Doctor Joe O'Loughlin appears to have the perfect life - a devoted wife, a loving daughter, a publising deal and a successful practice as a clinical psychologist. He has even become a hero online after rescuing a young patient who was ready to jump from the tenth floor of the hospital where he works.
When a young woman is found in a shallow grave, detectives turn to the doctor for his expertise and help with profiling, but as the investigation gathers pace, questions begin to emerge about the real Joe in new ITV drama The Suspect. Does he have a secret life? Has his work allowed him to develop a criminal mindset? Or worse?
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There will be plenty of twists and turns in the five-part drama, which starts tonight on ITV, with Poldark star Aidan Turner playing the role of Joe.
"The story has an eerie feel to it from thebeginning and as an audience we’re not sure what part Joehas to play in it," explains Aidan.
"This was thrilling for me when I first read thescripts. I thought, is he the orchestrater of something dark and sinister here or has he just stepped into a world of paranoia and mystery and needs to figure out his role in it before it's too late?"
At the start of the series, we discover that Joe has recently been diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson's, which could explain his recent erratic behaviour, or is he just a cunning and dangerous killer?
"When we meet Joe, he has just been diagnosed with Parkinson's," says Aidan. "So, you wonder if what's going on with him is part of the condition. Has he been really thrown by the diagnosisand that’s why he’s making these decisions? Or is it a veil tocover something else?"
Show bosses worked with Parkinson's UK and Drew Hallam, who lives with Young Onset Parkinson's, to cover the medical aspects of the condition to make the scripts truly authentic.
Revealing the inspiration behind his new role, Aidan says: "I met a musician called Drew Hallam who was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's around five years ago when he was 35. We met a few times to talk about how he deals with the condition and copes with it. We also spoke about how it was for him in the early stages.
"Something struck me in one of the early conversations we had when he said how difficult it was when you're young with this condition. He said there are support groups, but Parkinson's doesn’t generally affect younger people. Drew went to one of these support groups early on and he was the youngest person there.
Aidan was grateful that Drew was so open and truthful about his experience, discussing the side effects of the medication, the challenges he faces every day and how it impacts his wife Sophie.
When they met for the first time in a pub, Drew showed the actor a pulse generator under his skin which he moderates with a dial to control his tremors.
"Then we started to talk about how I would play the tremorsin a scene. It’s like anything, you do as much research as youcan, reading, watching videos, speaking with people and soon," says Aidan.
"It's like anything, you do as much research as you can, reading, watching videos, speaking with people and so on," he said.
"We wanted to keep the tremor subtle because Joe has been recently diagnosed, but enough for it to read on camera. Getting it right was important.
"Parkinson's affects different people in different ways. We don't often see a leading character who has Parkinson's. So, it was interesting to tackle that."
Aidan looks a bit different to his Poldark days, as his character has a full beard and moustache, which the actor already had in real life.
"I happened to have a beard at the time the offer toplay Joe came in so it begged the question - what do we dowith the beard. Shave it off? Keep it? We kept it. It felt rightfor Joe," he says.
The ITV drama is based on Michael Robotham's novel - with Joe's life starting to unravel just at the point where he becomes a hero.
The audience are led to believe that the good doctor could never be a murderer, but we slowly start to see his manipulative side and question whether he is a brilliant clinical psychologist being framed for a heinous crime, or using his insight into human nature to get away with murder.
"Joe is definitely a flawed character. Which is interesting to play.He regularly makes impulsive and risky decisions knowing that there could be consequences for this later," Aidan adds.
"Sometimes this behaviour pays off for Joe and other times it just seems to makethings more complicated for him. This makes Joe unpredictableand sometimes unreliable which is refreshing to play in a protagonist. If that’s what he is."
*The Supects stars tonight on ITV at 9pm
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