Broadchurch star fails to create Black Doves politician

Although he doesn’t know it, Wallace is in the middle of something much bigger: the Black Doves’ ongoing espionage operation, as he is Helen’s (Kiera Knightley) cover, her husband.

Wallace is blissfully unaware of his wife’s double life as an accomplished spy and one of the few “idealistic” characters in the series.

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Buchan admits that playing a politician can be difficult, but he was conscious of humanizing Wallace so that he didn’t feel like a replica or “caricature.”

“Someone asked me, ‘What is your relationship with the character?’ But I just wanted to play him as a 3D human, I think the most important thing for me was not to play him as a 2D caricature,” he replied when asked about his experience of being one of the few ignorant parties, which were left out woman’s double life.

Buchan addressed the broader political landscape and wanted to offer something different to what viewers would hear or see from real politicians on television.

“There’s a lot going on right now – politically in the world – and sometimes when you hear them on the radio or wherever, there’s a rhythm to the way certain politicians talk,” he continued.

“They all leave breaks that feel in the same places. They all use the same hand gestures. So I definitely wanted to step back from that and hopefully make him a little more real. Flawed but real.”

With so many twists and turns in the series, Buchan admits that even the hopeful and principled Wallace may not make it through the series unscathed.

“Some of his principles may have to suffer along the way,” Buchan adds. “Wallace appears to be semi-stable or constant, perhaps in the midst of (the chaos).”

Black Doves is now available to stream on Netflix.

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