Contents
Being April
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cast and production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Interviews:
Pauline Quirke plays April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Victor McGuire plays Richard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nicholas Gleaves plays Eddie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nitin Ganatra plays Sunil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Clive Russell plays Callum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Rakie Ayola plays Taneshia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Amita Dhiri plays Nikshita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Episode synopses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Being April
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Introduction
Three kids, three dads, one mum –
Pauline Quirke heads the cast of
Being April for BBC ONE
Three kids. Three dads. One mum. Mum is
April (Pauline Quirke), a 39-year-old single
mother living in Leicester, who has had three
children by three different fathers. Richard
(Victor McGuire), her husband since she was
18, is a plumber who still adores her. They
separated years ago but never got round to a
divorce. Eddie (Nicholas Gleaves) is a barman,
with whom she had a fling nine years ago until,
a week after moving in with him, she discovered
they were both looking for Mr Right. Sunil
(Nitin Ganatra) followed, sexy, young and rich.
A year into their affair, April got pregnant, at
which point Sunil mentioned that he was
actually engaged to Nikshita (Amita Dhiri)…
Richard, Eddie and Sunil; three guys who hardly
know each other, and hate the bits they do.
Being April
Three guys who haven’t a clue what being a
father really means. Three kids quite happy with
their unconventional family, though none of
them a dad in anything much more than a
name. And April, a woman who’d do anything
for her kids. A woman whose life kind of
happened rather than being planned. A woman
who’s now taking control and getting the
fathers to be … fathers. All her life she’s been a
daughter, a girlfriend, a wife, a mum and now
… now she’s going to try just being April.
On hand to advise and give moral support is
Taneshia (Rakie Ayola), April’s best friend and
workmate, and a new man in her life, Callum
(Clive Russell), her first boyfriend in years, who
is desperate for a family and finds that April is
his dream come true … but is he hers?
2
Introduction
Mal Young, Controller of Drama Series says:
“We’re thrilled to welcome Pauline Quirke back
to BBC One in a fresh drama, from a relatively
new writer, Pete Lawson. The minute I first
read Pete’s pilot script, I knew we had to
make the series.”
Producer Deborah Jones says: “Being April is
a drama series about modern family life. The
structure may be different but the values
remain the same: above all, it’s love that makes
a family. In Pauline Quirke as April, we have a
central character of real warmth and originality
– unique, funny, strong, passionate and with
great heart – and it is these vital and lifeaffirming qualities that hold her extraordinary
extended family together. April really does put
the fun in dysfunctional.”
Being April is a BBC production for BBC One,
written by Pete Lawson and produced by
Deborah Jones. Syd Macartney (Linda Green),
Claire Winyard and Chris Gernon direct. Mal
Young is executive producer.
Being April
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Cast and production
Cast
April
Richard
Eddie
Sunil
Jake
Lily
Ty
Taneshia
Callum
Grainger
Nikshita
Leela
Pauline Quirke
Victor McGuire
Nicholas Gleaves
Nitin Ganatra
Matthew Lockwood
Hannah Edwards
Ashwin Junega
Rakie Ayola
Clive Russell
Justin Allder
Amita Dhiri
Souad Faress
Production
Writer
Script Executive
Casting Director
Make-Up Designer
Costume Designer
Production Designer
Director of Photographer
Sound Recordist
Film Editor
Executive Producer
Producer
Directors
Being April
Pete Lawson
Serena Cullen
Liz Stoll
Daniel Phillips
Mecheal Taylor
Anthony Ainsworth
Gordon Hickie
Chris Round
Liana Del Giudice
Mal Young
Deborah Jones
Syd Macartney
Claire Winyard
Chris Gernon
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Interviews
Pauline Quirke plays April
and, once the scene is finished, so is Pauline’s
day. “It’s not normally like this,” she laughs,
through the thick, white cream of the face pack.
“It’s been fairly intensive, because April is in
this all the time, but we’ve had three five-day
weeks and I’m feeling a bit spoilt!”
Pauline plays the lead in Being April, a new
drama for BBC One about a mother, her three
children and their three dads – whom April
thinks should spend more time with their
offspring: Jake, 16, Lily, 10, and six-year-old Ty.
APRIL is facing 40 and it’s time to take stock
of her life. This is the year she’s going to get the
fathers of her three children to be there for
them – emotionally, physically and financially.
Of course, fathers interfere in the careful
balance of your life and even want a say in their
children’s upbringing. Jealousy is the last thing
April expected and compromise is a difficult
concept to learn. She’s also funny loving and
kind … but she doesn’t she feel loveable or sexy.
It’s been a long time since she has been involved
with a man and, when Callum comes along,
he’s potentially everything she wants –
handsome, single, wealthy and he loves April
and the kids. But is he the right man for her?
And workwise, does she have the confidence
to push herself up the career ladder? Can she
work through her insecurities and realise she
has a lot going for her?
It’s been a tiring morning for Pauline Quirke.
She’s had one scene to film in which she has to
lay on a bed with a face pack on, reading a
magazine with an ex-boyfriend and their
daughter. There are no lines to learn or say
Being April
“April’s not a drab, rundown victim – she’s a
receptionist in a big company so she dresses
well and she wears quite a lot of make-up. I
have to have my hair styled and then the
make-up department puts all the slap on. And
I’ve got quite used to not having grey hair
now. If I can get in and out of make-up in 25
minutes it’s an achievement but it’s more like
50 minutes. But I’m getting older, so it’s going
to take longer and longer. It’ll be four hours
before I know it!”
