In ‘Showtrial’, a gripping story from the makers of Vigila murder doesn’t just set off a police chase to find a killer. It quickly gives us an accused and then shows how much prejudice, politics and the media can affect perceptions, as we follow the case from all sides, including the police and the legal team.
Created by writer Ben Richards (Cobra, The Tunnel, Strike) and directed by Zara Hayes, and made by the production company behind Line of Duty and Vigilthe story quickly has many of those involved, and the viewers, asking just how much we should believe what we initially see when we look at people.
Talitha Campbell (Celine Buckens, The Ex-Wife), who hails from a well-off family, albeit estranged from her father Sir Damian Campbell (James Frain, The Tudors, Star Trek: Discovery), is accused of conspiring to murder a fellow university student. Cleo Roberts (Tracy Ifeachor, Mayflies, Quantico) is the solicitor assigned to help her, as Campbell rejects her father’s help.
“It starts in a classic way – a missing girl in a city. We feel we’ve heard this story a million times before, a whodunnit. What it turns into is a twisty, knotty, legal thriller, the fates of all these fascinating characters whose stories circulate this legal case,” Hayes says. “It evolves from a legal thriller into a legal drama that asks some fascinating questions about what justice means, about the legal system in the UK and what constitutes a fair trial, which is all wrapped up in an entertaining story.”
Here, three of the stars of season one of the anthology show (a second season, with a unrelated but equally gripping storyline, is also streaming ) talk about what attracted them to the show, the urge to pick a side, and looking beyond the obvious.
Tracy Ifeachor (Cleo Roberts)
Tracy Ifeachor in ‘Showtrial’. Credit: World Productions
What is the story of Showtrial?
Showtrial follows a solicitor advocate who is also a duty solicitor; so that’s someone who goes to the police station with you if you ask for legal representation. Cleo just thinks she is going to pick up another bread-and-butter case to keep her firm going, but it turns into a massive spectacle – a showtrial basically!
What attracted you to the role?
So many things. I’m from the south west and I never saw anyone who looked like me in an uplifting role or roles that I identified with when I was growing up. When I read this script, it was the first I had read that did those things that I could see myself as a young, educated woman just making her way in the world. It’s groundbreaking.
Which of the themes resonated most with you?
For me, the themes that really resonate is how people are judged just by looking at what you think they have or how you think their life is from the outside. It reminds us all to take time to look beyond what you see, because it’s not always what you think – for better or worse. We explore that in this, and also the nature that is debated by that as well.
What makes Showtrial different?
It delves deep into things we’re going through – it’s so topical. We examine what class is and what it does to perceptions; what different peoples’ backgrounds does to others’ perceptions and how they relate to them.
Celine Buckens (Talitha Campbell)
Celine Buckens in ‘Showtrial’. Credit: World Productions
What attracted you to the role?
Talitha is the main suspect. She is privileged, brassy, riles people and rubs them up the wrong way, especially the detective leading the investigation which is pretty dangerous, but she’s also really funny. The complexity in which she’s written; she is unfiltered which is quite rare to see in life and on screen, a combination of humour and provocation.
What was the most challenging aspect about playing her?
It’s difficult to sum up how complex she is in a short answer … but in terms of acting, the most challenging part is walking a constant tightrope in terms of how much she is letting the other characters in to who she is, and how much she has her defences up. Those defences are humour and attitude. Her wit is the most enjoyable part.
In terms of contemporary themes – power, prejudice, class, media – what resonates most for you?
It’s how nuanced its exploration of privilege is. The scripts aren’t written with any broad brush strokes. She is economically extremely privileged and that allows her to behave in the way she does. If she didn’t look and sound the way she does, she wouldn’t behave so brazenly in a police station. She is so privileged that it doesn’t occur to her that she would be judged on anything other than the evidence. However, the scripts also reveal how in other ways she hasn’t been so fortunate. It sits at an intersection of identity politics and privilege. She becomes highly sexualised for the sex work she has done and her sexuality.
What do you love about Showtrial?
It makes the audience pick a side, and then they need to confront their decision. Do you believe in no smoke without fire? Do you believe in innocent until proven guilty? Do you think she did it? Are you going to judge based on the evidence or based on her character? It puts the audience in the place of the jury and I like that. The suspense will get audiences hooked and questioning if she did do it. Audiences will be surprised at how quick to judge they might be.
James Frain (Damian Campbell)
James Frain in ‘Showtrial’. Credit: World Productions
What’s at the heart of Showtrial?
Showtrial is hard to define as it looks like a traditional courtroom thriller, but really it’s a series of interlocking stories that collide off each other. You are peeling off the layers of an onion to get to the heart of it. It feels like a cross-section of our entire world.
Through Talitha, you find out about Sir Damian Campbell, a humble billionaire and property developer. You find out Talitha is a spicy character who has a difficult relationship with her father. The story is finding out if she’s guilty of what she’s accused of, but the real story is who are all these people and what makes them tick.
Tell us more about your character…
We don’t call him Sir Damian enough; right at the beginning he says it’s just Damian, but really we’d like to call him Sir. We never find out his backstory, but he’s a self-made man, he married into aristocracy and acquired the identity of someone very high up in society but is able to get along with lots of different types of people.
He isn’t cynical and really believes in what he is doing – building houses for people, building social need. He is very blunt and direct.
I thought Damian was interesting, fun and an original character. Normally the space reserved for a billionaire in drama was shorthand for a bad guy. I think that Damian is someone who doesn’t know who he is as he has spent his whole life creating an image of who he’d like to be, but his story is finding out who he is, who his wife is and who his daughter is. He’s a workaholic so doesn’t have the time to figure out his daughter’s pain.
…It was one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. I had to know if she did it straight away.
This is an edited version of material supplied by World Productions.
Both seasons of Showtrial are streaming at SBS On Demand.
Mayflies, co-starring Tracy Ifeachor, is streaming at SBS On Demand until 28 February.
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