Characters & Actors
 Beatrice (Sarah Parish)
The presenter of popular, early-evening regional news show Wessex Tonight, Beatrice is not best pleased when her arch-enemy and ex-lover is hired as a co-anchor. Their barbed comments as they pick over the scabs of their earlier relationship reveal wounds that are still raw.
But that doesn't mean they're not perfectly matched to one another - something their friends are determined to make the two of them realise.
Sarah Parish
Writer David Nicholls' script was one of the lures for Sarah. "There are some men who write brilliantly for women – they write so well for women that you can't actually believe they're a man!" she enthuses.
"David is one of those men – he has this wonderful empathy with female characters without making them a bit wet. I loved playing Beatrice – I do play a lot of characters like Bea that are slightly waspish and a little bit harsh and don't suffer fools particularly. But I guess I play a lot of them because I like it," she admits with a laugh.
Another attraction was playing opposite Band Of Brothers star Damian, with whom she'd appeared in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ drama Hearts And Bones.
"We got on very well and we've been friends, so that was great. The relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is incredibly important because the writing has that very quick, throwaway style," she explains, snapping her fingers.
"So you need to be with somebody who you know is going to pass the ball all the time; you kind of have to second-guess what they're going to do. It's the joy of the banter and I knew that Damian would be able to do that."
Playing a newsreader also appealed to Sarah. "I think the way that he [Nicholls] has adapted the original story into a provincial newsroom is a stroke of genius," she declares.
"You often see a man and a woman sat on a sofa and you wonder what they actually really think of each other; what happens when the camera goes off, what kind of relationship do they have. I thought the concept of the piece was great."
As part of her research for Much Ado, Sarah spent two days in the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s South Today newsroom, under the wing of anchorwoman Sally Taylor.
"I'm a big fan of research – I enjoy the beginning, before the work starts," says Sarah. One think she learned about was talkback. "Newsreaders have a thing that they stick in their ear and the gallery will tell them how much time they've got left," explains Sarah.
"So I'll be talking to you, but there will be somebody in my ear and it's like you're going mad. They'll be saying, 'OK, you've got to wrap the interview up now, you've got one more minute – oh no, keep going, the other thing's fallen through'.
"And of course, when we all first had the device in, we were hopeless. We'd be in the middle of a scene and I'd just stop. It's almost impossible. The way they do it is a real gift.
"It became easier for us because we were doing the same scene over and over again, so I knew I was going to hear it. But the first time, it's just like you've got a fly in your brain!"
The petite, brown-eyed star believes the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s four modern adaptations are important in that they may bring people back to the Bard. "I think there are a lot of people out there that go, 'Oh, Shakespeare'," says Sarah, mimicking a mini-shudder.
"As soon as you hear the Shakey word you kind of go, 'I don't get it, I feel inadequate and thick and stupid and only Dame Judi Dench can do that; only the Dames and the slightly theatrical people are allowed to do it'.
"That's always put me off Shakespeare because what they are, at the end of the day, are very simple stories, and if they're told properly and simply, then most people can understand them.
"When I was younger, I was put off Shakespeare because I didn't want to see a bunch of people in tights hooting these lines at me; I wanted to see a story."
Sarah was won over when she went to the Mermaid Theatre to see a first folio interpretation; first folio, she explains, is how the plays were enacted during Shakespeare's time.
"It was an electric evening," she recalls, "so Shakespeare can be done brilliantly or it can be done very, very badly. Hopefully, these modern adaptations might make young people, or those studying drama or theatre studies, think that they'll go back to their Complete Works and have another look."
Sarah thinks viewers will warm to Beatrice, despite the dripping vitriol from her acid tongue.
"David [Nicholls] shows Beatrice and Benedick breaking up right at the beginning, three years previously to when the actual present action takes place," she says, setting the scene.
"It shows her in an attractive way – an excited girl, on this date with him, and then he doesn't turn up and you see how heartbroken she is. And I think that really helps the character because sometimes Beatrice can be quite hard and a bit unlovable.
"She's got some great lines and they are all fierce and you need to understand why that fierceness comes out, so it was good that David did that and I hope viewers like her."
On the set of Much Ado, says Sarah, "Every single minute of every single day was brilliant. It was the best job I've every done, funwise - it was such a laugh. Everyone gelled very well, it was cast beautifully – they took a long time to find the people that would really work. And Damian and I have some terrific scenes together," she smiles.
"I think you can tell when you watch it that a lot of fun was had! It was just one of those gems."
Get the low-down on Sarah Parish's life and career »
| |
 Win a ´óÏó´«Ã½ TV Shakespeare Collection DVD box set plus audio versions of Shakespeare plays »
Find out about the other ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE updatings of Shakespeare.
|
