Naomi Battrick, Niamh Walsh, Abiola Ogunbiyi, Abubakar Salim and Ben Starr on Jamestown series 2, historical drama, and more

Anything about anything is a product of the time of when it was made. We all know that. You go and study history; history is not the study of what happened, history is the study of how it was recorded. It always has been, so this isn’t possible to get away from.

This show, when it was made, at this time, [was made] because there was a climate in which we were looking for shows like this, and it was telling a story that hasn’t been told before but would have happened, but told in the point of view of a society that was looking to see history in a different light. Ten years ago, this show would have been told completely differently, and it would have been told differently decades before that. I think this is a product of its time, so this is reflective of universal values that we can all look at.

This is an interview I’m extremely proud of, for a couple of different reasons. The first is that I think it’s simply just genuinely very good – we touched on a lot of interesting ideas, and I think their passion for the show really leaps off the page. Certainly, it was palpable in the room – which brings us neatly to the second reason why I’m extremely proud of this interview.

My two Jamestown interviews were actually the first interviews I’d ever done in person, which was, as you can probably imagine, a very different experience from the phoners I’d done before. I was deeply terrified, and more than a little bit out of my depth I suspect. It probably showed. But! I really appreciated quite how friendly the Jamestown cast were (and all the PR people who arranged it, come to think of it), which really put me at ease. Lovely people (Niamh Walsh and Ben Starr loved my cool yellow shoes), and it really meant a lot – and still means a lot – that they were as lovely as they were. Aw.

And, of course, if you liked this piece, you might be interested in the article I wrote about Jamestown series 2, which I spoke to Ben Starr about in the interview. Sort of. It was basically his idea to write it.

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