Mark Dexter
is a RADA trained actor whose credits include Ripper Street, Father Brown and
The Bletchley Circle, one of my favourite new TV crime dramas in 2012. In it, Mark plays Timothy Gray, husband to Susan
Gray (played by Anna Maxwell Martin) who spent her war years as a code cracker at Bletchley Park and must now
return to civilian life as a housewife. Welcome to Crawl Space, Mark!
Q.
One of the things I love about The Bletchley Circle, apart from its evocative
production values, was the credibility of the characters. Timothy doesn’t have
whiff of posthumous political correctness to him. He believes in himself as
Susan’s provider and protector, and sees no reason why his wife shouldn’t be
content with her role as mother and wife. You could say the way he rewards her
curiosity and intellect – by saving the crossword puzzles in the paper for her
to finish – is patronising, but only if you try and force twenty-first-century hindsight onto the beautifully structured script. How did it feel
playing a post-war husband? Did you find yourself wanting to display a more
modern, nuanced understanding of Susan’s frustration?
I was told by a
casting director the other day that male actors are usually far more concerned
about ‘appearing sympathetic’ than their female counterparts, who are often
more inclined to go the opposite way and
find as many flaws in their characters as possible. Although I was shocked to
hear about this curious gender divide, I do have to admit it was definitely a
concern of mine with regard to Timothy. But at the end of the day I realised
that 1950s society placed pressure on men to ‘play’ roles too, and I tried to
show that Timothy was as much burdened by expectation and a need to conform as
Susan was. There is a discomfort on both sides at having to live as your fellow
citizens expect.
Q.
Yes, that discomfort definitely came across onscreen. What research did you do
for the role?
I’m more
familiar with certain eras than others, and I’ve done a bit of stuff set in
this period before so that wasn’t the main focus. Fortunately my job was to
know absolutely nothing about code breaking or the goings-on at Bletchley Park –
as the whole point is that Timothy is kept totally in the dark about all that.
Mostly I looked at the effects of the war on the psyche of the men returning
from it. Facing death on a daily basis and then coming back to crusty suburban
life is a much harder transition than many of us realise.
Q.
I’ve heard rumours of a second series… Can you confirm or deny? What would you
like to see happen between Timothy and Susan in a second series?
I can confirm
those rumours, we’re due to start filming in May. Major developments are in
store for Timothy and Susan but that’s probably all I should say at this point!
Q.
Intriguing! Since Bletchley, you’ve played a bounder in Father Brown and a
psychotic toff in Ripper Street. Are you having as much fun as I suspect you
are?
Your powers of
deduction are impressive! Yes it’s been a very busy, very enjoyable year or so,
and it’s good to explore your darker side after playing a woolly tank-top-loving
civil servant! As well as playing those unsavoury types you mentioned, I’ll also
be seen playing a ‘national hero’ in a later instalment of Mr Selfridge, so I
don’t think I’ve been typecast just yet!
Q.
Not a chance of that happening, I should say. This is a crime blog, so I have
to ask: do you have a favourite crime writer? And is there a character in a
crime book you’d love to play on stage or screen?
I’ve
always been a fan of classic movie versions of classic crime novels. The Big
Sleep being a favourite, which first drew me to the books of Raymond Chandler.
Phillip Marlowe is one of those parts you’ll always find on an actor’s wish
list. He’s certainly on mine.
I
love Marlowe – read all Chandler’s books when I was a student and am due a
re-read, so thanks for the prompt, and for the interview!
You can buy the first series of
The Bletchley Circle on DVD now - highly recommended! You can follow Mark’s adventures over at his brilliant
blog,
The Bottled Beer Year “an insight into the dark, murky real life of a British actor,
hell-bent on exploring the rich and varied world of finely crafted beer when he
really ought to be learning his lines”, and on Twitter where he’s
@BottledBeerYear
Chuffed to open today's Bristol Post expecting to have to search for a tiny snippet resulting from a phone interview earlier in the week (about how I love writing in cafes), only to find most of page 8 taken up with an article about Marnie Rome and my Adventures So Far in getting published. You can read it online here. The reporter took some years off my age, in case you were thinking that all that coffee has aged me terribly.
Three years ago, I came up with the idea of a crime flash fiction contest to see whether anyone could pull off a great crime story in just 150 words. They could, and they did.
My lovely UK publishers, Headline, are giving away 15 proof copies of Someone Else's Skin to readers in the UK. 
