Okay folks, now don’t nip out to the toilet or even blink, or you might miss my first on screen performance! Last summer I worked as an Extra on set of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple for ITV, filmed near Didcot, Oxfordshire.

Sorry the clip has been removed from youtube now, but here’s a screen grab…

So this was my first experience of being an extra, and it was an amazing day!
I was ‘playing’ Amy’s cousin, and Amy supposedly killed herself by drinking poisonous red hat dye! But as Miss Marple points out at the end of the episode; apparently a redhead wouldn’t want to wear a red hat, so she must have been murdered! That’s why they wanted a redheaded relative as a clue. See I have a pivotal role! 😉

And it was extra super cool as Steve Pemberton, from cult comedy The League of Gentlemen, had a guest appearance on the show! I couldn’t believe it when I saw him walk on set; his comedy character ‘Tubbs’ is a complete legend in my family, so I was stupidly ecstatic. Then I was even more amazed to learn I’d be in the scene with him. I was already nervous so this was like ‘wwhaattt?!’ OMG!
As the vicar he was offering his sympathies to us after the funeral, before walking over the meet Miss Marple, so I got to stand next to him all day in between takes, trying to play cool and attempting to make at least mildly interesting small-talk, but my knees were shaking the whole time, haha 🙂

That short scene in the graveyard took all day to shoot, maybe about 25 takes. Apparently on average per day of shooting, only about 2 minutes of footage is gained. That really makes you realise the huge amount of money and time involved in putting even just an hour long tv episode together, let alone a feature length film. I now understand how hard actors have to work, repeating the same scenes over and over, often in the wrong order, with loads of waiting around, day after day for months just for one episode! It isn’t quite as glamorous as some people assume, I’d imagine it’s difficult to get into character with so much interruption. Haha, listen to me thinking I know all about it! Hollywood here I come!! :p

My 1940’s outfit…

Ready for my close up…

With my co-star 😉 Steve Pemberton!