Andrew Lincoln, David Ireland on Itv’s ‘ColdWater,’ About “A Normal Man in A FR FROM NORMAL SITATION”

Coldwater Marks Lincoln’s Long-Awaited Return to British TV. He Plays John, Who Moves His Family from London to the Rural Idyll of the Fiction Town of ColdWater. Upon Arrival, John Is Quickly Befriened by His Charming, Confident Next-Door Neighbor Tommy (Bremner), A Devoted Husband to the Local Vicar Rebecca (Myles).

“John is bots impressed and slightly fascinated by tommy. His wife fiona (varma) Despises HIM,“ Reads A Synopsis of the Series. “WHEN HUSBAND’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR Enigmatic New Neighbor Becomes IncreASINGly INTENSE, Fiona’s Suspicions Are Aroused. to a head with Disastrous Results, He Soon Finds HimSelf Unexpekedly Indebted to His New Friend, Unaware That Tommy HimSelf Is Harboring Horrifying Secrets. ”

Concludes the synopsis: “This is the Story of a Normal Man, in a normal Margin, Who Finds HimSelf in a Far from Normal Sity.”

The Thriller Series, Produced by Sister Pictures (Black Doves, Eric, Chernobyl)is the Directed by Lee Haven Jones (A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, Passenger, Doctor Who) and Andrew cumming (Sheetland, Payback, Cold Feet). Produced by Brian Coffey (Dinosaur, Our Ladies), The Show Is Executive Produced by Chris Fry (Black Doves, Kaos, Landscapers), Alice tyler (The Following Events Are Based on A Pack of Lies), Lydia Hampson (The Following Events Are Based on A Pack of Lies, Cheat, Fleabag), and jane featherstone (Black Doves, Eric, Chernobyl) For Sister, Ireland and Lincoln.

ITV Studios Is Handling International Distribution of the Series that Will Also Be Airing and Streaming on Stv and Stv Player in Scotland.

Lincoln and Ireland Talked to Thr About their Creative Partnership on ColdwaterBalancing Thrills and Drama, What Else Audiences Can Expect from the Series, and Wy Lincoln Had to Fight Fits of Laughter on Set.

Andrew, everyBody Has Been Looking Forward to Your Return to British TV with Coldwater. Can You Talk A Little Bit About What Drew You To This Project and How You Found Out About It?

Lincoln Sister picTures sent it to me. I read it, and i immediatally said: “Absolutely not. It terrifies me! It’s too Frigating. It’s Too Hard.” I said it twice, and then i couldn’t get away from it. I Kept Returning to It. And then I Met David, and We Had and Hour-Long Zoom, and We Talked It All Out.

I KNEW About David’s Work. I’d seen his plays, and i’d read The Loverswhochh he wrote. A FRIEND OF MINE SENT TO SCRIPT TO ME FIVE YEARS AGO WHEN I CAME BACK FROM AMERICA, AND I ASKED, “WHO ARE The VoICES THAT We ​​Need To Look Oor?” I loved his writing then.

I just thorough Coldwater WAS FRIGTENING. IT’s A Man in Crisis. IT’s A REALLY TOUGH OPENING SCENE. I a tightrope Walk this one, but i felt i had to do it. IT SCARES ME SIGNFICANTLY ENUGH. But I ALSO FELT IN Good Hands with Sister. So yeah, it was irresistible, realy. I just felt that It Made me laugh in all the wrong places, and it made me cringe with recognition, and also, his Characters constantly surprised me with the unpreged. So i just thorough i had to do it.

David, do you know how you make Coldwater SO DIFFICULT FOR ANDREW to LET GO? You Always Seem to Write Things That Crawl Under Your Skin…

Ireland IT’s A COMPLETE MYSTERY TO ME. I don’t know how it happles. It Just Kind of Happy Naturally. I Get An Inspiration from Somewhere, and I Just Go With It. USUALLY, IT STARTS WITH ME WANTING TO WRITE Something. With this one, i Wanted to Write Something that’s A Bit Like Straw Dogs, Deliveranceor Eden Lake or The Wicker Mansomething about an Urban Modern Man Placed in a Dangerous Rural Environment. I love thoss kinds of stories. SO, that’s whore It All Started.

