The Blame stars Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth talk "hard-hitting" new police drama which uses real-life officer text messages

Mancunian Michelle Keegan, 39, and Londoner Douglas Booth, 34, who both began acting in their teens, star as DI Emma Crane and DI Tom Radley in The Blame.

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Could you relate to your characters in The Blame?

Michelle Keegan: I’m good with knowing what’s wrong and right. I can be a team player, but am I as opinionated as Emma? Probably not, but I think she’s very fair, and so am I.

Douglas Booth: Tom and Emma have a great relationship, as do Michelle and I. We had each other’s back on set and in the show. I strive to do the right thing in situations, but at the same time, I’m human and don’t always make the right choice. That’s something Tom has to grapple with.

Michelle, your dad was a police inspector. Did you ask him for advice?

MK: He talked to me about lad banter and how it was seen as the norm, and he said he’s glad things are starting to change now. But my dad never talks about his job, he’s very private. I remember going in his top drawer at home and seeing his handcuffs and badge… I thought it was the coolest job in the world.

I remember going to meet him in his station after school, and all the police officers stood up for him, like a mark of respect for my dad. I thought he was a superhero. It’s quite sweet that I’m now playing a detective – he’s very proud of that.

Did it help having a police adviser on the series?

MK: Lisa Farrand is amazing. She was a police adviser for Happy Valley as well. Apparently Sarah Lancashire’s character Catherine Cawood was based on her.

The awful text messages in the male police officers’ group chat were taken from real officers’ messages. How did you feel when you read them?

MK: I got goosebumps, because it’s really hard-hitting. It brings home why we’re doing the show.

DB: They’re genuinely shocking. A writer wouldn’t have written them for a show.

How does it feel to be in a drama that is, unfortunately, so relevant?

DB: When I watched the Panorama about Charing Cross Police Station [in 2025], it was horrific. It makes you sick. There are parallels in this show. It brings a human element to those awful themes.

MK: I feel like we’re in a space now where women can say they’re uncomfortable about something and blow the whistle on it, and I think this is going to fuel that. It’s been a long time coming.

When did you both realise you wanted to be actors?

DB: I’m dyslexic, so I always struggled in academic parts of my schooling, which forced my brain to use its more creative side. I wanted to be a jazz musician. I played trumpet from a young age, but everyone started picking up guitars and being in rock bands, and I felt a bit on my own. Then I auditioned for a school play and joined the National Youth Theatre and went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Saturday school. I found it a great way to express myself.

MK: I don’t come from an acting or artistic background. I did drama in school, then at college, and it was the only thing I excelled in. I didn’t know what I wanted to do at university. My dad asked, “What do you want to do?” I said acting and he went, “For goodness’ sake, get your head out of the clouds!” I said, “I’m taking a year out. Then if nothing happens, I’ll think about something else.”

When was your first big break?

MK: I started going to the Manchester School of Acting that May, got an agent in October, then I got Coronation Street in November when I was 19. I went into the audition with no nerves, because it was one of my first-ever auditions.

DB: I started when I was 16. I had a few smaller parts but when I played Boy George [in 2010’s Worried about the Boy], I felt like I was properly doing it.

What did you learn from starting young?

DB: When you’re young, you can kid yourself that you are this person. Then I found myself almost getting too technical. I threw all of that away and learnt to relax, not overthink things and just be present and listen.

MK: It was about making sure I learnt my lines back to front, because I had to. You only get a few chances on a soap and then you have to move on to the next scene because you’ve got so much to film in one day.

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Did playing Tina McIntyre set you up for playing similarly strong characters in Our Girl, Brassic and Fool Me Once?

MK: What Corrie has done from day one is write strong women well. You can see it with Sarah Lancashire, Suranne Jones, Katherine Kelly. They’re all amazing at playing strong women because of that foundation from Corrie.

What do you have coming up next?

MK: I’m still filming the new Harlan Coben, The Woods. We wrap in October.

DB: I just finished filming the second series of War [the Sky Atlantic legal drama’s first series is out 2 October]. I play an investigative journalist.

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The Blame starts on Sunday 20 September at 9pm on ITV1

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