First up playing the Queen is Emilia Fox. As well as confessing to having found the role truly daunting, despite being from acting royalty herself, find out what else she has to say in our interview...
History relates that you never wanted to be an actor, you wanted to be an art critic. So what went wrong?
'I suppose going to university I was thinking, what do I want to do? And I didn't want to be an actor, because it seemed like a very unoriginal idea in my family. I'd had this great education, and when you do an English degree, there seems to be a very broad horizon of what one can do with it. I loved going to the theatre, seeing films and reading, and I was also very aware of what destructive criticism can do to people.
'So I had this rather idealistic image of being a constructive critic but then quickly realised that I'm really bad with deadlines, as my essays with tutors proved. They were always done at the last minute, and I guess if you're a critic, you have to write overnight, so I quickly realised that wasn't going to be a good path to follow.
'So I started acting, and got into it, and once you catch that bug, I suppose you become passionate about it. It took away the decision-making process.'
Most parents will go out of their way to discourage their children from going into such a capricious profession. What was your parents' attitude?
'I think it's every parent's worst nightmare when their child says they want to be an actor. They didn't encourage me to do it, I think because they know the highs and lows of the profession themselves. Certainly they knew that I didn't have rose-tinted spectacles on about it.
'But they didn't actively encourage me, nor did they persuade me otherwise. They were most concerned that I would see my university degree through, so that I would have that insurance policy, and I think they were relieved when I started working.'
One of your first acting jobs was in Pride and Prejudice which your mother was also in. Was that comforting or slightly off-putting?
'It was a slightly double-edged sword, because although I went through the audition process and got it off my own back, as it were, and we were never in any scenes together, at the same time it slightly haunted me in terms of did I get the job because my mum was in it? That slightly haunts you as an actor starting out, when you come from a family who are doing the same thing.
'So I was very aware of it, but that's the challenge, isn’t it? You have to try a little harder to make people believe in you rather than just being another member of the Fox family. But the funny thing was that mum was the person who was up until 4am with all the guys like Colin Firth and Adrian Lucas, having a laugh, and I was the swot learning my lines and going to bed at 9pm.'
What are the roles that you've played over the years that you've been most proud of?
'The Pianist, definitely, because that was a big landmark in work for me - working with Roman. Cashback I really loved working on - it was a little independent film that Sean Ellis made as a short and then it got nominated for an Oscar, so he turned it into a feature film. It was really exciting, and I'm really proud of that. Silent Witness, because it's been a big part of my life. I love the challenge of playing a pathologist.'
It must be more of a challenge for you than most, because you are apparently hopeless at the sight of blood. Is that true?
'Really bad with minor injuries. I'm a terrible fainter, I faint at anything: having a thorn taken out of my finger, having an injection, seeing one of my parents having their ears syringed... I'm literally out!'
That doesn't augur terribly well for a career playing a pathologist.
'I know. I don't know how I got the part. And I also have this fantasy that one day I will grow up and become a medic as I've enjoyed the role so much. But actually, when I've been to see autopsies, I've put on the scrubs and things, and convinced myself that I'm in a scene, so that I didn't do anything embarrassing like faint. And actually, oddly, I was fine.'
You've said that watching the autopsies had quite a powerful effect on you.
'I've seen two. One was an old man who died naturally, and the other was a young man who died of unnatural causes. And I remember coming away from the old man and thinking, my God, is this what it comes to? Lying on a slab and having your organs taken out. And it did make me think that what we are is a shell, and the essence of us is something else that just disappears. I felt quite upset about it, that that's what it comes to.
'And then I suddenly realised that the point is, you have to make the most of life. Because when you see the young man, you realise that you never know when it's going to be your last day, so you may as well have a great time and try to make the most of it. So they both had different effects on me but certainly I did some serious thinking after it.'
Your new project is The Queen. What's the idea behind the series?