According to April, the three dads leave a lot to
be desired and it’s sometimes hard to imagine
that they were all, at one time, the love of her
life. “There’s Richard (Victor McGuire), her
first love, whom she feels a bit guilty about
because she left him and he’s still in love with
her. Richard will definitely get the sympathy
vote from viewers and April will get the, ‘Why
oh why did you leave that lovely man?’ April
just thought the grass was greener on the other
side,” says the actress who, in the last few
years alone, has starred in Down To Earth,
Real Women, Maisie Raine and a recent
Murder In Mind.
“Then she met Eddie (Nicholas Gleaves), who
was exciting and fun but who turned out to be
gay, and then there’s Sunil (Nitin Ganatra). I’m
still trying to fathom out what Sunil’s attraction
was! He was fun and he made a fuss of her but
he was engaged to someone else.
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Interviews
Before they knew it, there was little Ty.
“She just feels that they’re not doing enough as
far as the children are concerned. It’s not about
money; it’s about wanting the men to spend
more time with their children and to be
involved on a regular basis.”
“It’s very easy to say that there’s this woman
with three different kids by three fathers –
people are going to make up their mind before
watching the programme, but that’s so not what
she’s about. There are no stereotypes at all so
viewers mustn’t get the wrong idea.
“We’re talking about five or six years between
April’s relationships so she’s not a woman who
was running headlong into one doomed
relationship after another, and she’s hardly a
raver, bless her!
“April made bad choices but, at the end of the
day, she’s got three lovely kids and she’s also got
a relationship with the fathers. It’s almost like a
modern-day Waltons, I suppose – it’s about all
the really good things in family life.
“And it’s great from an actor’s point of view –
April has different relationships with all
three men so she’s almost different people
with them.”
It’s spending time with children that Pauline
thinks makes a good dad, and it’s the one thing
that April’s determined to make the hapless trio
do, even if it means falling out with the dads
along the way. “April says that they need to
spend more time with the kids and there’s one
scene where Eddie buys some football boots for
Lily. April’s already told Lily that she can’t have
them and has to tell Eddie that Lily doesn’t need
his presents – she needs someone to listen to her,
someone to talk to her and someone to spend
time with her. That’s what makes a good dad.”
The appeal of the series is easy for all to see –
it’s a modern story told in a modern way and
many viewers will be able to identify with at
least one of the characters. Pauline thinks that
the fact that it continually defies stereotypes –
be it a single mum, a gay father or an Asian
businessman – will also appeal to viewers.
Being April
While April may not be out partying with
different men every week, the same cannot be said
for Pauline Quirke’s previous screen incarnations.
As Sharon, in the long-running sitcom Birds Of A
Feather, she wasn’t short of a few admirers and
neither was her Real Women character, Mandy.
“I’m a complete siren, I’m a vixen,” laughs
Pauline, with her tongue firmly in her cheek.
April, however, does have one love interest in
the series – Callum, played by Scottish actor
Clive Russell. “April pretends that she’s got a
boyfriend, who’s a work colleague. It seems to
make the dads think, ‘Oh, there’s another man
on the scene – I’ll do this, I’ll do that, we’ll
take the kids here…’ so she thinks there’s
something to be made out of carrying on the
pretence with Callum.
“Then they do go out together and it’s a nice
little love affair between them … for a while.
But she’s used to being alone with the kids and I
think she probably quite enjoys that. She’s got a
nice little set-up.”
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Interviews
Trying to keep April sane amongst all the chaos
in her life is best friend and colleague Taneshia,
played by Rakie Ayola, who appeared in Maisie
Raine with Pauline. “Rakie called me to say,
‘I’m going to be your mate!’ and it’s lovely
working with her again.
“Taneshia likes to think she’s April’s guardian
angel and she’s a bit man mad, bless her!”
Taneshia offers April advice on a multitude of
topics and also encourages her to go for a wellearned promotion at Lunge, Parry, McArthur
where the pair of them work. But the day of the
interview coincides with daughter Lily’s football
match, and April is torn between the two.
Right now, Pauline’s looking forward to going
home, putting her feet up and watching TV.
“We’ll have a curry tonight and then go to the
supermarket and stock up for the weekend.”
She’s a self-confessed TVaholic and was gripped
by the Pop Idol phenomenon earlier in the year.
“I think Will’s great,” she says. “I love
EastEnders, Millionaire, Ground Force and all
the cookery programmes. That’s my ideal
weekend – curry, cooking, the EastEnders
omnibus, no lines to learn – just spending time
with my little family. Perfect!”
It’s a dilemma Pauline’s all too familiar with, as
she has to juggle being mum to her own two
children with her work commitments, but she
says it’s “no different to a woman who works in
a supermarket”.
Much as she loves her family, she admits that
the three of them drive her mad when they get
talking about a certain subject – football. “My
husband, Steve, supports West Ham and my son
is football mad – he supports Arsenal and
Wycombe Wanderers, our local team. My
daughter’s an Arsenal fan too. We used to live in
Islington and we’re also mates with David
Seaman. But they all talk football all the time
and it just leaves me cold!”
Pauline’s looking forward to taking a wellearned break after filming for Being April
finishes, following a busy 18 months with
Down To Earth, Murder In Mind and Arthur’s
Dyke, a film produced by Steve for Quirky Film
& TV, their own company. The film was
released on video in March and will be shown
on FilmFour later in the year.
“I like it when actors say they’ve got a lot of
projects lined up but they can’t talk about them
yet. I’ve got absolutely nothing lined up at the
moment and I’m looking forward to the break!”
Being April
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Interviews
Victor McGuire plays Richard
being a dad to Jake, being a husband and
having the house. Maybe that was his ending,
though, as opposed to his beginning, which a
lot of people would see it as. He had his family,
his job and money so he didn’t need to do any
more. But when April left him, I think he went
into a kind of shock, a bereavement, and didn’t
know where to go from there.”
