VIDEO: Grace on ITV - Roy’s growing love interest Cleo Morey

It’s a role Cleo is loving, particularly as series three begins (continuing Sunday, March 26 on ITV): “I think we see Cleo in a pretty solid place in both lives when we start the series, but unbeknownst to her there are still some underlying complications, that will inevitably have to come to the fore. At the end of the last series, Cleo and Roy were reunited after a period of uncertainty and as an audience we were left on the cliff-hanger that there had been a possible sighting of Roy’s ex-wife Sandy, in Germany. In terms of her professional life, this series sees Cleo taking more of a lead with some of the cases and going out on location to recover bodies. Her two worlds are increasingly starting to merge and we start to see Roy leaning on her a little for advice. He confides in her and really values her judgement on various cases.”

The next step up the ladder for Cleo is to be the leading pathologist who carries out the post-mortems. “At the moment Cleo very much assists Nadiuska De Sancha played by the brilliant Carolina Valdés. We see her working besides Nadiuska and on site when bodies are found. There is a great scene in Dead Man’s Grip where Cleo deals with the grieving parents of a victim involved in a traffic accident. Is the way she handles that an important part of her job? Yes, Cleo’s job is an extraordinary test of the psyche. Personally speaking, it’s not a job I could imagine doing but I respect those that can, enormously. It must be incredibly difficult to deal with death, up close on a daily basis. Cleo has the right balance of toughness to handle the job, but alongside that, she has retained a level of empathy that allows her to show genuine compassion for the victims and their grieving relatives.

There is plenty to learn.

“I remember the trip to the farm day on Not Dead Yet vividly, because it made a welcome change - my character is usually in the mortuary or somewhere, gruesome exhuming bodies, so it was actually quite nice to be out in the fresh air with the pigs! How extraordinary that pigs are quite happy to eat pretty much anything and everything but just not teeth. I suppose it’s understandable really, I shouldn’t imagine someone’s dentures are particularly palatable! I have to say that the piggies were very easy to work alongside and made very amenable cast mates for that day… if a little noisy!

In the first episode, Dead Like You, there’s a case that has never been resolved, dating back to 2012. The case is finally brought to light when the victim’s body is exhumed and Cleo confirms the identity of the victim to Grace. It is quite a moving moment for him, a rare example of a case that he was unable to solve. Cleo recognises both his relief and sadness in that moment and shows real compassion for him. I like those moments, the professional, personal crossover in Cleo and Roy’s lives. Small moments of humanity shared between them.

“In Dead Man’s Grip we see the poor victim of a horrible car accident. Part of Cleo’s job is to reassemble the body and make it as presentable as possible for the grieving family members. Despite the horrible nature of the scene, I really enjoyed the chance to work alongside Laura Elphinstone, who plays Bella, in those scenes. I am sometimes envious of the the CID gang. They all get to hang out together the whole time and they are quite a lively bunch! Laura is a brilliant actress and a wonderful woman. We are outnumbered by the boys, so we do tend to take every opportunity to tell the producers and writers that we want more scenes together in future episodes! I think it’s about time that Cleo and Bella became best friends!

“In episode three, Not Dead Yet, a body has been found in a freezer and another guy has been tied up and tortured. Cleo and Nadiuska come in and assess the scene and relay their findings to the team. It feels good to have the chance to increasingly see Cleo in more of a professional context.”