Returning to our screens this past Thursday was BBC One's Prisoners Wives, a female led drama series focusing on the lives of a handful of wives and their male loved ones behind bars, as well as how they can handle the drastic change in their own lives. The first series attracted strong ratings, which was enough to warrant its return. However, instead of the standard six, we are instead given a shorter four episode run this time round. With that, WhatCulture managed to spent some time with actress Pippa Haywood and chat with her about this new series and her character Harriet's journey in Series II.
How does it feel being back for a second series?I was absolutely delighted. Its one of my favourite programmes I've ever worked on. I just love Harriet and have a real soft spot for her. She has such depth and range as well as humour and tragedy. Its just an icing on the cake to be able to develop her in the next series.
How has Harriet changed in this series?Well I guess its because Sally Carman (Kim Haines) takes on the mantle of being the newbie in this series and Harriet has become a lot more accustomed to the procedure. When the series opened, she tries to build bridges with her son despite him invested into Islam. This series, shes got more a flavour of optimism and romance. She embarks on a spiritual journey much like her son, and the romance shes involved in is quite an interesting ride for her. She and the character Ian (Adrian Rawlins) do have genuine fondness for each other so after years of loneliness, theres a glimmer of hope for her for once in her life. Series II in general is much more hopeful for Harriet.
With Sally Carman & Karla Crome joining the show, what sort of acting relationship did you establish with them?Well, as someone who has already done the first series, its nice to welcome new people into the programme, but the characters dont cross over as much in this series as they did in the last. In fact, my character doesn't interact with Karlas at all, Where as with Sally, we had a couple of scenes together. But as fellow actors, we were very welcoming and I think they enjoyed working on it as much as I did the first time round. Me and Sally did some interviews up in Manchester recently and we talked about the scripts and how well theyre written as how as how easy they are to learn because you look at the script, read it a couple of times and think to yourself What do I want to say next? and usually its exactly what is being written on the next page. Hopefully they enjoy the process the first time round as much as we did the first time round.
What was it about Prisoners Wives that made you want to get involved with the project?Like I said before, shes a character with such range and naivety about her. She can be socially clumsy but with a touching heart too. At the same time, shes also trying to handle the emotional difficulty with her son, and that was something I really wanted to play. As well as that, I thought the writing was superb, as well as dealing with a life that I've never thought had been portrayed on TV before. For a strong female led drama, where the entire woman are different, your also looking at this element of life which many people want to stay clear of. You think prison and quickly you think trouble and bad families and criminal elements. When doing research and going to the prisons, it really does have a cross section of people there and to investigate those people who are innocent, it was a fascinating new area of drama to look at and thats what drew me in.
What is it about the role of Harriet that makes it so unique from other roles you've played?Its the fact that shes a mother in crisis and a very unique character. What I havent said already about her is the fact that she is a very anonymous woman and in many ways a very British Homestore mum. You would come across her in the street and just not notice her at all, and there are so many of them around and I think the feedback I got from a lot of woman around her age was that they adored having a character around who feels very fleshed out as well as recognising all these different aspects to her character. Shes a trier, despite the fact shes in an appalling situation, she still reaches out to people and as an actor, its a brilliant role to play.