| Former Primeval favourite Douglas Henshall talks about his role in car-crash drama Collision and why he’s learning German…
You play the cop investigating the car crash, and the fall out from it – so what kind of man is DI John Tolin? He is a career policeman – like a lot of them he is fairly consumed by what he does. But he is also coming back to work after something terrible has happened within his family, which he feels a lot of guilt about. Conveying that was tricky, because I was worried that he just looked like a miserable so-and-so all the time! I think this event becomes the process by which he tries to find his own redemption. He can help get this monkey off his back by fixing something that is very similar to what happened to him. The people involved in this crash become some kind of surrogate family for him. In one incredible scene you are walking, with Kate Ashfield’s character, on a deserted motorway. Was that eerie? It was almost unprecedented, we got the police to shut down a live stretch of motorway on a Sunday afternoon. It is the scene when Kate and I walk along to visit the crash site. The director and the cameraman were on a bridge looking down over the motorway and we waited on a slip road as cars went by. The police did a rolling roadblock where they sit in front of the traffic and slow it down and slow it down until it stops. Suddenly from the cacophony of the live motorway, there was complete silence. It was like being in a Western. Both of us walked down the length of this motorway, but there is a terrible feeling in the back of your head going, 'Did they stop everybody?' The temptation to turn around was almost overwhelming. It was very eerie, very spooky. It was a perfect morning for the atmosphere – suddenly you get all the countryside noises, the birds were singing, and we are walking down the motorway. Then we were picked up by a car and the motorway came back to life. That was an amazing day. How do you feel about Collision going out on five consecutive nights? (UK only) I think it is maybe necessity more than anything else. People have so many avenues to look into for entertainment, you have more chance of capturing people to watch it over five nights than spread across five weeks. That just makes sense today. It is like watching a box set, which is my favourite way to watch TV now. I’ve loved The West Wing, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and The Wire – and Entourage is good, just for a laugh. What made you decide to do Collision? The people and the writing, those are the only two things that matter – if they are good, it is all good. Sometimes you go into a job hoping you can fix something, but with this, I read it and thought it was great. I met the people involved and they are great. So the worst you can do is muck it up, really! How do you balance a film and television career? It is very tricky. It is easy to get stuck in one or the other, and the other will forget about you fairly quickly unless you are a big movie star. I think the negative side of that is that you can be seen as a Jack of all trades and master of none, but I never wanted to be stuck with only one option. What are you filming at the moment? I’m learning German for a film in Serbia called How I Was Stolen By The Germans. It is a Serbian language movie and I play a German Officer. It is going ok, although it is a little scary. I didn’t speak any German before, I was pretty raw, but I’m an actor, it’s fine, I’m trying not to worry about it! I’ve also just finished a film called Eagle Of The Ninth, which is out next year. I’m only in the first 20 minutes of it, but I have a fantastic chariot race with Channing Tatum through forests and fields and it was great, I had a great time. By Adrian Lobb |