Vicky McClure talks wanting to do something very different in new drama (2024)

One of the indications Insomnia would be quite the gear shift from Vicky McClure's past projects Line of Duty or Trigger Point came while reading the scripts for the new Paramount+ thriller.

McClure had started to wonder if her nephew might be able to play her son on the show, after she had roped in one of her older nephews to play DI Kate Fleming's son in Line of Duty. But she told Digital Spy that as she kept reading Sarah Pinborough's scripts for the six-part drama, she concluded: "Oh god no – because it is dark."

Insomnia sees McClure in a much more psychologically fraught role compared to the high-octane TV staples she became a household name leading. Here she plays high-powered family lawyer Emma Averill, who stops sleeping right before turning 40 and starts to believe she may have inherited her mother's mental illness.

Beyond the opportunity Insomnia offered to do something different, McClure also turned 40 last year – which she celebrated with a "lovely party", a much cheerier affair than her character's experience in the show – and saw the link as an indication she should do it.

We sat down with McClure as the first two episodes of Insomnia arrive on Paramount+, to talk about why exactly Emma stops sleeping and shooting the show's disturbing nocturnal scenes as Emma wreaks havoc around her huge family home.

You've spoken in the past about how demanding playing these lead roles can be. What it was about Insomnia that made you say yes?

I think there's a couple of things. First and foremost, it's something I would have watched. I read it and went, Oh, I'd have watched that and gone, 'I wish I was in that'. Two, I think Sarah [Pinborough]'s writing was just extremely readable. You just go, this is something that is very well developed.

And the sister relationship actually. It was quite nice seeing something that harnessed that in such a big way. I've got a sister – a very different relationship to what Emma and Phoebe have. But my sister, I can't live without, so there's this real interesting relationship. I enjoyed that and felt I could bring something to it.

I turned 40 last year, she was turning 40 in the show. I was like, this is a sign. And then just the general difference in terms of the tone of the show and a character that I haven't really played before or for a very long time.

You mentioned turning 40 – obviously, this is a very heightened story of that milestone, but what did you relate to in Emma's experience of that?

Very different. Emma was dreading it and for good reasons. It was sort of consuming her. I think I was excited because it's like you've hit a milestone and I think it's something that we should all embrace. Not everyone gets that opportunity to hit those milestones. So for me, it was an exciting prospect.

I also feel like I was born 40. My sister is older than me, but I was always kind of the older one. I do feel like I've got a bit of an old soul. So I felt like I'd hit my age and it was nice. I had a lovely party with my family. It was lovely. It was a nice day.

The show is really interrogating these familial relationships between women. How did you think Emma's job as a family lawyer fed into that?

I think when you start getting into the show, you can see that their upbringing was very complicated, quite messy, disjointed. So I can see that Emma's needs and wants to try and be a supportive person within those people's lives is probably where that stems from.

I think she doesn't show it – she seems quite in control and quite hard – but actually, I think she has got a lot of empathy to give because of the things that she's been through as a child and going through the care system and the fostering system and those kinds of things. I wouldn't know, but I can only assume that if you have been through that, you have an understanding of a young person going through it. I guess that's where that stems from.

Yes, especially with her wanting to do pro bono work on these cases.

And that's important to her.

And when you see her upbringing, you get a sense of her maybe wanting to do right by kids like she would have wanted to be done right by.

And morally. There's a scene with her and her boss, where she says, this is not about just lining your pockets. And you go, yeah, there's a life behind the case and she really gets that. So she is morally grounded in that way.

She's got kids with a very big age gap as well. She's got an 18-year-old and a 6-year-old, and that's two very different people in different stages of their lives. So she's got to have a lot of understanding around her.

You've said you haven't suffered sleeplessness or insomnia yourself. But doing these night shoots, did it start to simulate that a little bit by being up all night?

Not really, because I needed my sleep so much to actually make the show. It didn't even cross my mind. I'm not going to put myself through the wringer when I don't need to in that regard.

And also people are actually going through it when they don't want to, so I don't really want to be like, oh yeah, and then I put myself through it for the sake of trying to look tired, when make-up do a brilliant job of making that happen. I'm an actor, so I've just got to find it within myself to bring that to life. So no, I slept alright.

As we move through the episodes, I was wondering if you could talk me through what the approach was to showing Emma's unravelling and loss of sleep?