This may be the moment when I give up all pretence of being cool and professional about this and squeal like a school-girl (the school-girl who dreamed of this day, for all those long years). Headline have played a blinder, I think. What do you all think? And here is a link to the back jacket blurb (currently showing the US cover image).
Hot on the heels of the new UK proof copies, here is the draft cover for the US edition of Someone Else's Skin. Penguin are publishing it in July 2014. 
I was lucky enough to be invited for an interview over at Lloyd Paige's excellent website, to talk about Someone Else's Skin, the first book in my Marnie Rome series. Lloyd asked great questions, including one about Stephen, Marnie's foster brother, and I very much enjoyed coming up with the answers.
I'm chuffed to be chairing Crime in the Caves on 21 October, as part of Unputdownable, for the Bristol Festival of Literaure. Early signs are that it will involve wellies, a headlamp torch and crime's coolest beard-wearer, Stav Sherez. 
Find out who won the coveted Shirt-Most-Likely-To-Be-Seen-From-Mars Award! Don't find out who won the Harrogate Quiz! Learn Jake Kerridge's biggest regret! And place bets now for the likelihood of Stav Sherez heading up a cosy crime panel...!
UPDATE: My first reader review is now online at Rebecca Bradley's blog!
Two snippets of non-novel writing news. It's been yonks since I had a new story published online, but Forty-Eight Faces (inspired by researching the Szondi Test) is in the Ilanot Review. 
I had a terrific evening in Chester on Tuesday, where the Cheshire Prize anthology, Lost & Found, was launched. It's a handsome little volume (I'd love the artwork as a tablecloth), packed with great stories from the likes of Barbara Corfield and Rich Lakin. I read my story, Udumbara in Lytham St Anne's, almost without a hitch; seem to be getting better at this reading in public lark. The Cheshire Prize team not only run an exemplary contest with a huge prize (two thousand smackers) but they have resisted the temptation to charge an entry fee, which is pretty damn amazing in this day and age. Do enter their 2013 contest, for poetry. They have Roger McGough reading at the prize ceremony in November.
My happy news of the week is that Penguin have bought the US rights to my first two crime novels. My sister put it like this, "Penguin! Remember all those Penguin Classics on the bookcase when we shared a room, growing up? And now you're going to be one of them!" Well, not quite, but I know what she's means and I'm just as excited. My editor, Emily Murdock Baker, is Sophie Hannah's editor in New York, and she recently co-edited the Pulitzer Prize winning, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Between Penguin in the States and Headline in the UK, I feel very lucky to be in safe hands for this big adventure.
My review is now live over at Eurocrime. I loved this book to bits. 2013 is turning into one of the best years in recent memory for great crime novels. Belinda Bauer's Rubbernecker is a superb book by any standards. Poppet by Mo Hayder is an instant classic: gothic, terrifying and with a depth of compassion that makes it easily the best book she's ever written. Vargas, too, has surpassed herself with this new Adamsberg novel.
I was lucky enough to travel to Bantry in 2008 with Vanessa Gebbie, a supremely talented writer who also happens to be one of the most supportive and generous people I've ever met. She predicted my publishing deal long, long before I believed it would happen - and was one of the first to celebrate when my good news broke a couple of weeks back. She invited me over to her blog for a natter about how it felt to stick out the dry years of rejection, and how it feels now, to have reached where I wanted to be for so long. Vanessa always asks the most intriguing questions, and I enjoyed our chat very much. Do pop along for a read.
Rhian Davies, stellar in the crime scene, has blogged about Crimefest's Flashbang contest at her excellent blog, It's a crime! (Or a mystery...). I contributed my Top Five Tips for writing winning entries, in this case stories under 150 words long. Here's a sneak peek:
Mark Dexter
is a RADA trained actor whose credits include Ripper Street, Father Brown and
The Bletchley Circle, one of my favourite new TV crime dramas in 2012. In it, Mark plays Timothy Gray, husband to Susan
Gray (played by Anna Maxwell Martin) who spent her war years as a code cracker at Bletchley Park and must now
return to civilian life as a housewife. Welcome to Crawl Space, Mark!
I am thrilled to bits to be able to say that Headline will be publishing my first two crime novels. 
Flashbang is a writing contest sponsored by CrimeFest, who are providing the first prize of two free passes, as well as other top prizes. Hersilia Press is sponsoring the third prize: four of their Italian crime books. 
Good Cop blew me away, and made me even more eager to see Warren Brown return in Luther this year. 
3. To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey - an author I rediscovered last year, who reminded me how wit and humour in crime can pay huge dividends
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