Deep, Dark & Mysterious...

MyAnna Buring on playing a cop forced to confront childhood trauma as she probes the disappearance of two girls in her hometown

- Sean Marland

MyAnna Buring sits in her trailer wrapped in a large towel as water drips from her hair. She has been filming a scene in the driving rain, but while MyAnna may be soaked to the skin, her enthusiasm for her chilling new BBC1 thriller, In the Dark, has not been dampened.

The Ripper Street star plays the part of Manchester detective Helen Weeks, who reluctantly returns to her hometown when the boyfriend of her childhood best friend is accused of the kidnap of two young girls. It’s MyAnna’s first leading role in a BBC drama and she’s thrilled with her character.

‘Helen can be so mercurial,’ says MyAnna as she dries her hair. ‘That made her feel very real to me. Very often you’re given one or two words to describe a character, but Helen is always shifting. She’s tough, yet also vulnerable, and you never quite know the full story. It felt like a chance to play something I could really get my teeth into and believe.’

And, with that, her co-star Ben Batt (Scott & Bailey) enters and flops down on the sofa with a wry smile that takes in his sodden outfit and the rain that continues to beat upon the roof. ‘Manchester eh?’ he grins, before politely introducing himself. ‘We had snow the other week – in the middle of April!’

Ben plays Helen’s boyfriend, fellow detective Paul Hopwood, yet while he and MyAnna have been battling the elements, it’s nothing compared to what their characters have to face in this dark thriller.

Here MyAnna, 37, and Ben, 30, tell TV Times more about the four-part thriller…

How does the series begin?