AMID the menacing, masculine world of Rebus – one of the most hotly anticipated TV shows of the year – sits a small group of delicately drawn, beautifully played women.
There is Rebus’s young partner Siobhan (Lucie Shorthouse), his ex-wife Rhona (Amy Manson), sister Chrissie (Nesha Caplan), and Michelle Duncan’s character Maggie, the wife of his best friend and former partner.
“I really like Maggie,” says Michelle, warmly. “I feel desperately sorry for her, because when we meet her, her world is falling apart.
“Her whole life has been dominated by male power but while men think they are in control of her, she has a lot more power than it seems.”
Born in Perth, Michelle studied acting at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh, and English and classics at St Andrew’s University.
Her long and impressive list of screen credits includes an upper-class schoolteacher with a sordid secret life in Channel 5 drama Dalglish; a mother ill at ease following the return of her former best friend in the film Iona; and a young and troubled Princess Diana, in the TV movie Whatever Love Means.
“I seem to play a lot of damaged women,” she says, with a slight laugh. “But Maggie is different. Lots of damaged women do predictable things in crime dramas, but there is something unpredictable about her, which is really exciting.”
Rebus, based on Ian Rankin’s best-selling books, is a “re-imagining” of the famous character, by acclaimed Black Watch playwright Gregory Burke.
This is not a prequel, but instead, it follows a younger Detective Sergeant Rebus, in a contemporary setting, as he is drawn into a violent criminal conflict that turns personal.
“It’s not really like a police procedural – it has themes of politics, social commentary, religion, class – there is more texture to it,” explains Michelle.
“There’s a fashion at the moment for police shows, like Blue Lights, for example, which make police officers more human and we’re not really used to that.”
Rebus has been played on screen before, by John Hannah and Ken Stott. Now Glaswegian actor Richard Rankin, most famous for Burnistoun and Outlander, takes the role and Michelle is full of praise for her co-star.
“He is so fantastic – he’s very funny to work with but I hadn’t realised until I watched it how funny he is in character,” she says, smiling.
“Greg’s writing is incredible, very dark and witty, so he and Richard are the perfect pairing.”
Michelle adds: “I remember watching Black Watch years ago when I was a young actress and thinking, I wonder if he can write women with such precision and emotional skill?
“Then I got the Rebus script and realised - yes, he can do that too.”
The role of women in a crime drama can sometimes be to simply “live around” the male characters, says Michelle.
“While from the outset of Rebus it might seem a little like that, once you get into these women you realise they are incredibly complicated and interesting,” she adds.
“They do what they do for the same reasons as the male characters – to survive – and they are just as animal, living by the same rules, as the men.”
Being involved in the new incarnation of Rebus is “incredibly exciting”, adds Michelle, who loved coming back to Edinburgh to film the show. (She now lives in London.)
“I grew up with Rebus being very much around,” she explains. “This does feel much darker than the Rebus I knew, as a younger woman, and I have been trying to work out why that is.
“Maybe it’s because I’m more aware of the depths humans can reach, I’m less innocent, perhaps. Also, we are more used to seeing older men going through the kind of trials Rebus is facing, and it feels very shocking to watch a young man go through it.”
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Michelle has also appeared in brooding TV series Baptiste, Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody, Julie Walters drama Driving Lessons (as Rupert Grint’s love interest), in Star Wars: Andor and even Doctor Who, as the Victorian lady of a manor house terrorised by a werewolf.
“Oh, Doctor Who was so much fun,” she says, with a laugh.
“The werewolf was a giant man, about six foot five, in a skin-tight white suit with a tennis ball thingy on his head. It was quite difficult to be scared by that. David Tennant was fantastic, and I loved Billie Piper.
“Also, I took three days to work out my corset was actually on upside down.”
She grins. “No wonder I was having trouble breathing.”
Rebus begins on BBC Scotland at 10pm on Friday, May 17, but all episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6am.
