Criminal’s Katherine Kelly compares learning Netflix show lines to exam revision

The actress is one a number of big names who feature in the all-new series 
Katherine Kelly in Criminal
Netflix
Naomi Ackerman @nomiackerman26 September 2019

Katherine Kelly has compared learning lines for new Netflix show Criminal to cramming for A-level exams because of the volume of work.

The series is made up of stand-alone 45-minute episodes each set almost entirely in police interrogation rooms, with the former Coronation Street actress, 39, heading a team of investigators — including Lee Ingleby from Line of Duty — who are questioning murder suspects.

David Tennant is the suspect in the first episode, followed by Hayley Atwell in the second.

Co-created by Killing Eve writer George Kay, and directed by Endeavour’s Jim Field Smith, the show has already been dubbed the “new Line of Duty” since its release last week.

Kelly told Insider that the dialogue-heavy series was shot in Madrid over three-and-a-half cold weeks in January with no pre-filming rehearsals, making each cast member’s background in wordy theatre crucial.

The actress, who trained at RADA and became a Royal Shakespeare Company regular in the early 2000s, said: “There’s quite a responsibility a show like this on the actors, there’s nothing to pull your eye away.

"There’s no big explosions in the background, no chase down with the guns, no flashbacks - everything you learn you just learn from that dialogue.

"There’s a reason why all the five core team, and actually the guest leads, have roots in theatre, because you just don’t [usually] have that volume of lines in television.

“There’s just reams and reams of dialogue. The big difference is that in theatre you get four weeks rehearsal and we didn’t have any rehearsal. So your prep is huge.

"It was like studying for A levels, I knew that script from start to finish, because Jim (Field Smith, the director) said he also might shoot on you from the start of the 45 minutes to the end, so everybody was word perfect.”

The one-room police detective drama is also a new style of venture for Netflix. Episodes with the same investigator-suspect premise have been created with different casts from France, Germany, Spain and the UK, all released simultaneously.

Criminal is out now on Netflix

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