Sharlene Whyte on playing Doreen Lawrence in new ITV drama Stephen: ‘I have a responsibility’

The actress talks about the significance of the case and why she decided not to meet Lady Lawrence
ITV

Before commencing filming Stephen, ITV’s new three-part sequel to Paul Greengrass’s 1999 film The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, actress Sharlene Whyte found herself returning to Doreen Lawrence’s “beautiful” episode of Desert Island Discs. “She plays music from her childhood in Jamaica, [songs] from when she was in the UK, reggae from the Eighties,” she notes. “It really helped me connect to Doreen” - and to consider “the young woman she once was,” before she entered the public eye in the most tragic of circumstances. “We don’t really get to see that side of Doreen, we see this stoic, single-minded woman that’s fighting for justice for her boy.”

On April 22, 1993, 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence was murdered at a bus stop in Eltham in a racially motivated attack. Though five suspects were identified within days of Stephen’s death, charges against them were dropped months later, with the Crown Prosecution Service citing insufficient evidence. A private prosecution initiated by Doreen and her then-husband Neville Lawrence (played by Hugh Quarshie in the drama, reprising his role from the original film) the following year fell apart; the 1997 inquiry into the Metropolitan Police’s handling of the case found the investigation to be “flawed and incompetent,” and the Met to be institutionally racist. ITV’s series picks up the Lawrence family’s fight for justice in 2006, when the case was reopened by veteran police officer Clive Driscoll (played by Steve Coogan), with new advances in forensic technology eventually bringing two of the killers to trial.

Taking on the role of indefatigable campaigner Doreen, now Lady Lawrence, “was definitely a huge responsibility,” Whyte says, but the “whirlwind” pace with which she was cast meant that she “didn’t have time to be worried or overwhelmed” by the part. “I was sent a script maybe on a Tuesday, by Thursday, I was meeting people, Friday auditioning, then it was all done by Monday,” she explains, noting that she had “just come off the back of Small Axe,” Steve McQueen’s anthology series, “so I had just played an amazing strong woman fighting for the rights of her child [in Education], so it felt like a natural progression to even consider [playing] Doreen.”

Whyte plays Doreen Lawrence in ITV series Stephen
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Music, along with “documentaries… any footage of Doreen” and her 2006 book And Still I Rise (“a beautiful insight into what she’s like as a kid in Jamaica”), became a way of imagining the private woman behind the public appearances - not least because, unlike many performers faced with playing real, living people, Whyte decided early on not to meet with her (though the series, like the previous film, was made with the Lawrences’ backing).

Others, she says, might view that as “an odd choice,” but “I just thought - I can’t see the point in having her re-live such a traumatic, horrendous experience. That’s not going to help her and it’s not necessarily going to help me to play her. It felt too egotistical… over 20 years later, to drag that back up again, it’s completely unnecessary. I think it would’ve just been indulgent for me.” Filming scenes on location at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, “it really did embed it in reality - that this building is here sadly as a result of Stephen’s passing but [also because of] the determination of Doreen Lawrence, her willingness to fight for justice.”

Whyte “was a teenager” attending college around the time of Stephen’s death; then ”in my twenties, it was still ongoing, it hadn’t been resolved. And now I’ve got a child who is of a similar age [to Stephen] and the case has only just closed.” The Met announced that the case would be closed in 2020, stating that “all identified lines of enquiry have been completed,” though the remaining suspects have never been charged. She sees the series as an opportunity “to introduce the story to people who haven’t lived through it,” noting: “these stories are really important to share, to get out, to keep them alive. And I felt like [this] was part of a legacy of British history - part of the negative side of it.”

Whyte sees the series as an opportunity “to introduce the story to people who haven’t lived through it”
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Growing up in Nottingham, Whyte made her first forays into acting at the city’s Television Workshop, which also counts the likes of Vicky McClure and Jack O’Connell among its alumni. “It’s literally a black box, black curtains and some lights, and we just created some magic in that room,” she recalls. “Maybe there’s some ley lines underneath it… but it’s definitely a breeding ground for some wicked British actors.” She started there aged 12 and attended on and off through her teens (“I left because I liked boys and I wasn’t all [about] acting any more… then I went back because boys are rubbish!”) before studying at Rada, “the only drama school I auditioned for because I genuinely hadn’t heard of any others.”

Roles in The Story of Tracy Beaker (twenty-something viewers will remember her as Jenny, the firm but fair head care worker at the Dumping Ground), Waterloo Road and crime drama We Hunt Together followed, along with a handful of collaborations with playwright debbie tucker green. She recently finished filming the screen adaptation of tucker green’s play Ear for Eye, alongside the likes of No Time To Die star Lashana Lynch and Jade Anouka.

Working with McQueen on his ground-breaking series, which told stories from London’s West Indian communities from the Sixties through to the Eighties, was a career highlight. “I just think he’s a genius,” she says. “I love the way he works… you fully trust in this man’s vision and just sort of let yourself go and see what happens. There’s too much evidence that he’ll do something good with whatever you throw at him… It was just an honour to work with that man. I knew I was working with some type of greatness. But again, this was quite an intense process. There was no time to be in awe.”

Though she’d never rule out “some silly comedy drama,” these days Whyte finds herself gravitating towards “important storytelling,” she says. “The stories don’t always have to be miserable, or maybe it’s just at the minute, we’re doing these sad stories so we can get to the good stuff… But I do feel I have a responsibility. If I’ve got this talent that says I can tell stories and it opens a dialogue for people to start talking about their own experiences, then that is important.”

Stephen begins on August 30 at 9pm on ITV. All episodes available on ITV Hub and Britbox afterwards

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