RICHARD is desperately trying to get April out
of his mind and equally desperately failing. His
journey with April is one of looking again at
what they had and starting to see some of it
through April’s eyes, realising you’re not the
only walking wounded. With Jake, he finds it
hard to talk to his teenage son, who plays in an
orchestra and listens to Radio 4. For Richard, a
plumber, Puccini is a type of pasta and a tuba a
container for toothpaste. His challenge is one of
building bridges by getting to know your son
and letting him get to know you.
Being in love can be hard at the best of times,
but for Richard, played by Victor McGuire, it’s
downright impossible. “Out of the three dads,
Richard’s the one who’s still in love with April –
he’s still crazy about her,” says Victor, best
known for his roles in the hit BBC comedies
Goodnight Sweetheart and Bread.
Richard and April were childhood sweethearts
who married young and Richard had no reason
to think that it wouldn’t be forever. “His life
was set – he was sorted,” says Victor, in his
unmistakable Liverpudlian lilt. “He really loved
Being April
In Being April, Richard is resigned to the fact
that his love will remain unrequited, despite the
fact that April’s face is the first thing he sees in
the morning and the last at night – albeit on a
photograph by the side of his bed. “Richard is a
very good catch – the only problem is that April
isn’t in love with him,” says Victor. “He’s a
loyal husband and father, he’s got money in the
bank from his plumbing business and he’d be
there at the drop of a hat – he’s just not loved.
Viewers will love him, though. You could have a
two-headed Martian playing Richard and he’d
still get fan mail,” laughs Victor.
One thing that ensures regular contact with
April is the pair’s 16-year-old son, Jake, played
by Matthew Lockwood. Richard had little
contact with Jake following the break-up of his
marriage but, with the possibility of a new
boyfriend on the horizon for April, he’s
determined to make up for lost time.
“Richard was never really jealous of the other
dads but, with Callum, (Clive Russell) it seems
like it’s a bit more serious. It isn’t so much
jealousy of Callum but the fact that he could
replace Richard as a dad.”
Jake, like many teenagers, is embarrassed by his
father and finds it hard to have a conversation
with him and Richard, like many fathers, also
has communication problems with his son.
“He’s scared of Jake in the way that some men
are scared of their teenage sons,” says Victor.
The pair soon discover a common interest –
women! “Jake and his dad struggle to have
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Interviews
conversations at the start of the series but, as
time goes by, they discover things they can talk
about. One of them is that Richard’s not dated
since April and, as Jake’s seeing somebody, he
gives his dad a bit of an insight into the dos and
don’ts of chatting up girls!
generally they enjoy a routine – whatever that
routine is, even if it’s flying around the world
and staying in different hotels, it’s still a routine.
“Other than that I’ve got no idea what makes a
good dad – we do it as we go along, day
by day,” laughs Victor.
Happily, Victor hasn’t given up all hope on
Richard, Eddie and Sunil – even though April
may at times. “They’ve all got different
qualities,” he says. “We’re kind of an
amalgamation – the three of us make one
good dad!”
Aside from spending some quality time with his
family, Victor has some work in the pipeline
once filming for Being April has finished.
“There’s a cartoon series that I might be voicing
and I’m in a film called Thunderpants, directed
by Peter Hewitt, who did The Borrowers.”
“Really it’s a bit of bravado, though – he’s only
16 and it’s probably just things he’s read in
magazines. Both of them are just clutching at
straws when it comes to wooing the opposite
sex – neither of them has much experience.”
Victor knows a thing or two about fatherhood,
having just become a dad for the second time.
The whole Being April cast was on tenterhooks,
awaiting news of the baby’s arrival and Victor’s
schedule had to be rearranged so that he could
be there for the birth. Already father to a twoyear-old, Victor, unlike Richard, knows the
secrets of being a good dad. “Being consistent is
good for kids,” he says. “Sometimes people
can’t be there all the time but that doesn’t make
you a bad parent. Children need to know where
they stand, they need to know the score. And
Being April
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Interviews
Nicholas Gleaves plays Eddie
Meet Eddie, dad number two, played by
Nicholas Gleaves, best known for playing Rick
in five series of Playing The Field. Eddie is
happy with his lot until April drops the
bombshell on him that their brief liaison,
just before Eddie came out as a gay man,
produced the lovely Lily, now 10 years old
and football mad.
As with all three dads, April wants Eddie – who
is now in a long-term relationship with Grainger
– to play a greater role in his daughter’s life and
take more responsibility for her.
“I think Eddie admires April, and is slightly in
awe of her and perhaps a bit scared of her, too.
He has a relationship with her that the other
dad’s don’t, in that he’s not really a threat to her
at all so they can talk quite openly and honestly
about things.
EDDIE, for the first five years of Lily’s life,
never knew he had a daughter; for the five years
since he found out, he’s told none of his friends,
or his boyfriend, Grainger. Not because he’s
ashamed of being a dad, but because he’s
ashamed of being such a bad one. He tries to
get on with Lily but she’s mad about football
and Eddie’s a guy for whom the offside rule has
always meant not sleeping with guys from
work. Then, no sooner does he get to know his
little girl than she’s turning into a woman. And
as he realises that what she really wants from
him is just someone to be there, to listen – when
the going gets tough, will Eddie get going?
Finding out you’ve become a father for the
first time is usually a proud, emotional moment,
but when you’re at a Boyzone concert with
friends and your five-year-old daughter’s
standing there with the woman you had a
week-long relationship with years ago, before
you were gay, somehow the shine is taken off
the moment.
