Craig Parkinson admits playing new detective role made him feel ‘angry’

Mrs Sidhu Investigates: Official trailer

Craig Parkinson has detailed why he accepted the role of DCI Burton in Mrs Sidhu Investigates despite previously turning down other detective roles in the past.

The actor, known for his role as Matthew “Dot” Cottan in Line of Duty, admitted he didn’t want to be pigeonholed into one type of character following the BBC drama’s success.

However, speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk and other press, Craig opened up about what drew him to the role of DCI Burton, as well as discussing the challenges he faced while playing the moody detective.

Craig was also joined by Meera Syal, who took on the character of Mrs Sidhu, and it’s safe to say their characters didn’t gel at first.

When asked how he landed the role, Craig began: “I got a call asking how I would feel about playing a disheveled, divorced, semi-depressed detective, why they thought of me I don’t know, you’d have to ask my boss.

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“I just thought it was a new spin for me having turned down a lot of detective roles over the years, and I felt that this had a lightness of touch.

“But also it had a depth of darkness that I thought I could sort of elevate the character a bit more and it seemed appealing.”

Discussing what DCI Burton is like, the actor joked: “To describe him as not a people person is probably an understatement.

“He is somebody that you’ve got to chip away at a little bit as certain characters do to find the shimmer of light because there is some positivity there.”

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Speaking about whether he sought out any inspiration for his new role, Craig went on: “I worked with a director many years ago and only looking back on it, he was sad and very angry and he would carry around anger at the start of the day.

“It was really difficult to get through to him and everything was combative, and it just struck me that… that’s a real effort, the only person you’re hurting carrying around all that pain and anger is yourself because you’re beating yourself up because you’re so lost and sad.

“So yeah, it was a bit of that for this character, I mean, it’s not as heavy as what I’m making it sound, but that was a percentage of the inspiration for this.”

The 47-year-old admitted playing a moody detective took its toll on him because he was “carrying around anger all the time”.

Craig added: “I’ll be honest, in the first few weeks, I found it really hard because as I was saying about carrying around anger all the time, I would get home at night and I would call my son or my girlfriend and then there were times when I didn’t want to speak to anybody because I was so drained.

“I’m not used to carrying around this anger all day and being dismissive of people because you hold your body in such a state and you’re in a high level of tension.”

All episodes of Mrs. Sidhu Investigates Season 1 are streaming on Acorn TV and as from October 30, they will be available on DVD and to download Acorn Media and Amazon Prime Video.

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