Leila Farzad tells Chris Evans about starring in BBC crime drama Better: 'She wonders if she can ever be redeemed'

Virgin Radio

17 Feb 2023, 16:43

I Hate Suzie star Leila Farzad joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch to talk about smashing the lead role in BBC crime drama Better as Leeds cop, DI Lou Slack. Recognise her dulcet tones? The actor has also voiced Mrs Cat and Mrs Pony in TV series Peppa Pig, but has sunk her teeth into something far more sinister. 

The actor told Chris about playing a bent copper in the gripping new series, Better, written by the brains behind Humans, and why it's so menacing. She said: "It's about someone who you think should be good actually being terribly corrupt. I think any institution that purports to being morally superior, maybe there's some bad eggs and bad apples.

"It's about an antihero who is the hero. She's called DI l Lou Slack, she's a police officer who's also working for a corrupt drug baron and something happens to her. She has a conscience crisis and it's about her trying to be better, and wondering if she can be redeemed."

Talking about the Leeds-based character, she said: "So the first episode starts with a woman who seems to have it all. She's working for the police, she's also got this duplicitous relationship with a drug baron. She's got a family life, everything seems to be going well and then her son gets very, very sick and is potentially going to die and she makes a deal with some kind of greater power that she will be better if he will get better."

About her loving, long-suffering husband at home, she explained: "He adores her and is sort of complicit with all the terrible things that she does, and they’ve built a lovely little family life together, but I don't think he's aware of quite the depth and the darkness that she's capable of."

On her long-standing, deep relationship with drugs baron Col McHugh (Andrew Buchan), she explained: "They both found something in each other. There's a thrill in it. They've managed to help each other up the ladder. He's able to get away with stuff... she's able to get lorded for stuff that she's found because he's tipped her off, so they've helped each other. It's mutually beneficial, exciting and very wrong.

"They're a bit like two feral animals that are so aware of each other's movements, circling each other, sniffing each other. There's a lot of mistrust and a lot of trying to suss out what the other one is doing."

"Her and Cole met 20 years previous and they were both at both low points. And she was struggling to make it as a police officer and he was struggling and they were like should we give each other a leg up?" 

The Bafta-nominated star admitted she almost didn't get the life-changing part in I Hate Suzie and said: “I sent in a pretty poor audition tape. I don't think I really answered the essence of what they were looking for, and then they said no. So I sent in another audition tape, which eventually garnered some attention.

"They said I'd overdone it. I was overacting and it wasn't that kind of show. They just needed real, honest, brutal representation and so I tried to do that. I massively dialled it down and connected more to myself and didn't show everyone how hilarious I thought the script was. You have to hit the ground running because it's the best script I've ever read."

Is she one of those actors who can interchange in and out of a character immediately? She said: "I need a moment. I need my little AirPods in and a little moment to myself, especially if it's quite a challenging scene. I can't just switch it on. 

"At the end of the day, you get into bed, you know you're exhausted but you can't sleep because you've hyped yourself up, adrenaline wise. Everything's all a little bit tingly and awake, and you need to find a way of calming yourself down; a glass of wine, a really good chat with a friend, something like that or some basic comedy on telly. Then when the whole show's finished, you just cancel and continue and go, 'what was that? Did I just play a Leeds cop?'.

Can DI Lou ever find her way out of the darkness? She said: "I suppose the tragedy of a situation which is all part of the backstory is that she is a brilliant policewoman. There is a good, moral person wanting to get out but she's just been embroiled in something that's a little bit icky."

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.