My awkward moment with ballsy Suranne Jones explains why she, Keeley Hawes & top female stars have ditched the BBC & ITV

The Sun

3 days ago

AFTER three guys' brains are blown out, another bloke's throat is ripped open with a crowbar before a fifth is despatched by a knife to the eyesocket - all at the hands of a shadowy executioner played, unbelievably, by Keeley Hawes.
That's just the first three, breathtaking minutes of her new Prime Video thriller The Assassin, in the latest example of a top British actress shifting to the streamers - and not giving a damn about the fact they forged their careers on the likes of ITV and BBC.
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It comes as no surprise to me just how gutsy and determined they are because, as TV Editor, I've met virtually all of them while reporting on hundreds of dramas over the years - one particular brush with one of these ballsy a-listers is still burned in my memory.
Suranne Jones had just scooped a National Television Award for playing the lead in Doctor Foster back in 2018, when I foolishly tried to take her to task during a post-show press conference on the issue of the gender pay gap and why she didn't just demand to get the same wage as her co-star Bertie Carvel.
Standing on a stage with around 100 people watching on she said: "Because I'd have to ask him what he got paid and I just can't do that."
Without realising it I impulsively flashed her an expression which said: "Well, you probably could, couldn't you?" And Suranne could have just left the little interaction there. Except - and I absolutely love her for this - she didn't.
Frightened dormouse
"Well, you pull a face," she snapped back, with the brassiness of her former Corrie character Karen McDonald, "but I just can't can I?"
At that point the whole room went quiet, she fixed me with a glare, I stared back like a frightened dormouse and the whole room - including her husband Laurence Akers - glared at me for what felt like an hour (it was probably about ten seconds.)
Only one of Keeley's knives in the eyeballs would have felt less painful.
Now, an average star probably wouldn't have publicly hit back at me like that, but then Suranne isn't your average star. Like Keeley, she's a no-nonsense, single minded woman who knows her worth.
Which is why, just like Keeley, she's also about to launch her own drama with a streaming giant. Hostage, which drops next month on Netflix, sees her play a fictional UK Prime Minister.
Which is quite a leap from playing a Corrie barmaid on ITV. But it's the same leap, with the same streamer, that's been made by Sarah Lancashire, who's best known for playing the Rovers Return's Raquel. She's now playing a spymaster in Netflix's Black Doves.
Sarah is another one I've done interviews with where, if you dare ask a stupid question, she'll stop you in your tracks and tell you it's a stupid question.
And why shouldn't she? She's Sarah Lancashire. She can do that. It only makes me respect her more.
The list of daring defectors doesn't stop there. Doctor Who favourite Billie Piper has done a trio of Netflix dramas - Scoop, Kaos and Wednesday - not to mention two series of I Hate Suzie on Sky.
Meanwhile the likes of Sheridan Smith, Katherine Kelly and Gemma Arterton, who've all been increasingly dipping their toes in the streamers' waters.
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Though none of them can quite compare with Keeley, just to circle back to her. Although we know her best for playing a housewife in The Durrells or a Home Secretary on Bodyguard, there's definitely a gravitation away from ITV and the BBC.
Over the past three years she has made seven dramas, four of which have been for non-terrestrial services. As well as The Assassin there was Scoop on Netflix, Orphan Black: Echoes on US cable channel AMC and Sky's supernatural thriller, The Midwich Cuckoos.
Before too long there'll be a tipping point where we'll almost only ever see these hugely popular actresses on the streamers - and there's only one way that the likes of BBC, ITV and Channel 4 can stop the rot.
The majority of these household names had their big breaks on the terrestrial channels. But these hugely successful women want control by being made exec producers.
They want good money (just like the men). And they want to cherry pick daring shows which will provide them with a global audience. The cash-strapped terrestrials will struggle to give them all of that.
For us viewers, there's some comfort in the fact that they won't abandon the holy trinity of TV overnight, and we'll still see them pop up here and there on regular telly for a while longer.
Plus, this isn't a fait accomplis. What the execs at the Beeb and commercial channels do need to do is radically change what roles they offer these stars.
They need to quit their obsession with conventional period dramas and route one crime thrillers and turn twee Keeley into a killer, or former Corrie barmaids Suranne and Sarah into prime ministers and secret service chiefs.
It isn't just about money (though, admittedly, that does help) it's more about giving these stars roles the chance to spread their wings as producers and as performers.
But, based on my experiences of these amazing women, they're going to have to grow some sizable kahunas to do it.