PRODUCTIONS - AFTERLIFE

Interviews

Lesley Sharp plays Alison Mundy

"Alison Mundy is certainly one of the most vocal and needy characters in terms of taking up my head space when I am not at work. I found myself walking past shops, thinking 'Alison would wear those shoes' or 'that coat would be perfect for Alison'. I was thinking about Alison when I didn't have to, and it took a while to slip out of when I wasn't working."

Before filming began on the series Lesley read books by mediums, watched television documentaries about the subject and met a leading medium, Gordon Smith.

"I met Gordon Smith and watched him conduct a spiritualist meeting. People are in a heightened state of emotion. That makes them very vulnerable and open. I think because of the world we live in now people are asking themselves what happens when we die; if this life is so difficult and fraught, is there anything on the other side to offer comfort and help?

My own thoughts on the subject are unresolved. I want to believe there is some Nirvana that everybody will end up in. But the cynical side of me thinks, as Philip Pullman writes, 'we really end up as dust, and as part of the universe.'

Gordon Smith told me that when the spirits come to him it is like downloading information onto a computer. That makes sense to me. Human life is about energy. One's energy never ceases to exist in some shape or form, even if that is being kept alive in someone's memory."

Andrew Lincoln plays Dr Robert Bridge

"This is a very different role for me. Robert is a controlled, reserved human being, very different to my role in Teachers, This Life, or other things I have done recently.

I have always wanted to make something that was truly haunting and unsettling. It is not a ghost story. It is about a woman who is damaged, deluded and sick.

Robert's interpretation of what is happening is completely opposite to what Alison's experience is. He is such an arch sceptic, and she is the believer. That is at the heart of the series, and what hopefully will make people watch.

They are both damaged human beings, who are finding solace in one another, and finding empathy in one another's plight. I don't think they have even considered some kind of romance between them. It is too complicated for there to be romance.

I am fascinated by all this area. It is all about human nature, and how people behave, their environment and how it influences them.

I don't believe there is this kind of place where people can go and communicate with people. I do believe there is a soul, and people's spirits, and various qualities of human beings remain with you.

A human being can affect you so profoundly that their spirit is kept with you. I know there are friends of mine I will always keep with me. You can carry their spirit with you even if they are absent by distance or death.

I am very open, and I don't discount any one's beliefs. I have the utmost respect for people's faiths."

Stephen Volk - Series Creator and Writer

"The inspiration for Afterlife goes back to the Sixties when I loved to watch long running series like The Prisoner and The Avengers. They were series you could talk about the next day at school to relieve the boredom of triple maths.

I desperately wanted to resurrect those spooky supernatural tales for television in the Seventies, like The Stone Tape and Out of the Unknown. I am convinced there is an audience who wants the kind of thrill that gives people something to talk about the next day.

The essential thing about Afterlife is that I believe we have two sides in all of this. There is the rational side which wants to put things away as Robert does. Then the other side is more instinctive and led by emotions, as Alison is. They both have a kind of truth in what they are seeing. They are both contradictory, and at times we don't know which side of ourselves to believe.

I have always loved the supernatural and horror movies. I used to devour horror stories in comics and monster magazines when I was a child.

My favourite scary film is Don't Look Now. I remember seeing it for the first time when I was 21, as part of a double bill with The Wicker Man. The ending was so unexpected to me that I thought I had lost my mind, it had so horrified me.

I can watch any amount of horror films, with heads and limbs being chopped off. But scenes that feel totally real, like bullying, are much more disturbing than fantasy."

Stephen carried out extensive research before he began writing Afterlife, reading books and attending conferences. He is also a member of the Society for Psychical Research.

"I have come to believe, rather like Robert in Afterlife, that ghosts are created by the person seeing them. I have rational reasons for why ghosts don't exist. But if I wake up in the middle of the night in a certain frame of mind my imagination would terrify me."