Ruth Wilson and Dame Emma Thompson have admired each other for some time, so when the opportunity to act alongside one another arose, they jumped at it. The pair, hailed as two of Britain’s greatest actors, previously appeared together in the 2013 film Saving Mr Banks, though they shared little screen time.
Now, the duo is fronting a new thriller series on Apple TV+, Down Cemetery Road, based on the novel of the same name by Slough House author Mick Herron.
Thompson stars as Zoë Boehm, a private investigator created by Herron, who also appears at the centre of three further novels: The Last Voice You Hear, Why We Die, and Smoke and Whispers. Wilson plays Sarah Trafford, a woman who becomes obsessed with finding her neighbour, a girl, who goes missing after a house explosion.
The series follows Trafford as she enlists Boehm’s help, and the two soon find themselves entangled in a complex conspiracy, one that suggests the dead may not be as gone as they seem, while the living are in ever-growing danger.
The eight-part thriller is written by Morwenna Banks, who has also penned multiple episodes of Slow Horses, the series based on Herron’s Slough House novels.
‘It was such a gorgeous thing to be offered,’ reflects London-born Dame Emma. ‘We’d worked together on Saving Mr Banks, but not really together. And we’re mutual admirers, so it was a chance for us to finally play opposite each other.’
The 66-year-old actress and screenwriter remains the only artist to have won Academy Awards in both acting and screenwriting; Best Actress in 1993 for Howards End and Best Adapted Screenplay in 1996 for Sense and Sensibility. Reflecting on her character Dame Emma laughs: ‘I love the fact that Zoë basically could get everything she needs in her life into her handbag.’
‘You know, she’s got this sling-on-the-shoulder thing going on all the way through. She has two T-shirts, one jacket, and a couple of pairs of jeans, that’s it. She’s got nothing, really. She’s not interested in that sort of thing. She likes to keep it light.’
‘I’m the opposite, I travel with three suitcases full of stuff because I like to have choices. She wants to have no choice whatsoever, because that just gets in the way of thinking. I loved that about her. I thought, “I wish I were more like that.”’
Luther star Wilson says she was initially drawn to the role due to the unique and brilliant writing. ‘The writing was so sublime and the characters are so brilliant that you’re like, “This is unique, different”’ explains the 43-year-old Surrey-born actress. ‘It’s a chance to kind of play with and women don’t get to often play with each other, often on screen.’
Comparing her Luther character Alice Morgan to Sarah Trafford she says the pair are very different. ‘She’s not slinking around hospitals,’ laughs Wilson. ‘I’m running with a mad panic in my eyes but I loved her. She’s different from Zoë, who’s been through a lot of life already, has armour up, is unconventional in her own way and has that ‘no one messes with me’ attitude.’
Wilson adds: ‘I think Sarah is desperately trying to fit in but doesn’t quite belong. She’s lost at the beginning and unsure of where she fits. Over the course of the season, you see her rediscover herself, her eccentricity, her recklessness, and her danger. I thought that was lovely.’
‘She’s really innocent in a way, but she has this reckless side, and Zoe brings it out of her. Exploring that was really fun. She’s very different from Alice, who’s just a psychopath.’
Dame Emma says she hopes this project will inspire more roles for women in similar genres as in the past there haven’t been as many follow ups. ‘We thought, when Thelma & Louise came out, look what happened, you know, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Every time something like this occurs, everyone says, “This is great,” and then suddenly there’s not much more, because everyone goes, “Oh, we’ve done that now, two women being together and doing stuff together.” And then we go back to the usual: men doing everything, all the time. So yes, I absolutely hope it inspires more stories like this, but that depends on writers being inspired to write them.’
‘That’s why we are incredibly grateful and I can safely speak for Ruth too, not only to Mick Herron, but also to Morwenna Banks, who brilliantly adapted it and gave us so much more to do.’
Herron, 62, says he has been fortunate with the casting of his characters , with Gary Oldman leading Slow Horses and now Dame Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson at the helm of this project.
‘The Slow Horses ensemble is one of the finest ever put together for a TV show, and to now have both Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson appearing in Down Cemetery Road is above and beyond anything I might have reasonably wished for,’ he says. ‘Seeing the pair of them on screen together makes my heart beat faster.’
Banks also credits Herron with helping to adapt his book. ‘Mick was part of the process, as he was on Slow Horses’ she shares. ‘He was wonderfully encouraging and supportive and would gently steer us back if we were veering off course, or if we were about to have Zoë Boehm do something she simply wouldn’t do.’
Down Cemetery Road’s Somerset filming locations
Down Cemetery Road was filmed between the summer of 2024 and February 2025, and Somerset hosted much of the filming. With a base in Bristol’s Bottleyard Studios, key scenes were shot in the city making use of locations including St Nicholas Market and Baltic Wharf, and across the South West as far as Polperro and Holywell Bay in Cornwall.
In Somerset, the crew took over Bishops Lydeard station on the West Somerset Railway in January to shoot action-packed train scenes doubling as a fictional Scottish location. Being out of season, the crew were able to take over the heritage station for two weeks for extensive set dressing and a temporary makeover with modern signs and digital destination boards, before returning it to its picture postcard natural state. Helped by Screen Somerset, the filming involved around 150 crew, a temporary road closure and drone filming around the station.
Later that month, a scene was also shot on the National Trust’s Brean Down, part of a stunning stretch of coast that’s a popular with location scouts thanks to its easy striking distance of Bristol. And in the autumn, the production shot scenes on the Mendip Hills, a service station on the A37 and at the Wessex Hotel in Street - which hosted the production for several days for scenes requiring extensive set dressing of the foyer.
West Somerset Railway, the 20-mile heritage line between Minehead and Bishops Lydeard, has hosted many film and tv productions over the years. Whether it’s 1998’s The Land Girls or the 2023 Disney+ series Black Cake, filmmakers have been attracted by its stunning setting and immaculate period features maintained by an army of volunteer enthusiasts.
‘Filming provides an income from something other than running passenger trains,’ explains General Manager, Kerry Noble. ‘It’s a way of diversifying the business and really important for an organisation like ours. There is also benefit for the local economy with the production companies using local suppliers and accommodation - it’s good for us but also good for the people around us. We have the countryside and the sea, and because we’re not on the mainline network, we can be much more flexible.’ She goes on to say of the filming: ‘It’s hard work, but also great fun. There’s always a lot of preparation work to be done but to see the finished production on the screen is always amazing.’
Screen Somerset is Somerset Council’s film office which supports, encourages and celebrates filming in the county www.somerset.gov.uk/filming
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