
	Email Address Password

Search

Home | Tell a Friend | Advertise | Contact Us | Mailing List

What's New

Stereotypes and labelling

Short Story - Firsts

Sexpert > Play Time

September Gardens

Short Story > Internet Stirrings

Perfect Barbies!

Problems: Ask us!

Building lasting relationships

Legal, Work and Finance

Classified - Business

Classified - Charity

Past Competition Winners!

How Can I Contribute?

Interview > Jackie Malton

I can’t imagine how weird it must feel to watch a fictitious character unfold and develop over years on TV, knowing that she was based on me. It must be like watching a distorted mirror somehow; it’s you – your mannerisms are there, the way you talk to people are the same, she’s doing the same job as you in familiar surroundings – but it’s not you. The woman you’re watching has some traits that you don’t have, and is missing others that you definitely do have.

So it has been for Jackie Malton ever since DCI Jane Tennison first appeared in the Prime Suspect series, for it is Jackie whom Linda La Plante based Tennison upon. This month sees the final chapter of Prime Suspect aired and while Jane Tennison gears up to take her leave, I caught up with Jackie Malton to find out more about the real woman who inspired such an iconic and groundbreaking female lead.

I heard Jackie say in an interview once that Helen Mirren’s Jane Tennison was much more believable a DCI than Jackie ever was and when we spoke I asked her what prompted her to say that. “Self-doubt”, she says immediately with no hesitation. “I think that in my life, I felt that for whatever reason, the real Jackie was being ‘crushed’ somehow. I don’t mean that to sound melodramatic, but I think that if you’re gay you tend to have a different viewpoint anyway and being one of the youngest of 5 in my family there was never much of an opportunity for my viewpoint to be heard I think … and then when I joined the police even though I felt that deep down my truth was right, if you like, my truth was constantly being debased and considered wrong. And I think you can’t help it, it just leads to so much self doubt – even though you feel deep down that your self-worth was holding strong, externally to you was this overwhelming view that conflicted with your view and you almost can’t help but take it on board that ‘they’ must be right and you must be wrong, so I think that although I was confident on the outside I felt less so on the inside because of all the conflict going on within me, and Tennison never had that. She appeared confident all through and I think that the heterosexual aspect of her character added to her air of confidence.” Jackie Malton

She vehemently supports Linda La Plante’s decision to make Tennison straight though, when she herself was ‘out’ at work. “It was absolutely the right decision” says Jackie, “The character is much more universal being straight and whilst it might have been interesting to see a gay character evolve, it would have been a lot less powerful I think.”

So does watching a character that is based on you and is so similar to you in so many ways but so fundamentally different at the same time affect how you view yourself? Tennison has been Jackie’s biggest teacher about herself she says. “She allowed me to move on and somehow watching her struggle helped me get to grips with my own, even though our struggles were different” she says. “Of course, the thing with Tennison is that while I’ve been on this incredible personal journey Tennison herself hasn’t really moved on.”

Jackie Malton is a woman who’s obviously thought about things – in some depth, but what’s refreshing is that she is happy to share it with you warts and all. She openly discusses her past difficulties – much due to her sexuality – that manifested itself in a drink problem: “Alcohol wasn’t my problem, it was a symptom, I was externalising everything because I was feeling disjointed. You know how you want that feeling of ‘coming home’, of belonging? Well, I could never get it but the drink allowed me to almost convince myself that I almost did have it. But it was just externalising my problem. As soon as I understood that the real peace wasn’t ever going to be found inside a bottle but inside of me, that’s when I started to feel more positive I think.”

Her experience about life is that she was (by herself as well as others) defined by her sexuality and it was only when her counsellor pointed out that her being gay was only part of her, as was the drink problem, as was the job; that she began to be able to at last take stock more and move on. “The counsellor got me thinking about life as a bit like a stew. I was trying so hard to make all of the ingredients – my sexuality, my job, etc – palatable to everyone else and forgot to consider myself! Nowadays that stew might be as bitter as hell for everyone else but to me it sure does taste good!” She chuckles as she says it but sounds genuinely like a woman who is coming to terms with herself and is pleased as punch with her progress. It’s endearing, perhaps more so because as a gay woman listening to her, her struggle is a familiar one.

Nowadays Jackie is a story consultant - heading up Primecrime Development Ltd - and contributing to many popular TV crime dramas (The Bill, Burnside, Messiah, Trial and Retribution to name but a few). She left the police force in 1997, fortunate enough she says, to have been able to jump ship with a pension as back up in case her new career didn’t work out. She needn’t have worried. “I’m good at character, story and drama, I’m observant too but I’m extremely grateful to Linda La Plante and Sally Head at Granada for encouraging me to give it a go in the first place. I’m so grateful to Tennison for giving me not only the opportunity of finding myself – finding peace when I didn’t have it before – but also for another fantastic second career.”

So, is she pleased that the Prime Suspect series is finally coming to a close? “Yes, it’s time I think … of course I’m not involved with the series any more, rightly so … but what this time brings up for me is the shame of the drink because they’ve made her an alcoholic in this one, and I had a similar problem myself. I just hope they give her some sort of hope at the end. She gave me so much hope in my life and I think I’d just like to feel that the character had some too.”

So with her life much more on an even keel these days what does she do for fun, I ask. “My partner has two children and they’re fun,” she says, “and I have a dog (Stanley) who I love to walk and just see nature with – I love bird-watching – I’m not a twitcher though!” She hastily adds (but I’m not so sure!) “I like to see friends too – I value my friends – I like to sit in and have intimate evenings, you know, one on ones rather than going out anywhere noisy. I’d be lying if I said I’d never done the ‘scene’ but I never really felt comfortable in it.”

When asked who her favourite author is Alan Bennett is number one: “he’s my hero, he just captures the voices of the people so perfectly – he inspires me and I like to be inspired.” She has a long list of people she admires but Alan Bennett again heads that up, joined by the likes of David Milch (creator of Deadwood); Laurie Huxler (“she talks to storytellers about character types – fascinating”); and Sarah Waters (“she understands about the richness of human beings”). “In fact,” she says, “human beings just inspire me”.

Jackie Malton loves Motown music; if she had to choose between cats or dogs – at a push – would choose dogs; loves the conservatory in her home where she can work, rest or bird-watch in; loves the term queer but not lesbian; and (thankfully) does not wear lip balm!

Her biggest regret in life is that sometimes she has hurt people in her drinking and she would never choose to deliberately hurt anyone. It would be nice to think that DSI Jane Tennison’s illustrious TV career will draw to a close on a hopeful note but regardless of which way Tennison goes, Jackie Malton’s own story is a positive one, and more importantly, a real one.