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(having some really really not so good days lately... but if I don't post this now, I will forget)
"Identity" - Press Pack (ITV) - Airdate: Monday, 5 July 2010, 9:00PM - 10:00PM
Below the cut - Character Synopsis, Interview with Aidan Gillen
Aidan Gillen plays Detective Inspector John Bloom
Detective Inspector John Bloom is a charismatic, blunt-but-compassionate investigator - the secret weapon of the Identity Unit. Crucially, he’s an ex-undercover cop so he knows first hand what it’s like to pretend to be someone you are not. He’s also only too aware of how easy it is to lose your own identity when you’re living a lie. He’s a bit of an enigma with a secretive past and the rest of the team finds him hard to fathom. Bloom gets results but often in a way that’s politically unacceptable.
But we’ll have access to that secret past and over the six episodes, we’ll see Bloom struggle to stay away from the woman he fell in love with on his last under-cover job, Adile, the sister of a Turkish drug dealer, Nazar Kemal. By going under-cover as Irish money launderer Brendan Shea, Bloom infiltrated the family business and successfully got Nazar arrested. But he got dangerously close to the family and after Nazar’s arrest, and the end of his job, he had to force himself to keep his distance from Adile. But trying to live a normal life and work a 9-5 job as DI John Bloom for the first time in 15 years is difficult for him and eventually he finds the lure of Adile impossible to resist. Over the series we’ll watch Bloom work out who he wants to be full time – John Bloom or Brendan Shea…. ?
CAST INTERVIEWS
Aidan Gillen is DI John Bloom
Aidan Gillen admits to sharing certain traits with his latest on-screen character, DI John Bloom, in IDENTITY.
“The determination to do things and not worry about what other people think would be a common trait,” he confirms. “A lack of concern and worry about protocol, or how things are supposed to be done. Of hierarchies and feeling like you have to play the game and behave in a certain way with authority figures; I don’t think I would have been obliged to do that.
“Of course there are a lot of people that are fortunate to find that within the hierarchy or any of those bodies, sometimes they are the people that care most about what they are doing.”
Talking about his character Aidan continues: “Bloom is a man trying to change down a gear to a less adrenaline fuelled life. He was a former undercover cop and there is a high burn out rate in that profession, especially if you are good and that can happen very fast. He has had quite a long run of it and for whatever reason it is that we will never see, he has decided to end one chapter of his life and begin another.
“Bloom was always quite comfortable pretending to be other people and pretending not to be a cop and there is a lot of conflict going on in terms of his own character and identity. He is at ease role-playing and pretending and with this story there is a particular undercover life that he is still dipping in to because he feels at home there and it is his comfort.”
Explaining Bloom, Aidan says: “He is good at what he does. He is not a bad person. There is no malicious Dr Jekyll and Hyde scenario. He just needs certain things, being in love maybe, having a family. He knows exactly what is going on with the family of the woman he loves, whom he worked for when he was undercover. Bad things happen, they move in a dangerous world.
“He is turning more of a blind eye to certain things that maybe he should do bearing in mind the job he does because he feels part of that family.
“Bloom is essentially a good person and is good at his job which is why people bear him. He can be a bit arrogant and brash; people don’t know what he is up to. His boss, Martha (Keeley Hawes) doesn’t even understand him; but she knows there is a method there. Sometimes he doesn’t know how a situation will turn out he just goes on instinct and you need people like that around, it can’t all be done by a book.
“The thing with Bloom is he’s not afraid to take control. If that signals the end of his career there and then so be it, he is not afraid of whatever the consequences might be. But the stakes are not always as high as that when it comes to his attitude or arrogance. There is a moral boundary there but he also pushes the boundaries and occasionally rearranges them for the greater good.”
Aidan likes to work out where his character comes from, his reasons for living life a certain way but doesn’t share his thoughts. “I just keep them to myself. If you tell people what you are about then maybe they will start to look at it in a different way and will see the character or his actions differently. It is nice to have that in your treasure chest.”
For instance Bloom’s relationship with his DSI, Martha Lawson…
“It’s a classic dramatic relationship; there is a bit of unspoken romance between them. They don’t have a romantic history because nothing has happened yet, but I think there is an underlying romantic note in things that have happened and for whatever reasons he doesn’t realise it. They are both solitary in a way and understand each other. It is the kind of job that has pressure and it is hard to be a family person I think.”
