“She looks like Claudia. She sounds like Claudia. But she most certainly isn’t the same girl. Things have changed and people have changed and she has changed more than most….the hemlines have got a lot shorter and the heels have got a lot higher.”
At the close of series one Professor Nick Cutter was left reeling; his wife Helen had made the startling revelation that she had an affair with his best friend and closest ally Stephen Hart. But worse than that, upon his return from his disastrous mission into the past, it was clear that all is not right with the world he has returned to.
Claudia Brown, the Home Office aid with whom he had been falling in love, was not waiting for him on the other side of the anomaly. She had disappeared. And his team knew nothing of her existence. It was as though she had never been born. As the series drew to a close, he was hit with a dawning realisation that something had gone terribly, fatally wrong. But what?
Well the actress who played her is back for the second series. But is Claudia?
“Well yes, obviously I’m back, but I’m not quite the same person I was before. In fact I’m playing a totally different character. She looks like Claudia. She sounds like Claudia. But she most certainly isn’t the same girl. Things have changed and people have changed and she has changed more than most.
Cutter doesn’t meet the new me until the very end of the first episode, and I think it’s fair to say he gets quite a surprise when he sees me standing there. When I am confronted with the team as we know it, they don’t know who I am, I don’t know who they are, but Cutter, of course is in a very different position. He has just spent an entire episode thinking he’s lost her, but then when he is confronted with a different version of Claudia he is completely thrown. It’s a real mind twister.
He addresses her as Claudia and tries immediately to convince her that she isn’t in fact who she thinks she is; I obviously think he is barking!”
So just who is that girl?
“My name is Jenny Lewis and I’m a PR professional brought in to cover up the increasingly public creature sightings. It’s my job to spin the un-spinable. Jenny is at the top of her profession and in that respect, she is utterly fearless. Which is rather different to Claudia; she was only just beginning to make her way up through the Home Office and was sometimes a little unsure of her position. But Jenny is an altogether different proposition. She is tough, uncompromising, and totally assured. She never questions her ability to do her job and when the need arises, can be utterly ruthless in obtaining the result she wants.
When she discovers what her remit is, she initially just laughs it off but when confronted with the reality, she absorbs the shock and very quickly turns it around. Jenny is not one to be thrown off her stride very easily. As she says herself, she is almost completely unshakable.”
What, even when faced with creatures from the past?
“Even when faced with creatures from the past. In Jenny’s mind it’s not so much the nature of the job that really concerns her, but getting the job done and doing it well. This incredible scenario is her reality now and she has been tasked with finding a public explanation for it without actually explaining it. Jenny is extremely pragmatic and very, very adaptable. She’s been hired to do this and that is what she will do, end of story.”
So, leaving the still reeling Cutter aside, how does the rest of the team take to her?
“Well I think it’s obvious that Lester and Leek very much like having her around. She is so good at what she does that she makes their jobs a lot easier, and she likes that and flirts with Lester; much to Cutter’s horror of course. In fact I just love the new relationship I have with Lester, as it just throws Nick completely and Jenny’s not stupid. She totally sees that and plays on it.
And as for the rest, they definitely respect her. Unlike Cutter, they have no frame of reference; nothing to compare her too. To them, Jenny is someone who has joined the team, gets on with the task in hand and embraces it completely. They can see that she’s 100% there, and doesn’t try to ostracise herself. Jenny puts herself right in the thick of it and the others really respond to that.”
And how does Cutter respond to her?
“Oh he’s a mess initially. He doesn’t know what the hell is going on and spends a considerable amount of time trying to convince her she is Claudia.
However he begins to realise that Jenny has no recollection of Claudia, has no memories at all. He sees that she has a life that is incredibly full: she has a fiancé, a house. Jenny is Jenny and was never Claudia. Her manner, her past, everything is different and Nick comes to the realisation that trying to convince her otherwise is pointless and gives up.”
She goes on:
“But obviously it’s hard for him. Although there are subtle differences in her appearance, she essentially looks like Claudia; Jenny has all the physical hallmarks of the woman he was in love with and of course, he continues to look at her in that way. And she can’t ignore the way he looks at her and becomes increasingly more phased emotionally. Where Cutter is concerned, there is a draw to him that she just can’t describe. And while she was un-phased by the arrival of prehistoric animals in the present day, this strange man affects in her ways she cannot explain.
I’ve played it so as to give the impression she is getting flashes of deja-vu – fleeting feelings of something that could have been once. And that of course, is utterly confusing for her.
When they first met, Cutter talked of dinosaurs. Naturally her first thought was that he was crazy. However, look how that turned out! So she starts to question herself, she starts to think ‘what if?’
She’s a bright woman, and there is a real chemistry that happens between them. So much so that, by the end of the series, Jenny makes some very difficult choices about the life she’s led. She abandons certain things in her life to become more involved with this man and this group, and what they are doing. It’s been so exciting to play, I’ve loved it as it’s really so warped!”
