Kenny Doughty Talks About The Latest Series Of The TV Show, 'Vera'

[Music] hello and welcome to build I'm Sam Thompson and we are live in London now remember if you are watching this live and you have any questions then please feel free to tweet us at build series LDN or forces on facebook then leave a comment below now we are joined today by actor / director currently starring on ITV's virar please put your hands together for Kelly Doughty Kenny welcome thank you how are you today really good thank you how are you very well Matt you are pulling off the glasses incredibly well I can't see without them so I kind of have to oh really oh really oh this hobby would be just a sea of blurred kind of picturesque beautiful people you might need that might look better blurred if I'm honest with you now Kenny series 9 is just wrapped which is pretty close to the wire sing as if someone's just come out yeah we finished filming in November episode 4 and then we had a lot of post-production right up to Christmas and then we for the post-production team is quite close to get all delivered just in time to get it aired and what are you going to do to relax now and once we've done all the press and once Vera's finished I will probably go back to doing hiking and just relaxing and catching up with friends and have a good hike I do yeah I Yorkshire love a hike yeah I found a Mount Kinabalu in in Borneo yeah it's a big show-off and I do the late district is like a church you know if you want to have a hike off then I'll get the boots and my own spray bag but isn't really actually really worthwhile I think you should all try it very very definitely and eight point nine million viewers on average for series 8 lat yeah it really was and it's such a joy to be a part of you know working every day and for Brenda she's not done series 9 series this is my fifth and it just keeps he keeps getting better and better like a vintage wine but has that put much pressure on series 9 seeing how good series a did and I don't think so I mean we we do what we have to do you can't really think about how it's gonna go down and what the success is you can only do your job and hopefully you know deliver your characters in the script and you know be as authentic as you possibly can if you start to worry about you're gonna top the ratings from the previous year I think you're in dangerous territory and we are following BCI there she is DCI Vera Stanhope and I always get it wrong these DC I don't really unsaid detective what are they detective I'm a detective sergeant yeah the hierarchy is you've got a DCI which is the Detective Chief Inspector okay and they are the SiO of an investigation which is senior investigating officer and ordinarily you would then have a detective Inspector which is a di which we don't have then you have a detective Sergeant and then detective constables and you're Aidan Healy even here Lee and can you tell us a little bit about your character you played him a lot now yes I didn't five years of him he originally Dawn's from Yorkshire and when we first introduced him in my first series he come from the firearms squad in Yorkshire and he'd made a bit of a mistake on the job and he was kind of suffering a bit of trauma from that so he transferred to Northumberland to join a Vera stunt hoping to CID team and he's become over the years a very loyal sidekick to tavira and a bit more confident and a bit more I mean he she she really does have a genius way of working things out which is very frustrating for Hayden but he's not quite just not quite there it's like you know why can I not do that so he's gradually formed a really lovely relationship where they kind of bounce off each other but what's really interesting about this year is that by the end of the series we do and Cleaves his book The Seagull which is beer is based on all of on cleavers books and in that particular episode there's a lot of tension between Vera and Aidan because that case and if you get to read the book it's very personal to Vera because it's a cold case and Aidan is included Blee frustrated about not being allowed in and it's the first time in five years that there's a real kind of genuine passionate tension between them which I really enjoy playing would you ever have tension with your character because you've been playing him since 2015 you must know inside and out yeah I do and yeah I mean he's very different to me he's a much more thoughtful I talk like I can talk you know for England he's rubbing on about things and what I've learned from him than him to me is where doesn't it wobbler from him gosh where does like what are those those things we need to work out what was that that's me but from Aidan the character is that you can take time and be a bit more thoughtful and a bit more listening watch this now I'm going to listen so he would be more like this mm-hmm okay your soul but they have this thing which which are legs I did a bit of a workshop with the police before I did the job and one of the things that I learned they do a thing called ABC which is assumed nothing believe no one check everything so whenever you're in a kind of interview situation with a suspect you might be as nice as pie and you kind of do that and then you walk on got the guilty you know a nick what do you mean we just need to find the evidence but sounds guilty definitely depends what all I did Nick a pepperoni outlets this is free just immediately now episode 1 is already aired obviously by the way it's really really great being what is in store for episode 2 what I mean without spoilers obviously we've got an episode 2 which is called cuckoo and it's a different territory for as we're dealing