With the third season of the Dublin-shot, Victorian thriller Ripper Street premiering now on Amazon Prime Instant Video, Charlene McKenna tells Harry Guerin about what's in store for her character, Rose, and why she always knew the series would return.
Following Ripper Street's cancellation by the BBC at the end of series two, an online campaign by fans and winning Best TV Show of 2013 in the RadioTimes.com readers' poll helped save the show and bring about a new deal with Amazon Prime Instant Video.
Under the deal, the third season episodes will premiere as Amazon Prime Instant Video exclusives every Friday night, from November 14 at 9:00pm, before being screened on BBC One a few months later.
Warning: spoiler alert!
The third season takes place four years after series two. Rose has left the brothel and has found fame as a music hall star. She also has a new man - but is she still hankering after Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn)?
Charlene McKenna: She thought that she had moved on but she hasn't! Everything that he [Bennet] has highlights what's lacking in her [new] relationship. So sparks fly and it's a very, very difficult decision for her. She's got everything she ever wanted - except him! The East End girl in her, who knew how she made her money to begin with, is now in a massive struggle. That whole life [fame and security] is waiting for her, but does she turn her back on it? Not back down [to] the life she had by any means, but back down a slightly more humble route.
Does the new man know about her past?
Some but not all - he doesn't know about Bennet or anything of that. He knows it's not all [rosy]. It's like Jack Dawson in Titanic: they [new friends] would know by how she is that she wasn't of their stock. Y'know, it's not massively dissimilar nowadays being an actor: it renders you kind of classless. So although she has a Cockney accent, she can still slip in with them.
Is she living in fear of stuff being found out and the new man leaving her?
I don't know; I feel that she's been through so much and she's not going to lose him. I feel like she's weathered worse storms. But I feel like she could weather [more storms], and she's been half-killed a couple of times!
Ripper Street is back, in part, due to the campaign by fans when the BBC originally cancelled it. How did that make you feel?
The reaction of the fans was incredible. The cancellation - we were all really shocked. We were all pretty much gung-ho [for making another series] with fair ideas of what they wanted to do. Y'know, because it had had such a following and [with] social media you could see it right there. I had a weird feeling that it wasn't over, me being a hippie! I so couldn't believe it to the point of [adopts emphatic voice]: 'I don't believe!'. And then the petition started and then when that started to hit... I mean, the last I checked it was at 50,000 people. And I think it's a very smart move with Amazon; I think it's very clever. They're not taking a risk with a brand new show; they're taking a risk with a show that's going to have a really huge following. And it's brilliant - everybody came back and now everybody's back so gung-ho.
Despite the violence and difficult scenes, Ripper Street has really struck a chord with viewers. Why do you think that is?
I think because - and I don't mean this with any, at all disrespect to other period dramas - it had a 'realness' and an authenticity to it. And because it wasn't afraid to tell that story in all its horrible detail, and not painting women as anything more than how they were treated at the time. There had been so many period dramas that are all beautiful, of the period, and everything's gorgeous, a rather lovely time. Nothing I can think of had delved into the slum-dwelling period, the proper hardcore challenges that people faced. So I think maybe that's why. But who knows? Whoever knows?!
Read our interview with the men of Ripper Street here.
If this was the last season would you be happy or would you want more?
Yes and no. I mean, no, obviously because we love the show. But because we thought it was going to be over... The fact that it isn't, we're all really grateful to be here as it is! So we've kind of come to it with that energy. If you're in a show that's successful with a brilliant cast and crew you're never happy that it's over.
Which would you advise Rose to choose: security or love?
Oh, it's a nightmare! I don't know; it's so hard. I don't live in 1894! I've more opportunities. It's very easy to go, 'Oh you would pick love, of course you would'. But if you've grown up dirt, dirt, dirt poor - raped, attacked and all of the above that goes with living in that world - and you got out of it and you've got this whole other life, it's hard to know. I mean, I think love. And I think Rose would choose love, but I don't know which [Richard] Warlow [Ripper Street creator] would choose. He might have other ideas for Rose's moral integrity!
Has Rose's character arc been surprising?
I never thought she'd be a singer because no one asked me could I sing! She'd be a great silent something!
Can you sing?
The jury's out! I hate it! Cian Boylan, who does the music with me, is fantastic. The end of season two was supposed to be that you could see that she had a voice - and now I'm supposed to come back and be great! I'm trying to channel maybe a ropey Marlene Dietrich or something, something that's really [adopts low voice] 'Down here...'
