Aimee-Ffion Edwards’ Shirley has been a key member of the Slough House team since the show’s second season. Her relationship with Marcus in particular has resonated with viewers. We sat down with Aimee to discuss Shirley’s arc in this series and the dynamic within the team…
Can you tell us a bit about where we find Shirley in this series and her arc?
Shirley’s in a pretty good place at the start of this season. I think like everybody else, she’s one bad day from falling off the wagon and going off-piste and things falling into chaos. She’s in a good place, and I think her relationship with Marcus has really developed, and they become really, really close. I think that’s why her response to his gambling and his issues is so viral. I think she rejects a lot of her own issues, like a lot of the characters do. I think Slough House is just an echo chamber of everybody’s insecurities. I think she gets on a really good track with Marcus. Obviously it ends in despair and hell.
What’s your response to Marcus’ ending?
From a personal point of view, I found it so hard because I’ve been on this journey with Kadiff from the start. We started at the same time, and I feel like this experience, I’ve had him beside me the entire way, and it’s been a really special experience. It’s been amazing. I’m so proud to be in the show but also really proud of the friendships that I’ve developed. There’s no Shirley without Marcus, no Marcus without Shirley.
I felt really strongly with Kadiff, so that was really hard from a personal point of view, because it becomes a completely different experience. Whenever you’re bought into a show so much of it is the company that you’re in, and that was really hard. And I think in the same way for Shirley, I think it’s absolutely devastating for that to have happened. I think she feels really responsible. I think although, despite all their bickering, I think the relationship she had with Marcus is so important and really unique, but genuine and true.
Yeah, I think it was, it was a really hard shoot actually in the lead-up to it and knowing that was coming as well. But, you know, that’s a privilege to get to feel like that. To feel something so bitterly like in yourself as well as I think it’s a real privilege. I think it says a lot about, you know, the journey you’ve been on.
This series has upped the ante in terms of action, how do you find those sequences?
I love doing the action. I think you’re right. This year, it’s really revved up, and I think the threat feels closer to home. It feels more personal, and the stakes for so much higher. Shirley, she’s capable, what I really love about her character and how its written, she doesn’t necessarily love like having to defend herself and love finding she’s just really good at it. That feels really, I think, really relatable. And it feels quite unique, because you get a lot of superhero things, and they feel they’re quite hard to relate to. They feel quite distant. And I think everybody can see themselves. Or see people they know like anybody could play these characters or be these characters.
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