Actress Monica Dolan, 53, on the pain of losing her brother to Covid and why it’s a change to play someone nice in her new TV drama.
Your new drama, My Name Is Leon, is set in 1981, a year of riots and a royal wedding. What are your memories?
I was 11 and I remember the train carrying Charles and Diana went through Woking station, near our house, so we went to the station and looked at it. We couldn’t see them – anyone or no one could have been on it! I was into Adam And The Ants so I went to our royal wedding street party as Adam Ant.
I didn’t have anything very sophisticated in the way of make-up so I put a stripe of toothpaste across my nose. I’d also broken my leg while roller-skating. It all happened to me in the ’80s!
What’s the Leon story?
It’s about a young boy of colour whose brother and mother are white – his father isn’t around. His mother is ill and he ends up being taken to a foster carer, my character Maureen.
He’s been brought up by white people and it’s not until Maureen gets ill that things change. He goes off and finds another community at an allotment and learns more about his identity.
It’s set in – how did you cope with the accent?
I listened to a Newsnight interview with White Dee from Benefits Street every day before I went on set. Sometimes it’s good to have a phrase that kicks you into the accent.
Mine was, ‘You cannot droive up and down that road on a Saturdoy or Sundoy,’ which was something White Dee said.
I enjoyed it – I like doing accents.
Which is the hardest and the easiest accent you’ve ever had to learn?
It depends how long you’ve got to learn them. I played Anne Darwin in . She was from Hartlepool and I had three weeks. That was tricky.
My parents are Irish so I feel my Irish accent is fairly authentic and I love doing the American accent.
Does My Name Is Leon tackle the subject of racism?
What Leon learns about himself is probably a bit uncomfortable for the white people bringing him up. They don’t want to admit the differences and the challenges he’ll face.
Maureen just wants to protect him from what he’s inevitably got to deal with, because of the way the world treats people because of the colour of their skin.
What is Maureen like?
She absolutely loves children and has a wonderful way with them. She really knows how to give them a stable environment. She’s lovely.
I felt very lucky because often I’m asked to play quite troubled characters, to put it mildly!
You portrayed serial killer Rosemary West. Do you mind playing people like that?
It doesn’t worry me. Obviously I want people to think that I’m a good actress but I’m not concerned with what people think of the characters I play.
I wouldn’t want to play Rosemary West and everyone come away going, ‘Oh, she’s actually really nice.’ Because then I would have done it wrong.
How did it feel to win the Bafta for that performance?
It was the most extraordinary moment but I had mixed feelings. What was most shocking with some of the people who were Ki**ed was that no one even noticed they were missing.
I found it upsetting to think that anyone could be cared for that little that nobody would even notice if you weren’t there.
Do you manage to switch off after harrowing scenes?
I played a woman who stalked a doctor for four years and I’d come home feeling a bit buzzy. If I had a day off the next day, I’d lie face down in the park for the day!
With Anne Darwin there was a lot of crying, so you have to remember to drink a lot of water so you don’t get dehydrated.
Was lockdown a difficult time?
It was really hard. I lost my brother Paul [to Covid] right at the beginning of it and I wasn’t able to see him because of lockdown. The last I saw of him was on my mum’s birthday on March 3 and he died on Good Friday.
Work-wise I had an awful lot back-to-back so, actually, with regard to trying to come to terms with everything that happened personally, I’m probably only doing that now.
What age were you when you decided you wanted to act?
I was in middle school. My brother played Goliath in a musical. I thought it was fantastic.
I then appeared in a school assembly. It wasn’t a very big part but my few lines as a librarian up a ladder got a laugh. I remember being very delighted with that feeling. I had the bug.
How do you enjoy yourself when you’re not working?
I’ve just got a husky puppy called Velma. I use the word enjoy loosely. It’s like having a baby that runs and bites! She’s beautiful – she gets stopped in the street all the time by people who want to stroke her.
I’m utterly in love but we’re doing puppy training so I’m rather sleep-deprived!
My Name Is Leon airs tonight at 9pm on BBC2 and iPlayer.
