JASON FLEMYNG

‘I really love this show and I am so lucky to do it.’

I had the privilege to chat to Flemyng about the latest series via telephone during the peak of the coronavirus in the UK and despite me being the one who normally asks questions in an interview, the actor was quick to ask how I was doing during the pandemic, which was pleasantly unexpected. Then again, as we continued chatting during our 15-minute conversation, I was quick to realise how grounded, down-to-earth and genuinely friendly he is. It almost felt like chatting to a friend for a catch up. In fact, he was outside the butchers during the interview: ‘I do some deliveries for the food bank, so I’m off to get my packages for the day while chatting to you!’ He has a refreshingly funny air to him and is very tongue-in-cheek in his manner refusing to accept my praise for his kind gesture for the community: ‘It’s got nothing to do with me being lovely,’ he quipped, ‘it’s to do with me getting out of home schooling!’

Within minutes, he confesses that he contracted the coronavirus, ‘Me and my Mrs have both had it. We got it fair to middling, nothing ridiculous. There were some days I felt like I had been beaten up by a baseball bat and two days where I was in bed.’

Taking it all in his stride, Flemyng went on to gush about the latest series from the SAVE ME franchise, SAVE ME TOO: ‘We love it! It’s a proper little community, like a rep theatre. The actors are all so excited to be part of it. The success is how we have bonded and it’s such a lovely thing to be a part of.’

Flemyng has taken on the part of Tam, who has starred in both series of the show so far. A loyal friend to Lennie James’s Nelly and a wise confidante to many – the moral compass of the show. ‘Tam, my character, is really exciting because there is no storyline about him being transgender or anything, he just is [who he is]. There’s no real link and we don’t even mention it. If there’s characters like that on our streets, what shouldn’t there be characters like that in our dramas?’

He continued, ‘After all of the gangster and murderers that I usually play, Tam seems so far from me, but he is actually the closest to me that I have played in years. Bar the makeup and the spanx, he’s pretty much me.’

Elaborating on his successful career, Flemyng revealed he knew he was part of a show that was really special. ‘I believe that I have been lucky. I’m 140 films and TV shows in and every now and again, you get a role like that and it just makes you feel so much better about your career and what you’re doing because you really do do it for love.’

Reflecting on the secret ingredients that makes the show so enthralling to fans, the actor refers back to another TV series he starred in, THE MISSING, where a child suddenly disappears: ‘I realised that there is something perverse in all of us where the desire to face what you most fear is in some way intriguing. Also, I think people love that Lennie has created these amazing, diverse characters. A lot of them aren’t people we’ve seen before.’

Heaping praise for the show’s writer, Lennie James, Flemyng continued to show an appreciation for James’ talent for bringing out the best in the show. ‘It’s always down, as you know, to the writing. If you have got a great writer, all you have got to do is say the words and you look amazing. The stuff that comes off the page, is just wow and nine times out of ten, when people applaud you for the performance, it’s because the script is so good. Lennie is just amazing.’ 

In the new season, one of the most standout performances is by Olive Gray who plays Grace. The show will no doubt catapult her into stardom, as she is such a talented scene-stealer in the series. Over the years, Flemyng has starred in well known TV shows such as THE MISSING, JAMESTOWN, THE LAST KINGDOM and many more and he is more than aware of what awaits her in the future: ‘I hope she’s ok. For me, in my experience of thirty years in the business watching young actors and actresses, she feels everything she does. It’s a tough way to work and like I said, without being too self effacing, I put the gear on depending on the character and that’s it. That’s me, it doesn’t cost me anything. However, Lennie can’t not cry off camera and he doesn’t know how to do that. Olive is the same. She’s watched Stephen Graham, and Lennie and she’s cut from the same cloth. It can be wearing, but I hope she finds a way of playing those characters without it burning her out.’ He continued, ‘To achieve real accolade though, you have got to do it Olive’s way, not Jason’s way. If you jump into a ring with people like that, they really pull you up.’

Having explored theatre work early in his career as a stepping stone to get into movies, Flemyng revealed that he would be tempted to tread the boards once again at this stage in his life and his career (despite his confession of often falling asleep on stage during his two years at the Royal Shakespeare Company): ‘Now as I hit my fifties and the need for money is not quite so great and the desire to travel is not quite so great, I’m quite interested in having a little flirt up with doing some theatre.’ His wit and humour bursts through when sharing a time he appeared in Shakespeare’s CORIOLANUS, convincing me that he wasn’t joking about falling asleep: ‘I sat down by the fire listening to Charles Dance do his speech – which he did very well by the way, so it was nothing to do with him – and the next minute, they had pulled up all of the drapes and I was sat in the queen’s parlour!’

Now that SAVE ME TOO has aired on TV to such resounding success, it’s inevitable that we can expect a third instalment, right? Well not necessarily so just yet. Flemyng confirms that Lennie James has some ideas and a draft written down, but as the actor so eloquently and carefully puts it, ‘he has got the icing for the cake, but he hasn’t got the cake yet. But he is battling away with that. Acting can be tough, but writing is a different league to that.’  

Have you watched SAVE ME TOO yet? Will you be adding it to your digital or DVD viewing collection? As always, we like to know what you think, so let us know your thoughts below, tweet us @filmandtvnow or leave a comment on our Facebook page.

SAVE ME TOO is available on digital and on DVD alongside Save Me 1 & 2 Box Set now.

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