Vicky McClure wants to set the record straight.
We’ve found a precious 40 minutes away from the hustle and bustle of press day for season four of ITV‘s Trigger Point at London’s Soho Hotel. Tucked into the corner of one of its underground bars, McClure speaks to The Hollywood Reporter while her co-stars — Eric Shango, Natalie Simpson, Maanuv Thiara among them — dutifully pose for photos and laud the latest work of show creator Daniel Brierley.
McClure, returning as the no-nonsense bomb disposal expert Lana Washington in another high-octane, watch-behind-your-hands instalment, is taking us through her early years at Nottingham’s Television Workshop, a Midlands-based film, TV, and theatre training school for kids from working-class backgrounds. She had initially eyed a career in professional dance and landed a place at the prestigious Italia Conti academy. But her family couldn’t afford the tuition. She stayed with the Television Workshop until the age of 21.
I halt the conversation early on to ask if what I’ve read online — that McClure was mentored at the Workshop by The Odyssey breakout Samantha Morton, a fellow Nottingham native — is true. The actress is quick to clarify: “That isn’t correct. Sam is a huge part of the Workshop, and my word, I mean, even now, the gigs that she’s in,” she says, alluding to the latest Christopher Nolan hit, wide-eyed with awe. “[But] we never crossed over. I actually didn’t know her while I was in the Workshop.” The pair would, later in their respective careers, meet at odd events. “You gravitate to each other if you’re both from Nottingham or the Workshop,” explains McClure, who was proudly born and raised in the English city (she has resisted the industry-induced pressure to relocate to the capital — a decision we’ll come to later).