'It's a drama-documentary looking at the pivotal moments in the Queen's life, which have also been pivotal moments in our recent history. I play the Queen in the opening episode, and four other actresses play her in the other episodes.
'What I realised, playing her, is that she's an extraordinary figure in our history. The longevity of her reign makes her almost unique, and the period of time that she has reigned in has seen such change.
'This drama-documentary tries to explore the change in social history through the prism of those key events in her reign. But also, from my viewpoint playing her, I found it fascinating seeing the private side of her versus the public side of her. The documentary side of it deals with the public side of her, and the drama gives some insight into what must be a very difficult balance to hold. The time that I deal with in my episode was a very difficult time for her right at the beginning of her reign'.
What happened?
'Well, her father dies at the very beginning of it, and obviously being the monarch is a role she's been groomed for but almost as soon as she became Queen she was faced with that first real challenge.
'Margaret, who had been her companion and sister, suddenly presented the first real difficulty, of having to deal with something with emotion and compassion but also with responsibility to the duty that she'd taken on. Margaret had fallen in love with Peter Townsend, an older man and a divorcee, who was considered unsuitable for her to marry.'
Is it daunting having to play a figure who is still alive, and so important to so many people?
'Yes, it is, there's no doubt about it. I was so thrilled to be asked that I accepted immediately, and only then began to realise just what a challenge it was. It's very difficult to mimic the Queen, because it sounds like you're doing a parody of her. So I read what Helen Mirren had said about playing her, that she had deliberately set out not to copy her or imitate her in an exact way, for that very reason.
'I practiced trying to sound like the Queen, I did it at home and recorded it, and I sounded like I was doing a bad attempt at being in Brief Encounter. So I followed Helen Mirren's advice on it - after all, she'd done it so brilliantly - which was to try and capture an essence of her rather than do an exact imitation.'
What kind of research did you do for the role?
'I had very little time, so it was difficult. I was sent images and speeches, and I did as much research as I could on the internet, watching how she moved, and trying to read up about her at that time.'
For many of us, it's an odd idea that she was ever young. Was it quite fun to portray her as a young woman?
'Yes. When you look back at the footage of her at that time, what strikes you is how much she smiled and you see an innocence and a naivety in a way. She looks for help from people - can you blame her, taking on that role? But I thought that was something interesting to put into playing her - what it must be like having to take on that role.
'Obviously there was also a great sadness with her father dying. She was an incredibly beautiful, very stylish woman, actually. I think there's something amazing about the Queen. She's adopted this very public role, and yet she's an enigma privately. We're so used to knowing the ins and outs of the private lives of public figures, and I feel that we don't really know the private life of the Queen.
'I think, looking at the footage of her back then, and looking at her now, she's adopted a sort of mask of who she is. I think that comes from having taken that role of duty so seriously. She's impenetrable, privately, in very, very public moments. I remember when Diana died, everybody wanted to know what she was thinking, and criticised the way she behaved. But she's taken a decision in how to be seen, and I think in a way that's earned her the longevity of her reign.'
You seem to have quite some respect and sympathy for the Queen. Did that come from playing the role, or did you already feel that way?
'I think I felt like that in a way. Whenever I work for the Prince's Trust, for the Prince of Wales, I always think how extraordinary it must be being born into that job. You don't have a choice in what you do, and the work that they put in is phenomenal.
'I wouldn't choose that life myself, going round in a formal way every day, meeting people, having conversations with people on a huge range of subjects, never having time to yourself. It must be exhausting, and The Queen's done that throughout her reign. She has travelled and travelled, and been the ambassador for our country, and she's done that incredibly well. It must be exhausting, and some days she must feel like she doesn't want to get up and do that, but she does.
'So I admire her for taking all of that on, and I admire her for how she has dealt with difficult times in her reign, which this series covers, with dignity and integrity. I've never considered myself an ardent royalist before, but I sort of feel that we identify our country with the Queen in some way. It would be sad to lose that.'
