Interview with Camille Coduri who plays Peggy

17 May 2022

How did you become involved in Big Boys?

 

It was a few years ago. Jack Rooke asked to meet me and have a chat about playing his mother in a pilot. So we had a chat about what he thought his mother was like. And I must have passed the test because the next thing you know, we shot the pilot.

 

How did he describe his mum?

 

The key factor of Peggy was the love and the warmth. So when I did get the script, I kind of felt like I knew what I was doing. You can't not with Jack's writing: his words are incredible and it's your job as an actor to honour the writer. So when you're given scripts that are so delicious and real and funny… just play it. Just get on and do it.

 

Jack and Peggy's relationship is not the standard mother/son on-screen duo. How would you describe how they get on?

 

Peggy wants to just be the best mum that she possibly can to her son. She's more or less on his wavelength as far as her years are concerned and as far as their relationship is concerned. She's more of a friend. Of course, she's naturally full of love, but she says it like it is. Their relationship is very ordinary but it is full of humour and full of love. She's been there, she knows what it’s like so she has that respect for young people. And particularly her son — she would lay her life down for her son, especially after having lost her husband, Jack's father. She's a widow. And so she has to make life for her son better because it is utterly devastating.

 

What was her relationship like with her late husband, what happened and where has that left her?

 

I just think they fell in love. They fell in love big time. They were two outcasts from their own families, they got together, fell in love, they had a son. He was a black cab driver and they were sort of rock and rollers. They would just tell it like it is. So they get married, have this baby and they get on with their lives together as a very ordinary, working-class family. But they’re not straightforward, there’s more to them. What you see is not what you get.

 

Does Jack coming out have any effect on their relationship?

 

To be honest it's an honour for her. I think she's so excited because it means she can love him even more: she might have him longer! She won't have to fight with a daughter-in-law; not that she would mind sharing him with a girl. But it just means it's like double the love. I speak from experience because my son is gay. And I was so excited when he came out. All my friends were like, ‘Oh my god, Camille, you got what you dreamed of when he was a baby!’ I used to put a little mermaid tail on him and tutus and stuff. So I know that feeling of pride and joy, to be able to give double the love if you like.

 

So how does Peggy feel when Jack is going off to uni?

 

She would never let her life get in the way of her son. So she's selfless in the fact that she wouldn't harp on about being alone without him and, ‘Oh, I'm on my own.’ She’d just get on with it. The thing is, also, he's around the corner! He didn’t even move very far. His uni’s not in Manchester is it?

 

How did you approach the fact that Jack Rooke, whose story this is, was available to talk to at all times?

 

The thing is you're out on a limb because even though you've got the words and you've got the armour… you've got all your equipment to give a performance, you do worry. I did think at the back of my mind that all I wanted to do was get Peggy right and honour Jack's mother, because she's an extraordinary woman. If I could just get across a centimetre of what she has in her whole entirety as a person and as a mother and what she's done for her family then I've done a good job.

 

She's exceptional: she's funny, she's hilarious, she's strong. She's brought that whole family up on her own, doesn't stand any nonsense and yet she's still soft and gentle, she's sexy. When I met her I just thought, wow, she has such gravitas. She has huge charisma and when we talk sometimes we sound alike — although she's much calmer. I have such huge respect. When I met her, I wanted to curtsy.

 

Big Boys is a very funny show to watch. What was it like to make?

 

It was brilliant because you have to find a fine line between being professional and laughing when you shouldn't be laughing! That’s always an issue. There were so many funny moments, particularly when you're working with the other girls as well as Dylan Llewellyn: Annette Badland and Harriet Webb. I only had to look and I’d be gone if they gave me the eye. So we laughed but also it was very emotional as well. There's a great beauty in bereavement. It's a beautiful journey. It’s horrendous and it can be devastating and can cut you in half and you walk around most of the time with a sword in your chest. But actually, a lot of that journey is beautiful.

 

Was it nostalgic for you making a show about college years?

 

I only had a very short time at college because I was naughty: I left to join the theatre! I went to college for just three or four months to re-sit some O levels because I was appallingly bad at taking my exams and I just mucked about. But I just knew I had to be an artist. I had to be an actress. And so nothing could stop that.