Peter Mullan: "The Scots haven't got an equivalent of Happy Valley – and they should have"

You've starred in award-winning British dramas like Mum, hit US series like Ozark, and have just finished filming in New Zealand – do you just follow the work?

Ideally, I’d work from home – I don’t like being away from my four kids – but it’s not always possible. I was on and off in New Zealand on The Rings of Power for six months, which included about five weeks on After the Party. If there’s half-decent money and the scripts are good, I’ll go where the money is!

As a Scot, you're an outsider in After the Party. What was that like?

I felt very at home. A lot of the Pākehā (the Maori word for non-Polynesian, ie European, New Zealanders) came from Scotland and Ireland, so we share the same humour and outlook. The Rings of Power team were really good about me fitting this in – I worked on it for six weeks and then went straight back. A lot of companies might have said, "We own you, we pay your wage, you have to stay around in case something changes." But they let me go.

You’ve known Robyn Malcolm since you starred together in BBC2's Top of the Lake in 2013. Had you been looking to work together again?

Yes, but when she sent me an early draft of After the Party, I said no!

Why was that?

I could see the potential but it wasn’t up to scratch – there weren’t enough shades of grey. I said as much to Robyn. But when she sent a revised script, I saw it could be something exceptional. Sometimes programmes that deal with dark subjects can get a bit dull, to be honest. If the message becomes more important than the drama, it doesn’t matter how worthy the intentions, it’s a turn-off. What blew me away is that it really held me for six episodes. It becomes not a whodunnit but a did-he-do-it? Intrigue makes for good drama.

Do you like the mix of big-budget projects like Rings of Power and Harry Potter and smaller series?

You can only do things for art if you’ve got money in the bank! I might do something for economic reasons, or I like the script, the directors and the actors – or I’ll do something for the kids, so they can come on set.

On the set of Rings of Power, in all your dwarf prosthetics, did you ever wonder, "What on earth am I doing here?"

The prosthetics is the hardest part for all of us. You’re up at 3am and you’re not on set until 7.30am. You’ve done half a day’s work when the rest of the gang is just starting. You’re only doing maybe an hour’s acting in a day, but it’s mentally and physically demanding. It’s very strange what it does to your head. You get quite claustrophobic.

British TV is wrestling with representation of working-class people in drama. Are we making progress?

No, sadly, we’re not. The output at the moment is poor, especially Scottish working-class drama. I can’t think of any major ones that have been made in the last decade, let alone any that were good. As far as I can tell, BBC Scotland is doing next to nothing about Scottish history, the Scottish experience, Scottish lives. The Scots haven’t got an equivalent of Happy Valley – and they should have.

Is anything changing behind the scenes?

We’re not making anywhere near the progress we should be. There has to be the will for it to happen. There’s not enough training programmes to get young working-class people into film and TV. It comes down to who you know, to nepotism. In most industries there’s an element of that but in film [and TV] there’s more.

How confident are you that the new government can solve this? Do they have the will to invest in the creative arts?

I would hope so! I vote SNP. Labour promised they would, so I hope my English comrades put pressure on the government to be true to their word. We’ll be putting pressure on the Scottish government, too, to ensure film, TV and especially theatre isn’t cut back.

You were once such a young, working-class actor – how can someone in your position help to pay it back?

As an actor, there’s not a great deal you can do beyond speaking out about it. Directing is different. My last film as a director, Neds, was in 2010 and I want to get back into it. I fully intend to make sure we get proper proportionality of working-class men and women. I wouldn’t discriminate against an actor because they’re posh, but at the same time I want to see greater representation.

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After the Party will air from 9pm on Wednesday 20th November on Channel 4.

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