{"id":34946,"date":"2023-07-17T08:05:25","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T06:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1858231"},"modified":"2023-07-17T15:26:41","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T13:26:41","slug":"timothy-spall-on-remarkable-and-harrowing-tale-behind-the-sixth-commandment","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/timothy-spall-on-remarkable-and-harrowing-tale-behind-the-sixth-commandment\/","title":{"rendered":"Timothy Spall on \u201cremarkable and harrowing tale\u201d behind The Sixth Commandment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spall spoke with Radio Times magazine about his new BBC drama, comparing notes with his son Rafe and being recognised for Harry Potter. <\/p>

By Graeme Thomson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 17 July 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

This interview was originally published in\u00a0Radio Times magazine<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Since making his TV debut in 1983 as Barry in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Timothy Spall, 66, has become one of our most beloved and versatile actors.<\/p>\n

He has played Peter Pettigrew in five Harry Potter movies<\/a>, made several award-winning films with director Mike Leigh, and starred in Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Damned United and Mr Turner.<\/p>\n

Notable small-screen credits include Our Mutual Friend and Summer of Rockets. Spall\u2019s latest role is in BBC One\u2019s fact-based, four-part drama The Sixth Commandment<\/a>, written by Sarah Phelps.<\/p>\n

Spall plays elderly academic and author Peter Farquhar, who was murdered in 2015 by Benjamin Field, the young churchwarden to whom he was \u201cbetrothed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\""Peter\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Peter Farquhar (Timothy Spall), (Ben Field (\u00c9anna Hardwicke) and Ann Moore Martin (Anne Reid) in The Sixth Commandment<\/span><\/figcaption> Wild Mercury\/Amanda Searle<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Were you aware of the story behind Peter Farquhar\u2019s murder before you took the role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t, and I was surprised, considering it\u2019s such a remarkable and harrowing tale. I was intrigued and touched, and slightly horrified. It\u2019s a very unusual and peculiar sequence of events.<\/p>\n

How did you research the part?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I read Peter\u2019s diaries, to see what his quotidian existence was like; they\u2019re transcribed from police files. I watched a documentary about the case, and I found footage of him elsewhere. I wanted to look at him. I find it important to catch things in between what people say, that aren\u2019t obvious. I get as much information as I can, then it becomes about me and a character.<\/p>\n

Was it hard to strike a balance between being respectful to the real people involved and making compelling drama?<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the very nature of crime, often the perpetrator becomes the celebrity. We rarely see the victims. This series isn\u2019t sensationalist, it\u2019s very quiet<\/a>. Sarah Phelps is a brilliant writer \u2013 how she distils the essence of dramatic situations is astounding. What\u2019s so tragic is the optimism and hope that was instilled in these elderly people. It\u2019s so much about loneliness and love, and dreams being fulfilled that are actually too good to be true.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s much talk these days of a loneliness epidemic, particularly among older people\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The spotlight has come upon it, perhaps because of COVID, but there has always been horrendous loneliness. We all have moments, but some people are wretchedly stuck in it. There\u2019s less stigma about it now, and one only hopes that, in the process of talking about it, something can be done.<\/p>\n

Why are we so fascinated by seemingly mild-mannered killers such as Benjamin Field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s probably more accurate about how things happen. That wonderful term, \u201cthe banality of evil\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s the way life is. It\u2019s not cut and dried, it\u2019s grey and strange. Often people don\u2019t know what their motivations are; it\u2019s this complexity that drama tries to make understandable. Drama can investigate the poetry of the situation and capture things that are inexplicable.<\/p>\n

\""Timothy\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Timothy Spall as Peter Farquhar in The Sixth Commandment coming soon to BBC One and iPlayer<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Do you ever take the darkness of a role home with you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You carry a certain amount of it with you, because you think about it a lot. But I always have my mind on the fact that there is me and then there is the character. I use myself as a toolbox to play the part, but that\u2019s all. You\u2019re only borrowing from yourself.<\/p>\n

In the \u201990s you were diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. How did that change you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was peeking over the precipice! It gave me an understanding of what suffering was really like. The possibility of not making it and leaving a young family, the most important things in my life, made me focus on what is and isn\u2019t important. That won\u2019t go away. It\u2019s in the bank, as a wonderful benchmark to work against. I don\u2019t recommend it as an aide-m\u00e9moire for making you a better actor, but it certainly gives you an idea of what it\u2019s like to feel really up against it.<\/p>\n

Your son Rafe is a successful actor. Do you compare notes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like bricklayers sitting around \u2013 they might talk about mortar or rendering, but it\u2019s organic. There\u2019s technical stuff we refer to, but it\u2019s just in our everyday life.<\/p>

For which of your numerous roles are you recognised most often?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s still Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, because it\u2019s always on somewhere. Or Harry Potter because it\u2019s a global phenomenon, and it\u2019s not just kids. Somebody asked me to sign some Hogwarts merchandising and he said, \u201cIt\u2019s for my daughter. She\u2019s 30!\u201d I also spend a lot of time not being recognised, which I like.<\/p>\n

You were supposed to play the detective Atticus Pund in Magpie Murders<\/a> but it fell through. Are there any roles that you regret missing out on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a personal matter to deal with, so I couldn\u2019t do it. These things happen. On the whole, you\u2019re a hostage to fortune as an actor, unless you develop things yourself, which I do a little. Luckily, I don\u2019t have to self-tape: set up lights and do a bit of acting to get a role. I\u2019m not going to do it. It might be arrogant of me, but I think I\u2019ve been around long enough!<\/p>