Being April
“Lily was a hell of a shock to Eddie. He’s so
entrenched in his single life and his work and
he’s got a big network of friends who have
turned into his family. Then a real family person
turns up and it’s his daughter, and I think he
really struggles with it,” says Nicholas. “There
is a distinct distance between his very social,
male environment and the environment of a
10-year-old girl.”
There are some touching moments between
father and daughter as Eddie struggles to get to
grips with parenthood, not least when he tries
to tell her that he’s gay, using a football analogy.
But Lily’s far more likely to be embarrassed
about her dad not knowing the offside rule than
about his sexuality. “I nearly filled up when we
filmed that part because it’s just so right. We
worry so much about sex and homosexuality
but, to a 10-year-old, it doesn’t matter a bit.”
While Eddie struggles, Nicholas has firm ideas
about what he believes makes a good father,
citing his own dad as a prime example. “I think
a good dad is not letting your own mood
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Interviews
override the relationship with your child. I
remember with my father that’s something I
could always rely on. No matter what, if I
was ever in need, one way or another, he
would be there.”
Nicholas was immediately attracted to the role
of Eddie and says he was “tickled” by the
script. “It has this sort of anarchy about it that
I’ve not found in other scripts. And I loved the
idea that there were lots of children in it and I
loved the multiracial aspect to it too. You’ve got
this great big melting pot where everything
moulds into one and there’s a kind of love that
goes throughout all the characters. “
Queen’ on it and I thought it was great. The
others immediately snapped, ‘He’s not a queen,’
so we didn’t get it.”
Nicholas has a lot of gay friends whose advice
he called upon in getting the right approach for
Eddie. “I write a lot as well as act and I’ve got
an open-plan office in an artist’s studio and a
few of the people there are gay. We all go out to
lunch so I ran Eddie by them and we had a
good talk about it. It was really interesting –
there are subtle differences but they make a hell
of a lot of difference in performance and the
way you talk.”
Once filming is finished, Nicholas plans to let
his acting take a back seat for a while as he
concentrates on writing. “I’ve written a
treatment and I hope to be able to take that
further,” he says.
“I wrote a film when I was doing Playing The
Field – as I was earning money I decided to bite
the bullet and get on and write. It took ages,
though – I had no idea how these things change
all the time. It was a real baptism of fire and
I’ve learned a lot now so I’m quite looking
forward to picking up something else.
“I think the acting game is not something you
can trust sufficiently, even though I’ve made a
living out of it for five years. There’s no rhyme
or reason why you don’t get work sometimes
and I can’t just sit by the phone. And I’ve put
up all the shelves I need at home, so I can’t just
sit around!”
Eddie is, by far, the trendiest of the three dads
and has a wardrobe to match, with a plethora
of tight T-shirts and frayed jeans, but Nicholas
didn’t always get it right when he went
shopping with the costume department. “I
picked up this T-shirt and it said ‘God Save The
Being April
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Interviews
Nitin Ganatra plays Sunil
He may be selfish, a liar and scared of his mum,
but Nitin Ganatra thinks that Sunil is a great
character to play. “He’s really great – people are
going to love to hate him! He’s a typical male –
I know lots of men like him. He’s good deep
down and Sunil isn’t stupid – he’s a bit of a
ducking and diving, wheeling and dealing man
and he’s just not very good at telling the truth.
If he can escape out of a situation that’s the way
he’ll choose, every time.
“Sunil doesn’t really see the way he treated
April as much of a problem. He’s like, ‘Okay, I
screwed up, I’m sorry.’ We have a bit of a heart
to heart and he does apologise but, for the first
time, he tells the truth and it’s painful for April.
She was just a fling, that’s all it was, and he
loves Nikshita.”
SUNIL plays the big man but, inside, he is the
little boy. His wife and his mother don’t know
about Ty or April and he’d like to keep it that
way. Sunil’s journey is one of accepting Ty as
part of his life and taking fatherhood seriously.
It initially drives him away from his family,
and then binds him back in again. Once they
discover Ty’s existence, Sunil tries to woo
his wife again and establish a grown-up
relationship with his mother. He also has
to accept that his son will be who he is – you
can guide, you can support but it’s actually
out of your control.
He was once the light of April’s life, wining and
dining her and treating her like a lady, but now
Sunil is just a thorn in her side; perhaps the
worst of the bunch. When April told Sunil she
was pregnant, all he could say was that he was
getting married at the weekend, to Nikshita, the
woman he’d been engaged to throughout his
romance with her.
Being April
Nitin, who has recently been seen in BBC One’s
Rescue Me, thinks that Sunil has a good heart
and lies so often not because he wants to hurt
people but to save himself. “What appears on
the surface is that he wants to save his own
bacon. People lie for a reason and it’s usually to
do with not being able to face the truth.
“I think you can be a pathological liar. Once
you’re a liar you can’t help it, you can only try
to control it, which is what Sunil does. He
realises he loves his wife and he doesn’t want to
lose his marriage.”
As well as having to soothe things over with
Nikshita, Sunil also has his strong-willed
mother to deal with and, together, the three of
them run bigredsari.com, an internet site which
enables people to buy “all things Indian” at the
touch of a button.
“I suppose his relationship with his mother
and his family is typical of Asian men. I
think that’s true of Italian men as well –
wherever you’ve got a community where
the mother is the powerful figure, there’s a
very strong hold.
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Interviews
“I had both a strong mother and father but my
sister was also a big influence. Filming yesterday
was hilarious – I felt like a kid again. Suddenly
everyone on set was a woman and I just felt
déjà vu.
