By Helen Daly

Published: Saturday, 05 March 2022 at 12:00 am


Martin Compston appears on Zoom proudly wearing his green and white Celtic top – combined with his thick Scottish accent used in Our House, his home isn’t up for debate. He’s in Las Vegas though when we virtually meet to chat about his new ITV thriller.

“I’m heading back home next week which I’m looking forward to – it’s the longest I’ve actually spent out here. I do really like it,” he explains.

We’re really here to dig into Compston’s new drama, Our House, based off a book by Louise Candlish of the same name. He plays Bram, who is seemingly a lovely husband to wife Fi (Tuppence Middleton) at first, but a series of bad choices bring about his own self-destruction and the collapse of his marriage.

The action is centred around a beautiful London abode, where the couple (once separated) trial a new way of co-existing, called “bird nesting”. Their two kids remain in their marital home, while Bram and Fi fly between a pretty dingy flat. Constantly apart, but keeping the kids as grounded as possible.

“The house is amazing,” Compston recalls, before explaining most of the show is actually (and seamlessly) filmed in a studio. “It was nice when we got [to the house shoot] because the hallway, the doorway, becomes a huge part of the show because of the bird nesting they’re constantly crossing each other over.”

The reason for bird nesting? Bram is a character so flawed he can’t help but make terrible life-altering mistakes.

“On the page, he’s an absolute bastard,” admits Compston. “The producers have all been very kind because they said that’s one of the reasons they came to me because you have to make him likeable. As an actor, as I play the scenes I also have to remember some of the stuff he’s done. You have to keep that at the forefront because otherwise, he becomes a psychopath, that he’s sort of this nice guy regardless of what he’s done.

“You have to really grab on to the moments where he is a good guy – there are few and far between. He’s like, ‘when everything’s going well, it just feels all that mundane’ – and he needs to inject the chaos into it, he needs a bit of excitement.”

Compston concludes: “I don’t think he’s inherently a bad guy at all, he’s made a couple of really stupid mistakes which probably in terms of a marriage are unforgivable, but once that sort of spirals, he’s just way out of his depth.”

"Martin
Martin Compston in Our House
ITV

What makes Our House so much more complex than your usual weeknight ITV drama is the constant diving between two timelines while intertwining both the husband and wife’s perspective – it’s a drama that makes you earn its reveals.

“You need to pay attention, you have to follow it – I don’t think it’s something where people can be sitting on their phones and social media while they’re watching it,” Compston says.

“Jumping those timelines is difficult, but I also thought what the edit did was really clever and really brave by not putting timestamps on it. I think that makes it in some ways a lot smoother because you’re not just jumping, it just sort of naturally happens.”

Throughout our chat, it becomes evident that Compston is a lover and expert of the craft. He knows when a narrative will work and when it won’t – and he knows when not to push a show too far. Our House, he insists, will only be a limited series.

“I think these days, people are far too afraid to just let something be – I think you can run the risk of spoiling a great original with a bad sequel, and I’ve seen that happen several times.”