Aidan feels his character gives the drama a certain edge. “As a main stream prime-time drama certain genres are adhered to and expected to achieve ratings so to mess around with the genres is something a lot of people want to do but can’t achieve. With this character and the way he dips in and out of the other life, it gives it a bit of flavour and the whole identity theme gives a different slant to police formats.
“I don’t watch a lot of TV but my kids are actually really into crime show television and they love just trying to work out who did it. It is so funny watching them. I used to watch shows like Colombo and the Rockford Files. They all have great characters at the heart of them. In Ireland our TV has three channels and a hanger stuck in the top as an aerial…”
As an actor Aidan moves seamlessly between film, television and theatre in the UK and America choosing projects that achieve global recognition such as Queer as Folk and The Wire; this doesn’t happen by chance.
He says: “I have worked to construct a career like that. I may claim to be a bit hap hazard the way I go about things, but I choose not to mine a particular project until it has gone and always walk away from something even if it could continue. I try and do something else, somewhere else and I have always done that and the effect has been working in different mediums in different places. The circuit can take a number of years before you get back to the same place at which point you can usually end up doing something completely different so the types of parts you are playing are constantly changing. It is a choice and I think I work hard at what I do so that is also part of why you get chances, if you can do things with conviction and success you’re more likely to have opportunities in that area again.”
“I think I have been a bit of a risk taker in wanting something different, in the end it has some kind of cumulative effect and at least I’ve been in control and had a good time. The mandate is always to mix it up and keep it different.”
So is Aidan worried about identity theft ruining his relaxed existence in rural Ireland?
“I put all kinds of the wrong stuff in the bins all the time. I couldn’t care less. I wouldn’t go out of my way to be worried about my identity unless of course it was affecting my family. I have a natural watchfulness but wouldn’t go over board about worrying about somebody attempting to be me.”
If you want to have VERY detailed summaries of each of the six episodes - including some of the endings - the Press Pack from ITV will give you those details. Download it from here:
http://www.itv.com/presscentre/presspacks/identity/default.html
xof
"Identity" - Press Pack (ITV) - Airdate: Monday, 5 July 2010, 9:00PM - 10:00PM
Below the cut - Character Synopsis, Interview with Aidan Gillen
Aidan Gillen plays Detective Inspector John Bloom
Detective Inspector John Bloom is a charismatic, blunt-but-compassionate investigator - the secret weapon of the Identity Unit. Crucially, he’s an ex-undercover cop so he knows first hand what it’s like to pretend to be someone you are not. He’s also only too aware of how easy it is to lose your own identity when you’re living a lie. He’s a bit of an enigma with a secretive past and the rest of the team finds him hard to fathom. Bloom gets results but often in a way that’s politically unacceptable.
But we’ll have access to that secret past and over the six episodes, we’ll see Bloom struggle to stay away from the woman he fell in love with on his last under-cover job, Adile, the sister of a Turkish drug dealer, Nazar Kemal. By going under-cover as Irish money launderer Brendan Shea, Bloom infiltrated the family business and successfully got Nazar arrested. But he got dangerously close to the family and after Nazar’s arrest, and the end of his job, he had to force himself to keep his distance from Adile. But trying to live a normal life and work a 9-5 job as DI John Bloom for the first time in 15 years is difficult for him and eventually he finds the lure of Adile impossible to resist. Over the series we’ll watch Bloom work out who he wants to be full time – John Bloom or Brendan Shea…. ?
CAST INTERVIEWS
Aidan Gillen is DI John Bloom
Aidan Gillen admits to sharing certain traits with his latest on-screen character, DI John Bloom, in IDENTITY.
“The determination to do things and not worry about what other people think would be a common trait,” he confirms. “A lack of concern and worry about protocol, or how things are supposed to be done. Of hierarchies and feeling like you have to play the game and behave in a certain way with authority figures; I don’t think I would have been obliged to do that.
“Of course there are a lot of people that are fortunate to find that within the hierarchy or any of those bodies, sometimes they are the people that care most about what they are doing.”