‘Coldwater’ Courtesy of Itv

In The Walking DeadRick Grimes Was Also A Character Who Was Plaked in A Dangerous Environment. Is there anything that your Coldwater Character John Has in Common With Rick? Or How Different Are they?

Lincoln He’s a Lot Like me, I Suppose. That’s the only concession and would make. One of the reasons i wanted to do this was that it made me laugh. David Has A Real Knack for Writing Dark, Dread-Field, Fearful Comedy. And I Like It. HE TICKLES YOU As HE’S PUSHING YOU OFF A CLIFF. And that is my Sweet Spot.

Ireland I Funny You Should Say That, Because and Remember Who and First Started Out Writing, My First Couple of Plays Wound Be Sent Out To Theaters, Andy’d Get Rejected Bee: EXTREME AND IT’S A BIT TOO OVHELMING, AND THERE’S TOO MUCH GOING ON, AND EVERYONONE BEhaves in Such An Extreme Way. ” Now, People Don’t Say That Anymore. I Feel Like The World Has Caught Up with Me.

WHEN PEOPLE SAY MY PLAYS Are Shocking, or Whatever I Write is Shocking, It’s Like: “Well, Look on Social Media! Look How Overwhelming and Extreme Social Media Can Be.” I Generally Ignore The Outside World and Just Write Something. Neil Simon, One of My Favorite PlayWRIGHTS – A VERY DIFFERENT Writer from Me, SAID: “Just Ignore Fashion and Let Fashion Come to You.” I Just Kind of Do My Own Thing. WHETHER OR NOT PEOPLE LIKE IT IS UP TO THEM.

Andrew, You Mentioned Your Character in Coldwater is deprassed but also repressed. How do you Tap Into Something Like Depression and Repression? Do you read about that, do you listten to music, or how do you find Those Dark Places?

Lincoln Music Is Important to Me. If I have to do a big emotional scene, i’ll do some prepiation. I LIKE READING AND READING AROUND SUBjects. There’s a brilliant book. Benjamin Labatut, WHEN WE CEASE TO UNDERSTAND The World. D HE’S Got A New Book Out Called The maniacwhoh is brilliant as well. He Sort of Writs 95 Percent Non-Fiction and 5 Percent Fiction. It’s Really Interesting. There’s a chaoticness to ha writing. He Pulls Lots of Seemingly Unconnected Strands Together. SO, I LIKE READING AROUND THINGS THAT INTESEST ME.

‘Coldwater’ Courtesy of Itv

We Are Also Fortunate with the Show That We Got This Extraordinary Ensemble of Actors. If you’re in a scene with somebody who’s trying to do the same Thing that you are, who make the Scene as Real and as Powerful and as True as Possible, then you’re in business. And we have a great Director, we had a great crew that were all really invested and actuly looped forward to seeing what was was happering, Because david’s writing is so unpr.

We also used to have a line Run. This is Really Unusual. We used to do it with The Walking Dead A Lot, Too. A Lot of Actors Don’t Want to Do It. But Because A Lot of the Actors at the Core of This Show Are from Theater, they love it. It Also Involves Everybody, All The Crew, SO EveryBody Wuldy Crowd Around, and You DO SCENE FOR THEM. I used to get more nervouse for that than the actual scene.

David is also an actor. For Example, He Played The ROLE OF SEAN Devlin, The Father of Nicola Coughlan’s Clare, In Derry Girls. SO, I WAS WONDERING, WILL AUDIENCES SEE DAVID IRELAND IN Coldwater?

Lincoln I WANTED HIM TO PLAY MY ShRINK.

Ireland I sort of wrote it and have myself in mind for that part. And THEN WHEN IT GOT CLOSER TO THE TIME, I TONOUGHT, “WHY Wuld I Ruin My Own Show by Appearing?” And THEN JONATHAN WATSON’S NAME CAME UP. And i was waas like, “Johnny Watson would be perfect.” He’s so brilliant. He’s One of the Highlights of the Show.

