Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense, Dollhouse) stars as DS Charlie Zailer in ITV1’s new two-part drama, Case Sensitive, based on the psychological suspense novel Point Of Rescue by Sophie Hannah.
When Geraldine Bretherick and her 5-year-old daughter Lucy are found dead in the bath of their luxury home, the case divides new DS Charlie Zailer and her DC Simon Waterhouse. Is it murder, suicide or something even more sinister, and how watertight is the alibi of the husband Mark?
Meanwhile, when Sally Thorne, a working mother with a husband and two young children, hears of the deaths, she is shocked and appalled. Months before she’d met Mark Bretherick at a hotel and had a brief but passionate affair with him. Now she feels the need to get in touch with him again to offer her sympathy. Her friend Esther does not think this is very wise.
“DS Charlie Zailer is essentially a woman under pressure,” says Olivia Williams. “She is a Met officer who has come to the provinces, so there’s a certain amount of suspicion from her new colleagues from the moment she arrives. She’s surrounded by and is very much put in the middle of a male dominated environment and I feel she’s under pressure to prove her authority right from the get – go.
“Her first murder looks like a clear case of murder suicide, and she is paired with the highly gifted but socially inept and arrogant DC Simon Waterhouse (Darren Boyd) to solve it. He refuses to assume it’s a murder suicide, and is openly insubordinate.
“Sophie Hannah has created an iconic pairing in Waterhouse and Zailer. Both are brilliant detectives, but also wonderfully flawed human beings; it is a pleasure to watch the interaction between them. Unfortunately her ability to reprimand him for his behaviour is seriously hampered by the fact she got very drunk at a department party and can’t remember whether or not she slept with him! At the heart of this drama there is a sort of dysfunctional love story bubbling beneath the surface between the two of them.”
She goes on to explain the differences between the two characters: “I think one of Zailer’s strengths is that she’s extremely good at empathising with people. There’s a scene when DC Waterhouse wants to keep questioning Mark Bretherick (Rupert Graves) about his whereabouts during the time of his wife and daughter’s deaths, regardless of how traumatised he has been left by the recent events. She takes him aside to reprimand him for his insensitivity and his inability to read the current situation. This is a really good example of the difference between Zailer and Waterhouse’s personalities.”
While preparing for the role, Olivia found herself drawing on her own experience of researching life working in a police station…
“Before filming started I read some of Sophie Hannah’s novels and there are some fantastic details about Zailer that I was able to lift from the novel. She has a chaotic humanity to her, while being very tough and professional about her work and this was something I found when I spent some time in Police stations with other female detective sergeants. They were all funny and self-deprecating in conversation and tough and professional on the job. I wanted to capture that contrast, the professional front and the inner self-doubt.”
In Case Sensitive, DS Zailer finds herself alienated by the highly male dominated work place. Here Olivia reveals the difficulties many females still face in the world of policing today and how it helped define her role…
“During my research and despite all the legislation to reduce it, I found there was still constant overt sexual banter in the work places. Even though some of the repartee was funny and quite creative, if you were feeling confident and thick-skinned, I could imagine that if you ever were feeling vulnerable or your professional judgement was being questioned, it could be very undermining and again this was something I wanted to capture in Zailer. Like all minorities in the workplace, you can take the jibes sometimes, and sometimes they can bring you down. The problem is when the jibes do bring you down it can start to affect your work.
“Despite Ralph Ineson and Peter Wight playing these arrogant, sexist roles it was great having them both on the set. I worked with Ralph on Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, and he was so good at being this offensive sexist lout, and as soon as the camera stopped rolling he would pick me up on some very un-PC remarks I had made! He is the soul of tact. And Peter Wright is a phenomenal actor. We were honoured to have him as Proust and he’s also not averse to having a laugh and it made the work in the police station very real and full of life.”
Olivia speaks about playing a detective for the first time in her career: “Playing a detective is like a rite of passage in an actresses’ career. From Juliet, to Oxo mum, to stressed Detective Sergeant – next stop Lady Macbeth! I loved the story and have always wanted to work with Hat Trick I felt it was an area I really wanted to cover in my career and then this came along; I also wanted to work back in the UK after a year in LA. I have done very little television here, and I want to experience every area of my job.”