Martin Compston: I felt an immediate connection to 'intense' new drama The Nest

After the release of the first episode Compston teases “a lot more twists and turns to come,”
The actor was "hooked" on the script from the get go
BBC

When Bafta-winning screenwriter Nicole Taylor told Martin Compston she’d written a part with him in mind, he didn’t take much persuading.

“I think at one point my character was described as a nice guy who loves the Celtic,” laughs the former professional footballer and Line of Duty star, who plays the lead in new BBC One surrogacy drama The Nest. “As a mad Celtic fan, she pretty much had me at that.”

For those who missed the first episode last night [Sunday], the new five-part series follows a young wealthy couple as they enlist a teenager to become their surrogate.

Compston stars as Dan, a self-made, Bentley-driving local hero in a wealthy part of Glasgow; Peaky Blinders’ Sophie Rundle plays his wife Emily, a teacher at a prestigious Scottish music school; and Sex Education’s Mirren Mack plays Kaya, 18, who’s grown up in a children’s home on the rougher side of the city and offers to be their surrogate for £50,000.

His character's house is an incredible glass mansion overlooking the River Clyde
BBC

Compston stars in BBC's The Nest (BBC)

“The script had me hooked,” Compston, 35, tells me from his home in Las Vegas, where he lives with his wife, the actress Tianna Flynn.

He’s just landed back in the States after an emergency flight out of Belfast where he and his AC12 co-stars had been filming the sixth series of Line of Duty: like most offices across the world, filming has had to be put on hold indefinitely amid efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus.

He doesn’t know how long it’ll be until they return.

Aiden Monaghan / BBC / World Productions

He is best known for his role on Line of Duty (Aiden Monaghan / BBC / World Productions)

For Compston, it’s been a “chaotic” few days and it was “eerie” seeing the Last Vegas strip shut down, but he’s just thankful to have made it home. He and Flynn live in a quiet area of the Nevadan city where they know their neighbours and he has a level of anonymity compared to the home he grew up in, Greenock in the Scottish Lowlands.

The Nest is set in the same area on Scotland’s west coast so filming was a chance to return to his roots. “I know the coast inside out and I’m very proud of it so I felt a strong relation to the story immediately,” says Compston, recalling how his mum came onto set and his character’s house - a sleek glass mansion on the banks of the River Clyde - was just across the water from the house he grew up in.

He praises Taylor, writer of BBC Rochdale grooming drama Three Girls, for showing a wealthier side to Glasgow that is not often seen on screen. “It’s always shown a rougher side, which this does too - it’s a tale of two sides of the city - but it also shows a very grand side of it, which absolutely exists. It’s a stunning place at times.”

He learnt that couples have no power over embryos until the mother signs over
BBC

He and Rundle star as a couple considering surrogacy (BBC)

Compston also found Taylor’s direction on accents refreshing. His Line of Duty character, Detective Sergeant Steve Arnott, speaks with a London accent and he revealed he regrets clipping his west coast twang for other roles, so playing Dan felt “real”.

“When I speak to Sophie’s character, my wife, who’s from down South, it’ll be clearer than when I speak to Mirren’s character, who’s from the same neck of the woods. That’s life, that’s how it happens - I think that rawness really comes across in this.”

The atmosphere on set was naturally “intense” when dealing with a subject like surrogacy, but the experience was eye-opening. “I was very green going in,” Compston admits, explaining how it was only through filming that he learnt couples have “basically no rights” over their embryo until the birth mother signs over.

BBC

Mirren Mack plays their teenage surrogate (BBC)

“That’s a terrifying experience,” he says, seriously. “But again you’re asking somebody to do something which is beyond incredible for you, so I don’t have the right answers and it would be hard for anyone to until they actually lived that situation.”

Episode one ends with a tense final scene and there are “a lot more twists and turns to come,” says Compston. “Your sympathies are constantly changed, you don’t really know whose side you’re on throughout. I think it’s going to raise some really serious questions for people tuning in at home.”

Despite the time difference, Compston plans to watch each episode at the same time as the rest of the nation and he’ll probably check Twitter just to “gauge the reaction” (“I try not to delve into the comments though because if there’s one bad one it drives you mad”).

Line of Duty: Series 5 (2019) - In pictures

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He tries to have a healthy relationship with his phone but it’s a handy work tool: he has dozens of accent recordings saved on it for practising, plus a “brilliant app” called Line Learner for rehearsing scenes.

Now he’s home, he’s planning a Netflix binge - Succession and Narcos, for starters - and he’s excited to read books again. “I try not to when I’m working because I can get quite obsessive with stuff and you don’t want to be reading that when you should be reading your lines at night.”

When work resumes, he’ll be back to Belfast for Line of Duty, and he’s also filming another BBC thriller, Vigil, with Suranne Jones. Any spoilers for Line of Duty series six? Compston admits it’s “a lot closer” to the first three seasons, his favourites.

Back then, “the drama was all in these big interview scenes and the back alleys and the back-stabbing and shifting loyalties.” Moving to BBC One was “great fun” but suddenly it was “a bit broader and bigger” and now he hopes producers are more comfortable in that slot.

“There are still a couple of big set pieces,” Compston reveals, but series six will also see a return to more clandestine meetings and “fantastic interview scenes”.

“It feels like we’re back to the core of what made Line of Duty really good.” Let’s hope the pandemic doesn’t keep us waiting for too long.

The Nest continues on BBC One, Sundays at 9pm

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