From Emmerdale and Happy Valley to Waterloo Road, Essex actor Jason Merrells has appeared in a host of iconic TV programmes. We catch up with him to find out about his latest play and his other true love: art
When I interview Jason Merrells, he’s taking a break from rehearsals for his new stage show, The Verdict. In the background, it’s a hive of activity. The actor is best known for his role in Emmerdale, playing the villainous Declan Macey – last seen fleeing the village after attempting murder – but he has played a raft of roles from appearances in Queer as Folk to period drama Lark Rise to Candleford.
Contrary to reports, the 54-year-old has never lived in Epping, but was born in its hospital, St Margaret's. His parents moved to East London, before returning to Essex when Jason was aged 10, moving to Buckhurst Hill. ‘It was great to grow up in the middle of Epping Forest, even though it’s really like outer suburban London. Playing in the forest was part of my childhood, the background to everywhere I lived and went,’ he says.
Buckhurst Hill County High School in Chigwell introduced the young Jason to drama of a different kind. ‘It was a boys’ comprehensive, which in my personal opinion is probably the worst idea in education. Without the levelling influence of girls, it was a particularly rough and violent school.’
His interest in acting was ignited at Saturday drama group, which he attended with his brother, Simon. ‘I loved it; I was always fired up about it,’ he says. However, he decided to pursue a different medium, studying art at Chichester University. But he continued to perform, describing acting as ‘more energising’ compared to the discipline needed for painting. He then came to one of life’s junctions.
‘I spent about five years on fringe, devising stuff, writing and touring around, but I was also painting. I was just about to sign for an exhibition space on Brighton seafront when I got Casualty, and it took me to Bristol in another direction. It was like a fork in the road.’
I ask him if there is a particular character he has enjoyed playing. ‘I have enjoyed them all really, they are all challenging in their different ways. I really liked playing Jack Rimmer from Waterloo Road (he was one of the original cast members). It was the kind of part I wasn't expecting to be thrown my way. When I first read it, I thought “this is something that they offer Tim Healy”, someone who is an established character actor. At the time I was playing these romantic young leads in Cutting It and stuff. It was really unexpected and it's not often that happens. I really enjoyed the opportunity and ran with it; I felt quite a lot of affinity with him.’
He has fond memories of his time in Emmerdale too, where his character Declan Macey became a popular addition. ‘I’d heard that it was a nice place to work, there were no egos. I have nothing but affection for the time I spent there – so many good actors. I love those guys.
‘People always ask me if I'm going to reprise the role because I'm not dead, which is quite rare in soaps, but if you do go back with a character like mine that would be it, you couldn't pop out again.’
Jason is now back treading the boards of live theatre, with a gritty role in The Verdict playing Frank, a washed-up veteran lawyer fighting a case that no one thinks he can win. ‘I love it. It's a Paul Newman film, what can you say, it's an amazing part. It's a classic David and Goliath story; a man in the midst of addiction finding a reason to pull himself out of a downward spiral. It's got the panache of those 1940s screwball comedies that I grew up watching on BBC2. Then, of course, it's got this huge courtroom drama, which is very tense. In terms of theatre, it's got a lot going for it.
‘Theatre is really the actor's medium. Once you're out on stage, it's your baby. Yes, you've rehearsed and agreed it with the director, but once you're out there it's demanding; you feel like you've worked your arse off to get there.
‘Television and filming can be quite soporific. You spend a lot of time in the trailer waiting. Once you get to do it, it’s just as exciting, but in a different kind of way. Filming is not your medium – you're a tool of the people that put it together. I absolutely love doing both – once you've done a lot of one you want to go back to the other.’
Jason hasn’t left his art behind, and last year he won Sky Portrait Artist of the Year Christmas Special. ‘It was wonderful,’ he says of the experience. ‘I was surprised at myself really; I thought I would find it incredibly difficult. If I go to a gallery and I sketch old masters or painters, I'm quite embarrassed if people stand and watch me as they sometimes do. I must have got myself in the zone because it didn't really factor in my head at all until the last hour. The last hour is very tense; you are trying to make it a finished thing, which is always impossible with painting anyway – when do I put the brush down and go “that's that”?’ His ‘that’s that’ got him a nod from Slade’s Noddy Holder who selected his painting as the winner.
You may also notice Jason in the latest series of Happy Valley. The first episode features an intense scene with James Norton. He has worked with Sarah Lancashire before in Clocking Off years ago, but surprisingly, their paths didn’t cross on set. ‘I was playing a specific role, and I didn't know but the people that do the interviews specialise only in that field – they're not the officers that are on the investigation. So, I simply do the interviewing, but I did get to interview the big baddie at the beginning of the show!’
Jason now lives just outside Cambridge with his wife Emma Lowndes (a fellow actor known for Cranford and Downton Abbey) and their 11-year-old, Martha (he also has four other children, his eldest is 31). He often visits Essex. ‘I cycle with a mate and we go down to High Beech sometimes. I also love The Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden, which is a lovely little oasis of great art and prints.’ The Bangkok Thai Restaurant and The Eight Bells are his favourite places to eat.
He has enjoyed performing with his brother – they performed together in Twelfth Night and A Comedy of Errors – and would love to do more work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. ‘I'd love to do more Shakespeare. It is such a wonderful exercise vocally, mentally and physically. It’s what actors are made for really; to do Shakespeare just ticks every box.’
Are there parts he'd still like to do? He laughs, ‘It's a long list.’
Jason is on tour in The Verdict and appearing at The Wolsey in Ipswich on March 21 to 25,
