Interview with Niamh Algar who plays Sadie Byrne/ Lizzie James

6 August 2021

What appealed about Deceit?

I wanted to be two things growing up, an actor and a detective, so this ticked both boxes. But ultimately it was the script and the unique female perspective the story was told through. I was only a baby when this event happened, so it was incredibly interesting to me and the way Emilia [di Girolamo, writer] portrayed this character in her writing, I’d never really seen it done before for TV. It was so refreshing to read a character who was able to pull off so much, in terms of how she copes with the pressure of her life, how she deals with people. She’s extraordinary at her job, so I felt enormous admiration for this character. Also, it was another opportunity for me to work with Channel 4 who aren’t afraid to showcase the gritty side of society in a compelling and informative way. 

Who are Lizzie James and Sadie Byrne within the drama?

Sadie Byrne is a detective constable with the Metropolitan Police, and the name we’ve given to the real undercover officer in the case of Operation Edzell, we’ve fictionalised Sadie to protect her real identity in-line with the lifetime protection order surrounding her. “Lizzie James” is the identity Sadie uses on the honey-trap operation the police use to lure out the man they believe is a suspect in Rachel Nickell’s murder, it’s her “legend” as undercover police call it and the name that the real undercover officer was given. She’s a character built up out of research from a criminal profiler the police have worked with who and she’s a character based on the type of person they believe the killer, who they wrongly think is Colin Stagg would be interested in. Sadie in the drama wants to find the bad guy and be the hero.

Within the series how did you reconcile the fictional Sadie with the real person?

I didn’t play between the two, I played who I believed the character was. The real identity of the undercover officer is protected and that was always maintained, so I was just given the ingredients of how to create this character of Sadie. We haven’t specified which parts are verbatim and which parts aren’t, and that’s important because Emilia isn’t trying to show who she actually was.

Did you do a lot of other research?

It was important for me to get a broad sense of what it was like for a female officer working undercover at that time in London. I sat down with real life detectives and interviewed them as part of my research. I needed to understand what it was like to go undercover, what tools you needed.  One woman I interviewed explained to me that building a legend was like an actor building a character’s backstory. You need to know the person you are playing inside and out and maintain that lie over a period of time, the main difference between undercover and acting is that if I drop a line or break character I just do another take, however in undercover if you slip up you could end up dead.

I spent time researching the investigation, I really did find myself becoming incredibly immersed in this character. Largely, because of the fine details, I had to know logistically how undercover worked. Keith Pedder’s book was a great insight into the actual investigation.

How much more responsibility do you feel playing a real person, especially if you don’t know who they are or what they think about it?

Well, ‘Sadie Byrne’ isn’t a real person per se, parts of this drama were fictionalised to safeguard the real officer known as “Lizzie James’” identity as she’s protected by a lifetime anonymity order but you have to move the idea of real people out of the way or you’ll be worrying about what they think of you. You’re the only person on the production with the time to research and build the character that deeply and find justifications for the choices they made. It’s like being a lawyer for that character. However, I hope the real “Lizzie James” will see it and what we’ve tried to do and that other women may identify with having been in similar situations.

Can you explain the additional obstacles a woman in undercover policing would have faced at the time?

The recruitment of women wasn’t as high as it is now, and women weren’t able to be promoted into senior positions. Sadie is given a massive opportunity, to be the centre of the biggest Met operation in history, so she’s putting everything into it, having dedicated her life to protecting the public and women in particular. We’re looking at what was being asked of women, and how they were being treated, more clearly now, but at the time, if you’re in it all the time, how do you know any different? 

Why has Sadie chosen undercover work?

She wants to protect people especially women, to prevent other woman from being killed. Undercover gives her the opportunity to work closely in the field with criminals and as she says in the story “the opportunity to take men down for their crimes, what women wouldn’t jump at the chance”.

Does she question Britton’s techniques or push back on what she’s being asked to do? 

