Shonagh Price plays Mrs Maron in Emma Reeves’ new series of The Demon Headmaster – the deputy head at Hazelbrook Academy with a past that her daughter Angelika remembers, even if she doesn’t. As the series heads into the second half of the first season, Price chatted with Paul Simpson about the challenges and surprises involved with the role.

Thank you for an enjoyable series.

The feedback has been brilliant. When you’re filming something you think that it’s good, the scripts are good, the actors are great, but you just never know till you see it how it’s going to turn out.

Particularly in the SF and fantasy genre, things you expect to get praised don’t, and others do better than expected. How did you get involved with The Demon Headmaster?

In the regular way that any actor gets a job – I auditioned. More and more actors do self-tapes now, so I did a self tape for it. I did about three self tapes and sent them off and get the part.

What attracted you to it?

The scripts were so good, they’re so well written. I wasn’t of the age that got the first series of The Demon Headmaster but I definitely heard about it – it rang a bell, and I knew it had been popular. I knew it was something that would be popular. The part was so good, and not the sort of part that I’d usually get.

How far ahead did you get scripts?

I think initially once I got told I had the part I was given the first five and then didn’t see the next five until quite far into filming.

So you were aware that she’s not the Headmaster’s lackey that she appears to be in the first couple of episodes…

I didn’t realise that initially. It was only when we started filming, doing costume fitting and makeup tests that they said, “It’s not all what it seems. There’s a whole other side to her.”

There’s always the risk then of playing too much foreknowledge…

Sometimes it’s good not to have too much information. You just play what you know and that’s it instead of pre-empting anything.

Is there anything you might have done differently now you know how the story plays out?

No I don’t think I would have played it differently at all. Because she is under the headmaster’s hypnotism, you have to just play that. It’s only when the bits of the script come in that you get glimmers that this is not all that it seems. It’s quite clear how you play it, in this very rigid role when you’re hypnotised.

Have you played that sort of ‘under a spell’ role?

No. This is very new for me.

What were the biggest challenges?

When they say you’re under the Headmaster’s hypnotism, you think you have to walk about acting like you’re hypnotised, but the director and the producer were very much of the idea that they didn’t want everyone walking round like robots. I know everyone is walking round regimented, and that’s the unusual thing – it’s not they act like they’re hypnotised.

It took a while to see how they wanted it played. That was a challenge at first but then I talked to the director and got the idea of it. Then do you start to come out of it a little bit, so you’re topped up – with an iPad, maybe? Obviously I have a lot of contact with the Demon Headmaster so I’d be constantly rehypnotised all the time.

So, what does it look like? What does it definitely not look like? That was up for a lot of discussion.

We’ve seen some scenes where she’s slightly breaking through – with Angelika in the Headmaster’s study, the eyes and body language change for a second. How much of that was from the script and how much from rehearsal?

It’s both really – Emma writes it so beautifully in the script that there’s a flicker. When you’re filming, Emma isn’t there, so it’s working with the other actors and the director, John Mackay for these episodes. He was really good at describing that it was like you get a flicker but you’re frightened of the memory – when you’re hypnotised you might be behaving very unlike yourself and not in a good way, but you’re safe from your emotions and the outside world. There’s a safety there and when you get a little memory that comes back – and in that instance it was the badge, going on the marches, a reminder of the old life – it confuses you because you’ve not got a full memory coming back, so it confuses you and you’re almost frightened of what’s going on. There’s a security to going back to being hypnotised. “I know what I’m doing, I come to work, I follow these procedures, it’s safe. I’m secure.”

I think the look you’re talking about in that scene is almost fear as well of what’s happening.

And when she sees her old girlfriend – the breakthrough moment… Were you expecting that side to her character?

No, that was a huge surprise when they told me that. They said your ex-girlfriend is going to come in and there’s going to be this episode. Brilliant! I was not expecting that at all. No one explains it, it just is. That’s what makes it so powerful.

There’s a legend, and I don’t know how true it is, that Terrence Hardiman kept himself slightly aloof to maintain the allure of the Headmaster; was Nicholas Gleaves like that?

No, I wouldn’t say he was. He’s such a wonderful cast member – he’s with us all the time, has lunch and laugh.

Not the Demon Headmaster!

He wasn’t method acting.

You have a lot of scenes in the early episodes where you and he are presenting the face of the Academy to the world and your body language is very similar. Did you have to work on that, or was it something instinctive?

I that was instinctive – I was one step behind and following and we would do the pincer movement together. There was a really nice moment that the director put in when our eyes move in exactly the same way – I think it’s when we’ve got Lizzie and Ethan in front of us. I’m the deputy, being in sync with the Headmaster, following his lead.

It was a combination of happening instinctively and then the director would like it and add something of his own.

You were on location in a school for some of it?

Yes, in Motherwell.

Did it feel odd going back to school as a ‘teacher’?

Yes. I think we all feel that when we go back to school. The memories can’t help but flood back – the smell of the school, the books, the corridors. I think that’s true for anyone who goes back to school. Good or bad memories, the whole system just floods back.

And in this case, the fear!

Yes!

How long were you filming?

Ten weeks.

That’s very fast for ten episodes.

Yes, it’s amazing – and I can’t believe it’s come out so quickly as well.

What’s your best memory of working on the show?

It was such a lovely shoot and I think the best thing has to be the crew and the cast members, they were so lovely. It felt like such a bonded team. There’s nothing worse than coming into work and not getting on with the others. This team – I call them ‘the kids’ – they were brilliant. It wasn’t like ‘the adults’ all sat at one table, and ‘the kids’ at another. I looked forward to their conversation, to hearing them laugh and chat about what was going on. Nic was amazing to work with, and the crew was brilliant. I know that sounds really corny – I mean it genuinely. It was a lovely place to work.

 

The Demon Headmaster continues on Mondays at 5 and 8 on CBBC, and all episodes to date are on iPlayer

 

Thanks to Ciara Mongan for help in arranging this interview