Blog

The UK premiere of King is something of a homecoming for Amy Price-Francis as she is originally from Leighton Buzzard. Her grandmother still lives in Dorset and will definitely be tuning in on Thursday.

When we first meet King, Price-Francis explains “she’s been asked to lead up the Major Crimes Task Force… which deals with highly political cases which different departments have had problems solving”. But King is not just another cop show, Price-Francis believes that "what makes the show stand out is that we not only have the procedural element but the very personal element as well. Its very much about family both at work and at home....In her personal life she’s married and she’s on her third marriage she’s trying to have a baby.”

What first attracted Price-Francis to the role of King is the writing, Price-Francis explains "the text, the writing, the musicality of it, just the intelligence of the writing really drew me." King is penned by Greg Spottiswood whose background is the theatre and who is also an actor. A little bit of Universal Channel trivia for you, Greg Spottiswood appears in season 2 of Flashpoint.

She describes the character of Jessica King in the following way “She just jumps off the page. She is as vivid as they come. I fell in love immediately… She’s really the most crafted character that I’ve had a chance to play, certainly on television.”

However much she loved the part, playing Jessica King was a challenge: “She takes a lot of effort to play, her rhythm and the pace with which she works and thinks is very rapid and I get fatigued as we go through the shooting schedule because it’s such long hours sometimes it’s difficult for me to keep up.”

But even though the schedule is demanding Amy Price-Francis relishes the opportunity to play King, “She’s a challenge because she’s a firecracker. It’s a real gift of a challenge. I don’t take that lightly. Actors don’t often get these gifts and I’m very grateful”.

From our conversation it is obvious that Amy Price-Francis has enjoyed playing Jessica King and hopefully viewers will have as much fun watching King, as Price-Francis had playing her.