Interview with Angela Griffin who plays carer Tori

9 September 2021

What drew you to this story?

I found the story really important and the script was utterly compelling when I read it. I think considering everything that was going on, that is going on, the aftertaste of the crisis in the care homes, it just felt like something really important to be a part of, important to be told.

Your character Tori is a carer at Bright Sky Homes. What does she make of her new colleague Sarah?

Tori is one of the main carers in the home, she’s been there for a long time. She’s making a career out of being a carer. She’s not someone who didn’t have anything else to do and doing it as a side-line, it’s not an accidental job. She’s chosen to do it, it’s where her passion is. And there’s quite a high turnover of staff, or at least there has been in care homes, and it’s something Tori is used to. She doesn’t particularly hold grudges against anyone, it’s not for everyone. So when Sarah first arrives Tori just treats her like all of the people she expects to be there for 5 minutes. She’s going to come in and hate it and be gone. She doesn’t massively invest a lot of time in her. She’s not mean, she’s not nasty to her, she just doesn’t invest in her. As the film progresses Sarah shows that actually she’s got a bit of a knack for it. And Tori sees that eventually Sarah’s good at it and she has good intentions and is of benefit to the care home. Not that she particularly had to win her over. Tori is eventually really pleased that Sarah is there, and really happy to have someone as committed to the job as she is. 

How did you prepare for the part?

We weren’t allowed into care homes when we were filming as it was the third lockdown. So we had rehearsals for a week prior to filming, production got a couple of people to talk through what it was like generally in care homes, what the hierarchies are, what the duties are, and  what it was like in those early stages of the pandemic. We shot it in January, so we had had the first wave and we had the unlocking, you know ‘eat out to help out’, and we’d had Christmas. And Christmas was when we had the new variant, so as we were filming the second wave was starting. So, it was very interesting talking to the ex-carers and the current nurses.

How much did you know about the Covid crisis in care homes before taking on this project?

Quite a bit I suppose. I read the papers. I tend to be more on the left wing of the papers, I’ve read quite a fair whack about what was going on, various publications probably spin it in a slightly different ways depending on whether they were supporting the government or not. I read what I feel to be the truth. It was an absolute and utter shambles, it could have been avoided. I’d read what I could from the media. I didn’t have any relatives in care homes. I had friends whose parents were in care homes but I had no first-hand experience.

What do you think a drama can add to our understanding of this historic moment?

I think Help is a really honest look at some of the mistakes that were made and showing where failures happened, and hopefully going forward what won’t happen again. I think particularly for people like myself who didn’t have first-hand experience of it, to know what people were losing. It’s tough, the script is tough, it doesn’t dress anything up. It’s really honest. And I think anything that can show people what was really happening can only be a good thing. Also, it’s good that we understand that it’s really tough being a carer. For minimum wage and unsocial hours. The NHS has done an incredible job, but carers don’t really get the same kind of recognition. But they really were on the frontline. They became statistics rather than people, and I think Help really humanises and sees behind the statistics of people who are over the age of 80 or people who are carers. It helps to show that they are just as important, that the sacrifices they were making, the sacrifices that they made looking after the older people in our society. And it’s an incredible insight into that. If you’re not going in there, if you don’t have someone in there, I think you do have an image of the kind of people who work there. And even sometimes the kind of people who would put their parents in homes. You know this “I wouldn’t never put my parent in a home”. You know if someone’s poorly or someone’s ill, or someone’s got Alzheimer’s, there are no options.

The cast is full of iconic Liverpudlian actors; being from Yorkshire were you made to feel at home?

It was fantastic, it really was such a strong cast. And Marc Munden the director, I was a huge fan of him before going into the job. Sometimes people say “when you were making this did you know it was going to be so successful or whatever?” - I don’t know if this will be successful - but I did know we were making something extremely relevant and extremely special, and that we have made something that I really truly believe is important. And it’s true there’s a lot of acting royalty there, you know it’s Stephen and Jodie’s piece, but everybody was really happy to jump on board and take on these other parts, you wouldn’t usually get people of that calibre, but it was really special.

Did filming in the third lockdown heighten the atmosphere on set?

Oh god yeah, absolutely yes. It was interesting because we were still under massive restrictions when we filmed it. I walked around Liverpool, I got quite a few Deliveroos. We were staying in a hotel that had no restaurant, no room service, barely any staff. We weren’t allowed to mix with each other, we weren’t allowed to go into each other’s rooms, there were no shops to go into. We were travelling solo and when we were at work we had to stay in our own green rooms. And the only time the mask came off was when we were shooting. It wasn’t the most social job I’ve ever done in my entire life, going to be honest with you. It was really strange to shoot like that because as actors we are a company and usually we’re all in the green room together and we’re all chatting on set. And the community that occurs when you’re filming. But unfortunately we weren’t able to do that because we were following the Covid restrictions that were there at the time.

The film feels incredibly distinctive and not what audiences might expect, what was it like working with Marc as a director? 

Marc was pretty amazing to work with. He is obviously really bright, really intelligent. He knew exactly what he wanted, with every single shot, he kept the atmosphere just exactly where it should be in terms of the levity on set. He’s so insightful, there’s a huge ensemble that goes with it. Every single character. Every single journey had been thought out and crafted and was given the same weight as everyone else’s story, as is in life. He was fantastic. I’d really love to do something else with him. Tell him that!