It’s not unusual to make pacts with friends – pinky promises and blood brother bonds – but not many swear to that loyalty well into their seventies, and even less agree to help end someone’s life.
Despite the grisly plot, the two stars of new Channel 4 thriller Truelove, Lindsay Duncan and Clarke Peters, say that while they’d never worked together before, they had an absolute ball on set for one reason in particular. “All of the leads are in their seventies, which was great,” says Lindsay, 73, who plays Phil. “Usually there’s someone of your age, but not the whole cast.
I don’t think we’re your average 70-plus-year-olds, we’re sharper because we’re learning lines and having these demands on us.” “When you’re working with people in the same life experience or in this chapter in our lives, it’s so much fun,” adds Clarke, 71, who plays Ken. “We have so much to talk about on the set – like bits of your body falling apart – that you can’t do with a younger cast. “Sometimes, younger people aren’t patient enough when we older people are taking our time going through lines, or we might forget something. "We have a habit of saying, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ But with this crew and cast we were all going, ‘No, baby, you go ahead – we’ve got time.’” Childhood sweethearts Ken and Phil are reunited at a friend’s funeral where they, along with three mates, make a pact.
Rather than let each other suffer a slow and dreadful decline, they will step in and engineer a dignified death when the time is right. “They are all so drunk,” explains Lindsay. “And fuelled with emotion and alcohol.They’re sitting at that table in the pub and they’ve got so much history.