{"id":10615,"date":"2022-02-01T16:22:15","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T15:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1576696"},"modified":"2022-02-01T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T15:52:10","slug":"is-the-responder-based-on-a-true-story","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/is-the-responder-based-on-a-true-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Is The Responder based on a true story?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By David Craig\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 01 February 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Martin Freeman has enjoyed high praise from critics and audiences alike for his powerhouse performance in The Responder<\/a>, where he plays troubled Liverpool police officer Chris Carson.<\/p>\n

Working a thankless night shift has already driven his mental health and his marriage into the ground, but things get even worse when Chris is drawn into a drugs theft that threatens to throw his life into even more chaos.<\/p>\n

While the crime thriller and the characters featured therein are fictitious, The Responder was inspired by the experiences of its screenwriter Tony Schumacher, who once worked as a response policeman himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some way I feel that I am The Responder to a degree and that this is my story,\u201d he said. \u201cI was a police responder who was out in the rain at one o\u2019clock in the morning, two in the morning, three in the morning, chasing people up and down alleyways and running over rats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Responder is in me; it\u2019s in my writing and in my script.\u201d<\/p>

Much like his protagonist, Schumacher also found that the pressures of the job put an enormous strain on his mental health, leading him to compare writing The Responder with having \u201cpaid therapy\u201d.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI quit the police because, and there\u2019s no getting away from it, I was cracking up in the police force and I had this overwhelming urge to write. I was really struggling mentally and I needed to get away and find myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cop-turned-writer, who has also worked as a taxi driver, explains that one tough aspect of police work is the heavy responsibility that comes with only ever delivering \u201cbad news\u201d to people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut conversely, it\u2019s incredibly exciting,\u201d he adds. \u201cOccasionally, you do things that change people\u2019s lives be it saving someone\u2019s life or locking up a criminal \u2013 you and your colleagues are working all night, every night and living constantly on your wits.\u201d<\/p>\n