12 11 APRIL 2024 News&Views STAGE AND SCREEN Siân with Matthew Rhys in Romeo and Juliet in 2004 (right); as Queen Aemma in House of the Dragon (below right) Every morning when she was young, Siân Brooke would watch her dad leave for another day on the beat as a police o cer. But it wasn’t until she pulled on the uniform herself – to play rookie cop Grace Ellis in BBC drama Blue Lights – that she fully appreciated the true nature of the job. “We went on a ridealong and into a police station, and they shared so much of what their daily life was like,” the actor recalls of her time spent shadowing real o cers prior to filming the first series. “We were there for a shift changeover, where the sergeant was explaining what had gone on earlier in the day. “For me, it seemed like quite extreme stu , but they were talking about it in such a matter-of-fact way, because that’s what they deal with on a daily basis. My dad was a police o cer, but growing up, I only knew what I knew. He was just my dad and he went o in the morning in his uniform, and I didn’t think much more about it. But seeing what the job entails in real life really brought it home to me.” Having watched her dad rise through the ranks from beat bobby to CID, Siân admits she toyed with the idea of joining the force too. “I have thought about it – but I’m better at pretending,” she smiles. Blue Lights, which follows a group of probationary constables in the Police Service of Northern Ireland as they patrol the streets of post-Troubles Belfast, won five-star reviews when it aired last year, with critics hailing the gritty realism of the scripts by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson – two former journalists who met while working on Panorama. In a crowded market of police procedurals, this was less Line of Duty or Luther, and more like a British Hill Street Blues – with a hint of The Wire. After launching with minimal hype, the show’s word-of-mouth success has been rewarded with commissions for a further three series. “It’s incredible – that really doesn’t happen any more in television,” says Siân, munching on a lunchtime banana when Weekend meets her at the series two press launch in London. “For them to commission a third and fourth series was just beyond any expectations we could have had.” What does she put its success down to? “It’s just really well written. Adam and Declan are great observers of life, and the nuances of character. They’ve been able to absorb all of that from their work as journalists, and channel it into this. I also think they’ve tapped into the humanity of a job where we often just see the uniform first. By telling the story from the perspective of these new police o cers, you go on the journey with them. They’re people who are going home, cooking the kids’ tea, paying a mortgage, and dealing with all the trials and tribulations of life. Yet they do this extraordinary job.” Seeing the uniform and not the person behind it is a particular issue in Belfast, where o cers must navigate the sensitivities of a city still blighted by decades of sectarian hostility. “You don’t want to bash people over the head with that,” says Siân. “But every city has its story, and if you’re going to tell the story of Belfast, you have to tell all the stories,” (hence the second series switching its focus to the loyalist east side of the city). She recalls catching a cab after the Belfast press screening for the first series, and the driver telling her: ‘Well, I’ll not be watching it.’ I said: ‘Just give it a try – I think you might enjoy it.’ And he was like: ‘No, I’m not watching it.’ But then, after it had gone out, he messaged me on Instagram to tell me: ‘I’ve just watched the whole thing and I loved it.’” Arguably, no one represents the human face of policing better than Grace, a single mum and former social worker who, in her forties, has chosen to get even closer to the frontline of society’s problems. “I’ve been lucky to play so many di erent roles in my career, from psychotic killers to doctors,” says Siân, whose empathetic performance adds further depth to the character. “But the thing about Grace is, I really admire her. When I read the script I felt an immediate connection to her. And that’s definitely related to my dad. He’s got a very strong moral compass and an inner strength.” The youngest of three siblings born to an English mum, who’s a teacher, and a Welsh dad in Lichfield, Sta ordshire, Siân caught the acting bug early, joining her local youth theatre aged 11, then the National Youth Theatre. Her parents encouraged her application to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) – although there was the slight snag of sharing her birth name, Siân Phillips, with one of Britain’s most distinguished stage and screen stars. “I met her,” says Siân, of her celebrated namesake. “They arranged for me to have a cup of tea with her in my first year at Rada. What a phenomenal woman!” She clearly has more in common with Dame Siân than just a birth certificate, though – barely two years after graduating from Rada, the now Siân Brooke (named in honour of an English Civil War general who was killed at Lichfield) was playing Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. “I don’t know how that happened,” she says. “I was 22 and playing Juliet opposite Matthew Rhys, and then Cordelia [in King Lear] with Corin Redgrave. That was a fantastic place to earn your stripes and learn what kind of actor you are.” In 2015, she played Ophelia to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet at the National Theatre. “The director said: ‘We want to meet you,’ and I said: ‘You do know I’m seven months pregnant?’ [She has two sons, Ben and Archie, with her husband, the award-winning film and theatre director Bill Buckhurst.] I was waddling around, not really looking like Ophelia. She’s supposed to be this timid wallflower, and I was like [growling]: ‘Oh God, I just want this baby to come!’ By the time I did it, my youngest was three months old, but the sleepless nights and the mania of having a little one in the house again actually fed into Ophelia.” Shortly afterwards, she reunited with Cumberbatch when she was cast in the role (or roles, given her penchant for disguises) of his psychotic sister Eurus Holmes in the BBC’s global megahit Sherlock. “It must have been about eight months after Hamlet, I got the call and just thought it was a bit part, because they only gave me two sides to read. Then I went back in and they gave me two sides of a di erent character. I thought: ‘Oh, they can’t Photographs: Shutterstock, Ollie Upton/HBO Max/THA/Eyevine, BBC, Getty images
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