Catherine Tyldesley and Shayne Ward captured the nation's hearts when they played on-off lovers Eva Price and Aidan Connor in Coronation Street. Now the stars have been reunited, but in very different circumstances, as sleuths in Channel 5's new drama The Good Ship Murder!
The series follows a luxury cruise liner touring the Mediterranean, where cabaret singer Jack Grayling (played by Shane) — who also happens to be a former detective — is drawn back into his old line of work to solve a wave of mysteries that occur in various sun-soaked locations on the ship's itinerary, alongside ambitious First Officer Kate Woods (played by Catherine) — a true-crime fan with a keen eye for a clue!
We caught up with Shayne and Catherine to find out how they felt to be working together again — and what it was like to film on board a real cruise ship...
Catherine Tyldesley and Shayne Ward interview for The Good Ship Murder
How did you react when you found out you'd be working together again on The Good Ship Murder?
Catherine: "I was fuming! No, I'm joking!"
Shayne: "When I was leaving Coronation Street, me and Cath said 'wouldn't it be amazing to work together again? The universe is a wonderful thing, somewhere down the line, we will work together again'. When I got the job, a little while later I got a text from Cath saying 'call me' — so I knew she'd got the part of Kate Woods!"
Catherine: "I couldn't believe it, it was crazy! Once I'd got the part, my agent said 'listen, I just need you to know, Shayne Ward is the male lead — do you two get on?' and I was like, 'get on?! We were like the naughty kids at school who shouldn't be paired together!"
Shayne: "And it's great, because our characters in this are so far removed from Aidan and Eva — there's no way that people could compare what we'd got on Corrie to this. But I absolutely love being on screen with Cath, what you see there is a genuine friendship."
Catherine: "Yeah, same, it just worked — when you're comfortable with the person you're playing alongside, the difference is huge, and like Shayne said, the characters are worlds apart from what we did in Corrie, so that was just such a treat for us as actors."
What can you tell us about your characters in The Good Ship Murder, Kate and Jack?
Catherine: "Kate is very ambitious, she's done really well in what is very much a man's world, and she is determined to break through — ultimately her goal is to become captain some day, and her career always comes first, she's extremely driven. So when she feels attracted to Jack, which she does straight away, she really pushes against that — she's very much the ice queen, and we see her thaw throughout the series. I think the thing that scares her about Jack is that she doesn't know how to let her hair down — she's very uptight, and he brings out that spontaneous side in her that wants to have fun. We start to see a different side to Kate, and that scares and excites her at the same time."
Shayne: "Whereas Jack is a little bit the opposite, he's very relaxed! He's spent around 20 years as part of Greater Manchester CID — like Kate, very driven, very professional and always wanting to get the job done. As you will see throughout the episodes, there is something that made Jack leave the force — what that is, naturally, you'll have to wait to find out! So he decided to completely change career and pursue his first love of singing, and he becomes the resident singer for the cabaret on the ship. He's a very likeable guy, he has a great rapport with everyone on the ship and everywhere it docks. When he sees Kate, the cheeky chappie comes out of Jack — you see the tensions between them, but he's also trying to loosen her reins because she's very strict!"
What was it like filming on board a real cruise ship?
Shayne: "I think it had like 6000 passengers on board — at one point it was the Scottish school break, so it was quite a busy ship! We filmed a lot of it in Malta, so we did some doubling up, but we tried to get to as many places as we could!"
Catherine: "I think it really added to it, that it was a working ship. Obviously, logistically, that was sometimes quite difficult for the crew, but it made things all the more real — we were on there for five or six weeks, and it gave us a sense of what it is like to live on the ship. Everything is intensified, feuds become more heated, love affairs get more intense!"
Shayne: "What was great as well is that a lot of the passengers became supporting artists in the show themselves. They would be in the background — sometimes they would be on sun loungers, and sometimes you'd get the same people coming back being waiters. It was a lot of fun meeting them all!"
It sounds great! But were there any downsides to filming on a real ship?
Shayne: "Cath, are you gonna say?!"
Catherine: "I will hold my hands up! When we were travelling through the Bay of Biscay, which we did three or four times, it was so choppy. The final time, I was dressed in full uniform and I was looking at the windows — the waves were four or five metres high, there was food flying off the buffets, everyone was told to stay in their cabins — and we're still filming! I saw a member of staff and I was like, 'I'm sorry, is this normal?' and he went 'no, it's not normal, it's the worst I've ever seen!'. It was only one day, but that was particularly bad, so I did take some seasickness tablets and put a face on it, because my character would absolutely not get seasick!"
How would you sum up the tone of the show — what sets it apart from other crime dramas?
Shayne: "We've got the most amazing backdrop of travelling around the Mediterranean, so you're going to be getting wonderful colours. Everything was a breath of fresh air. And the tone of the show is lighthearted — there's warmth and humour there. Naturally, we have to delve into the serious part of the crime, but I think it was an important decision with Channel 5 and Paul Matthew Thompson, the writer, to not make it a Line Of Duty, to make sure we don't make it too gruesome, so we keep the humour there, and it is character-based."
Catherine: "I keep saying it's got that Agatha Christie recipe, but with feather boas, sparkle, music and picture-perfect locations!"
The Good Ship Murder is an eight part series that launches on Channel 5 on Friday October 13 at 9pm, with subsequent episodes running weekly on Fridays at the same time.
