Patience: Mark Benton Interview

Starting tonight at 9pm on Channel 4, Patience Evans is a young civilian worker in the Police Criminal Records Office. She lives a quiet life with her god-father, Douglas, in York in northern England.  Patience is autistic, which means she experiences the world through her own unique perspective—one that doesn’t always align with how others might see or navigate it. Patience loves a puzzle and her ability to untangle tricky cases soon brings her to the attention of top crime fighting officer DI Bea Metcalf. 

When a seemingly routine investigation into a suspected suicide crosses Patience’s desk she remembers connections to a series of similar cases in the past and soon the investigation takes on international dimensions and involves more unexplained deaths. With Patience’s help the case is solved, and DI Bea Metcalf is grateful for her contribution and recognises her potential and talents.

Mark Benton on Patience

Detective Chief Inspector Calvin Baxter already has his hands full with Bea Metcalf on his team. The addition of Patience, a civilian worker and brilliant self-taught criminologist, may be helping to raise their hit rate, but it’s also having the same effect on his blood pressure. As Senior Investigating Officer on Major Enquiries, his job is already stressful but dealing with Patience and Bea severely stretches his management skills.

What attracted you to the project?

When I read the script I immediately loved the way Matt Baker and his writing team had treated the subject.  I liked the fact that the series focuses on the central pairing of Patience and Bea and as an audience and as actors we get to watch and experience the slow build of their relationship. Calvin as a character for me was refreshing too. Playing the boss was a new challenge.  On paper there wasn't a great deal about him so it was especially nice to be involved in helping to shape him and to bring the character to life.  When you are doing serious stuff sometimes the temptation is to mess around a little and I did bring a little bit of comedy to the set and to the character. Calvin is married and is very much the boss at work but not at home.  He plays golf and that's about all we know about his life away from Police HQ.  As an actor I liked the challenge of playing the straight guy this time and being a part of his developing relationships with all the other characters. 

Tell us about Calvin’s relationship with Patience?

When Calvin meets Patience he really isn't very sure about her at all. He is sceptical because her behaviour and way of going about things isn't what Calvin would class as normal.  Things are certainly not cosy immediately but there is a moment in a scene that I love when he gives her a little smile.  Acceptance.  In that instant we see him acknowledging that "there's something we can build on here."

Tell us a little about what you think of the series?

Tonally I love the fact that this is so very different from many police shows out there.  It is important to be able to make any new show in the crime genre stand out and Patience is immediately different to all the others out there.  It feels and looks like a film - brilliantly shot with serious issues peppered with moments of fun and humour.

I loved working in Belgium.  All my scenes were interiors so I knew precisely where I would be every day which was a luxury.  Working with our director Maarten and his lovely laid-back crew was a wonderful experience.  I would say to him - "Can I try this this way?" and he would look at me in that wonderful laconic way of his and say.... "Yeeeees"..... or "NOOOOOO!".   

How did you enjoy working with your castmates?

Working with the rest of the cast was such a great pleasure.  I arrived after they had all been together and already formed friendships after working together for a couple of months but they could not have been more welcoming and friendly towards me.  Most of the time playing their boss I am sitting back giving orders or listening to them report back on what has been happening.  Watching these wonderful young actors in front of me was just great - they just went for it and really hit the spot!

How important is it that neurodiverse actors are invited to play neurodiverse roles?

I think it is really important that neurodiverse actors play neurodiverse roles.  That is quite a controversial thing to say though because as an actor we want to play anything and everything but there is no question that this added dynamic contributes to Patience very positively.  It is important that neurodiverse actors are given this chance. I recently did a play called Village Idiot.  It was great to be part of such a diverse cast where disability was represented and positively portrayed by disabled actors.  Give people a chance.  It is important to give more power to people to get that chance.  Ella - what a gifted actor she is and brings so much to her role as Patience.

Any funny moments you’d like to share?

There were many funny moments.  I, as a giggler myself, immediately identified the other gigglers, Ella Maisy and Nathan being two of them.  I remember one day I had a very long speech - over a page - all very technical 'police speak' and I thought I would have an easy time of it and just be in the background with Ella Maisy and Nathan doing all the heavy lifting.  No such luck!  Maarten decided to shoot me delivering the entire dialogue but still we kept things buoyant.  This buoyancy spills over into Patience as an entire piece.  We have to keep people laughing and not get too bogged down.  Patience does this perfectly, finding a balance between moments of high drama and levity.

Stream Patience on Channel 4.