Babylon interview with Adam Deacon

Who do you play, and what are they like?
I play Robbie. He starts off in the TSG, and he’s quite a loud character, a guy who really wants to be heard. He manages to cheat his way into armed training – which is a big dream of his. He goes through training, and you follow his journey into the Armed Response Unit. And obviously he has to change. He’s not the top dog any more in the van, and he has to calm his banter down a bit. He’s growing up a lot as well.

Who do you play, and what are they like?
I play Robbie. He starts off in the TSG, and he’s quite a loud character, a guy who really wants to be heard. He manages to cheat his way into armed training – which is a big dream of his. He goes through training, and you follow his journey into the Armed Response Unit. And obviously he has to change. He’s not the top dog any more in the van, and he has to calm his banter down a bit. He’s growing up a lot as well.

What was it that attracted you to the project?
For me it was so many different things. On a personal, acting level, I was waiting for a part like this. Since I won a BAFTA [Rising Star] award, I was getting offered the same kind of thing all the time. It was all drug dealing parts, or street kids, people on the wrong side of the law. It was quite a scary time, because I was turning down a lot of work, and as an actor, you want to work. But I kept my faith, and people kept telling me something would come up, and all of a sudden I got this casting. And I have to be honest, I thought it was one of those castings that I wouldn’t get, because of how big it looked on paper. The fact that it was Danny Boyle, and Sam and Jesse writing it. I didn’t think they’d see me as a police officer, because I’ve always played the other side. But I went to the casting, and a week later I got the part, and I was over the moon.

Did you do much in the way of research for the role?

We were really lucky. Danny Boyle was a great believer in doing a lot of research before we got on set. That’s great, not a lot of directors work like that. Normally it’s a real rush, you get your script maybe two days before and you learn your lines. With Danny, he made sure we had enough research. We had DVDs, documentaries we could pick up whenever we wanted, a lot of training in Gravesend. Especially for me, because I had to train with the Armed Response guys as well. So I got to shoot the guns and everything. It was really good fun, to be honest. And we also got to talk one-on-one with a lot of officers. It also helped with dialogue, just to check if police really did talk in a certain way, and would use lines like this.


Has your opinion of the job that the police do changed as a result of working on the show?
I think they’re in a really hard place. Obviously we need protection. But for the Armed Response guys it’s particularly hard. If they do their job, they’re going to get blamed, and if they don’t do their job, they’re probably going to get blamed. I think they’re in a hard place. But in doing this, and in making a documentary a few years back called Can We Trust the Police, I just think a lot of the police officers out there are confused. A lot of them want to do the best they can, but they feel like their hands are tied by the government. But I think there’s good police and bad police, the same as there are with any job.


For me it was so many different things. On a personal, acting level, I was waiting for a part like this. Since I won a BAFTA [Rising Star] award, I was getting offered the same kind of thing all the time. It was all drug dealing parts, or street kids, people on the wrong side of the law. It was quite a scary time, because I was turning down a lot of work, and as an actor, you want to work. But I kept my faith, and people kept telling me something would come up, and all of a sudden I got this casting. And I have to be honest, I thought it was one of those castings that I wouldn’t get, because of how big it looked on paper. The fact that it was Danny Boyle, and Sam and Jesse writing it. I didn’t think they’d see me as a police officer, because I’ve always played the other side. But I went to the casting, and a week later I got the part, and I was over the moon.

Did you do much in the way of research for the role?

We were really lucky. Danny Boyle was a great believer in doing a lot of research before we got on set. That’s great, not a lot of directors work like that. Normally it’s a real rush, you get your script maybe two days before and you learn your lines. With Danny, he made sure we had enough research. We had DVDs, documentaries we could pick up whenever we wanted, a lot of training in Gravesend. Especially for me, because I had to train with the Armed Response guys as well. So I got to shoot the guns and everything. It was really good fun, to be honest. And we also got to talk one-on-one with a lot of officers. It also helped with dialogue, just to check if police really did talk in a certain way, and would use lines like this.


Has your opinion of the job that the police do changed as a result of working on the show?
I think they’re in a really hard place. Obviously we need protection. But for the Armed Response guys it’s particularly hard. If they do their job, they’re going to get blamed, and if they don’t do their job, they’re probably going to get blamed. I think they’re in a hard place. But in doing this, and in making a documentary a few years back called Can We Trust the Police, I just think a lot of the police officers out there are confused. A lot of them want to do the best they can, but they feel like their hands are tied by the government. But I think there’s good police and bad police, the same as there are with any job.