When inner city policewoman Grace Narayan (Anjli Mohindra) is posted to a small, remote Welsh island, she's soon caught up in both the cold case of a missing teenage boy, and some long-held and mysterious local traditions.
What follows is a a twisty, surprising and gripping series that skilfully blends a police procedural with touches of folk horror, cleverly leavened with moments of humour, thanks to series creator Toby Whitehouse (Being Human), director Daniel O'Hara, executive producer Davina Earl, and a strong cast. Mohindra (The Sarah Jane Adventures, Bodyguard, Vigil) delivers an excellent performance as the displaced but determined policewoman, and among the locals she soon meets is another face many will find familiar: stage and screen actress Adjoa Andoh, whose varied television career has ranged from Doctor Who to Bridgerton.
In a small community, some figures loom large - and on St Jory, one of them is Andoh's character, Lady Heather Nancarrow.
Here Andoh talks about the intrigue and mystery at the heart of The Red King, and why she wanted to be part of the series.
What can audiences expect from The Red King?
I think they can expect to be wrong-footed a lot, I hope. They can expect to be moved by different people’s circumstances. I hope they will have the pants scared off them at various moments and they can look forward to a visual feast with lots of laughs, jeopardy and I hope a good break-neck thrilling conclusion.
Can you tell us about the island and where Heather fits into the story?
The island of St Jory, where our story is set, is a small island and its sort of been presided over by the Nancarrow family. There was Heather’s grandfather, who had all sorts of things going on with his health as he had Huntington’s disease which is hereditary. He was affected by it in quite a psychotic way which meant he had all sorts of delusions about religion and making the islanders follow the religion he wanted. This religion is called the True Way. Heather’s presence on the island comes about because her father went overseas, fell in love with someone in Ghana, came back to the island and she has taken over managerial duties after her parents passed away. So, it’s a tiny island off the coast of Wales and Lady Heather Nancarrow sort of presides over everything there.
The strong cast also includes Adjoa Andoh as Lady Heather Nancarrow. Credit: Matt Towers / Quay Street Productions
What is ‘The True Way’?
This happened when the island went into lockdown … from the Spanish flu. People tend to forget about that but in 1918, after the war, the Spanish flu then took hold of the country and went on for years. It was sort of as baffling as Covid was, but without any of the relatively quick vaccination fixes. People died in their hundreds of thousands, so this island shut itself off to protect the islanders…
The belief system grew up at a time when everybody was very inward looking, there were 30 families who lived on the island and Lord Nancarrow (Grandfather) convinces them all to ditch their Christianity and follow the True Way. The True Way has a sort of Norse/Viking type mythology, Celtic and nature traditions, and there’s a bit of native American traditions chucked in there too. There are four gods, Gods who cover fertility and fecundity, Gods who cover sacrifice, there is a whole range of Gods and lots of rituals that are attached to them. When we meet the True Way, they’ve sort of become a bit of a colourful distraction for the tourists… or so we’re led to believe.
It’s fertile ground for horror, intrigue, mystery and crime but you have this humour in it.
What is the Red King and what is its tone?
I grew up in the Cotswolds in the 1960s, all of my teachers were Welsh and lots of my family are Welsh so there is something about being in a closed community who loves its traditions and ways of doing things. There’s also something about being resourceful……these people on the island must ride out these terrible storms and they make it a fun part of their calendars where they all get together in the village hall. In my day, we’d get together for the carnival, sports day, Christmas and they’d be games and parties. St Jory does the same for the Widow’s Wail, they sing ‘Knock On Wood’. What tradition is that? That’s not a 1918 tradition but it’s a rocking tune! So, there’s a sort of humour. You have the cliques from the leftover 30 families who are still involved in the ongoing belief system in the True Way with all the consequences of that and then the humour and the sense of people who are a little bit off with their own way of thinking and own way of doing things. It’s fertile ground for horror, intrigue, mystery and crime but you have this humour in it.
Why did you want to be part of the show?
Toby Whithouse (writer) and I came across each other several decades ago so I know he’s a fabulous writer; the plotting is great. What I love about it is that it’s a proper ensemble company and [production company] Quay Street, Toby, Daniel O’Hara (director) and Guy Hescott (producer), just the whole gang, it’s a really beautiful team of people. The scripts are fantastic, everybody gets their moment. You’re kept guessing about what’s going on, which is proper thrilling and it’s also quite blood scary at times and then other times it’s funny, bizarre, and interesting. It’s a visual page-turner. It’s also profoundly moving as well. It’s a rich story and I’m interested in that.
I love being in a story that’s set in nature, because that’s what I grew up with and I never get to do those gigs. …rather brilliantly, we’re filming in the northeast [of England] as a substitute for off the coast of Wales and to my shame, I’ve been to places I don’t even know the name of which are just absolutely stunning. For example, our police station in the series used to be a school hall and Capability Brown, who is the landscape designer, transformed all the estates that are used on another show with corsets I’m in (that shall remain nameless) … he transformed the landscape of this country, and he went to school in what we're now using as the police station.
L-R Anjli Mohindra, director Daniel O'Hara and Adjoa Andoh on set. Credit: Matt Towers / Quay Street Productions
What do you love most about playing Lady Heather Nancarrow? And what’s it been like working with the rest of the cast?
What I really love about Heather is she knows everyone. It’s a small town and small island so it’s that small island mentality. She needs to know everyone because she has to keep this ship on the road as it were. That analogy doesn’t work but you know what I mean! If she doesn’t know everybody then she doesn’t know how best to box and cox to keep the tourism coming in, to keep everybody happy. I mean, she’s the landlady of half the island, so she knows everybody.
I get to work with lots of fabulous actors. Ollie Ryan and I sadly didn’t get to do much together but we’ve just done Richard III together so that was fun. Mark Lewis Jones and I have never worked together before but we’ve always been around each other’s orbits so that’s been lovely. Lu Corfield, obviously she’s a don. I hadn’t worked with Anjli before, but she is fantastic.
It’s a really strong cast and there are a lot of, to my eyes now, young actors who are fabulous; James, Aled, Rosie, Maeve, Lauren. It’s a beautiful cast, they’re all nice people who are really good at their jobs, nobody takes themselves too seriously. I haven’t worked with Marc Warren before, that’s also been a joy and Sam Swainsbury as well who plays Douglas. I get to work with lots of different people because it has that ensemble thing going on and Heather’s got a finger in all the pies. All the pies!
This is an edited extract of material supplied by Quay Street Productions.
The Red King is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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The Red King
series • mystery
MA15+
series • mystery
MA15+
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