Imelda Staunton has explained why Flesh and Blood was very different at first

From Good Housekeeping

Flesh and Blood has just one more episode to go before fans discover which character ends up dead, and presumably, who did it.

While there are still plenty of questions to be answered with an hour left to air of the dramatic ITV thriller, one thing's for sure - Imelda Staunton's character Mary is a key component.

The story centres on Francesca Annis' Vivien, a widowed woman who finds love again with Mark (Stephen Rea), to the intense suspicion of her three grown up children. While the family tension rises, the person steadfastly looking on from her kitchen window is Mary (Imelda Staunton), the long-time next door neighbour who seems at times a little too interested.

Fans are speculating about Mary's true intentions on a nightly basis this week as the show airs, but it turns out that the show was initially set to be very different as she wasn't even in the story.

Speaking on the Lorraine show, Imelda Staunton revealed her character was added in after the first script was already completed.

"[The show's writer] Sarah Williams was asked to write a family sort of drama but she told us last week that actually, she'd written the piece and then thought 'I need someone else' and then she brought in my character," Imelda said [via Hello!]

While Imelda's character was added in retrospectively, her involvement in the story as well as her narration has been an important plot point.

Speaking about Mary's narration, Imelda told Goodhousekeeping.com/uk:

“I think that's a good device… sometimes I'm suspicious of narration… I sometimes think they put it on afterwards because it's not good enough. But I think this was absolutely a really key ingredient to drawing people in,” she said.

“It’s quite an ordinary voice, it’s not creepy. It draws you in,” she explained.

Clearly, the decision to add Mary into the story was a good one, as fans have been guessing about her intentions all week. Some are suggesting that she might kill Mark in order to protect Vivien from him, while others have posed that she could kill Vivien out of jealousy.

ITV has shared a first look clip of Mary and Vivien in the final episode, in which the former gives the latter a special gift.

Flesh and Blood concludes tonight at 9pm on ITV.

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