Don't forget, we don't shoot in order.

And you wouldn't even know watching it.

Exactly. We're never going to be in chronological order. So you're relying on your team. The team that surrounds me is unbelievable and it's credit to them that I'm able to stay on track – making sure that make-up have tracked my journey and the unravelling visually, how Emma looks and then you've got your script supervisors that can recall what we've been through, where we are and all that kind of stuff. That's vital to have those people in those roles, making sure that that is really evident on set.

Then you've just got to do your work and know what you're doing. There's so much that surrounds the story aside of sleep, with lots of different characters and lots of different scenarios. So it wasn't the dominating thing for the show, but it certainly was something that was just constantly on my mind to make sure that we know at this point, she's probably not slept for three days.

The fact that she's being irrational – there's a particular scene with my daughter, that's totally out of character. She would never have done that had she not been feeling so out of control and sleep deprived and unsure of her behaviour and making these mad moves. So you instantly see her shock in, 'What's happening?' and, 'Why did I do that? What's going on with me?' This panic. So it's fits and starts really, I think.

She's going back and forth about whether she believes it's the "bad blood" her mum told her she had causing her sleeplessness, or maybe it's psychosomatic. I was wondering what you thought about that aspect of the show?

It took me a bit of time to get my head around it all. Especially when we get to the end and the conclusion. I was like, right...

You're buying into an imagination, into Sarah's imagination, into the world that she's creating and where she's pulling that from. I think, spiritually, we all have lots of different beliefs. I'm very open-minded and welcome all those beliefs and thoughts. So I just immersed myself into it.

I thought the numbers were really interesting. It's nothing like it, but I remember in my younger years, I couldn't deal with anything that was odd numbers, like tapping something twice and then better do it again. And then, have I turned my straighteners off? You switch them on and off, on and off and that kind of thing.

It was in a similar vein, but I think the way in which they played around with the numbers – we were really careful about making sure that they were correct for each scene and feeling like there was something that carried through.

And the conclusion – obviously I won't spoil it for anybody – but at the end, it's a very inventive way of creating what that world was and where it all stemmed from.

Insomnia spoilers follow below this photo for episodes 1 and 2.

Emma has two children, Will and Chloe, and you begin to get the sense that she is terrorising Will at night. I was wondering if you could talk me through filming those scenes, because they're chilling moments in the drama.

Put it this way: Smylie [Bradwell], who plays Will, wow. He's got a hell of a future ahead of him. His parents were there on set and the chaperone. It was a really, really lovely team. You're just very careful. We never put him under any distress, and we had a great double for him, so if there was any of the scenes that might feel a little bit troubling, he wasn't there to see them particularly.

That was always our first consideration, just making sure that he left as happy as he arrived. But he was a very sensitive actor, especially at the end, when I do sort of appear in his room and stuff's been going on. Just really distressing.

I remember when it first came about, the script, and I was reading it going, oh, my nephew Dexter, he's the same age, I wonder if he could play my son. Because that's what I did in Line of Duty – my older nephew Kai plays Kate Fleming's son. So I was like, yeah, I'll get Dexter in now.

Then I started reading on and was just like, oh god no – because it is dark. But like I say, there was so much surrounding the precaution of all the kids that were in the show to make sure that that just didn't trouble any of us. But it is dark. It's your worst nightmare.

The things that Emma does when she's sleepwalking – lighting the candles, running the bath, playing the vinyl music – they're things that you would associate with self-care and being quite soothing. I was wondering if you had any discussions with Sarah or on set about why it was those things in particular she was doing at night?

Yeah, that's a good point. I can't remember going into great detail about why it was specifically the candles. But I feel like the song in particular, that was always going to be a big part of it. Musically, I love that. I love it when any music plays a big part in TV because for me, I'm always drawn to that.

The door handle thing – initially, I don't think [Emma's mum (Amy Marston)] was doing it. I think it was just me and then we pulled her in and in the edit, you just want more stuff to play with. So there was lots of different things that we do and then it's up to them what they pick at the end of the day.

The candles were very specific to what Emma's mum was doing back in the day. And back in the day, there was vinyl and there were candles. So we couldn't bring anything into it that felt like it didn't represent what was happening 30 years ago.

The first two episodes of Insomnia are available to stream now on Paramount+.