Keeley Hawes makes the move from spy games and period dramas to cop show.
She’s been a sexy spy in Spooks and the lady of the house in Upstairs Downstairs.
But Keeley Hawes’ starring role in the new series of BBC cop drama Line Of Duty could hardly be more different.
She plays a detective inspector who finds herself coming under the scrutiny of the crack anti-corruption department AC-12.
And the 38-year-old actress says she looks a real shocker as the pressure takes its toll on her character DI Lindsay Denton.
“There is one point where she has really been through the mill by the end of that scenario I think nobody has ever looked that bad on the television screen!” laughs Keeley.
“It’s liberating for me as I have played lots of glamorous characters and this is the absolute opposite.
“I loved the role but I didn’t love going into the make-up truck every day and having them look at me and say ‘Yip, that’s great’. That’s without even brushing my hair, actually only putting a bit more dark under my eyes.
“But it’s quite liberating once you get used to not even bothering to wash your hair and people just adding a bit more grease.
“It’s really nice to have very few touch-ups between takes. It’s the most different role I’ve ever played. She has no vanity.”
Scots actor Martin Compston is back again as AC-12 investigator DS Steve Arnott alongside Vicky McClure as DS Kate Fleming.
Call The Midwife star Jessica Raine joins as a DC new to the prospect of investigating other officers. The series begins in explosive fashion as a police convoy comes under ambush and three officers die.
Keeley’s DI is the sole surviving cop and seems at first to be the most valuable witness. But suspicions start to form that she might not be as innocent a party as she first appears.
What viewers will be wondering is whether she’s innocent or not and that’s just what Keeley herself wanted to find out from writer Jed Mercurio.
“At first when I went and met Jed and the director, they weren’t too sure whether Lindsay would be on the dark side or not, which was so fascinating for me,” adds Keeley.
“I was sent the scripts and read them one after another in a single sitting. I still had no idea and I begged them to tell me. Regardless of whether I got the part, I just needed to know.”
Line Of Duty, BBC2, Wednesday, 9pm.
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