“I don’t know how she did that,” Imelda Staunton says of her latest character in Jeff Pope’s new true crime drama, A Confession.
The six-part ITV series tells the story of how Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher deliberately breached police protocols to catch the killer of Swindon residents Sian O’Callaghan and Becky Godden back in 2011 – a decision which not only ended his career, but also led to the evidence being deemed inadmissible and the case being thrown out of court.
As a result, it was a further five years before killer Christopher Halliwell was eventually convicted.
In A Confession, Imelda plays Becky’s mother, Karen, who decided to fight for justice for both her daughter and DS Fulcher, pushing for a change to the law with regard to police procedures and how arrests are made.
“It’s quite an interesting story in that it’s not just about justice and this heartbreaking, traumatic thing, but about what happened to this police officer and how this mother, my character, wanted to help him because she believed he did the right thing,” Imelda explains to HuffPost UK.
She describes Karen as “a woman with an enormous amount of fight and armour”, and was amazed by her strength of character when first meeting her to discuss the story in the lead up to filming the series.
“I met Karen and we had five hours together,” she says. “She was so lovely and hugged me and thanked me for doing it. I let her wash over me as I didn’t want to ask any prying questions – I just wanted her to talk.”
Prior to Halliwell’s confession that he had killed both Becky and Sian, Karen had lived in hope that her daughter was alive after she went missing in 2003.
“It’s not a good story,” Imelda explains. “Becky took drugs and was a prostitute to fund her habit, so there’s a long history.
“There was this living nightmare and then the nightmare of Becky’s death. It’s such a double whammy… but Karen bounces back and fights on the side of what she believes is right. She always presents as capable and strong and you think, I don’t know how she did that.”
Of their meeting, Imelda confessed that she actually “put it off a few times”.
“First off, you think, ‘this is a job, it’s a good script, I’ll do it’,” she says. “Then you go, ‘this is a real thing that happened, this is a real woman and they’ve asked if you want to meet her’ – I thought, ‘I don’t know how to do that’.”
But of their coming together, she continues: “I got a real sense of her. We’re playing real people but we’re not doing impressions, so I just wanted to have her essence and honour what she’s been through – do it the best I can for this woman I’ve just met and her daughter who is no longer here.”
Imelda, who stars alongside Martin Freeman in the series, admits telling the story in the right way added pressure to the role.
“Whether you like it or not, it’s in the back of your head,” she says. “You have to think a little bit more carefully and you do feel a bit more responsibility.”
Imelda says much of A Confession’s quality is in its writing, having been penned by the critically-acclaimed Jeff Pope, who has previously won accolades for his work on other real-life dramas The Moorside and Little Boy Blue.
“The minute you hear Jeff has written it, you go ‘right’. It’s the same as Martin being in it – it’s that reputation of good work,” Imelda says, admitting it also appealed to her as it was very different from her most recent roles.
A Confession is Imelda’s first major part on UK TV in nearly a decade, after spending most of her recent career treading the boards.
“I wanted to give theatre a rest and this came along,” she says. “It was brilliant because a) it wasn’t a costume drama as Cranford [in which she played Octavia Pole] was period, and b) it was Martin, it was Jeff and this story and I really wanted to give it a go.”
Imelda will next be seen on the big screen in the upcoming Downton Abbey film, which will reunite her on screen with husband Jim Carter, who plays Mr Carson.
Asked if she found it daunting stepping into her spouse’s world as new character Lady Maud Bagshaw, she insists not.
“I’ve lived with it because of Jim, so it was nice. Penelope Wilton, we’ve worked together, Maggie Smith, I know her, so I didn’t feel like I was going in as a punter.
“It was gorgeous to be there.”
A Confession airs on Monday at 9pm on ITV.