David Morrissey's Cape Wrath diary - Radio Times, July 2007

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David Morrissey's Cape Wrath diary - Radio Times, July 2007

David Morrissey in Cape Wrath as Danny Brogan © Channel4/Phil Fisk

The actor's exclusive diary of his time working on eerie drama Cape Wrath continues, as the cast assemble and filming begins.

September

I hate read-throughs. I understand their necessity; the episodes have to be timed and the writers and director have to hear it for the first time. But I tense up and mumble like Wayne Rooney accepting an award.

It's a great cast though. As well as Lucy there's Ralph Brown, playing the local policeman who makes my life hell. It's good to see him again - I've worked with him before. Last time, we were in Marrakesh together, lying by a mosaic swimming pool, surrounded by beautiful semi-clad women, making a film about the Rolling Stones [Stoned]. On Cape Wrath we'll be in a supermarket car park in Maidstone freezing our b******s off. It's funny the turns life takes.

I also have two brilliant young actors playing my kids: Harry Treadaway and Felicity Jones. They're both about 21 and I feel I'm ridiculously young to be their father. I mention to the make-up girl that maybe I should add some grey to my hair and paint in a few lines to ensure credibility. I'm a little crestfallen when she laughs at me and says, "Oh, no! I think you'll be fine as you are."

October

Our first day's filming today. We're in a place called Leybourne Lakes just outside Maidstone. The architecture is perfect for Meadowlands [the town in the story]. It's a modern estate, but there's very little red brick here. The houses are mostly slatted wood, and they're all different colours - blues, yellows and reds - all with neat front gardens and trimmed lawns.

I realise that I'd never really imagined what Meadowlands would look like while working through the script. But this location does so much for us, gives me a sense of a new start. Danny, my character, would really feel he'd escaped his old life on arriving in this "perfect" place.

We're shooting Cape Wrath with high-definition (HD) cameras. I've not worked with them before, but it seems in the future this is how all TV, and possibly movies, too, will be shot. The arrival of digital TVs in our living rooms seems to spell the end for the Super 16mm camera that I loved so much. I'm told in years to come HD will be "just like film", but at the moment I feel like a complete Luddite in my non-acceptance of it. It seems so slow to me. And there are cables everywhere. There are focus issues all the time and I feel like we're stopping endlessly to "check sharps".

But it's a revolution that's happening and I must get used to it. They're really heavy bits of equipment as well. When we do a hand-held shot in the afternoon, the operator sinks to his knees when the director shouts "cut" at the end of the take. I hope it's not long before HD becomes as portable and exciting as Super 16 was. I never thought I'd miss something as simple as a man shouting, "Check the gate!" but I do.

The day goes well though. We're shooting the first four episodes over the next eight weeks. Today I did scenes from episodes one and four in the morning and two scenes from ep three in the afternoon. I never get used to filming out of sequence.

Read the final instalment of David Morrissey's diary, as the cast pull together in the face of adversity - or take a look at our full Cape Wrath guide.

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