From Happy Valley to 'happy family', Vincent Franklin will be directing and acting with his wife in a play written by his son at this year's INK Festival
‘I love the skies, the sea, the pub in the village, Hutton’s butcher’s shop, and the amount of space there is. I like doing the same walk again and again, spotting how things change. It’s like a great big nature table. But as a Yorkshire lad, I do miss hills. People keep talking about ‘the hill out of the village’ but, I’m sorry, that’s not a hill. It’s just a slope.’
Vincent Franklin, aka Happy Valley’s Detective Superintendent Andy Shepherd is talking about his life in Suffolk, which the Bradford born and raised actor has made his home for the past six years. ‘We split our time between here and Hertfordshire, where we moved when we had children and could no longer afford to live in London. As our children and the cat need us less and less, the balance is shifting and we’re spending more and more time in Suffolk.’
This year Vincent will become even more immersed in the local cultural scene when he takes part in the INK Festival at Halesworth with his wife, actress Hilary Greatorex, who has been involved for several years. ‘I’ve always just cheered from the touchline - rather like I do when she swims off the beach at Southwold. But this year, a play written by my son, Isaac, was selected for the festival, so I couldn’t resist dipping my toe in – all the way up to my waist!’
Isaac’s play is called We Eat Dog Food, We Don’t Know Why, a dark and funny play about a family dinner in which someone dares to ask the one question that must never be asked. ‘It’s about the importance of challenging things that are too often accepted without thinking – and the price you pay for doing that,’ says Vincent. Isaac’s mum, Hilary Greatorex, will be playing his mum, while Vincent will play his dad. ‘We’ve been rehearsing the role for nearly 20 years, so I think we’re ready.’ There are three other plays alongside it, also directed by Vincent, On Beauty, 800 Weeks and The Man On The Train.
‘I think audiences will have a great time,’ he says. ‘While some of these plays have big ideas in them, they’re all proper funny and keep the gag count pretty high. And they’re all really different. I also think audiences will enjoy watching just six actors play 15 characters. You don’t get that on the telly.’
INK appeals, says Vincent, because of its variety and audience-friendly nature. ‘I love the fact that you can see 20 plays in a day and still have time for a sandwich and a beer at the end of it. Some of the plays are only five minutes long and none ask for more than 20 minutes of your time, so even if what you’re watching right now isn’t for you, there’ll be another play along in a minute that’ll be right up your street.’
While TV and film have taken up a lot of his career, Vincent is no stranger to theatre. Growing up in Bradford Vincent never wanted to do anything else but act, although he’s not from a theatrical family. His mother was a nurse, his dad ran the Bronte Café in Haworth, and then market stalls in Bradford and Shipley. ‘I’m definitely a market trader’s son at heart. And that’s really helped me find interesting things to do to earn a living when the acting work’s not been there.’
He did plays at school and at Bradford Youth Players, then went to Bristol University to study English and drama, followed by Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and a lot of theatre - The English Shakespeare Company, rep all over the country. He met Hilary at Harrogate Theatre and when their children came along, Vincent concentrated on TV and film. The last few years, he’s started working in the theatre again - Tubby in Victoria Wood’s That Day We Sang for the Manchester International Festival, Michael Cocks in This House at the National Theatre and Neil in Richard’s Eyre’s The Snail House at Hampstead.
His has been a busy and varied career, rarely away from the TV screen in milestone series such as Doc Martin, The Thick of It and, of course, Happy Valley, shows, he says, that could be more different to work on.
‘And that’s what I love about this job. Doc Martin is one of the warmest, most benevolent shows on TV and that’s what it’s like to work on. You get to spend your days filming in the Cornish countryside – what’s not to like?
‘That said, in the last episode I was in, I did have to spend three days chest deep in a rock pool, with a wet-suit under my costume, holding my unconscious screen wife (Beth Goddard) out of the water, so she didn’t drown. It wasn’t the warmest or most comfortable way to pass the time. I am still as wrinkly as prune under my clothes.’
Happy Valley, he says, is a character drama disguised as a police drama. ‘I’ve worked for Sally (Wainwright) a lot - on Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack - and I just love her. Her scripts capture West Yorkshire like no one else. If there is a thread with Doc Martin, it’s that both of the shows like to make me very cold. If you spend 11 hours of a windy, drizzly February day in Keighley, walking around a muddy quarry, wearing only a shirt and a SOCO suit, you begin to hallucinate about a warm bath.’
The Thick Of It, he says, was like no other show he’s ever worked on. ‘We had the most brilliant writers, who over the seasons began to write for you and how you played the character. But once you’ve done a scene, Armando (Iannucci – director) would nearly always ask for another version of it, but where you get to the same end point without using the script. So you could never sit back and relax and think, I’ve got this.
‘I remember on my first day, doing a scene on the phone and having to tell someone not to let the minister talk to the press because he’s “about as funny as a child’s funeral”. We did it a couple of times and then Armando said, “That’s not a great line is it? Think of something else. Turn over!” You learnt to think fast.’
So, his favourite role? Difficult, he says. ‘I’ve been so lucky. I think, if I could bottle just one TV job and taste it every day, it would probably be Cucumber, or maybe The Thick Of It. I loved Cucumber because, apart from Henry being an extraordinary, wicked, funny, emotional character to play, for nearly six months I was filming pretty much every day. And I love to work. I always want to be in the game.’
Next, he’ll be playing Mr Salter in Richard Eyre’s film Allelujah, based on the play by Alan Bennet, due for release this spring. ‘If you care about the NHS, you should go and see it. And if you don’t care about the NHS, you should be made to go and see it!’
