Right now, Cush Jumbo only deals in Doctors. This week, Apple TV+ premiered her new police two-hander where her fresh detective faces off with Peter Capaldi’s old guard. But Jumbo doesn’t have much time to snuggle in and watch. Until 10 February, she’s on the Donmar Warehouse stage six days a week with another of the Who’s who — David Tennant — in Macbeth.
Jumbo had been searching for a way to regroup with Capaldi since they met ‘ages ago’ on (yep, the other Doctor Who adjacent) Torchwood. ‘We remained chummy, he’s hysterical and we wanted to do something together where we’re going head-to-head.’
So they developed Criminal Record, co-executive producing the show. ‘I wanted to play a woman on paper who looks pretty normal in terms of the stresses that she faces: she’s got a 12-year-old kid, she’s married, she’s got a career. She doesn’t feel like she’s doing any of them very well.’ So far, so relatable. ‘DS June Lenker loves her job, but she’s struggled with the generational politics of it and yet finds herself running at danger in search of truth.’ Which sets her in the path of Capaldi’s DCI Daniel Hegarty, who’s hiding something.
Seeing two of the UK’s finest actors going head to head is thrilling — as much for them as it is for us. ‘We were daring each other to kind of go further. We chose not to rehearse,’ she laughs. Some intense scenes would run to eight or nine pages of dialogue. ‘We just wanted to be as unable to read each other as possible.’ The result is a delicious game of cat-and-mouse. ‘The idea is that each time the two are thrown together, they go off in parallel tracks. You’re rooting for June (even if sometimes you’re like, c’mon, how did you miss that?!), but you can’t help but delight in his kind of darkness.’
Her next project isn’t quite so shadowy: Jumbo is about to direct Bear Snores On, a family show at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. ‘We’re building a cave and families will show up and be inside. My son has some special educational needs — he hears everything excessively loud. So I’m making it for all kids to enjoy.’
When her feet touch the ground and she stops having to do ‘double days’ treading the boards at night and promo, rehearsals and parenting in the day, what TV does she watch for an injection of joy? ‘I’m a reality show buff: I love watching people making terrible decisions. I’m also a massive Coronation Street fan, I never missed an episode, even when I was living in New York [doing The Good Wife]. And I’ve just rewatched all of The Royle Family, I love the dialogue. Quite a lot of the work I do is quite dark thematically and I can spend six or seven months doing 12 hours a day, so I don’t want to pile more on myself.’
Meanwhile, we want all the darkness we can get.