with county lines which is when you have drug dealers crossing County lines and the story starts with a shocking disappearance of a teenage boy from a care home and then we find him further north of Newcastle and then find out that he's been exploited and it kind of takes into a very dark world into a kind of County lined and drug world and there's some scenes which a little bit kind of Trainspotting esque in the sense of the there are people that are addicted to drugs and then you see their home and what happens is cuckooing means that drug dealers take over these vulnerable people's homes to kind of deal and do this we're into this very kind of dark raw world where teenagers are exploited and Bumble people have been exploited how do you find like do you speak to the police to find these sort of stories and and like because I didn't know that happened I didn't know that the writers do I mean the writers we have an amazing team of writers and they obviously got there and research it and find these stories and then once the story is presented to me and Brenda will go off from research and go where did you find these but you so we we get them once the writer is you know it's found a story we actually are very lucky by the way we have a clip of Episode two or it's coming out let's take a quick look you know Brenda is I think an absolutely world-class actor one of the best actors you know on the planet that I worked with and it's such a joy to work with her and she's so different from Vera I mean she is so much fun I mean incredibly hard-working and and really genuinely every day at work is an inspiration to be with her because she's such a high standard and Ametek particular meticulous detail to attention unlike my speech but you know but no she's not I mean she's she's not like very at all ready and your character so brilliant because say I even then you sitting on the bench and you're just about to tuck in and there's an element of comedy in that ya play off each other so well we I am kind of what's nice is I think the writers have started to understand Kenny and Brenda's dynamic that we have a great time and we've learned how to find just a little bit of playfulness in the relationship and so that probably wasn't entirely scripted the timing of it and we try and find little moments like that which very just reminds Aidan of her Authority and can say look either on the way in his eye every time he never gets finished somewhere or his coffee or you know doesn't quite get to deliver that's Danny I know who's done it okay and I need to ask you this okay I've always wanted this ready to put the voice the accent on she yeah I mean to help her normal voice because she's from Ramsgate and so that that accent is Vera's voice its various accent and then sir and she obviously played the part for a few years now so she can just go straight interview yes it's amazing it's amazing transformation I mean you know we traveled to word together and this Kenyan Brenda in the car and then when we get on set you put that hat and the Mack on and the accent I'm active area and I've become slightly like and she's she's amateur leading lady yeah and you know I think that's brilliant is that essential to the show's success I think so I think that the with the books and with with veered what's really important is you've got a woman who essentially is in a man's world and she doesn't have any real male superior so she's having to get young men and and and an older men in shape and in line and anybody who tries to challenge her Authority you know she doesn't stand up you know what I stand for it and I think it's really important to to have that yeah and certainly you know it's not somebody who's wearing designer clothes I mean it's you know it's amazing you've got somebody who is more concerned about cracking crime than how she looks a hat and the scarf just worked so doesn't it come on they started to sell those Hut's nice ridiculous Vera hats no really actually it's become a sideline yeah anyone I'm not even joking oh well I could rock one of those bad boys I do you guys do you get much chance to hang off-screen because obviously there is a huge age gap and you know she's probably families gets used as do you yeah do you get much children I'm was it strictly work we spend nearly 24 hours together yeah we do I mean we could we work 15 hours a day and we will once we finish filming we have when we're film you have an apartment next to each other so quite often we go down and cook dinner for each other maybe watch a bit of TV to unwind but then learn lines for the next day so you've work doesn't actually stop when you finish filming you've got to learn the next day's workload so we'll go through the script and do that and then when we get chat if we get chance we might do a quiz or go to the theater or you know whatever we can take him where we are like this episode was filled in amble which is a beautiful part of Northumberland so we tried to go and explore a local fish and chips shop after we finished filming that was our treat talking about Beauty actually some of the locations that are shot in this are so beautiful is there a lot of location work done yeah I mean the location Department are extraordinary I mean with the 9 years of era and they still managed to find places that were not shot in before but I think he's credit to the northeast and Northumberland that that whole coastline it's absolutely genuinely stunning and you can be on the coast which is untouched beaches or a city centre or if you go further inland you've got really beautiful Moors and kind of derelict landscape which is you know great for hiking and you know doing all that kind of stuff