I like playing quirky roles, I think it may be because I have ADHD
Jason Watkins’ anorak-wearing detective has made cosy crime drama McDonald & Dodds compulsory Sunday night viewing. The award-winning actor reveals why he’s closer to his slightly eccentric character than he ever imagined
WHEN a suspect was dramatically arrested for murdering her mother by poisoning her with her own lipstick at the start of the new series of McDonald & Dodds, the police congratulated themselves on a job well done.Yet getting to the bottom of who did it wasn’t the crime concerning eccentric DS Dodds.
For the policeman’s much-loved office chair had disappeared and the flustered officer was as determined to find the culprit as who was responsible for the grisly crime.
It is such idiosyncrasies that set the gentle ITV crime drama, which has attracted nearly seven million loyal viewers, apart from its action-packed police show rivals.
And actor Jason Watkins, who has played Dodds for the past four years, admits it is the role he perhaps identifies with the most in his entire career.
“I like playing quirky characters,” he explains. “I was diagnosed with some form of ADHD a couple of years ago.
“I was feeling slightly overwhelmed here and there along the way, so I went to see someone and he gave me this book. I started reading it and felt, ‘OK, maybe there is something going on’. I haven’t followed it through completely – I haven’t had the full ADHD test, that’s when you really find out. I will do at some point, but I’ve certainly got some form of it.”
Attention deficit hyperactive disorder is a condition that affects people’s behaviour. Those with it can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and may act impulsively.
“If you look at my childhood, I was dyslexic and had issues with that – anything that was written I found difficult – and I was mad on sport and drama,” Jason recalls. “I think my mind does work slightly differently and maybe that’s why I gravitate towards playing those characters.
“I like playing nasty villains too, but I perhaps have a slight empathy for quirky characters, who are the underdog, who are trying to do well and trying to overcome things.
“Dodds is in that world – he finds certain things difficult and other things easier. I’m not saying he definitely is [neurodiverse], but he does have hyper concentration.”
THE acclaimed actor is one of our most accomplished and versatile performers, best-known for his Bafta awardwinning role in The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies and his convincing portrayal of Prime Minister Harold Wilson in The Crown, which won him a Screen Actors Guild Award. But it is the role of Dodds, whose first name is never revealed, that he has made his own.
The drama, which has returned to our screens for a fourth series, features Tala Gouveia as DCI Lauren McDonald, a streetwise former Metropolitan Police officer who is sent to Bath, where she finds herself working alongside unconventional local detective Dodds, who has spent the past 10 years in a desk job. Jason says: “He’s an innocent in many ways. He’s an analogue man in a digital world and like many people of mine and older generations, he’s trying to find his way to work it all out.”
Jason grew up in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands with his father, a metallurgist, and his teacher mother. His interest in performing began when his mother took him to a clowning class taught by mime artist and Vision On presenter Ben Benison. The lesson had such an impact that he still recalls it to this day. “I was only four and I still remember him painting a red nose on my face,” Jason smiles.
“He was a great clown. Then when I went to Rada 16 years later, he taught there.” After finishing his studies, Jason established himself as a stage actor, but in 1987 – with a head full of blond hair – he made his TV debut in EastEnders, spending three months as arrogant estate agent Gerry Fairweather, at a time when the BBC soap was watched by 15 million viewers.
“I was supposed to embody the whole of the yuppie time in the ’80s,” Jason smiles. “I had a Shogun, a massive phone and a Psion organiser – it was all very fancy.”
His days on the show came to an end when Angie Watts snapped and hit him in the face as he and his friends held their Christmas party in the Dagmar wine bar. Gerry threatened to sue, until Sharon Watts pointed out how embarrassing it would feel
to confess in court that he had been hit by a woman. Humiliated, he was never seen again.
“He was being a very yuppie and arrogant city boy, so she punched me,” Jason says. “I enjoyed my time there and actually I could really have committed to it. But I’m glad in a way that I left, because I’m so pleased that I’ve been able to do a whole myriad of things.” Jason was so impressed by the show’s stars however that what he learnt there remains with him to this day. “Anita Dobson and Lesley Grantham who played Angie and Dirty Den worked really hard,” he continues.
“They were massive stars at the time and they had a really good chemistry – they were funny and engaging and very talented. Maybe all that goes in when you’re young.Tala and I get on really well too in McDonald & Dodds.
“We have a genuine chemistry and we enjoy working hard and leading the company of actors as well.”
Since EastEnders Jason has appeared on screen in a host of different shows, from the role of Brian Masters in the 2020 ITV series Des to the comedies W1A and Trollied and the TV miniseries Little Dorrit.
“I’ve ticked a lot of boxes,” he says. “I wanted to do a thriller because I’d not done thrillers before, so in the last couple of years I did The Catch and Coma – I actively had my eye open for those roles.”
Many of course will always remember him as uptight primary school teacher Gordon Shakespeare in the 2009 festive film Nativity! “I’d love to do a data check on how many families watch Nativity at Christmas in this country,” Jason smiles. “I bet it’s most. It’s a genuine classic.”
The film had several sequels and Jason wasn’t the only member of the Watkins family to appear on screen.
“Talk about nepotism!” he smiles. “My son Freddie is in the first and second films and Bessie is in the third one, playing one of the schoolkids. They had a good time.”
Jason, who has two grown-up children, Freddie and Pip, from his first marriage to actress Caroline Harding, lives in London with his second wife, jewellery and fashion designer Clara Francis. They have two children Bessie and Gilbert.
IN 2011, their two-year-old daughter Maude died of sepsis. Jason dedicated his 2015 Bafta award to her and today is a patron of the charity Child Bereavement UK. “That’s so much part of our lives,” he says. “The loss of our daughter 13 years ago is ever present, so having the ability to support other people helps put our loss into context, but primarily does help others.
“It can be upsetting, but we know we can be effective in helping other people with the struggles they’re going through. I wouldn’t say it influences my work all the time, but work has got to be important. After what we’ve been through it can’t just be trivial.”
Jason also hopes he will see a day when the NHS is more able to deal with sepsis.
“And I’d love to be able to be instrumental in bringing better resources and care into the diagnosis of infants as they become ill,” he reflects. “Because of technology we are getting closer. What is missing is organisation and funding, but the will is there – the people within the NHS are heroes, they are incredible.”
At 61, he still has plenty of ambition to try new things.“I’ve got a couple of things that I’m developing myself,” he explains. “I’d also like to go and do an American series.”
Meanwhile, he insists he is completely at ease with the ageing process.
“I didn’t do very well on the day I turned 60 but now I quite like it,” he says.
“It means you can forget trying. You go, ‘Well this is it now, isn’t it?’ You always try and improve and become a better person, but at 60, what else am I going to do? The cast is set, that’s it!”
‘I have an empathy for quirky characters who are the underdog and are trying to do well’