglas also said he was gripped by what he read before signing up for the gig. "Again, it's similar, I read the script. I stupidly read it just before I went to bed, and I couldn't sleep until like one in the morning, and it just, it just hooked me. It gripped me. And Tom just seemed like a very complex character. You know, he's a guy who's really trying to do the right thing."
He continued: "He's trying to do the good thing, but he almost as the story goes on, you'll learn that everyone in the story has certain things they're hiding from themselves and other people and gets trapped in this sort of toxic system, and he's trying to do the right thing and then he gets trapped, then it's like a moral injury that sort of festers and it sort of rots him a little to the core inside. You'll get to see how that's explored throughout the series."
According to the synopsis, The Blame "dives into secrets, suspicion and systemic corruption - all under the surface of a seemingly quiet town". It further teases: "As DI Emma Crane and DI Tom Radley dig deeper into what starts as a tragic death that sends shockwaves through the town of Wakestead, a murder enquiry soon spirals into a tangled web of lies, institutional cover-ups and moral compromise."
"As the clock ticks and trust fractures, Crane must navigate both a murder investigation and the treacherous politics inside her own team."
Production and Release Details
The Blame, produced by Quay Street Productions, is based on the debut novel of the same name by Charlotte Langley. "It's got an incredibly compelling story," says Rochdale's Nicola Shindler, the executive producer of the new drama for Quay Street Productions.
"So the hooks that are in this are the hooks in the book, and it just keeps going. So it turns you one way, and then it turns you the other way. You don't know who to trust, you don't know what you're seeing, and that's addictive as a book."
"But also, I do think it was saying something massively important. So, you know, just the culture, misogyny, and the way that certain cases are handled and certain people are treated, I just think telling it within a really compelling story, which makes you want to keep watching, which entertained you, is just such a good opportunity."
For Nathan Mensah, who stars as DC Lewis Brimah, it's his first big TV role, and he is delighted to be sharing the screen with Michelle and Douglas, or the 'vets' as he called them. "I feel so grateful, and I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to take on this role," the rising star said. "And yeah, of course, there were nerves, there was, again, similar to Lewis. I was coming in, I was working with Michelle, Doug, Gav [Spokes], Josh [Bolt], all of these amazing actors, Cel [Spellman]. And you want to do a good job. I think the nerves came from that, but it was nerves, it was excitement."
There promises to be twists and turns aplenty, with Nicola warning they'll continue right up until the last of the six episodes, taking viewers in many different directions. But in terms of what she and the cast want viewers to take away from the series, Douglas shared: "I think number one is to be entertained. Like, it is a thriller at a heart, and I know there's themes that are really important and heavy and that matter, but at the same time, I think it's not trying to, it's not about hitting people overhead with it."
"I think people will be drawn along for the story and for the characters, and what I'd like them to take away is to learn something from those themes lightly through the enjoyment of watching the show because it's a television show at the end of the day and we made it to entertain people."
Michelle replied: "God, that was good... I just think what Doug said. That's exactly what I want to say. [He] took the words right out of my mouth!"
The Blame airs on ITV on Sunday, September 20, with episode two following on Monday, September 21. It will also be available as a box set from the morning of September 20.