“My sister is four years older than me and I’ve
got two older brothers. Because I was the
youngest, my sister learned to manipulate that,
making me iron her clothes and cook. And she
would batter me if I did anything that she
thought was remotely sexist,” laughs Nitin.
“I remember when we used to go out to clubs,
if she was being hassled by a bloke, I’d get it
in the neck – ‘Don’t you ever treat a woman
like that!’”
neither does Sunil. Sunil becomes jealous of Ty
and the affection he’s getting from Sunil’s
mother because she was never like that
with him.”
Nitin had to juggle his Being April schedule
with a film called Pure, directed by Gillies
McKinnon. “I play a drug dealer pimp called
Lenny. I was filming there yesterday and it’s
weird going from drama to comedy and trying
not to be a funny pimp, or a quirky drug
dealer,” laughs Nitin.
Nitin and his family came over to the UK from
Kenya in 1971, when he was four years old.
“We arrived at Leeds train station and my dad
went and got us some cheese and onion rolls.
We all threw up – it was like eating soap!”
His parents now own a shop in Coventry and
remain unimpressed about their son’s chosen
profession and the showbiz tales he tells them.
He has fond memories of his time on To The
Green Fields Beyond, the Sam Mendes play, in
which he worked in an ensemble cast alongside
Ray Winstone, Dougray Scott and Danny
Babbington. Nitin had barely a penny to his
name but found himself rubbing shoulders with
the likes of Mick Jagger, Lulu and Drew
Barrymore at the Ivy for one of the cast’s
birthday. “I just about had enough money to get
the night bus home and the next day I went up
to see my folks in Coventry. It was really
surreal. I remember thinking, ‘Yesterday I was
sat next to Lulu and Daryl Hannah and here I
am at 4.30am marking up the papers for the
paper boys in Coventry,” he laughs.
“It keeps your powder dry, as they say. But my
parents aren’t impressed at all and don’t even
know who Sam Mendes is. They’re too busy
working to worry about Sam Oscar Boshker!”
Nitin and his sister remain close and he admits:
“I’ve got a lot to thank her for. She was the one
– because my parents were out working a lot a
lot – who said ‘Go on, survive’. You don’t get
mollycoddled in an Asian household, and
Being April
13
Interviews
Clive Russell plays Callum
But will Callum, one of the managers at
Lunge, Parry, McArthur, be the recipient?
Clive Russell, who plays him, hopes so.
“Callum’s been married before and that
didn’t end very well,” says the Scottish
actor, recently seen in the BBC Scotland
drama Rockface.
“Although he’s quite successful in his job, he’s
not a fantastically confident man when it comes
to being around women, so his relationship with
April starts off quite tentatively – he’s not sure
how to place himself with her and I suppose
he’s a bit shy, really.”
CALLUM is charming, gentle intelligent and
endearingly shy; all he ever wanted was a family
and a home. Through his relationship with
April’s children, he wins her round. Seeing
through her cheery front, he gets April to open
up and they genuinely fall in love. Things with
the fathers are tricky, but it’s nothing he can’t
work at. A ready-made family is just what he’s
always wanted, but does he want it more than
he actually wants April herself?
With three children by three different fathers, it
may seem that April has had rather a racy,
loved-up life. When those dads are Richard,
April’s childhood sweetheart, Eddie, with whom
she had a week-long affair until he confessed
that he was gay, and Sunil, with whom she
enjoyed a brief affair until she discovered that
he was engaged, it’s easy to see why April has a
lot of love to give.
Being April
April does her best not to fall for Callum but
soon realises that having a boyfriend could
work to her advantage, especially where the
fathers of her children are concerned. “I think
that Callum’s attracted to her because she’s
absolutely not ordinary,” says Clive. “His life, I
think, is ordered and conventional. April’s done
the total opposite and it’s very much a case of
opposites attract. And she comes with a readymade family and it seems a bit exotic to him,
he likes that.”
While April’s family set-up may not be
perceived as ordinary, Clive says that he
doesn’t know if there is such a thing as a
“normal” family in the 21st century. “In my
sense of family, where I feel comfortable, there’s
always some dysfunctional something or other
going on. We’re not as normal as we think we
should be.
“I don’t know what the percentage of singleparent families is but it is very normal. I was
with friends last year who were celebrating their
25th wedding anniversary, and one couple there
had been together since they were 16 and had
been monogamous all their life. I kept looking
at them, so much in love, and it seemed
abnormal – one partner in your life, let alone
one marriage.
14
Interviews
“I think April’s situation has elements of being
normal but clearly it is unusual. Her house is
full of all the lives of all the people who use
the house and it’s full of love, which comes
from April.”
Being April continually defies stereotypes –
April herself is not a stereotypical single mum,
and neither the dads nor the children conform
to the norm. Callum, a successful, middle-aged
man, is no exception. “I would have thought
that you would expect Callum to be married to
a successful career woman on a high income
with a Volvo. The delightful thing about him is
that he just falls in love with this woman who’s
completely not what you’d expect him to be
attracted to,” says Clive.
aged actors. And what’s nice about playing
Callum is that he’s a guy in a suit and I’m
normally playing school teachers or a madman,
for some strange reason!”
As well as Being April, Clive has appeared in
the BBC Scotland mountain rescue drama,
Rockface, and he has a packed schedule for the
rest of the year. “I’m doing another series of
Happiness, with Paul Whitehouse, and I’ve got
a couple of films coming out: Silent Crime, with
Dougie Henshall, and The Rocket Post, which I
did up in Harris, in the Hebrides.”
Even the thought of taking on Jake, Lily and Ty
doesn’t scare off Callum and Clive believes that
men have the same sort of biological clock that
women have. “Although a man can father a
child until he dies, technically, I think there’s a
similar biological clock going on for men who
haven’t had children by the time they’re in their
forties. Callum’s obviously someone who should
have been a father.”
