| KATE ASHFIELD PLAYS SENIOR INVESTIGATING OFFICER
ANN STALLWOOD
Kate Ashfield recalled a salutary warning from her father about speeding as she filmed the graphic scenes of a motorway pile up for Collision. She plays the ambitious Inspector Ann Stallwood who is the officer in charge of the investigation into the cause of the multiple vehicle crash. “I used to like driving fast when I was younger and my dad always used to say to me ‘you know you will get to the next set of traffic lights about ten seconds before the car you have overtaken’ And it is so true, on the actual journey time what are you going to make up by screeching about the place? “Filming Collision made me feel really quite exposed, and made me realise how easy it is for these things to happen. People get frightened going on planes but statistically you are much more likely to have an accident in a car. “I do think we should be more careful on the roads. Every one is in such a rush. This has made me slow down. I have an older car which doesn’t go very fast any way. “Collision shows just how easily a crash can happen which has such an impact on so many people’s lives, not just the victim but the victim’s relatives, and the staff of the emergency services are affected I don’t know how they cope. “I live near a major crossroads and last year a motorcyclist was killed by a lorry turning left. That happens a lot. I came out of the house to take my son to nursery two minutes after it had happened and all the roads were blocked off by the police. The motor cyclist was still there. But when I went home later, everything was back to normal as if nothing had happened.” Kate spent some time with a collision investigation team to gain information about the work they do to prepare for her role. She was intrigued by the sophisticated technology the teams use to plot the cause of a crash. “Technically I am useless at everything. So I was very impressed by the technology the crash investigation teams use for working out things like the angle of skidding tyres. It was all beyond me. “On the human side of it I think it would be a really hard job to do. To be there in the immediate aftermath of a crash, you feel the weight of the whole accident on the people who come to work there. “They are all frantically busy trying to get people out of cars, and see whether they are alright. It is a big human loss and all so unnecessary “I discovered it is rare for a woman to do the job Ann Stallwood does because an officer in her role has to drive the police motorbikes, which are big and heavy to move about for women. It is quite a male dominated environment.” Kate says her character is ambitious and her work is her life: “I think you have to be fairly focused to be an inspector at that age and a woman. We were talking to people who were inspectors and you have to be driven. Kate is best known for her award winning roles in the films Late Night Shopping, This Little Life, and Shaun of the Dead. Kate starred in the critically acclaimed ITV1 drama The Children, and she has since starred in The Diary of Anne Frank, and has recently filmed The Kid, directed by Nick Moran and based on the book by Kevin Lewis. She is also filming 7 Lives. Her other television credits include Talk to Me, Tsunami: The Aftermath and Random Quest. . |