Read an interview with playwright Peter Flannery.
The origins of this project are a bit unusual, in that it wasn't your idea. What happened?
Martine Brant had the idea in development and was looking for a writer. At that stage, all that existed was a six-page outline called The Devil's Whore, in which Martine invented the prototype of Angelica Fanshawe, and set the scene, the 17th century, with Civil War raging.
How did the collaboration between you work?
The collaboration was about ideas and characters more than anything else - Martine is an academic and historian and I am a dramatist. Very occasionally, towards the end, we would sit and write a speech together. At the very beginning, it was about my learning about the period under her guidance. That was about reading books and travelling round England looking at the relevant historical sites.
What was it that so drew you to this project?
First of all, I realised that I didn't have even a basic grasp of the English Civil War. And yet, as soon as you start to read about it, you realise that it was of vast importance. It was the first European revolution, and it paved the way for the American and French revolutions. It's a fantastic story that's just been dramatically neglected, and I couldn't understand why. I also realised immediately that Martine and I both wanted to write about the personal and the political, and actually to say that they are indivisible in the end, in life.
Why have we neglected the Civil War so much, both in terms of drama and in education?
That I don't know. I can't for the life of me understand why we're not more proud of it. It's the crucible for the European revolutions. If Rainsborough had lived he might well have organised a coup against Cromwell, and we might have had a proto-Soviet system. I don't know if that would have been good or bad, but it certainly would have been different It radicalised a lot of people, not just in England but around Europe, and left a legacy of ideas which we're still battling out. We should, as a nation, be informed about that, and take a proud interest in it. Also, for a writer, it's the most glorious landscape for love stories and action.
You've got a factual template in which to insert your story. Does that make it easier or more difficult to write?
That's where the creation of Angelica was such a glory, because she's completely fictitious, and we could do with her what we wanted. So obviously all of her relationships with the historical figures in this are imagined. I'm a dramatist. I'm not making a documentary or a drama-doc. This is pure drama; it's imagined history. No-one will pass their GCSE in 17th-century history by watching this!
Andrea Riseborough's performance as Angelica is key to the drama, isn't it?
It's the key, along with John Simm's Sexby. They are the ones we follow the most closely. But she is the dominant one, without question. It is a terrific performance - especially considering her age. It was always the worry that we wouldn't find someone young enough to play Angelica with the required presence. It's an extraordinary feat, comparable, I think, to the one Gina McKee pulled off in Our Friends in the North. Gina won best actress at the BAFTAs that year, and I hope that's an omen.
Fans of Our Friends in the North will be surprised to hear that The Devil's Whore has much in common with it, despite the latter's period setting.
There's a sense of friends bonding near the beginning of this, and then you watch how their lives play out through a time of political upheaval. So there's a great similarity. For a long time we called it Our Friends in the Civil War!
Having seen the final result, how do you feel about The Devil's Whore?
Well, it's up there with Our Friends in the North for me. I'm every bit as fond of it. I feel exactly as I felt just before Our Friends went out. What I think separates this from other period dramas is that all other period dramas on television are adapted from books. This is so rare as to be almost unique at the moment, a completely original period drama.