Clive has four children, aged from 13 to 26, and
obviously knows a thing or two about being a
dad. “I think any number of things can make a
good father,” he says. “The truth of life is being
as true to yourself as you can be – not trying to
be calm and laid back if you’re not, and I think
that children will always respond to people
who have some sense of themselves. I don’t
think that there’s a set of rules that everybody
has to go by.”
Clive, 56, has had a long and illustrious career
with roles in Hope And Glory, Great
Expectations and Roughnecks on television and
film roles alongside Ralph Fiennes in Oscar And
Lucinda and Helena Bonham Carter in
Margaret’s Museum. He believes that male
actors have an advantage over their female
counterparts. “I’ve kept working throughout my
career and the advantage of being a man is
paying off now in that there is work for middle-
Being April
15
Interviews
Rakie Ayola plays Taneshia
get her hooks into April’s not-yet
ex-husband, Richard.
“She does ask April if she’s finished with him
first!” laughs Rakie Ayola, the Welsh actress
who plays receptionist Taneshia. Taneshia and
April work together at Lunge, Parry, McArthur,
where they while away many an hour, putting
the world to rights.
“I think she’s a young eccentric. She’s been
written in such a way that she swings between
being very sensible and the voice of reason in
April’s ear to being outrageous. I think she’s
probably a gay man in disguise – there’s
something a bit camp about her!”
TANESHIA is sexy, wild and opinionated
and April’s best friend and confidante. Sadly,
Taneshia thinks she knows more than she
does and while she’s happy to dole out advice
to April on relationships, work and probably
parenthood, she’s sadly lacking experiences in
all three. She has a style all of her own – more
Top Shop meets Oxfam – but she’s a bright
spark in April’s life and seems to live her’s
vicariously through April. What she needs is
a good man ... but is she looking in the
right place?
Diamonds may well be a girl’s best friend, but a
woman needs someone to have a good gossip
with, too. April’s rock is Taneshia and, as best
friends go, you could get a lot worse – she’s
loyal, she’s fun, she’s great with the kids and
she’s full of advice … but she’s also trying to
Being April
April and her family play a large part in
Taneshia’s life and, as well as spending eight
hours a day working together, the pair can often
be found at April’s house. “I think Taneshia has
no family of her own – she seems to be a bit of
an orphan, so she’s always at April’s family dos
and, wherever they go, she wants to tag along. I
think that for all her advice, she probably has
no life of her own,” says Rakie who, last year,
played Dan Sullivan’s barrister in EastEnders
when he was accused of shooting Phil Mitchell.
“Her whole life revolves around April and she’s
found herself a niche, which is as the sensible
voice in April’s head.
“April is loving, caring, warm and generous –
she doesn’t know her own strength as a woman,
a mother and a lover. She doesn’t know what
she’s capable of. She’s not reminded enough by
other people who should just say, ‘Well done
and thank you’ to her. She’s a terrific friend,
very loyal and trusting and just the kind of
woman you would want to have close to you,”
says the Cardiff-born actress, who starred in the
BBC Wales drama, Tiger Bay.
Rakie didn’t have to think twice when offered
the part of Taneshia – she fell in love with her
16
as soon as she read the script. “I absolutely
adored her,” she enthuses. “There was
something a bit overblown and dramatic and
colourful about her and it’s such a gritty,
realistic drama. I’d never played a character
like her on television – she’s more the sort of
character you get in the theatre.”
will soon be seen in Offenders, a drama for
Channel 4 in which she plays a supervisor to
people who are doing community service, and,
after Being April finishes, she began work on a
film called The Last Men. “It’s a Jasmin Dizdar
film – he directed Beautiful People. Bernard Hill
is playing the central character, along with the
mum out of East Is East.”
She was also thrilled at the prospect of working
with her old Maisie Raine partner, Pauline
Quirke, again. “We did two series of Maisie
together and had a very different relationship
because she was my boss – I had to say ‘Yes
ma’am’ a lot in that! I loved working with
Pauline and it was very different – Maisie just
told us what to do so I’m getting my own back
now, with Taneshia.
“We clicked straight away. We’re very different
people but we’ve stayed friends since Maisie.”
Rakie last saw Pauline when she bumped into
her at the Cannes Film Festival last year. “It’s
the fourth time I’ve been and I just love it. I just
go to watch films and learn and, last year, I saw
a sign up that said that the cast of Arthur’s
Dyke would be there.”
Prior commitments in a Shakespeare play
meant that Rakie had to turn down a role in
Arthur’s Dyke, a film made by Pauline Quirke
with her husband for their production company,
so it was fitting that the pair should meet in
Cannes. “It would have been the first time I’d
been to Cannes and actually been in a film,”
laughs Rakie.
“I actually created a film company and
produced a short to take to Cannes but it just
made me decide that if there’s anything I don’t
want to do it’s produce films, because I’m
rubbish at it. I was so bad with the budget that
I just said yes to everything and then had to
worry about how to pay for things at the end!”
While the likes of Spielberg, Cameron and
Altman can rest easy in the knowledge that
Rakie won’t be a threat to them, her acting
career is going from strength to strength. She
Being April
17
Interviews
Amita Dhiri plays Nikshita
For Nikshita, Sunil’s wife, played by This Life
favourite Amita Dhiri, the answer is simple –
she kicks Sunil, who’d had an affair with April
while he was engaged to Nikshita, out of the
marital home. “The worst thing is that he was
prepared to walk out on a baby and pretend
that he wasn’t the father in order to keep his
façade up – to keep his mum happy and for the
marriage to seemingly go all right.
