Kelly Reilly plays Charlotte
Kelly Reilly needed no second invitation when Stephen Poliakoff offered her the role of Charlotte in Joe's Palace.
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"I've always been a huge fan of his work, so to be honest I would have said yes whatever the script was! It doesn't matter what he writes about, he always creates the most compelling drama.
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"What is it that makes his work so special? I love where he's coming from. His writing is always so fascinating and truthful. You just get wrapped up in his characters. They're like hidden treasures that you uncover. And there is always so much going on in his films.
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"Take this drama. It's a really big story, and when people ask, 'what's it about?' it's hard to say concisely. Stephen doesn't patronise his audience with readymade answer, there are no simple explanations of Stephen's writing. What's great is that he gives his material time and space."
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The actress carries on by underlining that, "so much television these days is very style-orientated. It has to be a triumph of style over content in order to keep viewers switched on. But actually, audiences like to be served something a bit more thought-provoking. They like being offered some time in which to ponder the themes in a drama. Stephen gives them that."
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After memorable performances in Mrs Henderson Presents, Pride And Prejudice, The Libertine, Puffball and Last Orders, Kelly now portrays an elegantly handsome woman who is well to do but nevertheless unhappy with her lot in life. She is trying to fill the void in her existence by carrying on an ardent affair with a dashing, high-flying politician called Richard.
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They conduct their relationship entirely within the confines of the grand house that has been lent to them by the enigmatic billionaire, Elliot (Michael Gambon). During the course of her assignations at the house, Charlotte builds up a touching friendship with its unworldly teenage caretaker, Joe (Danny Lee Wynter).
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Thirty-year-old Kelly, who is about to star on stage in Othello alongside Ewan McGregor and on screen as Jenny in James Watkins' Eden Lake, about a couple on holiday who are terrorised by feral children, says:
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"You never see Charlotte out of the house. It's her milieu. There's another world going on outside, but you never see the rest of her life. The house is like her fantasy universe, it's where she escapes to."
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Kelly continues that Charlotte feels the need to escape because she is so disillusioned with how her life has turned out: "Stephen's work is incredibly moving. Each film is filled with emotion. What he deals with so well in Joe's Palace is the subject of loneliness. The drama reflects the confusion and the disconnection in people's lives.
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"On the surface, Charlotte appears to have it all. She is bright and charming, she has two lovely children and is married to a very successful international lawyer. And yet she is deeply dissatisfied with her role in the world. She thought that giving up her high-powered job to have kids would sort her out, but it didn't.
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"Her husband is away a lot and she is left at home with the children. Like many women, she finds motherhood a very lonely experience. Having had a very active, whirlwind social life beforehand when she worked as a political lobbyist, she now feels that the kids don't sustain her intellectually.
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"She's still very discontented and having to deal with her demons. I think Charlotte will really chime with viewers, there are so many women like her out there."
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So how does she cope with her despair? "Her escape is falling for a glamorous cabinet minister. She's at a crossroads in her life and she needs to escape into his arms and into this beautiful house. It's this escapism that keeps her sadness at bay.
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"When the affair begins to fail, she keeps going to the house on her own so the fantasy and the escapism can continue. She becomes close friends with
Joe and gradually realises that her life should be about her and not Richard, a man who tries to sleep with anything that moves and can get away with murder. She sees that she must focus on real life and not on fantasy.
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"What she does in continuing to visit the house is surprising, but that's what's so riveting about Stephen's writing. His characters are never predictable. You think they'll behave in one way and then they'll surprise you by doing something completely different. If only all television writing was like this!"
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She is pleased to work with her old friend Rupert Penry-Jones on Joe's Palace. They previously appeared together in Poirot.
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"Rupert and I have known each other for years and have a really good relationship, so it's been terrific working with him. The fact that we are so comfortable with each other made the sex scenes far less daunting."
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So what will Kelly take away from Joe's Palace? "It's been a master class in detail. Every single second counts in Stephen's work. Also, I feel very grateful to Stephen because he's challenged me and made me think, in a good way. It's very rare these days to be made to think. He shows that you can be intelligent and thought-provoking without being high art or worthy or didactic.
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"Stephen's such a wonderful director. Bill Nighy told me that if he could work with Stephen all the time, he would. Stephen can elicit performances that are full of vulnerability and complexity.
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"That's why people like Michael Gambon and Maggie Smith come to him. Perfect Strangers was one of the most moving things I've ever seen. I was mesmerised by it. That's what Stephen can do. That's enough, or his head will get too big!"
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