THE POLITICIAN'S HUSBAND CHARACTER GUIDE:
AIDEN HOYNES:
Aiden Hoynes
Played by David Tennant
The son of a Professor of Political Philosophy at the LSE, politics is in his blood stream: when we initially meet him he is considered to be a rising star in Westminster.
He went into Parliament he was driven by idealism but after his son Noah was diagnosed with Asperger's he allowed himself to be sucked in the power games of Westminster. It was somewhere to hide.
David Tennant on Aiden:
He’s a member of the cabinet and he’s very well regarded. He’s clearly seen as a potential leader of the future. It’s probably not helpful to find real-life political candidates to cast him as – I didn’t base him on one particular individual (which is probably just as well because I don’t think that would have done anyone any favours!). But he’s certainly a man who’s doing very well for himself.
So at the start of the story he feels that his moment has come, that the Prime Minister of the day is not performing as he might, and that this is his moment. He stands up in the House and argues that the Prime Minister’s immigration policies are xenophobic and that the PM’s position is effectively untenable. How much of that is driven by ideology, and how much of it is a power play? That’s a very grey area, really – it’s hard to say where one ends and the other begins. But the policy may be slightly less important than what he’s trying to achieve by wielding it.
Aiden has a very solid marriage with Freya, played by the magnificent Emily Watson. She’s also an MP and doing quite well for herself, though she’s playing second fiddle to Aiden, who is the high flier. But they work very well together and they’ve always supported each other. In fact we learn quite early on that she writes Aiden’s speeches. They have two kids, Noah and Ruby, and a very happy family life. It’s made slightly difficult by the fact that Noah has Asperger’s and struggles a little bit with his parents’ public, high-stress lifestyle, but they manage to cope and they have a support network around them. But when the wave of support they expected to carry Aiden to his coronation evaporates in front of him, the roles are reversed. Aiden loses his frontbench job and Freya finds herself brought into the cabinet. And a marriage which had seemed so strong and impregnable suddenly finds that its fault lines have been exposed, and they have to cope with this very different power structure within their relationship.
There is an aggressive streak in Aiden that emerges too. But then again he’s a man who is pushed quite far. He has had everything, and suddenly he has nothing. So I think it’s quite understandable that when he’s pushed into a corner, he comes out snarling and biting. As things go on, however, we find that Aiden and Freya aren’t quite the golden couple they believed themselves to be, and that comes out quite violently within their relationship at one point, and in quite a shocking way.
Paula Milne says:
So at the start of the story he feels that his moment has come, that the Prime Minister of the day is not performing as he might, and that this is his moment. He stands up in the House and argues that the Prime Minister’s immigration policies are xenophobic and that the PM’s position is effectively untenable. How much of that is driven by ideology, and how much of it is a power play? That’s a very grey area, really – it’s hard to say where one ends and the other begins. But the policy may be slightly less important than what he’s trying to achieve by wielding it.
Aiden has a very solid marriage with Freya, played by the magnificent Emily Watson. She’s also an MP and doing quite well for herself, though she’s playing second fiddle to Aiden, who is the high flier. But they work very well together and they’ve always supported each other. In fact we learn quite early on that she writes Aiden’s speeches. They have two kids, Noah and Ruby, and a very happy family life. It’s made slightly difficult by the fact that Noah has Asperger’s and struggles a little bit with his parents’ public, high-stress lifestyle, but they manage to cope and they have a support network around them. But when the wave of support they expected to carry Aiden to his coronation evaporates in front of him, the roles are reversed. Aiden loses his frontbench job and Freya finds herself brought into the cabinet. And a marriage which had seemed so strong and impregnable suddenly finds that its fault lines have been exposed, and they have to cope with this very different power structure within their relationship.
There is an aggressive streak in Aiden that emerges too. But then again he’s a man who is pushed quite far. He has had everything, and suddenly he has nothing. So I think it’s quite understandable that when he’s pushed into a corner, he comes out snarling and biting. As things go on, however, we find that Aiden and Freya aren’t quite the golden couple they believed themselves to be, and that comes out quite violently within their relationship at one point, and in quite a shocking way.
Paula Milne says:
David’s performance is particularly brave, because Aiden is a pretty irredeemable character. And for an actor like David who carries such a legacy of goodwill and love from an audience, it’s quite a brave thing to play a character like that.
FREYA GARDNER:
Freya Gardner
Played by Emily Watson
Although equally able, if not as talented as her husband, Freya had to put the brakes on her own political career in order to provide stability for the family.
Even so, as a Junior Minister, most recognize she is a political star in the making.
When she finally gets onto the Front Bench, she starts to feel an overdue sense of her own potential - and the lure of power.
Emily Watson on Freya:
When we first meet her, Freya is the junior education minister. She's seen as a high flyer with big prospects. We also know that she met Aiden and Bruce at university. So the story I constructed in my head was that they were probably all at Oxford together - all very brilliant, clever young people. In the beginning I think Freya probably wanted to change lives; I think that's innate in her. But I think they also quickly learned to embrace the political way of thinking. They're people who came through the Westminster system from a young age. They probably started off as interns and have learned how to work the system.
