Emily Watson has always been a barometer of quality. Since her film debut in Lars von Trier’s Breaking The Waves, for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1996, through her performance as Jacqueline Du Pre in biopic Hilary and Jackie two years later which garnered another nomination and films like Angela’s Ashes, Gosford Park, up to recent TV greats Little Women and last year’s Chernobyl, Watson has consistently proved she has a radar for good writing.
Only the best scripts pass Watson’s eagle eye. So when she was inked in to join Jude Law, Naomie Harris and Paddy Considine in The Third Day – an eerie, unsettling series set largely on a small island inhabited by oddballs and eccentrics with differing views on outsiders – it was a fair bet that it would be worth watching. And it doesn’t disappoint. Another bold, ambitious and beautifully filmed drama to add to Watson’s collection – this one with hints of The Wicker Man in its sinister undertones.
“It’s quite unusual, isn’t it?” says Watson, with huge understatement. “Strange things happen at every turn. It goes down a thriller or mystery path, has elements of horror but is also quite allegorical about religious isolationism. It is such a mixed pot. And I love the way Marc Munden [director of episodes 1-3] sees the world. There’s a sharpness and a clarity and a beauty. You don’t feel like we’re in a normal world when he’s looking through the lens.”
Watson plays Mrs Martin, who, with her husband (played by Considine) runs the local pub.
“Before we shot last summer, I went with my family on a safari and I decided that she was a rhino,” Watson says. “She’s a very bold person who has this disgusting mouth on her – she swears at the drop of a hat, she’s rude to people but at the same time is very in touch with the emotional realm. She can read people. Her moral compass is probably not one that you and I would share – so that’s quite dangerous.”
Watson’s reading of the series has evolved, she says, since filming it last year. When it was filmed, Brexit was the only game in town – so characters choosing between opening up their island or remaining closed to the world had obvious parallels.