Poldark turned actor Aidan Turner into a national heartthrob, but now he's taking on a very different kind of character in a new ITV drama, The Suspect. The drama is based on the debut novel of Michael Robotham, the highly regarded best-selling fiction writer.
The Suspect plot
Aidan plays Doctor Joe O’Loughlin who appears to have a perfect life with a devoted wife, loving daughter, successful practice as a criminal psychologist, media profile and publishing deal. When a young woman is found dead he is only too willing to offer help with his profiling and expertise. But as the investigation into the woman’s death gathers pace, we start to ask, do we know the real Joe, or does he have a secret life?
The Suspect trailer
The Suspect release date
The first episode of the drama aired on 29 August 2022 at 9pm on ITV and there will be five episodes in total, one released every week.
Yours talks to Aidan Turner
Dr Joe McLaughlin seems very different to Ross Poldark?
Ross had his faults but Joe, who’s a clinical psychologist, is definitely a flawed character, which is very interesting to play. He regularly makes impulsive and risky decisions knowing that there could be consequences. Sometimes this behaviour pays off for Joe and other times it just seems to make things more complicated for him. This makes him unpredictable and sometimes unreliable, which is refreshing to play in a protagonist.
Joe also keeps his clothes on – unlike Ross!
I do whatever is right for the role I’m playing. As a soldier, farmer and landowner it made sense that Ross Poldark was in good physical condition. In series four of Poldark, there was a shot of me walking out of the sea and because of the attention that had come with that scything scene, we had a laugh about it and said it would probably make the papers. And it did! It put the show on the map. But all that is years ago now.
How did you become involved with The Suspect?
After I read the scripts, it was a pretty quick decision. I was gripped. It was the ambiguity of the piece that drew me in straight away. The story has an eerie feel to it and as an audience we’re not sure what part Joe has to play in it. This was thrilling for me. I thought, “Is he the orchestrator 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?”
Joe has been diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s. How did you research that?
I met a musician called Drew Hallam who was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s around five years ago, when he was 35, so he’s around the same age as me. We met a few times to talk about how he deals with the condition. We also spoke about how it was for him in the early stages.
Something that struck me in one of the early conversations we had when he said how difficult it was when you're young with this condition. I asked him what was the most difficult thing when he was first diagnosed and he said, "I can't trust myself to hold my kids". I can't imagine what that must feel like.
We talked about the side effects of the medication and how he deals with the physical side of things. It was very beneficial to speak with somebody so open and truthful about their experience.
Drew showed me a piece of technology that he moderates with a dial. It’s a pulse generator, which has been placed under his skin and is connected to fine wires that are inserted into specific areas of his brain. When he moves the dial, it slows the movement down and dissipates the tremors. When he knocks it off, the tremors come back.
Was acting tremors difficult?
We talked about it and I did as much research as I could, in addition to speaking to Drew about it. I wanted to keep the tremor subtle because Joe has been recently diagnosed, but it had to be 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.
London looks incredible in the drama
We filmed all over London, including around the Coal Drops Yard area in King’s Cross, which has completely changed in recent years. It’s rare these days to get a show completely set in the city. I don’t think I’ve ever shot anything that is completely based in London. I live in London so it was also nice to be at home rather than on location.
There are so many streaming platforms now – is it a good time to be working in TV drama?
A very good time. One of the great things some of these platforms offer is choice. Too much choice probably, but more TV shows and more films means more work for actors – in theory anyway.
Would you film another ‘Suspect’ book for TV? And will you play Ross Poldark again?
Yes, to the first question. As regards to the second, I have no idea, is the honest answer. It could be that in years to come, writer Debbie Horsfield comes up with a script and a few of us are interested. Who knows?
**The Suspect is on ITV, Mondays, 9pm
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