At the heart of
Miss Scarlet and The Duke is a woman trying to survive in a man's world. And while she's aware of the confines around her as a woman, she refuses to be restricted by them. How do you achieve the balance of playing a period character in something that feels so contemporary at the same time?
mp_interview_content_0_answer: It's really interesting, because that's what Rachael New, who wrote this, was all about when she created this character. You've got this woman living in Victorian era London, rooted in her time and in her moment, in the context of an age where women don't have rights. People would not anticipate or expect a woman, particularly of her middle class/upper-middle-class stature, to be making a profession as a private detective, where she'd likely find herself in compromising situations. But then, what's really exciting about the show is that you see her release herself from all of those constraints, against all the odds. Of course, the tone of the show allows you a kind of artistic license—I don't know of any real-life sources of women who were fighting crime in that way. But you'd like to believe that perhaps there