A Spanish affair
The divided Defoes come together one last time for a wedding in Barcelona – but who’s the bride?
BBC
- Gareth McLean
This article was first published in Radio Times magazine in December 2024.
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NICOLA WALKER
Nicola Walker as Hannah in The Split: Barcelona BBC / Sister Pictures
Were you surprised to be saying ¡hola! again to the Defoes?
The ending of the last series of The Split was written as a finale, so this family reunion – which is how it felt – genuinely felt like a gift. And we got to film abroad. I never film abroad. I go to Manchester, sometimes. So Spain was a treat. And for a wedding! I can’t tell you whose wedding it is, though…
The Split is billed as a legal drama, but it’s really a family drama.
And what a family! My immediate family isn’t big – I’ve got a brother – so Defoe dynamics fascinate me. The sisters can be so casually cruel, but quickly move on. When we first did scenes like that, I was shocked, while everyone with sisters was nodding in recognition.
What does your Christmas Day involve?
Christmas is driving around, isn’t it? Driving to various members of our big extended family, seeing them for 20 minutes and then arguing in the car on the way to the next set. That’s my Christmas Day, anyway. I love the build-up to Christmas, but the day itself is driving, visiting, arguing…
So you prefer new year?
Oh no! With new year, I start turning over in my mind all the things I should achieve. Fitness is the main one, and a better diet. And organising my life better. But none of that happens, so really, I want to keep my head down until mid-February and then I can pop up again and be the same slightly random person I’ve always been.
So no new year resolutions or ambitions for work in 2025?
I’ve never thought, “I want to give the world my Lady Macbeth”! My appetite is definitely for British new writing and I love the “ding” of an email arriving with a new script attached that hardly anyone’s read.
Stephen Mangan as Nathan and Nicola Walker as Hannah in The Split: Barcelona BBC
STEPHEN MANGAN
What will your Christmas be like?
Because my parents aren’t around any more, my sisters and I spend Christmasses with our in-laws. So my wife’s family – her three brothers and her mum – all hang out for a week or so in the country with us. There’s something about hunkering down in the bleak midwinter that’s just magical.
In 2021, you played Scrooge in A Christmas Carol over the festive period. Do you like working over the holidays?
I worked the Christmas after my dad died [in 2013], because I just couldn’t face it. I thought, “What’s the point of it?” So Matthew Macfadyen and I did Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense and that got me through a difficult time. Playing Scrooge at the Old Vic was a total and utter joy. There’s a reason that the production is still going and actors want to play the part.
Why is that?
It’s rare you play a character who transforms that much. I think the interesting thing is how a man who spent that long so clenched and so ungenerous opens up. Playing that conflict is fantastic fun, but one of the reasons this story resonates so much, 180 years later, is that it’s not an uncommon story for men. Scrooge protects himself against hurt by being hostile, but eventually, he runs out of road and is overwhelmed. He
has a breakdown, essentially. But, ultimately, it’s a story of redemption.
Why do we like stories with happy endings?
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Because we all know where our stories end, I think. And whether you look at Christianity, which promises eternal life, or Buddhism that says you’ll be reincarnated, there’s this thirst, this longing, for stories in which the end turns out to be happier than our own.
Authors
Gareth McLean
Gareth McLean has been writing about television for nearly 30 years. As a critic, he's reviewed thousands of programmes. As a feature writer, he's interviewed hundreds of people, from Liza Minnelli to Jimmy Savile. He has also written for TV.
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