“I think she actually believed in him as a person
and he had no integrity and that was a shock to
Nikshita, that he could be that weak. It means
you’re lying on a daily basis but what kind of a
man does that? A decent man would say, ‘Okay,
I messed up, but I’d really like to be with you,’”
says Amita, who played the uptight Millie
in This Life, the ground-breaking BBC
Two drama.
NIKSHITA is a beautiful woman and a
seemingly perfect marriage match for Sunil.
They were genuinely in love but Nikshita
married a boy pretending to be a man. It’s
thanks to her and Sunil’s mother, Leela, that
their company, Big Red Sari.Com is any success
at all. Sunil is never around, something that
April and Ty are only too familiar with. And
how does she cope with a husband who has
lived a lie for seven years when she finds out
about Ty? The feisty Nikshita is even more
upset that he’s such a bad father and has
neglected his son. It will take all the charm and
chat Sunil can muster to get his wife to forgive
him and give their marriage a second chance.
It’s the perfect moral dilemma: Would you
stay with a husband who had not only cheated
on you, but had also fathered a child with
his mistress and then kept their son a secret
for six years?
Being April
“I think she is still in love with Sunil, which is
why she could forgive him but I think she’d be
very hurt. Her head would say walk out now
but her heart – and also her culture and her
belief in marriage – is keeping her. It’s only
when it looks like there’s no way she can stay in
that situation that she’s ready to go.”
Amita admits that while she’d obviously be very
shocked and hurt if faced with the situation in
real life, love would probably win the day.
“The weakness would have shocked me and
that’s what I think would’ve been the biggest
hurdle – somebody who wasn’t prepared to say,
‘This is of my doing and I stand by my
responsibilities,’ – that’s what I would’ve
found the hardest to swallow.
“Life is messy, though – we all have messy bits
in our lives and I think it’s very naïve to assume
that if anything goes wrong you would walk
out. If you love someone, you love them warts
and all. Marriage is about the good and the bad
– you don’t walk out when the going gets tough,
you stay and sort it out.”
18
Interviews
Now that April wants Sunil to be a bigger part
of six-year-old Ty’s life, there’s a lot of sorting
out to do and, as usual, it’s the women who
take the bull by the horns. “The grown-up thing
would be to have a dialogue with April. Like
anyone, Nikshita feels very uncomfortable at
the idea of April, although she didn’t know that
Sunil was attached at the time. I don’t think
she particularly wants to know April but she’s
an intelligent woman, she can’t exactly say,
‘She’s a slag, he’s blameless,’ because it is Sunil’s
fault. But Sunil and April’s link will last for
life, because of their son, and that has to be
dealt with.”
Nikshita also manages to find a place in her
heart for little Ty, whom, she realises, is totally
blameless in the messy situation. “Right from
the start he’s the innocent and he’s totally
entitled to know his father’s side of his family
and also to know about his culture.”
The daughter of a French mother and an Asian
father, Amita had the best of both worlds in her
own upbringing. “My mum is French Catholic,
and I was very strictly brought up. I couldn’t
wear high heels until I was 16 and I could only
wear a very pale pink lipstick, which I hated at
the time,” she laughs. “I’m really glad for my
upbringing now, though.”
understand it. “It isn’t really for kids so it’s
going to be odd. Hopefully she’ll be very
worldly by the time she sees it.
“I’m still very proud of This Life. Every so often
I’ll be going about my business and I’ll notice
there’s a lot more people turning round and
staring and I realise that This Life must be on
UK Gold or something!”
Amita also starred in ITV’s sci-fi drama, Last
Train, and has done a lot of theatre in recent
years. “The last play I did, Feel Good, at the
Garrick, was a kind of dark comedy and I was a
straight character but funny because I was the
straight character.
Her love of comedy is about to be satisfied with
her next production, the second series of the
acclaimed comedy drama Happiness, starring
Paul Whitehouse, which begins filming shortly.
Amita joins the cast to play a close friend of
Fiona Allen’s character, Rachel.
Amita’s own daughter, Maeve, will have an
equally diverse upbringing with a half-French,
half-Asian mother and an Irish father, Brendan,
who runs his own internet greetings card
company, talkintoons.com. “She takes it all in
her stride – she wears an Indian outfit if she
goes to a wedding, one of her names is Indian,
some of the lullabies she knows are Irish and
she can count up to 10 in Punjabi. Her life is
smattered with different cultures.
“Before you embark on parenthood you see all
the problems of how you’re going to fit it all in
but, actually, she’s a lovely kid and you just feel
a little bit more organised, which is great.”
She admits that she’s a little anxious about her
daughter seeing This Life, before she’s ready to
Being April
19
Episode synopses
Synopses
Episode 1 – Lies
When none of the dads show up for Jake’s 16th
birthday party, April’s friend, Taneshia, tells her
that she’s too honest. Instead of telling the guys
to do something, let them think they’ve thought
of it themselves. So April tells the three dads a
small lie; that she has a boyfriend, Callum, the
IT manager from work, who gets on really well
with the kids. Suddenly, three absent fathers
aren’t so absent after all.
When they discover Callum is going to Dublin
he no longer seems a threat … except April’s lie
gets bigger and she says the whole family is
moving with him to Dublin. So, Richard, Eddie
and Sunil try even harder, learning to be there
emotionally for their children as well as
physically and financially. And the more time
April spends with her pretend boyfriend, the
more she realises that she’s actually falling for
him – and he’s falling for her, too.
While April is learning about relationships
again, Richard realises that although April
didn’t want him, he should never have
abandoned his son. It’s also time for Eddie to
tell his boyfriend, Grainger, that he has a child,
and Sunil … when his wife Nikshita and mother
Leela discover that he’s a father, he’s thrown
out of his home.
