Isabelle Amyes
Plays
Barbara Hunt
Isabelle found that coming into an established series actually helped build up the character of Barbara. “I used the fact that I was arriving somewhere different and meeting new people in the same way that it was very strange for Barbara arriving at prison. I decided not to research going to a prison, meeting the cast or looking at the Bad Girls set before going on to it for the first time. I thought it would be better for it all to come as a horrifying shock – which it was!”
“My first scene in front of the whole crew and cast was the arrival of Barbara at the prison and all I had to do that day was just scream and sob. That in itself was very nerve wracking and difficult, which all went to help how I played Barbara. I remember making myself drive to the set on the day because I just wanted to get into the car and scream, so that I could hear the sound of my own screams before I had to go on set and do it for real. At least I had got used to what I sounded like in my head before doing that in front of everyone!”
With a laugh in her voice Isabelle feels that “Going into this series has been a bit like going into prison: you join a lot of people who have been together for a long time and you fit in or you don’t - and fortunately I have!”
“When I met Brian Park to interview for Barbara, my mother had just died of cancer so I was well aware of the feelings of losing someone close to you, which was crucial for the role of Barbara”.
Isabelle talks very warmly about her character: “I think Barbara is rather wonderful. She’s done something that she felt she had to do. The mercy killing of her cancer-ridden husband was because she loved him and carried out with his blessing. She’s now suffering the consequences, never thinking that she would go down for manslaughter - but her step-children testified against her”.
Coming from a theatrical background, Isabelle Amyes always knew she would become an actress. Her father was the actor turned director and Head of Drama for Granada Television, Julian Amyes, and her mother was the actress and writer Anne Allan. Isabelle worked with both her parents in the television play written by her mother A Wife Like The Moon, her father directed and she starred. Her television, film and theatre credits are numerous and include: Betsy in Ang Lees’ Sense and Sensibility, Anne Collingridge in House Of Cards and Fanny in Love In A Cold Climate.
Like her mother Isabelle also writes for television with her writing partner Peter Symonds, including: the animation series The Bamboo Bears, children’s series Chucklevision, and their first television film is due to go into production later this year.