"Tommy's just as real as every other character"

In his role as pyschopath Tommy Lee Royce, actor James Norton has shocked and engrossed audiences. Here, he explains what it's like to play such a complex character.

"Tommy first comes across as unfeeling and callous... He’s so much more than that"

James Norton

What appealed to you about the character of Tommy?

More than the hair? For any actor, it’s a great privilege to play a character that is very distant from yourself. Luckily I’m not a psychopath! Although this is a cop drama, it’s not necessarily cop driven and the characters are at the heart of it. It’s totally plausible.

On the page, Tommy first comes across as unfeeling and callous but the beauty of the writing is that he’s so much more than that. He’s just as real and as textured as every other character. It’s a complete joy to play someone so complex and Sally has written a character that you hopefully feel for as the series goes on.

Did you do a lot of research for the role?

The production team were wonderful. They put me in touch with a psychologist called Costas who works in The Priory in Manchester. He knows a lot about criminal psychology and we had a two-hour meeting all about psychopaths. The biggest challenge of the research was trying to empathise with him and trying to understand the world from his point of view.

The amazing thing about that kind of person is that you think about them as totally cut off and callous, but the truth is that they are so much more. There are two things: one, they have miswiring in the brain, and the other is that they have something in their childhood where they’ve been incredibly vulnerable without any control, so their whole life is about trying to hold onto the control. They see the world as inherently hostile so if they don’t attack first, the world will attack them. So every action, however abhorrent we think is, in Tommy’s head it’s more than justified, it’s necessary to survive.

Have you worked with any of the cast before?

I did work with Charlie Murphy [Ann] luckily. When I got the script through I was in South Africa working on this film called North Men, a Viking saga, and Charlie was also in it. We got the scripts and while I was dressed as a Viking, and she was dressed as a Scottish princess, we were both discussing Happy Valley and we taped for the roles the same day and both got them. It was great to have her as a friend before we started this, especially with some of the stuff that Tommy does, and the crimes that involve Ann, so to be friends with her and have that trust already there helped a great deal.