Reichenbach Falls
Alastair Mackenzie plays Jack Harvey/The Monkey
While Jim Buchan's life is spiralling out of control his former best friend, Jack Harvey, is doing very nicely indeed, thank you very much.
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On the cusp of launching his latest best-selling novel, Jack is successful, arrogant, wealthy and popular – all of this gets up Buchan's (Alec Newman) nose.
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Not to mention the fact that Jack cheerfully ran off with Buchan's wife, Clara (Laura Fraser), which Jack plays on by sending a copy of the latest book, St Bernard's Well, to his former friend – not least because the novel is named after the place where Buchan and Clara were married.
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Alastair Mackenzie, who plays the charismatic character, reveals: "Jack Harvey is such a smug git that when I was reading the script I thought to myself: 'I really want this part'.
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"It's not often I feel so passionately about roles – in fact, it's very seldom that happens," he adds, laughing. "But this one just stood out because the script is so intense and different from anything else I've ever been offered."
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And the surreal nature of Reichenbach Falls was a major draw for Alastair: "In the beginning, you think you're on this familiar rollercoaster ride of a detective story and then slowly, but surely, Jim Buchan's life starts to fall apart and he begins to question his very existence.
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"So we then slip into this unfamiliar territory of the historical and the supernatural and that's what's so great about ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Four, because they are prepared to push a few boundaries with these really audacious and ingenious scripts."
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At the heart of Reichenbach Falls is a flawed friendship between Harvey and Buchan. They have history – the pair went to school together and, while Jack was smart, Buchan was funny.
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Jack went to university, Buchan joined the police. Over the years, they kept in touch but, with time, Buchan began to feel he was being used purely as research material to further Jack's crime-writing career.
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"Jack can't seem to live without Buchan and he just seems to get off on making the poor bloke suffer," explains Alastair, who was able to meet one of his heroes while filming this off-the-wall drama in the form of Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, who makes a cameo appearance in the film.
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"There is a scene in the script where Jack is being interviewed by Kirsty about his new novel, which was so surreal to film that I couldn't stop laughing. I was kind of star struck by her, actually, and once I'd got over the initial nervous giggling, I really enjoyed it.
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"She gives Jack quite a grilling, which was quite difficult because I play an arrogant character who doesn't take a grilling very well at all."
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The former Monarch Of The Glen star also gets the chance to twiddle his villain's moustache with a second role in this surreal detective story as The Monkey – a hairy, hardened criminal who operates at the heart of Edinburgh's underworld.
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He's Jim Buchan's arch enemy and has threatened to kill everyone Buchan cares for, but focuses most of his blood lust towards the crotchety cop himself. And throughout Reichenbach Falls, he does his level best to live up to that threat.
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"The Monkey is Jim Buchan's nemesis; he's the archetypical British cop show villain and is so-called because, basically, he is so flippin' hairy," says Alastair.
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"It would take about an hour of hair and glue every day to get me ready and I ended up having hairy hands, with this long wig, blackened teeth and hair absolutely everywhere.
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"I remember sitting in the make-up chair transforming with the make-up artist and thinking: 'I love this. This is why I became an actor'. Playing two different parts is every actor's dream. Well, it gives you the chance to show off even more, doesn't it?" he adds, grinning.
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"In my opinion, the success of Reichenbach Falls is that it isn't po-faced and there's nothing patronising about it," says Alastair. "It sits comfortably on the scale of light-hearted, yet gritty, drama and has a very dry sense of humour and this great rocking soundtrack which really lifts it for me.
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"I was really pleased when I watched it back. At first, I did think the whole idea would be hard to pull off and wondered if it was going to work. I was worried about all these different levels of truths and untruths working together – but they do. Thankfully, they do!"
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