She does begin to question Britton’s methods as the operation develops. This way of working is foreign territory for her. At the beginning she’s on a rollercoaster, like someone has opened a special door in the Met Police and gone: ‘have you seen in here? No woman has ever been in here before.’ She’s going with her instincts, in the field meeting people, being face-to-face with criminals – she knows how to handle herself and she’s had physical experience, whereas Britton has only read about it.

What is Lizzie’s relationship like with Keith Pedder?

This was Pedder’s first time leading an operation like this, so Sadie’s sizing him up a bit while still being respectful of him as her superior. As it goes on, she starts to challenge him more and speak to him more as an equal because a lot of time, Sadie’s been left out of the conversations. Why is she always the last to know when she’s in the firing line? 

Is she in any doubt about Colin Stagg’s supposed ‘guilt’?

The information she’s been fed leads her to believe he’s responsible, that they wouldn’t be putting so much time and effort into this if they didn’t have some direct evidence linking him with the incident. But as the case goes on and she’s sat next to him, talking to him, she can’t avoid questioning whether he’s responsible. It’s the idea of going with your gut – it knows what your head hasn’t figured out yet. After his arrest I feel she gained clarity on her involvement and the position that they put him in.

What impact does this double life have on her personal life and mental state?

I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for the real her. I’ve played characters for six months through some heavy material. She lived and breathed this character for over a year, going home every evening supposedly feeling like she had a direct phoneline to who she felt was the killer. That must be terrifying. That’s why I look at her and feels she’s incredibly brave. She’s living with this all the time – she can’t shut it off and at any moment Pedder can ask her to go on another date or make a phone call to Stagg. In the story we show she doesn’t have family around her so she can’t be herself and, by the end of it, she’s forgotten who Sadie is. And the physical demands… She’s essentially going on these dates unarmed. In the drama Emilia has planted the idea that it only took a couple of seconds for a murder to occur, so despite having undercover officers around her, having that in the back of your head must have been so mentally  exhausting.

Is the absence of family normal for undercover officers?

Some of the women I spoke to had families who had no idea they worked undercover, others completely isolated themselves to protect their loved ones. In life we have our true self and the self you project to the world, but undercover officers have to have a third person in their head.

Does she have anyone she can offload to in the drama?

No, she has to keep it all in her head. They didn’t have the psychological support that they have now, where they have compulsory meetings with counsellors. In our Sadie’s mind, going and talking to a counsellor would make her appear weak, and she never wanted to appear weak, I think she always wanted to appear as tough and capable as any of the guys.

What were the most demanding aspects of the shoot?

Mentally it was a tough shoot. So much of Sadie’s guilt and frustration is constantly bubbling under the surface and it can be quite demanding maintaining that on a shoot. I spent 10 consecutive days alone in Sadie’s flat filming all the scenes of her researching the case and working out Colin’s innocence. It was a challenging location but thankfully I was able to inject that into the scenes, I really felt for the character. Also shooting during the Pandemic meant I was going home alone after a heavy day of filming and not really having any down time or anyone to take me out of that headspace, I definitely connected and understood the isolation the character felt. Thankfully I worked with an amazing team on this and our director Niall MacCormack was very clued into what you can expect of an actor when they’re playing a character with an intense emotional arch.

Those scenes with Sion are pivotal – how did you work with him? 

At the start Niall wanted us to be separate, so we had costume fittings, hair and make-up tests and so on apart from each other. Niall didn’t want us to be too pally so that chemistry would blossom in the scene, but you shoot out of context and actors love to chat, so it didn’t quite work like that. Although we hadn’t spent much time on Colin and Lizzie’s phone conversations, so they felt as awkward for us as they were in the show. Sion is a brilliant actor and I learnt so much working with him. We had more intimate scenes in the dream sequences that Sadie has and so on, but I always felt safe and that we could talk everything through. 

What most surprised you about this story?

Overall I was shocked about how the real Sadie was treated, the position she was put in. How Colin was treated was horrific as well, and it really continued for 15 years until Robert Napper was finally convicted. 

What lessons can be learnt from this case?

A lot of lessons. Fundamentally, the way women were treated and the lack of support they received. And just because someone doesn’t fit into what we see as normal society, you can’t assume they could be responsible for something so awful.