Beyond Paradise star admits ‘dark’ new role is ‘a very different beast’
The Beyond Paradise actress is worlds away from her BBC role in a dark ITV series, where she plays an intelligence operative.
Beyond Paradise star Zahra Ahmadi has teased her intense new role, revealing “it’s a very different beast”.
The actress stars as DS Esther Williams alongside Kris Marshall in the beloved Death in Paradise spin-off, and is now joining Shaun Evans in ITV series Betrayal.
The drama follows Endeavour actor Shaun as John Hughes, a mid-career MI5 officer navigating a rapidly evolving intelligence landscape whilst dealing with his own personal life struggles.
Having joined MI5 during the war on terror, and previously being at the forefront of preventing the biggest terrorist plots the country has seen, John lives a very different life now, in his mid 40s and married with two children, adapting to the new MI5 and a progressive work environment, where threats to national security have changed.
Zarha is worlds away from her Beyond Paradise role as intelligence operative Mehreen Askari-Evans in Betrayal, and spoke about the series on This Morning today.
Read more: Endeavour's Shaun Evans shares reason for real accent in new drama
Read more: Death in Paradise fans say same thing as newcomer joins cast
She told hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley: “It is a very different beast, this is much darker. There’s a real lightness about Beyond Paradise, even if we sometimes deal with quite serious issues, there is a lightness about it, a lightness of touch.
“It’s really different, and it’s nice to do different things.”
Talking about the stunts involved in the drama, Zarha admitted she didn’t do all of them, but “really enjoyed” the “tamer” ones.
She said: “It’s really fun, it’s really high adrenaline and you know you’re in a safe environment so you can enjoy the fun side of that, but I didn’t keep up with Shaun Evans, he’s particularly quick, he sprints, it’s crazy!”
She went on: “In one particular scene, we did a minimum of 10 takes, and by the end of it, I was so exhausted. Genuinely, it took me about a month for my hamstrings to recover because I was running in Doc Martins with heels.”
She added: “The penultimate take, our stunt coordinator said, ‘Would you like to try it in a pair of trainers?’ None of us had thought about it.”
ITV previously teased the synopsis of Betrayal: “On a hunch John meets Ehsan, a British Iranian man with links to the Manchester gangland who claims he has intelligence about a plot on UK soil. Before he can share intel, Ehsan is executed by a lone gunman, and John impulsively kills the assassin in retaliation.
“This triggers a chain of events which puts John in direct collision with his superiors who are furious that he appears to have got involved in a Manchester gang turf war. John thinks there's more to it than that and starts digging into Ehsan’s past.
“He knows he’ll have to redeem himself if he’s to save his career and reputation, all the while struggling with his own mental health after having killed a man.
“John’s efforts to save his career and his marriage are also tested by Mehreen, an intelligence operative who is brought in to take over John’s duties on the Iran desk.
“Their connection is electric, and John must wrestle with temptations his younger self would readily have surrendered to. Struggling with his own demons, his love for his family and his complicated loyalty to the institution he’s been part of for over 20 years, John sets out to find the truth of the explosive security threat to the UK before it's too late.”
Betrayal airs on Sunday 8 February at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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