This interview contains spoilers for all episodes of Towards Zero.
Towards Zero is the newest installment in the BBC and BritBox’s Agatha Christie adaptation anthology. The anthology began in 2015 with And Then There Were None, and also includes the recent production Murder is Easy (read more about that production here ). These shows have mostly focused on Christie’s stand-alone stories with the exception of 2018’s The ABC Murders which starred John Malkovich as Hercule Poirot. Production company Mammoth Screen has been working closely with the Agatha Christie estate on television adaptations since the 2000’s Poirot and Marple series.
Mystery fans, especially fans of the older Christie adaptations, should expect a different approach. In previous installments of the anthology, Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre , Sarah Phelps , and Hugh Laurie quickly introduced the characters before kicking off the main mystery. Towards Zero screenwriter Rachel Bennette takes the slow-burning approach: episode 1 begins in 1930s London several months before the majority of the main characters meet. Neville Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a famous tennis player and heir to a fortune, is accused of adultery by his socialite wife Audrey (Ella Lily-Hyland ), who petitions the court for a divorce. Neville admits to having an affair with the mysterious Kay (Mimi Keene) whom he first met at a tennis match. After the divorce is finalized, Neville marries Kay and then takes her to meet his mother, Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston), at the family estate in Gull’s Point, Saltcreek, a fictional version of Devon’s seaside resort towns. Unfortunately for Kay, ex-wife Audrey also plans on being at the sea, increasing the chances of conflict.
Alongside the war between the new wife and the ex-wife is another family conflict. Lady Tressilian, years earlier, banished Neville’s cousin Thomas (Jack Farthing) to Malaysia for claiming Neville caused a tragic accident. Thomas then secretly writes letters to Lady Tressilian’s companion, Mary (Anjana Vasan) arranging a visit to Gull’s Point to air his grievances. Meanwhile, Lady Tressillian also decides to call upon her lawyer (Clarke Peters) to draw up a new will. All of this conflict sets the stage for a murder to occur. Inspector Leach (Matthew Rhys) not only has to manage his own clinical depression, but also sort out who had the most to gain or lose in this family drama.
GBH Drama interviewed Mimi Keene and Anjana Vasan to find out what’s motivating Kay and Mary, their experiences on set with Anjelica Huston, and if they believe their characters achieved their goals.
GBH Drama: Both of your characters are insiders and outsiders simultaneously. What was your approach to portraying this dynamic?
Anjana Vasan: When you look at the trappings of Mary and Kay from the outside, they feel like opposites. They’re not people who might even move in the same circles or want to be friends in a different context. I felt, as Mary watching Kay, a sense of awe of her, a little bit. I think Mary’s at a crossroads. She’s from this world, but she’s not really. I think the idea of a companion is such an interesting concept. You’re sort of stuck living someone else’s life on their terms. She hasn’t lived her own life, and so she’s come to a place where she doesn’t even know what that might look like. “I want to be free. I want to get out, but what does that look like? How do I even begin to do that?” Mary doesn’t have the answer. It’s quite a nice place to meet a character, to be like, “There’s a big question mark, and how is she going to figure it out?” Whereas with Kay, I feel like she’s trying to get in and fit in. Mary’s trying to leave that world, so we’re sort of in parallel journeys.
Mimi Keene: They’re trying to swap situations. I think Kay was probably really desperate for a buddy she could relate to in that house. Even though you are a companion, you are very much supporting yourself emotionally — keeping everything controlled — and I think that’s how Kay feels. One of my favorite scenes was when we went out dancing. Something happens between Mary and Thomas, and she’s like, “Her, right?” The same situation has just happened to Kay. Kay has seen Audrey and Neville dancing together, and Kay instigated this trip to go dancing because that’s where Kay feels like she shines. She’s in Neville’s world, and she’s thinking “this isn’t my world. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m out of place.” She thinks “Let me get everyone over to what I do and then everyone else will be out of place.” Then that doesn’t happen. She sees Neville with Audrey, and that’s a punch in the gut; then they leave. When we get out of the car, we get back home, and we’re just storming inside. I love this because Kay and Mary are both annoyed with the men.
Anjana Vasan: We both want a sense of belonging. Whatever that looks like is different for us, but I think that underneath it all, Mary looks like she’s quite put together, and Kay looks like an incredibly confident person, but they’re very vulnerable people. It’s always nice to play characters who have very interesting dynamics inside as well.
GBH Drama: Kay is “the other woman,” but there’s a lot more going on there than the audience first believes. How was it playing that aspect of Kay’s character?
Mimi Keene: I’m a sucker for a sad, romantic story. It’s always going to be sad. I just have to live with the sadness of love. I love pure romance, even if it’s not the best ending. And I think that’s why I really enjoyed the aspect of Kay going into this like it was an opportunity.
I’m pretty sure in the beginning, Kay did think, “perfect, famous tennis player, lots of money, big wedding, big house, lovely stuff, on the cover of magazines. Brilliant.” Then she falls in love with this character, and I think it’s just that age-old thing. Everyone knows what it’s like to fall in love, and it can be the best thing in the world, but it can also just be the worst, most painful thing in the world. There aren’t many things like that that are the complete opposite, that you can’t avoid. No matter how much we quit, we keep going back to try and find it.
