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Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe were interviewed for ITV3’s The Story of the Costume Drama about their roles in North and South. It comprised a series of five programmes shown between 1st – 5th December 2008 and Richard and Daniela were interviewed separately in the third episode entitled ‘Affairs of the Heart’, which was narrated by Keeley Hawes. This was filmed around the time that Richard was filming Spooks series 7, hence why he’s looking rather slim!
You can watch the interview by clicking on the picture below.
Right-click the picture to download the interview (Ctrl-click on a Mac).
You can find more pictures from this programme in our Costume Drama Gallery.
Transcript of Richard and Daniela’s interview:
Richard: The landscape of North and South is incredibly grey and bleak and deliberately so and then in the middle of it you’ve got this really beautiful, blossoming romance. There’s an amazing attraction between them even if at first it’s a repulsion from both sides, that was the fascinating element.
Daniela: Working with Richard Armitage was a delight. I remember meeting him at one of the auditions because I’d been cast before he had, so it was the really awkward situation where there are a few actors who were still auditioning for the part of Thornton and when Richard walked in and we started playing together it was just, I just knew.
Richard: There was just an instant chemistry, it’s really hard to describe because you can kind of manufacture chemistry and that’s the actor’s job but when it’s there it just makes it so easy and we kind of worked on these scenes and everything disappeared and it was just the two of us in the room, and yeah, unforgettable.
I think North and South is up there with the great romantic costume dramas.
Daniela: The final scene, which is incredibly romantic I think, was shot at a railway station, I think it was East Grinstead, it was in Sussex. It was beautiful to film, it was a really long day, that was pretty special.
Richard: That’s the scene for me that was the most romantic just because of its simplicity. There are very, very few dialogue lines. It’s all about just their physical presence and him seeing her and needing to, sort of, take her home.
I mean it still makes me tingle.
Daniela: Yeah we did spend the whole afternoon kissing! It was good fun but then we had to reshoot that scene, we’d finished filming, we’d wrapped, and I think we got the call a few weeks later saying you’re going to have to come back and do it all again, so, it’s a tough job!