In ITV1's new drama Maryland, Suranne Jones and Eve Best play estranged sisters who are brought back into each other's lives following the death of their mother Mary, only to discover that she'd been living a double life on the Isle of Man that neither of them knew about.
Suranne co-created the series with writer Anne-Marie O'Connor, and her inspiration from the series came from a rather unexpected place — it all began with a dream!
We caught up with Suranne to find out more about creating and starring in the three-part family drama...
Suranne Jones interview for Maryland
How did you come up with the idea for the series?
"It was a dream I had — I woke up and thought 'ooh, what was that weird dream about sisters in a house?' I got this little bit of paper and wrote 'sisters, house, double life', the very bare bones of the idea, and then I kind of rattled it around for a bit and then I wrote a page treatment. I've known Anne-Marie for years, but we'd never worked together before, so we got on a call and she sent me a couple of scripts about a double life that she'd written and I thought, 'this is great' — and then she added in the Isle of Man, because she knows it really well and it felt very 'other' to what both our characters were used to. And that then became Maryland!"
How would you describe your character, Becca?
"Becca is a mum who has kind of defined herself by being a carer — she helped care for her sister after her cancer diagnosis, and she helped care for her mother when she had her breakdown. Then she had two children and cared for them, and married someone who she basically ended up caring for, and by this point she'd become a micromanaging person who just did everything for everybody."
"She's become defined by that, and she's lost because she modelled herself on her mother, who also did that — but when she finds out her mother had a second life, Becca's world is completely blown-up because she's like, 'well, who did I model myself on, then? Who am I, if you're not that person?'. She feels very betrayed by her mother, and in turn her life gets blown apart — she goes through a journey where she has to rediscover herself."
What's her relationship like with her sister, Rosaline?
"When her mother wasn't able to care for her sister, Becca stepped in and did it — and when Rosaline was better, she was like, 'right, okay, thanks very much - I'm going back to work and getting on with my stuff'. And Becca was kind of left with this hole: 'where's the sister that allowed me in to care for her?'. Becca's after love from her sister, and from her father — once her mother's gone, she feels very disconnected to the people who are left in her family. Becca and Rosaline have to meet and find each other, and realise that they're not the people they think they are."
Was it easy to develop a sisterly bond with Eve?
"She wanted to hear my accent before the readthrough, so I sent her some mad messages. I was filming Christmas Carole at the time so I had a very severe bob and bright red lipstick and I looked a bit like Anna Wintour, so I sent her another message afterwards with no make-up going 'this is what I really look like, I'm not going to turn up like that!'
"When we got on set, we just hugged each other a lot because our characters don't do that. From day one, we established that if we have a close connection, we're going to be totally fine playing people who don't. We literally stuck to each other, which is good — then when we get on set we can dislike each other as much as we want!"
Has it been challenging to act in something that you also co-created and are executive-producing?
"I don't look at rushes, because that would be a bit too much for me — I did it once, on the fifth series of Scott & Bailey and I found it hard to look at the work you've been doing constantly. So I can't do that, but I do look at assemblies, so on a Friday night I look at what everyone else has been doing, and obviously, I'm in there too, but I've trained myself to look at the whole! I find that thrilling — on a Friday to stand back from the week's work and go, 'right, what have we got, and what's missing?'"
You've got a great cast for this, including Stockard Channing and Hugh Quarshie. Has that been exciting for you?
"Of course, and with Eve too, with Nurse Jackie, and I remember me and my husband watching The Honourable Woman and we kept saying, 'she's amazing!'. George Costigan as well, I've worked with him so many times, so I texted him and said, 'please be my dad!'. This cast that we've got — when it's your first project and you get Eve Best, George Costigan, Dean Lennox Kelly, Stockard Channing, Hugh Quarshie... it's just amazing!"
- Maryland airs on ITV1 and ITVX from Monday, May 22 to Wednesday, May 24 at 9pm