You see that crack and you realize, “oh, that’s not what’s going on.” She’s just a girl, and she wants her husband to love her. She really loves him. I think it’s one of the most painful things in life to feel unwanted by someone you want. You want to belong with someone. It’s like what we were saying about wanting to belong. She’s spent her whole life wanting to belong, and I think this is the first time she thinks, “oh, that’s going to happen for me.” I remember when we were doing the scene… they cut it, but [Matthew’s] going, “they humiliated you, didn’t they? And they did this to you, and they did that to you.” I was like, “oh my God, you’re making me so sad right now.” But I love that aspect, even though it’s sad.
GBH Drama: Did you film each episode in order? Which was your favorite filming location?
Mimi Keene: Nothing is ever completely in order, is it? When we went down to where the beach and the hotel are, that was a little different section of the job.
Anjana Vasan: We got most of episode one, more or less, straight out when we first started. It was a while before we did the murders. There was this one week before we even did anything where we all just took turns running into the sea, jumping into the sea, swimming in the sea. In the show, every character gets into the water at some point.
Mimi Keene: The water was freezing.
GBH Drama: What were your favorite parts of the filming experience?
Anjana Vasan: Honestly, for me it was the cast. We had a good time. It was an exceptional and supportive cast. I got to work with Anjelica Huston, which I never thought I would get to say in my life, ever. Matthew Rhys was someone who was a big inspiration to me growing up. Plus, working with Mimi, and all of these actors who I’m really big fans of. I just felt like every day, if I wasn’t in a scene with someone, I was watching someone do a scene and just really admiring their work and it felt so nice to be in a proper ensemble of actors. It felt very equal and warm every day on set. No one separated themselves from the group.
Mimi Keene: You’re absolutely right. That was 100% the best part. There were so many amazing people, but when we were off set, the vibes were immaculate as well. They were so good. It was fantastic, and crazy at times. We had a lot of fun, and I feel like my acting was definitely at least 90% better than usual based on the people that I was acting opposite, because I felt like everyone was so generous. If you have someone opposite you, it makes you feel it. I had one scene with Matthew that I remember was particularly difficult: it was an emotional scene, and Kay doesn’t have a lot of emotional scenes. He was sort of ad-libbing and giving me little bits, and that was literally the only reason that scene was any good.
GBH Drama: What was your experience working with Anjelica Huston?
Anjana Vasan: Oh my God, I love her. I was so nervous to meet her — obviously, as you would be: the icon, the legend, that is Anjelica Huston — but she’s so sweet and actually quite shy and just very unassuming and very, very friendly. I asked her really boring questions. I just couldn’t help myself but ask her questions, and she was so generous. It’s just the way she just switched it on. The minute it went “action,” it was like her eyes just changed and it was a different person. And you go, “there’s a reason why you have an Academy Award. It’s right there, watching the magic happen in front of me.”
Mimi Keene: She’s so warm. She had a very warm energy. I remember we had lunch outside, didn’t we? We got that one day where we had lunch outside and that was so cool because... I only have the one scene with her. You have a lot more than me. And that was amazing. I was so nervous, but she was so brilliant. And that’s another example. I was so nervous. I was like, “I’m definitely going to mess this up.” I met her briefly before, but once we started, she just… first of all, it’s amazing to watch her. And you’re like, “Oh, that’s going to distract me,” but it doesn’t. And the scene just went so well. So at the same time, it’s exciting watching something that’s really cool, but you’re also like, “she’s helping you do a really good job.” It was just fantastic; she was just telling stories.
GBH Drama: Do you believe Kay and Mary got what they wanted in the end or is there more to come that viewers don’t see off screen?
Anjana Vasan: I feel very happy about where Mary is at the end of the story. I think it would be too easy for it to feel like, “oh, Thomas and Mary run off to the sunset together” because he had lied to her. There wasn’t honesty and truthfulness in the way they began the friendship. Yet, there is obviously real affection and feelings there. She’s saying, “let’s start again on my terms.” Mary wasn’t in a very good place when that friendship began. There was an urgency and a desperateness there from both of them. She’s saying, “before I enter into another sort of companionship with someone, I need to find who I am before I find someone else,” which is a very modern thought. I love the idea of her traveling for a bit, seeing the world, and then “I’ll write to you.. maybe.” I think that’s such a cool thing for her to say, and for Mary to come to that realization is such a big journey for her. Mary is seeing she also can be someone who is comfortable in her own skin and that’s the greatest. Sorry to sound a bit cheesy, but the love story you want is to love yourself before you can love somebody else.
Mimi Keene: It’s very healthy for Mary. As for Kay, she’s in the taxi going home with Louis (Khalil Ben Gharbia), but this massive revelation has happened. Kay has fallen in love, giving her heart to someone who she really shouldn’t have. Louis is so in love with Kay and loves her and wants to protect her. Not many people would come and follow you and fight for you that much when they’re pretending they don’t know you while they’re fighting for you. That’s a very strong emotion and decision. I believe Kay is also feeling guilty because she admitted her true feelings for Neville. I think her future is a big question mark. I believe that moment for Kay at the end was a look of “what now?” I think Kay would be better off doing what Mary’s doing, to fall in love with yourself.
All episodes of Towards Zero are currently streaming on BritBox.
