Martin Compston: Line of Duty to new series The Revenge Club
Martin Compston in 'The Revenge Club'.
Martin Compston has fond memories of sharing a celebratory drink with Cillian Murphy just after the Cork actor won his BAFTA last year.
As Compston and Murphy - who would go on to win an Oscar for Oppenheimer weeks later — had a catch up, the conversation turned to a filmmaker they’d both worked with on major projects.
“We just sat the couch with his BAFTA between us and talked about Ken Loach, and it was lovely,” recalls the Scottish actor.
“Cillian is beyond thunderdome and rightly so. He's a phenomenal actor, but just a lovely guy, and it was nice to sit and have a proper chat with him about what that man meant to us.”
Loach — known for this social realism style of filmmaking — directed Murphy in , filmed in Co Cork two decades ago. The tale of two brothers who find themselves on opposing sides during the Civil War went on to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival.
The English filmmaker also played a major role in Compston’s career. The actor was just a teenager when Loach cast him in the lead role in which was being filmed near his Greenock home.
The tale of a teen determined to shape a better family life when his mother gets out of prison was widely praised and a star-making turn for the first-time actor.
“I think the big thing for me was I saw My Name is Joe, a wonderful Ken Loach film with Peter Mullen, when I was 15 at the cinema,” he recalls.
“I was always interested in acting, but a working-class kid from the west coast — it just wasn't something we did. Then I saw My Name is Joe, and seeing characters on screen who spoke like me was such a huge thing. I didn't know my accent could be on a big screen.”
As fate would have it, Loach returned to film in Scotland the following year and held open auditions at Compston’s school. Encouraged by his teachers, he decided to audition. “I said: ‘Alright, I'll have a try’ and then got the movie. It went wild, went to Cannes.”
In the years since, the actor has become one of TV and film’s busiest stars, with roles on shows including and But it’s his standout performance as anti-corruption detective inspector Steve Arnott in the hugely popular BBC series that he’s best known for.
The announcement of a new series generated huge buzz in recent weeks, and Compston will return to reprise his role. Was he surprised at the level of excitement news of a new series, which is filmed in Northern Ireland, generated?
“Nothing surprises me with that show anymore. The last series just went haywire. It's year after year after year, and then people are still interested in it coming back. I thought it would die down at some point, and it didn’t.”
He’s looking forward to working again with the cast, including Adrian Dunbar. “I’m delighted I'm going to get to spend four months with my pals. Adrian, we'll maybe get to his place out on the coast. He's such a proud Irishman, and he loves taking you around.”
In the meantime, the actor returns to our screens in a darkly funny revenge thriller. New Paramount+ series centres on six lonely strangers brought together by a divorce support group. But instead of emotional backup, they come up with a dangerous and misguided idea — to take revenge on the people who broke their hearts.
“It's a wild ride,” says Compston of the genre-defying series. “I don't think there's anything quite like it on telly at the minute.
also gets into the complexities of divorce and how that makes people feel, and how people can feel deceived and undermined by their soon-to-be ex-partners.
“I think why it's such an appealing concept is because everybody's got a little revenge fantasy in their head,” adds Compston. “Whether it's your high school bully, the boss at work who made your life horrible or somebody who keyed your car.
"What keeps the majority of people good is it remains that, it remains a fantasy. But when you get six people who are broken as much as these, and you put them in a room together, that can be combustible.”
The chaos builds when the group tries to enact a sense of justice for one of them — only to be hungry for more.
“It gets good to them, they start to enjoy it. It's a spark. They feel worth, feel they've got a bit of meaning in their lives again, they try to help other people.
"But that quickly spirals. Those lines that get crossed can't be uncrossed, and that's when the madness comes and again, that's a hell of a lot of fun to film.”
The series is adapted from JD Pennington’s book and the actor feels that it’s a unique take on marriage breakdown to bring to the screen.
"I genuinely thought this is a brilliant idea, and you would think it is a place where you could wreak havoc from. It's a very fertile ground for a bit of comedy, and particularly for drama."
The ensemble cast work well together on both fronts, and he feels the sense of freedom to explore the story while filming was a bonus.
“My favourite time of the whole show was when there were the six of us together. It felt like a safe space to try stuff, because there are some things where you can, especially when there's improvising, if it's not the right environment, you'll just shut up shop. With this, it was: try it. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, then we'll move on.”
Busy Compston came to filming a week into production of as he was filming on a new series of which comes to our screens in January.
“I was chasing a Russian spy through Watford on Friday, and then I was in a community hall on the Monday, trying to convince my daughter that I'm a good dad. The job can mess with your head a wee bit sometimes like that!” he laughs.
- All episodes of are now on Paramount+ UK and Ireland