Talking about his character Aidan continues: “Bloom is a man trying to change down a gear to a less adrenaline fuelled life. He was a former undercover cop and there is a high burn out rate in that profession, especially if you are good and that can happen very fast. He has had quite a long run of it and for whatever reason it is that we will never see, he has decided to end one chapter of his life and begin another.
“Bloom was always quite comfortable pretending to be other people and pretending not to be a cop and there is a lot of conflict going on in terms of his own character and identity. He is at ease role-playing and pretending and with this story there is a particular undercover life that he is still dipping in to because he feels at home there and it is his comfort.”
Explaining Bloom, Aidan says: “He is good at what he does. He is not a bad person. There is no malicious Dr Jekyll and Hyde scenario. He just needs certain things, being in love maybe, having a family. He knows exactly what is going on with the family of the woman he loves, whom he worked for when he was undercover. Bad things happen, they move in a dangerous world.
“He is turning more of a blind eye to certain things that maybe he should do bearing in mind the job he does because he feels part of that family.
“Bloom is essentially a good person and is good at his job which is why people bear him. He can be a bit arrogant and brash; people don’t know what he is up to. His boss, Martha (Keeley Hawes) doesn’t even understand him; but she knows there is a method there. Sometimes he doesn’t know how a situation will turn out he just goes on instinct and you need people like that around, it can’t all be done by a book.
“The thing with Bloom is he’s not afraid to take control. If that signals the end of his career there and then so be it, he is not afraid of whatever the consequences might be. But the stakes are not always as high as that when it comes to his attitude or arrogance. There is a moral boundary there but he also pushes the boundaries and occasionally rearranges them for the greater good.”
Aidan likes to work out where his character comes from, his reasons for living life a certain way but doesn’t share his thoughts. “I just keep them to myself. If you tell people what you are about then maybe they will start to look at it in a different way and will see the character or his actions differently. It is nice to have that in your treasure chest.”
For instance Bloom’s relationship with his DSI, Martha Lawson…
“It’s a classic dramatic relationship; there is a bit of unspoken romance between them. They don’t have a romantic history because nothing has happened yet, but I think there is an underlying romantic note in things that have happened and for whatever reasons he doesn’t realise it. They are both solitary in a way and understand each other. It is the kind of job that has pressure and it is hard to be a family person I think.”
Aidan feels his character gives the drama a certain edge. “As a main stream prime-time drama certain genres are adhered to and expected to achieve ratings so to mess around with the genres is something a lot of people want to do but can’t achieve. With this character and the way he dips in and out of the other life, it gives it a bit of flavour and the whole identity theme gives a different slant to police formats.
“I don’t watch a lot of TV but my kids are actually really into crime show television and they love just trying to work out who did it. It is so funny watching them. I used to watch shows like Colombo and the Rockford Files. They all have great characters at the heart of them. In Ireland our TV has three channels and a hanger stuck in the top as an aerial…”
As an actor Aidan moves seamlessly between film, television and theatre in the UK and America choosing projects that achieve global recognition such as Queer as Folk and The Wire; this doesn’t happen by chance.
He says: “I have worked to construct a career like that. I may claim to be a bit hap hazard the way I go about things, but I choose not to mine a particular project until it has gone and always walk away from something even if it could continue. I try and do something else, somewhere else and I have always done that and the effect has been working in different mediums in different places. The circuit can take a number of years before you get back to the same place at which point you can usually end up doing something completely different so the types of parts you are playing are constantly changing. It is a choice and I think I work hard at what I do so that is also part of why you get chances, if you can do things with conviction and success you’re more likely to have opportunities in that area again.”
“I think I have been a bit of a risk taker in wanting something different, in the end it has some kind of cumulative effect and at least I’ve been in control and had a good time. The mandate is always to mix it up and keep it different.”
So is Aidan worried about identity theft ruining his relaxed existence in rural Ireland?
“I put all kinds of the wrong stuff in the bins all the time. I couldn’t care less. I wouldn’t go out of my way to be worried about my identity unless of course it was affecting my family. I have a natural watchfulness but wouldn’t go over board about worrying about somebody attempting to be me.”
If you want to have VERY detailed summaries of each of the six episodes - including some of the endings - the Press Pack from ITV will give you those details. Download it from here:
http://www.itv.com/presscentre/presspacks/identity/default.html
xof
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