The Capture star Holliday Grainger hunted for body in park while shadowing cops

As principled detective Rachel Carey in CCTV drama The Capture, Holliday Grainger’s character leaves no stone unturned when it comes to uncovering the truth around mysterious murder investigations.

Hunting down killers is the last area you’d expect an actor, who also appeared in Strike, to have real-life experience but the 34-year-old was determined to get a taste of her character’s life in the Met.

In the first season of the hit BBC thriller, Carey investigates the murder of barrister Hannah Roberts (Laura Haddock) who is found dead in the boot of a car after being captured on CCTV being brutally assaulted by her client, soldier Shaun Emery (Callum Turner).

However, Shaun was being framed in an attempt by an activist group to expose a covert government operation called Correction, which deepfakes footage of terrorists in order to get them off the streets and behind bars, but for crimes they didn’t commit.

The second installment, which sees the returns of Carey, but this time working for the controversial undercover assignment, promises to be just as nailbiting as its predecessor and Holliday did not take her role lightly.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, the Lady Chatterley’s Lover performer said she was determined to get some hands-on experience of being a homicide cop and when producers refused to find her a placement, took matters into her own hands.

‘I managed to worm my way into the girls’ club at the Met,’ Holliday explained.

She added: ‘I also managed to shadow for a week at Hendon, in the homicide department and which was really eye-opening. And I was so glad I did because it taught me a lot in terms of that sort of managerial process and the hierarchies of the police.’

During her time following officers, Holliday said she even accompanied two murder investigators as they scoured a park for ponds as they tried to recover a dead body.

 ‘I went on a walk around the park with two women walking around the park to look for all the water that someone might dump a body in,’ she said.

Of her overall experience in the force, Holliday said: ‘People [in the police] talk about such shocking crimes so matter of factly because they’re used to it on a day-to-day basis. And it wasn’t as fast-paced as I was imagining because it’s very methodical and there’s a process to it.’

The Capture also deals with surveillance culture and is set in London, which is one of the cities with the most CCTV cameras in the world. 

There’s surely an extra and unique angle to being in the public eye, and feeling that your privacy could be invaded at any point with a fan waving an iPhone, but Holliday said ‘she hasn’t really been papped or anything like that.’

‘Luckily I’ve never seen anyone papping me so I’ve never felt violated in the moment or anything, but there is a sense of “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t go to that place again.” Or if I do, I’ll make sure I’m not in my f***ing knickers,’ she joked.

Holliday said she isn’t on any social media either, but she insisted it ‘isn’t a statement about privacy or anything’, instead she calls herself a ‘technophobe.’

‘It’s just I never entered that world [of social media] and I like that naivety,’ she says. I’m someone that if you want to speak to me, like, call me, I can just about handle responding to text messages. I don’t like to be on my phone all the time,’ she explained.

Teasing the second season of The Capture, which premieres on the BBC on Sunday, she said her character is ‘anxious, paranoid, she knows she’s being watched or think she’s being watched.’

She added: ‘The stakes are much higher because we are now in the world of government and big tech and big business. It’s all now in our homes, on our phones on our laptops.’

The Capture season 2 premieres on BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday, August 28 at 9PM.

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