You’ve probably seen the above video on the Financial Times’s website, Twitter or Facebook sometime in the last few months. Impressive, isn’t it? We wondered how Nicola got involved and how it was all done. So we asked her, and here are her comments :
The request to do it came out of the blue and I managed to squeeze it in just before I started filming Last Tango in Halifax series 5. I was approached in August and we filmed it a few weeks after. I didn’t have to audition, no, it came through as an offer and I immediately said yes because there’s something really exciting about making a piece of work that quickly.
It took two days to film. We filmed in someone’s private outdoor swimming pool and on the roof of the FT on day one. I just jumped in with weights to keep me under water and held my breath! It wasn’t high tech or filmed with any tricks – I just spoke underwater to the brilliant underwater camera operator. And yes, it’s also me struggling in the water, the cameraman got deeper in the pool than me and I swam above. It worked out really well.
We then moved to a studio for day two to do the bulk of the dialogue to camera – in front of a green screen, which was a new experience for me.
The whole project was devised by the brilliant Juliet Riddell and was a co-production between the Financial Times and the Royal Court. It was co-directed by Juliet and Vicky Featherstone (Ed : Nicola was directed by Vicky in The Cane) and written by Chris Thorpe. Juliet Riddell was the main creative on the project. My input was purely as a performer.
The turnaround on it was super speedy. Juliet worked really hard to get the film out ahead of the UN Climate Change Summit – I think she did a fantastic job. I’m hoping I get to work with her again one day.
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