When Callum does actually ask April to move
with him to Dublin, she finds that the children
don’t want to go. Now they have their dads in
their lives they don’t want to lose them again.
New guy versus family – no contest. So it’s rather
a surprise when Callum decides to stay too...
Episode 2 – Rules
April’s not only learning to drive, she’s also
finding out that, maybe, she actually drove the
dads away from her as much as they left of their
own accord. As they teach her driving
techniques, she re-examines their relationships
and finds that they’re not always wrong and
Being April
she’s not always right. Sunil, meanwhile, is
forced to go to his cousin’s wedding by his
mother, Leela, but he turns up with Ty, much to
his mother’s horror. Nikshita’s reaction,
however, is quite the opposite. Here is the guy
she married; someone who can stand up to his
family. She accepts Ty and integrates him into
their family unit.
April takes her driving test and passes.
Episode 3 – Normal
Jake wants his family to be “normal” and April
tries to rise to the challenge. She invites the snooty
parents of Jake’s girlfriend, Martha, round for
afternoon tea and asks Callum to move in. He’s
very “house-trained”, but sex has stopped. After
trying to be every possible kind of woman he may
want – from sophisticated to outright slutty – she
discovers that the real problem is that Callum is
inhibited by the children being in the house: he
has to move out.
Afternoon tea is a disastrous affair and seeing
the Easton-Ellis’s at Jake’s school concert some
time later doesn’t help. All the family is there,
including Callum, and Jake is proud of his
mother. Callum and April get together again,
but she realises that he wants a family, not a
girlfriend, and she wants a man who’s going to
love her for herself.
Episode 4 – Growing Pains
Lily has her last football match with the
under-11s – she hates growing up; like father
like daughter. April does want change, however
– she wants a new challenge, and the promotion
at work in Corporate Hospitality would fit the
bill. She’s got the right qualifications for the job
– but they’ll probably want someone younger
and gorgeous.
The pressure is on for Eddie – from Lily, who
needs him as a father, from Grainger, who
20
Episode synopses
wants him to meet his dad, and from work.
Being an adult is just too much and he walks
out … on everyone. Richard is experiencing
problems too, having to accept that despite
Jake’s initial reluctance to try it, he’s brilliant at
plumbing … probably better than Richard. And
Sunil’s not too happy that his mother, Leela, is
having fun with Ty – she wasn’t, after all, like
that with him.
Lily’s cup final day looms but there’s no Eddie –
he’s confronting his own father – and no mum,
who’s in the middle of her job interview. As Lily
scores the winning goal, April and Eddie arrive.
April is triumphant, not only because of Lily’s
win, but also because, against the odds, she’s
got the job. Eddie admits he’s been stupid and
wants to make it up to all the people he’s hurt.
Episode 5 – Jealousy
Ty becomes critical of April, comparing her
cooking and shopping to his grandmother’s. He
also wants his own room and decides he wants to
live in Sunil and Nikshita’s big house. April is
surprised by how jealous she feels, not only of Ty
moving out, but also of the other fathers’
growing closeness to her kids. What if they get to
love their dads more than they love their mum?
April realises that Ty moving in with Sunil and
Nikshita is a positive thing, and she even
develops a friendship with Nikshita. Eddie,
meanwhile, has started a college course and is
jealous of Lily and Grainger’s growing closeness.
What if she prefers Grainger to him?
At work, after years of being equal, Taneshia is
now April’s PA. Taneshia is jealous of April’s
friendship with Nikshita, and now that April
has a swanky new job, perhaps she won’t want
to hang around with her old friend any more.
Taneshia confronts April on whether she’d be
jealous if she went out with Richard. April
insists she wouldn’t, so Taneshia and Richard go
on a date. They both discuss their jealousy of
April, they get drunk and Taneshia stays the
night. April must never know, so when she asks
how the date went, Taneshia says they only
Being April
talked about her. April is quite relieved it
didn’t work out.
Episode 6 – Family
April’s divorce comes through but, to her
surprise, she doesn’t feel delighted. It’s the day
of her big corporate do and she and Taneshia
have spent weeks organising it. As all the
arrangements fall through, April has 200 guests,
no food, no entertainment and no venue.
She decides to hold the do in her house and
drafts everybody in to help: Richard goes to the
cash and carry; Nikshita, Leela and Ty, now
back home, prepare the food; Jake and his
girlfriend, Martha, round-up their orchestra
pals; Sunil decorates the house; Eddie and
Grainger organise the bar; and Lily and her
football coach organise games.
In the kitchen, Eddie finds a positive pregnancy
test, but whose is it? Is April pregnant by
Callum? Jake and Martha find it and assume that
mum is having another baby, but Richard follows
them into the kitchen and thinks Martha is
pregnant. It then turns up in Nikshita’s bag and
Sunil thinks his wife is pregnant.
Richard discovers it’s neither Jake’s nor April’s.
Sunil finds out that Nikshita has been trying to
get pregnant for ages, but she can’t. Tests have
proved that it’s Sunil, and not she, who can’t have
kids. April gets it right – the baby is Taneshia’s.
During the event, Grainger meets an exboyfriend and Eddie and he end up having a
row. Grainger has to choose between his ex and
Eddie’s family. Nikshita discovers Sunil with
another woman and they row. Although he
fathered Ty, he then caught mumps and became
infertile. If he can’t be faithful and they can’t
have children, Nikshita asks if there’s any
reason she should stick around.
The evening has been a huge business success
and, despite the complications in everyone’s
lives, family is still at the heart of everything.
21