Jessica Raine (Call The Midwife, The Last Post) stars as social worker and mother, Lucy Chambers who is tormented by terrifying nightmares and haunting déjà-vus in The Devil's Hour.
The six -part psychological thriller, which co-stars Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) sees Lucy springing wide-awake at 3.33am every morning, reeling from nightmares so vivid she struggles to separate reality from fiction.
Recently separated from her husband Mike, (played by Ted Lasso actor Phil Dunster), the drama starts with Lucy also struggling to cope with her young son Isaac (newcomer Benjamin Chivers) who is eerily devoid of any emotion and being treated by child psychiatrist, Ruby Bennett (Meera Syal).
Peter Capaldi plays prisoner and murderer, Gideon, who believes he can predict the future and appears to be entwined in Lucy's fate.
We spoke to Jessica, 40, who has also starred in Wolf Hall, Informer and more recently, Becoming Elizabeth, to hear about filming spooky scenes, seeing ghosts and what keeps her awake at night...
Was the 'Devil's Hour' (the period between 3am and 4am) something you were aware of before getting this script?
"No. I'd never heard of it before. Production put me up in a in a house while we were filming and it was quite big because I'd planned for my family to come and stay. That didn't happen in the end because I was so busy but it meant at night I was rattling around in this four bedroom house on my own and I definitely found it really difficult to sleep. There were two moments when I actually did wake up at 3.33 like Lucy does which was rather spooky. Thankfully that's not carried on."
Do you have any techniques for unwinding after a day's filming when you're working on something as intense as this?
"I was actually staying right next to a church and it had a graveyard so I would go for walks around there. That sounds quite negative but I actually loved it. My husband called me one evening and and said, ‘What? You’re in a graveyard!’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s really chilled out. It’s nice here’. The other things I tend to do is have a bath and try and read a book that's completely different to anything I'm working on. Sometimes I listen to those special sleep stories that are designed to help you drift off."
What appealed to you most about this particular role in The Devil's Hour?
"When I read the script I was instantly enamoured with Lucy because there are so many layers to her; she has humour, she loves singing badly in the car to Bonnie Tyler which was a highlight! She loves her son, Isaac, but she's hampered by these terrible visions and is really struggling."
"It's also been a while since I've really led a show and so I was really excited for it to be this part. Even though Lucy is terrified a lot of the time, she's also very brave."
You mentioned singing to Bonnie Tyler. We see her singing along to Total Eclipse Of The Heart in the first episode. How was that to film?
"It was a career high to learn all of the lyrics to that song because I didn’t know what section they were going to use. I absolutely loved it. We did that scene again and again. I always enjoy a good sing-song in the car when I'm driving around. I turn the radio up really loud and belt out some tunes. I wouldn't sing in public though. I wouldn't do that to people!"
Lucy is in the full throes of motherhood and managing her career. Was that something you could relate to being a mum yourself to a young child?
"Yes, it was really useful but in Lucy's case her son Isaac is completely blank and doesn't show any emotion. I think the tenacity of her love is really what the series is about. It's a love letter to motherhood. Becoming a mother myself and knowing how relentless it is and how much love there is, I don't know if I could keep doing what she does."
"Isaac doesn't give anything back to her and I find it really impressive that she keeps going. Coming home to my son at the weekends after a week of filming, it was very easy to access that motherly love. My son was two at the time which is peak cute!"
What was it like working with Peter Capaldi who plays Gideon?
"Our characters actually came together about halfway through the shoot and as you'd expect, it was like having a masterclass watching one of our greatest actors go from being incredibly chilling to having a well of upsetting sadness and then switching it to rage. It’s a great part for him because he gets to explore this very disturbed man. Peter and I have some very intense scenes together which involved shooting in a windowless cell with mirrored walls with hundreds of reflections of ourselves. It's a real face-off between the two of them."
Are you someone who enjoys watching scary shows and psychological thrillers like this?
"I absolutely love them. I’ve got this really embarrassing habit of just sort of crying when I'm scared so I’m pretty pathetic with them, but I love them too. Some of my favourite stories are from novels like The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, and they all involve freaky kids who have some kind of vortex to another world. The Devil's Hour is a kind ghost story for Lucy because she's haunted and she doesn’t know if what she's seeing is real or not."
Do you believe in the paranormal and have you ever seen a ghost?
"I lived in a semi-detached house on a farm when I was growing up and on the other side was a derelict house where a farmhand had once lived. After he moved out it was left untouched and my sister and I would go in. It had 40s peeling wallpaper, meat hooks in the ceiling, a massive bread oven, it was damp and dripping and had this terrifying bedroom which was adjacent to mine on the other side of the wall. When I was about eight or nine, I was completely positive that something was kneeling at my bed, praying and that it was something from the other side of the house. For months after that I had to sleep in my sister's room. I really believe that children are in tune with things and I still believe that there was something there."
You've done so many different things in your career historical costume dramas, thrillers is there anything you haven't done yet that you'd love to do?
"I'd love to do more science fiction because I love that genre and when it's done well I think it really digs deep into the anxieties of the current period we're living in. I'd also love to do a kids' film and be an outlandish character in a fantasy film like Alice in Wonderland or one of those incredibly fantastical Terry Gilliam films like Baron Munchausen."
Do people still want to talk to you about Call The Midwife when they spot you out and about?
"It depends which person is stopping me because everyone has different viewing habits. Often someone will think they know me from their life and then I have to explain, ‘Oh, I'm an actress’ and they'll ask, ‘What have you been in?’ but it's usually Call The Midwife that I'm recognised from. It's the show that launched me and I think it touched a lot of people, particularly women, in a really special way."
The Devil's Hour airs on Friday 28 October as a box set on Prime Video
