The Innocence Project
Cast
Lloyd Owen (Professor Jon Ford)
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"When I read the script, I thought that it was absolutely intelligent. I compare it, at its ambitious best, to The West Wing: that feeling that I am being a bit challenged when watching it. It's definitely not that it is exclusive, but you know you are going to have to work a bit harder when you watch it.
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"Ford is just so cool and has so much going on with him. He is brilliant as the lawyer, the teacher, the idealist, the workaholic – and ruthless.
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"He is defined by his project, The Innocence Project – it's absolutely him. He may be emotionally immature because of his intellect, and he is quite guarded, which I really like, but there is always a spark.
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"Ford has an ex-wife, Lizzie (Charlotte Emmerson), with an ongoing divorce storyline, so you have a sense that there are problems.
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"Ford keeps his distance in the teacher-pupil relationship. So the dynamic is that the students spend a lot of time together in a group, and Ford is coming in from the outside. He will decide which cases the team needs to look at, and then sends them off in the right direction to investigate. They soon come back with a problem to solve.
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"He lets his students grow – that is the art of great teaching, which we have all experienced at least once in our lives: an inspiring teacher.
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"When I read The Innocence Project, I suddenly thought that, to the students, Ford is someone who, if you got a smile out of him, it would be fg amazing.
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"What I also like about the show is that he has chosen this group of students and any one of them, in a couple of years' time, could be a top lawyer. So he is dealing with great young minds and they challenge him, too.
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"Having Oliver (Brown), the writer, actually working on set with us has been a terrific experience for me. Ford went from this idea on a piece of paper to become someone who physically looks like me and sounds like me.
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"We brainstormed ideas on the character, which has been great.
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"I am learning about the law as I go. I have books on ethics and the bar at home, and I'm just ploughing through them, which is a nightmare!
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"What is fascinating is we should all know so much more, and it certainly makes you aware that there is many a way in and out of a situation."
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A well-known face on 91Èȱ¬ One, Lloyd Owen starred as Paul in the popular drama series Monarch of the Glen. Other television roles include: The Ghost Squad, The Vice, Heart & Bones, The Cinder Path and Professor Jones in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
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Theatre work includes seasons with the RNT, RSC, Donmar and Almeida Theatres.
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Lloyd has just completed filming a leading role in Miss Potter opposite Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, for cinema release early in 2007.
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Christine Bottomley (Sarah Shawcross)
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"Sarah has a great sense of humour. She is quirky, glossy in her heels, a social butterfly, but incredibly intelligent. She is the sort of girl who would absolutely cane her credit cards and will leave uni in so much debt.
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"Sarah's obviously had a very safe upbringing. She is the first of her family to go to university. She was the sort of child that would always be reading, but also the one halfway up a tree, exploring.
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"It means that she is not quite as aware of danger as the other students – she is always willing to just dive in and give it a go.
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"For her, the importance of what they are doing in The Innocence Project hits when she goes into a prison and meets a real prisoner.
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"But she still goes on about it in her own quirky way. There is a sort of method in her madness: she's the font of all information, with a photographic memory.
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"The scripts are very tight, with five very different students coming together. With Beth and Nick, there is a bit of a will-they-won't-they thing going on; Andrew is an older copper on sabbatical; and it's Sarah's first time away from home at uni. It makes for an interesting mix.
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"With the legality, it is a case of researching as we go along, really, keeping on top of the case that you're working on. I have friends who have gone into law and, as law students, they worked their bums off – but they did party hard as well.
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"The Innocence Project is a law drama, but through the eyes of people that are still learning themselves. We make booboos along the way and don't understand everything and have to look it up – it's very human.
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"'Innocence Projects' do exist, and in a sense, it is quite frightening that the outcome of a possible miscarriage of justice is in the hands of 19-year-olds".
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Christine Bottomley's recent television includes: The Street, Shameless, Vincent, Caravaggio and two series of Early Doors, as Mel.
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Christine has just started filming a new thriller for ITV, Instinct.
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Ruth Bradley (Beth McNair)
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"Beth is brilliant, very driven and focused. She is definitely more forthright and clearer about what she thinks and believes compared to the other students on the team.
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"She has a stronger conviction and she is quite forceful with her opinions, but I do think that most of the time she is pretty spot-on. She just wants to let it be known, particularly with Ford, that she is on top of everything and she knows everything and she is the best. Well, she is in her mind, anyway!
