BEST IN THEIR FIELD

Waking the Dead is the first TV job together for Trevor Eve and his wife Sharon Maughan - so why the seperate trailers?

They've been married for nearly 30 years, and appeared in countless TV productions, but Trevor Eve and Sharon Maughan have never once been seen on screen together. Until now, that is. To open series eight of the crime drama Waking the Dead, in which her husband has made the role of Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd his own, Maughan guest-stars in a two-part story. She plays Elizabeth Andrews, a wealthy and successful businesswoman whom we first encounter in a distressed and dishevelled state running through a forest. She's also completely naked. It's hard to reconcile this mud-spattered figure with the comfortably cardiganed Mrs. Eve, now sipping vegetable soup at the kitchen table of their family's country home. And, as it turns out, the woman in the woods isn't actually her. "I'd never have the courage to run through the woods with no clothes on," she confesses. "That said, the girl who did it was lovely, and a lot of people will think it's me." So how did she land the role? Did Mr E put in a quiet word on her behalf? "Not a bit of it," says Eve, shaking his head. "I can't claim any credit. What happened was that the producers came to me and said, 'Do you have any problems about working with your wife?'" To which, of course, he replied that he didn't. That said, it's been a long time since the couple have worked together. They first met back in 1979, when they were both in a Franco Zeffirelli-directed production of Filumena in London. And they were in the same episode of Murder She Wrote in 1992. But they've never, in three decades, shared a screen, big or small. So what was it like working together? Did they share a trailer? The answer to the latter question is a definite "no". they each had their own trailer and hardly spoke in between takes. "It's not a social gathering," frowns Eve, somewhat irked. "You don't have much spare time on set." "Absolutely," adds his wife. "The way we were was completely and utterly professional." So how does it work, then? You sit down opposite the person you've been married to for 30 years and pretend you've never met them before? "Pretend!" splutters Eve, aghast. "I think it's more than pretending. We actorstalk about inhabiting a chatacter, not pretending. I wouldn't say I felt apprehensive about doing the scene with Sharon, but I did feel responsible for her. I was quite pleased it wasn't a brutal interrogation scene - I didn't want to be nasty."

And we all know Det Supt Boyd can be nasty when he wants (in one of the first two episodes, he makes a suspect physically sick), although this comes, says Eve, not from cruelty, but from Boyd's determination to get at the truth. "The motor for Boyd is to bring everything to a conclusion,"he says. "He hates the idea of people not having resolution and, as they say, closure." But is there not also a soft side under all his briskness? a CERTAIN tender gruffness? "Oh, tender gruffness," smiles Maughan, taken with the phrase. "That's nice, isn't it Trevor?" A Boyd-like shrug is the only reply. When it comes to journalists and being interviewed, Eve is cautious about having words put into his mouth. "See that shed?" he says, pointing ominously across the garden. "I've got 35 years' worth if oress cuttings in there." The implication is that they're not all nice. despite the fact that, in the public's mind anyway, he's one of the most successful and enduring actors in the business, with a string of roles that include private detective Eddie Shoestring (Shoestring), love rat Felix Cramer (A Sense of Guilt) and duplicitous Duncan Matlock MP (The Politician's Wife). By comaprison, his wife's cuttings pile isn't perhaps as large. However, as well as articles doccumenting her three years in Holby City, during which she played Nurse Tricia Williams (chaotic love life, killed in a car crash), there are plenty of pieces about her role in the Gold Blend coffee advertisemnets, where she played opposite Anthony Head (Merlin, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) in what must be the longest will-they-won't-they? drame in screen history. Does she get annoyed by constant references to her coffee-flogging days? happily not. "That ad lasted for ten years," she smiles. "it wasn't just in the UK; it went to America too. The money meant I could choose wheather to work, or to travel, and at the same time I was able to take my children to school, to be around to bring them up." Now, though, the bringing-up days are drawing to a close, as younger son George is now a teenager and older son Jack and actress daughter Alice are in their 20s (she had big roles in The Rotters' Club and the film Starter for 10). So will Maughan be looking to make further Waking teh Dead-style TV appearances? "Well, of course, I love acting, and would do it every week of the year if I could," she says. "But at the same time there are lots of other creative things I would like to do. I'd love to travel to all the countries I've never been to, preferably as a backpacker. Though that bit wouldn't appeal to you, would it, Trevor?"

A small gran from her husband confirms this. The family have only just come back from a five-week holiday in Ibiza, and you don't get the impression they were roughing it. In fact, given that their bags are barely unpacked, and the heating engineer's just called to let them know their Aga's on the blink, it's probably time to leave the couple to their post-vacation settling-in. Just one final question, though, as to why Eve thinks that Waking the Dead has struck such a cord with the public? "Production values, definitely," he replies. "With other English shows, most don't have the kind of gritty visuals we do, though I suppose Spooks isn't bad. "Also," he adds, fixing you with his wide, owl-like eyes, "I like to think it's quite well acted." And for a brief secondm you feel like you're a miscreant in Boyd's interview room. On the surface, you're agreeing with him, but underneath, says his gaze, you may be thinking something quite different. And he suspects you are.