but yeah the location Department brilliant actually segwaying on to the north mm-hmm you know what's coming now now wait do you know what's going okay we got a little game okay it's called guess the northern phrase here we go it's most set up not north people I won't know what any of this means okay but we we're going to put you to the test here y'all northern you really are first up okay we've got it words this I don't even this is gobbledygook to me but put words into all of what put it all over come on you said it's so quick hey come on you know I talking about we can do this holiday if they want all right well okay and what does that mean we can do this all day if you want so you Barnes has got a very specific dialect which is different to like leaves and Shepherds you know what's funny on here and I'm sure it's gonna come up just say he says close the door love that completely wrong but you could say that would be close dual of [Music] producers we are so very disappointed yeah you're showing me up not in front of my friends the next one is a noise noise traps mate nice traps mate I know don't know if he's a trick one traps oh it's a good one whilst traps nice Wow no that's a new one on me I would say nice boots boots a nice pair of booties are gone they are a nice pair of boots okay these are the new unite blazes don't worry about that number three okay ah I need to go to the Aussie I need to go to the Aussie it must be the toilet right it's not it's not it's not it's in fact our knees go to Ozzie I need to go to Ozzie yeah okay yeah and well actually you know if we actually have more but I've got it I'm gonna stop this because it's killing me not being able to say them what was next in store for you well once we finished a bit more press for Vera and then I will probably have a bit of time off go back a bit of hike in and catch it with friends I mean we film for six months and then we'd do the press until it starts and then finishes about nine months in total that we kind of occupied by Vera but in terms of a career you know I heard that you actually a director as well I directed you I did a short film a few years ago which I loved and it's something that still keen to kind of get back into it's hard it's really hard I have so much respect for directors and he's hard to find the right project and get it made and kind of get the you know the finance for I'm an independent film is really really difficult and it's obviously a very hard questions who wants to be if you could if you had to very often to one of them any more directing what would you rather do was your biggest passion hiking I don't know I think they're both such different disciplines I mean I love playing you know being an actor it's a playground and you get the opportunity to improvise and have fun and and as a director as a different part of the brain you've kind of when you're doing your pre-production you've got to imagine what it is that you want and when you shoot it's about collecting what you want but being adaptable to be able to take and move within performances and and then you've got the post-production so it's different parts of the brain you know so I don't think you could say is either or I think if you can combine both and you really are in a good place would you ever put yourself in your own film never I really wouldn't because I think it's really confusing I think it's confusing for the reason why you're doing and also I think I would always like to retain a sense of objectivity about the work and if you're in it I need as an actor I need to be directed so I wouldn't go to direct myself and you know you're doing this do you do a scene okay yeah so you okay yeah I'm really good man good cut that's me hey Carrie but they do notice a quick quick quick story and we've got time the years and years ago I did a film called Titus with Antony Hopkins and that day the director wasn't wasn't there I think I can't remember wife whatever reason so he had to direct himself and he he did this thing a new gear lights yes that's right camera action that's me right I knew then he went into the speed okay and it did leave Shakespeare speech and then called cut oh yes that's me cut stop and he was this really weird surreal thing of him directing himself and the camera and I can do is too confusing would they ever let you direct an episode of Vera um again I think that I again I don't think I'd be objective enough to do - no it was lovely though we had last year lovely David Leon who was the sidekick before me and he came back and directed an episode and he was really lovely for him to come back cause he knows his show inside out and he did a fantastic job and he had a different take on him because he'd been part of the world as an actor and as a sidekick and came to as a director so I think with that time and space I think it's a good good thing to do but not while you're in it well I suppose me to ask them to kill you off then cheers me Kenny it's been so great talking to you he's gone so quickly that I'm poor she is all we have time for and that makes you quite sad but it's on on Sunday at 8:00 it's 810 at Sheep yeah right yeah 10 past day which is a different time than normal but it is on sunday sunday itv 8-10 p.m. and please do tune in I will be watching please be has to give a one last time but Kenny Doughty thank you thanks [Music]

Channel: BUILD Series LDN

Views: 18,522

Keywords: BUILDSeriesLDN, BUILD Series LDN, BUILD UK, BUILD, BUILD LDN, BUILD London, entertainment, live, build speaker series, build series, build london, interview, UK, London

Id: 3MZy0oTlx9Q

Length: 17min 37sec (1057 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 06 2019