You don't end up being an MP or a cabinet minister without being unbelievably ambitious. But the interesting thing about Freya is that she has an emotional intelligence to go with that. Which means that she deals her cards in a more subtle way. Aiden is such a blunt instrument in the way that he tries to achieve things. He lets his lower nature get the better of him. Whereas Freya has a full orchestra of subtle, womanly ways at her disposal. And she knows how to use them.
Outwardly they look like a normal family with a nice suburban home, a couple of kids and successful careers. But that only scratches the surface. Their sexual relationship is quite interesting, put it that way! Their sexual tastes are slightly to the left of usual; quite edgy and aggressive. I think they're the sort of couple who, if they have a problem, solve it in bed. They don't necessarily talk about things in the way they should. I think that's one of the interesting things about this drama. It takes a public couple and then shows you what happens behind closed doors, to reveal an archetypal power struggle between two individuals.
Aiden and Freya clearly operate in a very cynical world. There's one scene for example where Freya has to make a speech in Parliament. It's her maiden speech in the House of Commons and it's a complete bear pit. Everyone's yelling at her. And it goes very well. But if you actually analyse the speech, it's really total BS! There's nothing to it. It's just a sort of point-scoring exercise. So she manages to be a complete success without saying anything of substance whatsoever. I thought that was really interesting. And I have to say I got a real kick out of filming that scene. It was really fun.
Paula Milne on Freya:
Initially, Freya seems like the dutiful wife who is stepping back to allow her talented husband to take the crown. The resentment she feels only becomes clear as the story unfolds. There’s a scene in episode one where she walks into the Cabinet Room. I wrote in the stage directions: “She puts her hands on the table and feels, for the first time, the thermals of power...” And I think that scene puts the audience in advance of Aiden. Because then they know something he doesn’t: that, suddenly, she feels it. She wants it. She gets sucked into that vortex of wanting power.
Emily’s natural gravitas gives her amazing credibility as a politician... Yet you also believe she's a mother... A tricky high wire act!
BRUCE BABBISH:
Bruce Babbish
Played by Ed Stoppard
Bruce has been Aiden and Freya's friend since their University days and is the person that Aiden thinks he can most count upon to support him in his bid for the party leadership.
Bruce chose a political career, not out of ideology but because it suited his Machiavellian nature and lust for power and its trappings.
For him the fun lies in the chase, in second guessing your opponents. Bruce lacks Aiden’s likeability and people skills and he knows it. That’s why Aiden, like others before him, had to be sacrificed on the altar of Bruce’s ruthless ambition.
David Tennant on Bruce Babbish:
Another key character is a politician called Bruce Babbish, played by Ed Stoppard. He and Aiden have known each other for many, many years. They've come up through the ranks together, though Aiden is certainly seen as the senior of the two. And Bruce is apparently right behind him, fully expected to serve in an Aiden Hoynes cabinet and to be part of his inner circle. So at the start of the story, it’s very much Bruce and Aiden who are preparing for this big moment – this moment of assassination. But, as with many things in politics, Aiden quite quickly discovers that Bruce’s friendship and loyalty aren't necessarily all they seem. It becomes clear quite quickly that Bruce has leadership ambitions of his own, which have been subsumed in the wake of Aiden’s much more obvious route to power. It all happens within the first few minutes of the series so I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that Bruce ends up backstabbing Aiden.
MARCUS BROCK:
Marcus Brock
Played by Roger Allam
A veteran of Westminster and a survivor. His job as Chief Whip means he knows where the bodies are buried and doesn’t hesitate to dig them up when its politically expedient to do so.
But he hungers for higher office before he is considered to be a Yesterday man – hence his unholy alliance with Bruce.
RUBY & NOAH HOYNES:
Ruby Hoynes
Played by Lucy Hutchinson
Noah has been in Ruby’s life since birth: she totally accepts his strange rituals and phobias and is touchingly protective of him.
Noah Hoynes
Played by Oscar Kennedy
Noah is 11 and his Asperger’s was not diagnosed until he was five years old. Like many people with Asperger’s, he is prone to panic attacks, phobias and obsessions. He finds the world an unpredictable and terrifying place.
Paula Milne on Noah:
One of the most important characters in the drama is Freya and Aiden’s son Noah, who has Asperger’s. He has a particular obsession with flight paths. He also doesn’t like to be touched. And you quickly see that Aiden, particularly, doesn’t know how to handle him. Even Freya admits at one point that she goes to work to get away from Noah’s endless obsessions and rituals. Neither of them wants to admit, or even believe, that they don’t love him enough. Dramatically, I think that was important. It makes them a bit bruised by life. They aren’t just the ideal family in an ivory tower. They are a family who have to deal with something – at the same time as trying to do their jobs and have political aspirations. So Noah’s place in the story was to make them seem oddly ordinary, in a way.
Emily Watson on Noah:
Their son Noah, who has Asperger's, is a very important part of the drama, especially in terms of David's character. I think when Noah's Asperger's became evident, Aiden basically couldn't deal with it. He stepped away from him. And in a way I think he is overcompensating in politics; he becomes more and more driven because he can't find the normal solace of what a human relationship provides.
David Tennant on Noah's Asperger's condition:
We were helped brilliantly by people coming and talking to us. I wouldn’t want to betray any confidences by going into that too much, but people were very honest with us, which was hugely humbling, actually, and very helpful for the roles. When you have a child with Asperger’s, you can’t always communicate in the way that you would normally expect. It can rob people of a normal life – and that is a huge part of the story here.