Tara Fitzgerald ('U Be Dead')

U Be Dead is no ordinary crime drama. The show, about a couple who are torn about by a stalker, is based on a true story and has more twists and turns than an Alton Towers ride. We caught up with Waking The Dead star Tara Fitzgerald, who plays Debbie, to find out more.

How faithful to the true story is U Be Dead?
"It's pretty much what happened. Maybe condensed or stretched at various points, but it's almost faithful. And the court scene is a pure transcript of what was said. Gwyneth [Hughes], the writer, worked really alongside the victims Jan and Debbie and worked with the police to make sure she had an accurate, faithful telling of it."

Did you speak to anyone involved in the case?
"Lee, who was one of the policemen, was in one of the scenes on the train with me, so I spoke to him a little bit about it. But in terms of my own personal research, what was agreed before we started shooting was that it wasn't a lookalike, it wasn't a biopic. I was just going to go with playing it as though it were a fiction. That was quite difficult for me to do because normally I'd go away and do lots of research. But I had to throw that all to one side and just literally go with what was on the page."

Did you feel under any pressure about portraying Debbie accurately?
"Definitely. I suppose in one sense it was kind of liberating because I wasn't trying to look like her or act like her or speak like her, which has its own set of pressures. But on the other hand, in a way it made it even more important to me that I represented something about her soul, her spirit. And that I get through the fact that I admired her for what she endured and how she coped with it."

Your character is quite complex - a strong woman who sort of gets broken down by the things that happen to her. Was that a challenge for you?
"It's really exciting and really juicy and really a good challenge. A challenge in the way that I appreciate. A very complex, very human person. We're all like that, we're all that complicated and we're all that colourful and it's just about capturing that."

There are some tough emotional parts, like the scene in the courtroom. Was that tough for you to play?
"It was so important. With something like that it's tough luck if you're not in the mood. Because what you're doing is serving the script, which says, 'This is what turned the trial around. This testimony is the thing that everyone says is amazing'. So you've got to fulfil that function. That's my role. But in terms of emotion I didn't find it difficult. Also, by then I think it was towards the end of the shoot and I felt very passionate about Debbie."

Do you want the show to be educational and raise awareness about stalking?
"That's an interesting question. It should be entertaining, it is entertaining, it does function as an entertainment, but there is also a very valid part of it which is that it could be educational. To raise awareness isn't a bad thing, ever. I don't think it fear-mongers either. I don't think it's saying, 'Coming soon to a neighbourhood near you'. We don't imagine that a normal couple will be confronted by what is an extraordinary situation."

What attracted you to the project?
"The script really. It was so beautifully written. I was foxed by it because I thought I was reading a fiction. It didn't say on the front of the script, 'This is a true story'. And so things didn't happen the way I imagined they would happen. But then I realised I was thinking in clichés. I naturally imagine, 'So-and-so's going to die' or 'That's going to happen', and none of these twists and turns happened. So I was pulled in, I was really intrigued. And then I learned that it was true and I could see why it hadn't conformed to standard."

Did you feel any sympathy for the stalker, Maria Marchese?
"I really did. I think that's what Gwyneth has written. I don't think she's drawing a judgement. I think where she's unusual is she doesn't use depictions in black and white. She's not pointing a finger. Maria Marchese hasn't been convicted on any psychiatric grounds so that's not what it's saying at all. There's no comment made on her mental health. And I think it's more ambivalent than that. I think that's what Gwyneth gets. It's like, 'Who knows why?' It doesn't seem to make sense medically. It doesn't seem to make sense in terms of geography or in terms of her knowledge of the couple or even of Jan. It doesn't seem to conform to anything that we like to hold on to and that's what's fascinating."

What was it like working with David Morrissey? His character isn't very sympathetic!
"No. He's lovely though, he's a lovely man. He's such a nice man. He's really lovely to work with. We didn't carry our characters out of context, if you know what I mean. We didn't start fighting or anything like that. We stayed friends until the end. He's such a gifted actor."

Are you doing Waking The Dead again?
"Yeah. That shoots until October. We have [started filming]. Can I tell you anything? No! Sorry. We're having a nice time."

U Be Dead airs on Sunday at 9pm on ITV1.