Monty star Mark Addy’s grim role in Ripper yarn

Mar 8 2009 by Michael Kelly, Sunday Sun

HE made his name as loveable Dave in hit comedy The Full Monty, now North actor Mark Addy has taken on an altogether different role in a grim drama about police corruption, torture and murder, all taking place against the backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper killings. As he tells MIKE KELLY: “There aren’t many laughs” . . .

IN one of the most poignant scenes of The Full Monty, Dave, played by Mark Addy, is seen in his shed, wrapping himself in cellophane in a bizarre attempt to lose weight . . . while eating a Mars bar.

The movie was based on the efforts of redundant steel workers in Sheffield, trying to make ends meet by stripping off.

Red Riding, however, is as grim and disillusioning as The Fully Monty was funny and uplifting, although Mark plays a similarly weighty character.

The three-part series, which started on Channel 4 on Thursday, begins in 1970s Yorkshire and, through a violent, interweaving plot centred around corruption and murder, culminates in 1983, when all the strands are pulled together.

And it is Mark’s character, hapless solicitor John Piggott who, almost despite himself, gets to the bottom of a murderous riddle and shines a jaundiced light on the powers-that-be of the time.

The series is based on the Red Riding quartet of books by Yorkshire writer David Peace, whose The Damned United, about Brian Clough’s 44 days in charge of Leeds United, is also released as a film later this month.

Peace decided to take no part in the writing of the screenplays, which were adapted by writer Tony Grisoni. Some of the actors involved, including Sean Bean and David Morrissey, chose not to read the books. However, Mark did.

He says: “Some of the guys involved decided that Tony’s scripts were what we’re shooting, that’s what they wanted to know.

“I read the books after the screenplays. I was intrigued and found it gave a lot of history of the character not found on the pages of the script.”

It also gave Mark, 43, the chance to have a wander down a not-so-happy memory lane as the backdrop to the books, and the series, is the Yorkshire Ripper killings.