Endeavour star Dakota Blue Richards: There is no excuse for all-male period dramas anymore

Dakota Blue Richards has said there is no excuse for making all-white, all-male period dramas anymore – even if it means they aren’t historically accurate.

The 23-year-old actress plays WPC Shirley Trewlove in ITV drama, Endeavour, alongside Shaun Evans as the recently promoted Detective Sergeant Endeavour Morse.

Despite being set in 1968, Richards said adjustments have been made to her character, who she said would have been an “anomaly” during her time.

She told the Standard: “I’m often there saying ‘why am I invited into this conversation when it’s obviously historically inaccurate?’ Trewlove has a radio and women wouldn’t have done then which is why there isn’t a place for it on my uniform.

“But you have to balance how historically accurate we’re going to be with the fact that we are in 2018 and I don’t think there is an excuse to have an all-male show.”

Richards said she “bullied” her way into making writer Russell Lewis make her character stronger and more present in scenes because she wanted viewers to see her “develop emotionally”.

She said: “You get what you’re given, but I’ve never been somebody to shy away from saying what I think, which is probably not the best policy. I will go up to Russell or one of the producers after every read through and I will say: ‘Give Trewlove something more character driven, or she could be stronger in this line, or I love this scene – can we have more of this?’.

“Every episode I’d say ‘why am I not in it more?’ They don’t always listen to me but there is no harm in asking. I bullied my way into that.”

Richards found fame, aged 13, playing Lyra Belacqua in the Golden Compass alongside Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, before landing the role of troubled teen Franky Fitzgerald in E4’s coming-of-age drama, Skins.

She revealed she is currently in the process of writing her own film script as she has tired of reading “rehashed” and “vacuous s***” for female roles.

She said: “I got really bored of reading scripts that didn’t do anything for me. I felt like every character I read was the same or a variation of two or three archetypal weak female characters. The storylines seemed to be the same thing rehashed again and again with nothing new.

“That’s not to say there haven’t been incredible movies that have been made, but it seemed to be diluted with so much vacuous s***. I figured if you want a good script – write it.”

Endeavour is on ITV, Sunday’s at 8pm