Nicola Walker reveals she has turned down shows over violence towards women

Actress Nicola Walker has revealed she has previously turned down the opportunity to audition for roles in dramas that feature violence towards women.

Walker, 48, was speaking ahead of the start of the third series of ITV crime drama series Unforgotten, in which she and Sanjeev Bhaskar, 54, play two detectives who solve cold cases.

The former Spooks and Last Tango In Halifax star told the Radio Times she is irritated when the plot of a drama series revolved around the murder of a female character, often young and attractive.

Walker said: “There have been jobs that I haven’t gone to the audition for because you think, ‘I don’t want to play someone who is violently murdered in episode two’.

“Or ‘I don’t want to be in something that’s all about young women being murdered’.

“There are some amazing dramas being made that use it as the dramatic hook, and say interesting things about us culturally and have really good stories, but not everything we make tells the story well.”

The two-time TV Bafta nominee did not reveal the name of any of the shows that she had turned down and did not provide specific examples of those which feature violence towards women.

Walker also praised Unforgotten writer Chris Lang for avoiding cliches in the show’s script.

During the show’s previous series Walker and Bhaskar’s characters appeared to start to have romantic feelings towards one another, but the plot development was quickly scuppered.

Walker said: “He (Lang) said, ‘Right, here’s the bit where, in most shows, they’d bring in the sexual tension’, and he brought it in and then dismissed it within one scene. Brilliant.”

The full interview with Walker and Bhaskar can be read in full in the latest edition of Radio Times.

Unforgotten begins on ITV on Sunday July 15.