But I do have a cameo. I wrote a scene for myself. I Wrote Quite A Funny Monologue, WHICH HAD NOTHING to DO WITH The Story. I Just Wanted to Write Myself A Fun Monologue Whore Was Me Andreww, and I Had All The Lines. And then it got to Three Days Before Filming, and I Cut All of It. I Thought: I Cannot Put myself Through This. IT’s giving me anxiety. SO, IT’S NOW REDUCED. I Say Two Lines, But Is Quite A Fun Little Scene. I Think It’s A Good Scene. I Thought I Was Going to Be Horrified Watching Myself, But It’s A Fun Scene.

Lincoln I Wish You’d Done The Speech. I was so cross with you!

Ireland I KNOW, Buting IT WAS GIVING ME NIGHTMares Thinking About It.

What role do you play then, david?

Ireland HE WAS CALLED DAVE! I Should Have Given MySelf A Different Character Name Than My Own Name. But Again, I Thought It Was A Really Funny Joke WHEN I WAS WRITING IT.

‘Coldwater’ Courtesy of Itv

What was the hardest part about the show? Was there any Scene Particularly Difficult and Challenging to Pull Off?

Lincoln I Found It Very Difficult not to laugh. There was so many funny actors. I have to do the first scene with Johnny Wayson, and in my close-up, and just kept laughing. I wasn’t able to look HIM IN THE EYE, BECAUSE HE’S JUST Lethal. He’s one of the best actors i’ve every seen. And the Same Thing Happy with Abigail Lawrie. She’s this Marvelous Young Actress. Andrew Cumming, The Wonderful, Brilliant Director, Along with Lee Havene Jones, Really Got Serious with Us Because We Were Terrible. She is a terrible giggler. There Was A Lot of Mischievoous Kind of Energy On Set, And I HOPE THAT HUMOR Found It Way Into the Final Edit.

Ireland For me, it’s the first time i’ve every written a full-leggth, Six-hoc Drama-Thriller. SO, IT WAS About IT Focused on Character, But Also Having Cliffhangers and Hooks to Keep the Audence Watching, While Keping IT Authentic, Not Being Cheap. That was the challenge of it, and getting to the end, it’s quite an exhausting process. IT’s Much More Challenging Than Theater, I Find.

Also, i like things with Two Characters that go on for 20 pages. SO, I COULD Written a Whole Series of Just Two or Three Characters in a Room, But People Generally Tend Not to Like That. Still, for me, some of the best scenes are scenes that are long, Extended Scenes With A Small Number of Characters, Like Towo Dinner Party Scenes Where I Could Really Really Take.

Lincoln I love all of them. I MEAN, DAVID WRITES SO BEAUTIFULLY. And we were so lucky to have this Ensemble that Knew the inherent Rhythm of It and Were Very Generos. There Are Lots of Laughs in there is Well, and It’s Just About Keeping the Line and Making it True As Posible, Doing It Straight.

It was the Scenes, including the domestic scenes, that made me want to do it, because i just thorough that that were so perfectly pitched. They Were So Well Written and Fun and Mercurial. They just move so quickly Between Venom, Humor, Intimacy, Warmth, and THEN BITTERNESS. IT WAS BRILLIANT. I’m a big admirer of his writing. But Also, Funny Is Important to Me. You Can’t Ask Someone to Sit Through Six Hours of A Story and Not Make Them Laugh. I Think It’s Essential.

‘Coldwater’ Courtesy of Itv

DID YOU Ever Get The Question Whather Coldwater is a Drama or a comedy or how do we position it?

Lincoln I was working on it for six months, and i’m still none the Wiser. I don’t know what it is. I Kept Saying: Is this A Farce? Is it a a comedy? Is it a thriller? I It A Relationship Drama? I sort of thorough it might be an unromantic comedy thriller.

Ireland It’s Funny and Interesting, Because that’s Always A Question That Comes Up For TV and Probably Film As Well. Producers, Commissionyoners, and Audiens All Want to Know: “What am I Going to Produce Here? What am I Going to See?” WHEREAS IN Theater, You Just Write The Thing And It Is What It Is, And People Just Come and See It. I don’T KNOW IF TONE IS IMPORTANT as Such, Maybe Because they to see that author. WHEREAS WITH Television, It’s Like: “Well, What am I Watching Here?”