Interview with Nathan Welsh (DS Jake Hunter)

Jake is Bea’s colleague and long-standing partner in fighting crime, so it’s little wonder that he finds the arrival of Patience slightly confusing. He feels slightly concerned for this young, autistic woman and is thrown by her instinctive methods. But Jake will soon start to realise what an asset to the team Patience is, and learn from her instinctive skills.

Interview

Nathan Welsh - Jake Hunter

 

What attracted you to the project?

I think Patience attracted me at first because I’ve always been interested in crime dramas and always wanted to play a detective. I was also intrigued by the idea of having a character like Patience in the story and the kind of nuances that might bring to a narrative. 

Tell us a little about Jake?

So Jake is interesting. At the heart of him, he’s a good guy, and to quote The Wire he’s “Good Police”.  I think he loves his job, wants to make a difference and is very much doing that by the book. I think in terms of backstory he’s worked very hard to be in the position he is as a DS and has worked alongside Laura’s character Bea for quite a few years now. I think I imagined that he in a way followed her to York after maybe working with her down south. In my mind they worked together before and he wanted to be a part of her team again. It’s hard to think back but when we meet him in episode one he’s reluctant to look into something he doesn’t see as a good use of police time. He’s sceptical and really wants to focus on cases that seem, to him, solvable. ,I think the idea of investigating suicides seems fruitless. 

What about Jake’s relationship with Patience?

When it comes to Patience I think he’s definitely sceptical. Firstly, because she’s not a police officer. Secondly because she is so young. Thirdly, and not most importantly, her neuro diversity - I think he’s naively concerned that the type of work she might have to involve herself in might not be quite suited well enough to her way of thinking or even being. Being a detective is hard. It comes with a lot of disappointments and shocks that can be hard on a person. He has a lot of concerns about how she may cope. Which of course is and you will see is definitely not the case. 

What do you think of the show tonally?

Tonally I think Patience is funny, heartfelt, cool, dark, sharp. Many tones. 

How have you enjoyed working with your fellow cast members?

I’ve loved working with the rest of the cast. From the first week of rehearsals Ella, Laura and I found a great rapport. And then everyone else that fitted in perfectly. It was really fun. 

How important is it that neurodiverse actors are invited to play neurodiverse roles?

I think it’s incredibly important that neuro diverse roles are played by neuro diverse actors. Representation is very important. And I think we need to be way more focused in this industry about the choices we make around casting. 

Any memorable moments you can share?

The most memorable for me was a day when Ella and Mark Benton who plays Baxter, and I had a scene where Mark’s character was giving Patience and Jake a bit of a dressing down. Mark did this thing where he turned away from us and just as a choice in one of the takes he decided to stamp his foot and it took me and Ella by surprise and we couldn’t stop laughing, basically for the rest of the afternoon. I’m not sure Maarten and the rest of the crew were very happy with us all to be honest. But the three of us had fun. 

And how was shooting in Belgium and York?

Shooting in Belgium was great. The people were amazing and I felt very lucky to see so many places I probably would never have had the experience of visiting. My favourite place was Brussels. It was really vibrant and a little bit gritty. I live in Brixton in London and I found it quite similar in a lot of ways, culturally. York was wonderful. It was really nice to see the places that are in the script and experience what it would actually be like to work there. I really loved how much history still exists there. 

Tell us about Jake’s relationships with Bea and Patience?

Jake loves Bea, I think like an older sister. He has a huge amount of respect and trust in her and really wants to do the best he can. I think they rely on each other emotionally and professionally. She’s very much his mentor. I think with Patience, he at first finds her very challenging but cares a lot about her and really wants what’s best for her.