In order to convey the fact that Lucy was no longer playing Claudia, there needed to be an immediate visual impact. Claudia and Lucy herself had to undergo a makeover:
“There was so much discussion about what we should do. There was even talk about cutting my hair off at one point! Thankfully it didn’t get to that point, but her physical look is quite different. We decided that she needed darker and sharper. So I dyed my hair and the hemlines have got a lot shorter and the heels have got a lot higher.
Practically, it was a nightmare; but on the plus side, when you are wearing clothes like that, it helps you to get into character. When I put those heels on, after the initial cursing I felt so different wearing them. The way Jenny dresses is worlds away from how I do, and of course how Claudia did, and as soon as I was in her wardrobe that was it.
What I loved about Jenny in comparison to Claudia was that while Claudia was in smart suits for work, when she knew she was going out in the field, suddenly the cowboy boots went on, and out came the camouflage trousers and jackets.
Jenny however does not alter her style for this job. Even when she knows what is happening, she will still arrive impeccably dressed, in heels and a skirt. Usually a very short one! As long as she’s impeccable, practicality does not enter her head; which of course is quite a talking point for the rest of the team.”
She goes on:
“The dress in episode five is an Alice Templery-esque evening dress, which is incredibly revealing” she laughs “It’s a beautiful dress, but we were filming in Battersea Power Station and it was FREEZING! Everyone else is dressed for the job, and I arrive in vertiginous gold heels and a WHITE ‘Alice Temperly’ creation.
Jenny has actually just come from her own engagement party and I think because Cutter is actually a little jealous, he won’t let her change. So I had to spend the entire episode in this damn dress!
In the story we end up at these council estates and she makes absolutely no apology for the way she is dressed. She’s got this little gold clutch bag, a massive hat, and a really short white dress. It’s quite obviously the most inappropriate thing in the entire world but Jenny is all like ‘yeah, what of it’.
Once they are all done saving the world and Cutter returns, all she says is “Can I get changed now?” That’s the only time she ever makes a comment about it. She is obviously aware of it, but won’t let Cutter see that it has bothered her. It’s just terrific!”
How did Lucy find being back on set with all her old colleagues, but as an entirely new character? Did she find the transition a little strange?
“The whole Claudia/ Cutter storyline has just been wonderful and it has been an amazing opportunity to come back to a returning show but have to do something completely different. Although if I’m honest, it was harder than I thought it was going to be.
“When you go back onto a set with people you already know so well, it was difficult at first to remember I was actually supposed to be someone else. All these characters have their own rhythm, which I know and I am completely used to. I found myself slipping back into Claudia’s rhythm all too easily at first.
I would have to continually remind myself, that Jenny doesn’t know any of them: she wouldn’t know that Abby does that or that Cutter does this. I had to try and see them all through brand new eyes every time. I felt very ‘out of time’ for much of the start. It took me a few weeks to settle, but once we got into our stride, it was fine.”
But adapting to Jenny’s new situation wasn’t the only change for Lucy on set. She had to watch Ben Miller turn his attentions to a new assistant, Oliver Leek; the man who essentially steps in and replaces Claudia Brown. Was she ever a little jealous of losing her position as Lester’s right hand woman and seeing Ben Miller and Karl Theobald together?
“I love the relationship between Lester and Leek. I think it’s brilliant, and Karl has been fantastic. I actually went to drama school with Karl so when I heard he was coming on board I was just so excited. And Ben and I have worked together before and we’re very good friends anyway, so having Karl around was even better.
Having that whole little team is just brilliant. They are both very funny men and the laughter on and off set was just endless. I’m only jealous that I can’t tell jokes that are as funny as theirs!”
As with the previous series, the nature of the scripts means that more often that not, the cast are placed in some rather unusual and rather uncomfortable scenarios. Looking back over the shoot, what for the actress was the moment she asked herself ‘I need to have a word with my agent!’?
“Well there were a couple. I love all the scenes I do with Dougie as he’s just brilliant to work with, but there were a couple of sequences we could have both probably done without. Basically they threw me in the Thames, which is as horrific as it sounds. From 2:00am until 4:00am I was being thrown off a life boat into the black waters off Canary Wharf. That was one of those moments I’ll never forget – I am not sure whether that moment is a best or worst for me! But it’s certainly memorable. The next day, in daylight, I saw the water that I was swimming in, and it wasn’t particularly inviting. Every time they pulled me out, one of the crew would race up to me and say, “Gargle this”.
Was she surprised by the success of the first series and the way that the public took to it?
“A little yes. But only because when we first started filming, it was such an unknown quantity. However as the previews started to roll in, and the response seemed so positive, we all got quietly excited, and thought, “We might be in something special here.”
And then when it actually came out, and it got this fantastic response, I was just so happy and proud. After the last episode went out, I had so many people coming up to me on the street and saying, “Where are you? Where have you gone?”
To which Lucy laughs and says “Well I’m here. Kind of.”
from Primeval Press