The actor has a key role opposite Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley in the new comedy. <\/p>
The new period comedy Wicked Little Letters<\/a> \u2013 which boasts Olivia Colman<\/a> and Jessie Buckley as its main stars \u2013 tells the story of a scandal that rocked a small English town in the 1920s.<\/p>\n Based in Littlehampton, it follows the events after a woman named Edith Swan (Colman) begins to receive a series of obscene letters from a mysterious source, and instantly suspects her boisterous and irreverent Irish neighbour Rose (Buckley) as the culprit.<\/p>\n Although the film takes a few dramatic liberties, it is very much based on a true story \u2013 and this is something that star Timothy Spall was \u201cdelighted\u201d to find out, as he revealed during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI read it and assumed it was a very well realised conceit,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut it\u2019s not, and I was delighted to find that it was based on truth!<\/p>\n \u201cAnd sometimes you go. \u2018Well course it was\u2019, because these preposterous things often work because you go \u2018Really?’\u201d<\/p> Spall also explained that he didn\u2019t research the true story \u201cthat much\u201d before starting production, in part because he was able to draw upon people he\u2019d met and known early in his life when taking on the role of Edith\u2019s stern, no-nonsense father Edward.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m old enough to have known men of my grandfather\u2019s generation,\u201d he said. \u201cI met neither \u2013 they were both gone when I was a kid, my grandfathers \u2013 but there were plenty of stories of men of that kind in and around the families, difficult men who had difficulty bringing up their kids.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it didn\u2019t feel that far away. I kind of recognised him as examples of various martinets I\u2019d encountered or heard of, you know, so it was quite interesting to find myself channeling some of that.\u201d<\/p>\n While Spall didn\u2019t do much in the way of research, his co-star Anjana Vasan, who takes on the role os Sussex\u2019s first female police officer Gladys Moss, revealed that she was eager to find out as much as possible about the period.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I read the script, I didn\u2019t know it was a real story until the very end,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then I sort of just dove straight into finding out as much information as possible. Not just about the characters, but the time period and what it might have been like, what Littlehampton might have been like.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cBut what\u2019s wonderful is Johnny [Sweet]\u2019s script is a real mix of both genuine truth and research and historical fact, but also his wonderful imagination. So you do all that research, it\u2019s all very interesting, and it informs some of your choices.<\/p>\n \u201cBut ultimately, you know, the script kind of gives you I think, enough to work with and then you arrive on set and then it\u2019s just very fun and playful with this brilliant cast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n