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"What strikes me about the drama is that these are five students thrown together at college and they just happen to be in this situation together – The Innocence Project.
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"Nothing, apart from this project, would have brought them together, which is really interesting. They are from completely different groups and probably wouldn't even speak to each other if it weren't for this.
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"It's about five students, as opposed to being just about the law.
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"Beth is trying to juggle everything: The Innocence Project, socialising, studying and waitressing. We start to learn about her private life as the series goes along, which starts to explain why she is so tenacious and determined.
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"She needs to be a lawyer because she needs to have something to completely focus herself on. We start to see her relationship or lack of relationship with her mother – who's actually played by my real-life actress mum, Charlotte Bradley!
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"I have read a lot about the law in the last two months and it is so interesting and exciting now. What is great about acting is that you just learn so much about so many different subjects, depending on what role you are playing, and for Beth it's about the law.
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"This show is a real challenge, intellectually. You have to study and understand exactly what every little thing you say means.
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"I read The Beginner's Guide to Law when I got the gig but it was just pointless – you can't actually learn it. We have a law advisor, and Oliver [Brown] is on the ball!
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"These kids are spouting this stuff off the tip of their tongues and it's completely natural for them. It's unashamedly intelligent, and that's what's so brave about the series.
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"It's something to be proud of. With this gift of intelligence, these students can change people's lives."
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Ruth Bradley comes from Dublin and has worked regularly for RTE TV in Ireland in series including: Always, Stardust and The Clinic. She has also been seen in Golden Hour, Ultimate Force and Sinners.
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Stephen Graham (Andrew Lucas)
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"Andrew is a mature student, coming into this group of young 19-year-olds. So it's strange, really, for him – a beat copper on sabbatical who is trying to broaden his horizons and better himself for his family.
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"I remember when I was a kid and went to college there was this mature student, and I used to think he was boring [laughs] – he wasn't out with us, getting sloshed all night.
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"That's what I tried to create with him from the beginning: he's boring, but he has bigger things to do. He works hard, he has a wife and child at home and responsibilities.
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"So I have tried to set that up and make him solid. Later on, he gets more confident. He wants a better life for his wife and child to aspire to.
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"Andrew has never actually done any kind of theoretical work, so for him to be able to go to university is a complete change – he is an intelligent, bright and ambitious young man.
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"He has got the life experience; as a copper on the street, he has been there. He has dealt with these people and he knows exactly how to react to them.
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"He didn't always get it right, because the police don't always get things right. He is aware of that, but he doesn't want to believe that the police make too many mistakes.
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"Episode five is a challenging episode for Andrew, where he has to go back and look at where the police went wrong in a case. He has a confrontation with a particular copper, who turns it on him, saying, 'You were one of us once – why are you trying to nail us down?' – which sort of makes Andrew question why he is doing it.
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"Ultimately, he is seeking justice more than anything."
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The cast has become a close working unit: "We work until 11 o'clock at night. We finish filming at seven and go back to someone's house to go through the lines, as we all want it to be the best it can be.
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"The dialogue is constantly changing; it is an organic process, as we have our writer Oliver [Brown] on set with us. It's hard graft in that respect – but great!
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"It feels good when you are on the floor, and the amount of detail that has gone into the set design and the props is amazing. You are picking up pieces of paper and it has got exactly what Andrew is talking about in the case, actually on the papers – amazing that someone has put that time and effort into it: very helpful too!"
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Stephen Graham has appeared in many films, including: The Good Night, Pit Fighter, This is England, Goal, Beyond the Sea, The I Inside, Revenger's Tragedy, Scorcese's Gangs of New York, Guy Ritchie's Snatch, The Last Minute, Downtime and Dancin' thru the Dark.
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Television credits include: Liverpool 1, The Lakes, Band of Brothers, Empire and Last Rights.
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Oliver James (Nick Bentiz)
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"Nick is a well-educated young man and comes from a very good family. He is a little cocky, to say the least – he does seem to get away with rather a lot, doesn't he!
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"I suppose he is a very confident young guy, very ambitious and, in the first semester, he sort of stakes out that he is only doing this to get into commercial law, where the big bucks are.
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"I suppose that is the art of the character really, the change in him; because you do realise he is a good person and, obviously, that is what Ford can see in him.
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"He has such a different dynamic to all the other characters. Out of all of them, Nick is from the wealthiest background. So he has always had things come easy to him, whereas the others have had to fight for everything they have – so it is interesting, really, where he fits in with the other four.
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"Nick has a girlfriend at uni called Mary [Ruta Gedmintas], whose father is a judge. She is a typical model type, but there is actually a lot more to her as well. So it shows that he goes for substance!
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"But he has this spark with Beth [Ruth Bradley]. It's interesting; it's the two sides really. The superficial, which is represented in Mary, his current girlfriend; and then this kind of very earnest, hard-working, good person – and that's his relationship with Beth.
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"There is a big struggle between those two, a real will-they-or-won't-they dilemma.
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"Sometimes there are scenes where there is a lot of legal jargon and it's very pacey. You really have got to go and do your homework, because you don't want to turn up and not know what you're saying.
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"We shot 12-hour days. We went home, had some dinner and then knuckled down to three or four hours of line rehearsal a night. It's great to actually take on a role where you can be intelligent and political as well.
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"I hadn't heard anything after my recall for The Innocence Project, and I was due to go back to LA, where I live, for a few months. I literally got off the plane in LA and checked my voicemail and had a message from my agent saying, 'You got the job – you're going to have to get on a plane back'. So I literally got on the next plane back to Manchester, where we started filming!"
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Oliver James starred in the Warner Brothers movie What A Girl Wants, with Colin Firth. The movie Raise your Voice followed, with Hilary Duff. He has spent the last couple of years living in LA.
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Luke Treadaway (Adam Solomons)
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"Adam comes from North London, and his parents are both psychiatrists, so he has not wanted for much in his life in terms of laptops and mobile phones.
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"But he probably hasn't spent a lot of time with his mum and dad. He is quite mature for a 19-year-old in a lot of ways, and I think that is why he wanted to get on The Innocence Project: to prove that he could run with it and make a difference, and not just sit back for three years at university, going out and getting hammered.
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"He wants more than that, and I think that is why he is going to go on and become an amazing lawyer – hopefully.
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"Certainly, Adam first of all came with a very strong sense of beliefs and principles. He is very passionate and idealistic in a lot of ways. He is fascinated by legal technicalities and getting people out of prison.
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"I guess, as with everyone, by going to university it opens their eyes. I know who Adam was before he came to university. Since he has been on the Project and at uni, he has certainly changed.
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"Adam certainly had a few setbacks, like when he realises that they try to get this guy off – and he is not actually innocent. That was the big knock to his idealism and his not-so-rosy view of the world.
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"In the first episode, we're already meant to have completed a term, so we just had to jump in there. The cast were picked to bring different things to their characters, and also have a certain energy that emulates the character.
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"I'm not saying I'm anything like Adam, but there's something the producers saw in me that worked.
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"Technically, this is my first job since leaving drama school – in fact, I left a term early to start filming The Innocence Project. I did do a film, Brothers of the Head, in the first summer holidays when I was studying, and then I went back for the two years."
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Luke Treadaway comes from Devon. He has just graduated from LAMDA and stars with his brother in a new film, Brothers of the Head.
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Shelley Conn (Dr Eve Walker)
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"Eve Walker is the students' Criminology lecturer. She is a colleague of Jon Ford's [Lloyd Owen] and an intellectual match for him. They have this sort of ongoing debate about The Innocence Project and what it should stand for.
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"Eve is very principled in terms of, if she believes that somebody is innocent, then that is what should be fought for – rather than using the system and its loopholes.
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"Eve is friends with Ford's ex-wife. It is not exactly a triangle but there is something interesting going on there between the three of them.
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"In terms of the students, she is the one that they would go to, if Ford is being a bit defensive and not giving as much information as they'd like.
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"She has a real interest in the project, and deep down would like to be officially involved – but that never actually happens, as Ford never asks her, which is another ongoing debate between them!
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"Eve is somebody who is very comfortable with who she is. I have never played anybody who has got her kind of knowledge right at their fingertips – you ask her a question and she knows the answer.
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"I think it's interesting to see the events that happen. The court cases have all happened and it's what happened to the convicted criminals after they have been locked up. The fact that they are students and not practising lawyers – it's a double edge. Is it the criminal that is innocent or is it the students who are too innocent?"
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Shelley Conn's television work includes: Down to Earth, Mersey Beat, Blue Murder, Attachments and Falling Down.
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Recent films include: the title role in Nina's Heavenly Delights, Transits, Entente Cordiale and Princess Pondicherry in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Shelley is currently filming a new series, Party Animals.
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