Interview with Martin Compston on role in BBC drama Mayflies

“When I came home to Greenock, we’d usually have a night out, and I was the get-out clause, an excuse for the lads to get away from their families for a bit,” grins the Line of Duty star. “But then I realised they were using it even when I was NOT there – so if they’d been away on a two-day bender, they’d just say, aw, Martin was home….”

He laughs: “So I was not the favourite amongst my friends’ wives for a long time, until I put the record straight….”

The cast of Mayflies. (Image: BBC)

Friendship is at the heart of Mayflies, a touching new BBC drama adapted by Andrea Gibb from Andrew O’Hagan’s acclaimed novel of the same name.

Set in the summer of 1986, Jimmy (Martin) and Tully (Tony Curran) are best friends who love music, films and the rebel spirit, and they are heading to Manchester for one, glorious weekend. Thirty years later, Tully calls Jimmy with a devastating piece of news, and a request that will test their friendship to the limit.

Filming in and around Glasgow has made both Martin and Tony reflect on their own friendships in the city and further afield over the decades.

“I’ve been very lucky, with this job, to have been able to live in different places, like London and LA, and I’ve made great friends there - people I would consider my best friends,” says Martin.

“But you never have friends like you did when you were 12 and my closest pals are still all my pals from Greenock.

“I think what’s good about this story, is that it is a particularly west coast of Scotland story."

READ MORE: First pictures of Martin Compston in Mayflies drama revealed

He adds: "With my pals, we are ruthless with each other. It’s funny how when somebody else has a go at someone in the group, you turn as a pack, but between ourselves, we just destroy each other.”

He grins: “It’s all just non-stop patter and abuse. That’s the way we show love. The only time I hug my pals from home is when Celtic or Scotland score a goal. We don’t tend to open up very much, unless it’s at a funeral, steaming.”

Tony agrees. “There’s a tenderness between Jimmy and Tully, there's loyalty and love - I had mates like that, a bunch of guys, used to go to Hampden Park when we were seven years old, jump over the turnstiles…that was 45 years ago and I still know these guys.”

He recalls: “Summers in Glasgow, it was everybody over to ma hoose. Pool table in the attic, table tennis table in the driveway, having sandwiches, lemonade… There was a place called monkey land, where we used to go and swing on trees, I was 15, maybe 16, and when everyone had to go home at 11pm, I’d sometimes start crying, because I didn’t want it to end."

Martin admits playing Jimmy in Mayflies is one of the “most emotional” roles he has ever had.

“Really from the very first scene we have together, it’s heartbreaking stuff,” he says. “Often when you do these emotional things, you only have so many tears in you, and you have to conjure things up, or imagine sad things from your past.

“With this, there was none of that, because of the writing, the performances and the wonderful cast around you. And with Tony being one of my best pals going back a long way, I just had to look at him, and the lines were there. It felt very real at times.”

READ MORE: Martin Compston spotted filming Mayflies in Glasgow park

The two-part show also stars Ashley Jensen, Tracy Ifeachor, Elaine C Smith, Shauna Macdonald, Cal MacAninch and Colin McCredie, plus Tom Glynn-Carney and Rian Gordon as young Tully and Jimmy.

Mayflies tackles the controversial subject of assisted dying. Martin, who is patron of Ardgowan Hospice in Greenock, says: “There is a bigger conversation to have, there are very strong and very valid opinions on both sides.”

Tony agrees: “The good thing about the novel and the screenplay is they bring this conversation out into the open.”

Despite the heavy subject matter, there was a lot of laughter on the set, says Martin.

Martin on the set of Mayflies in Glasgow (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest)

“We were thinking, is this show just us relentlessly greeting and depressed?” he admits. “But you’ve got to remember where they came from, the joy they had as kids, all the gigs and the love and laughter, that’s what lifts the whole show up.”

Asked what is on his own bucket list, Martin does not hesitate. “I’d like to get to a World Cup with Scotland,” he says. “I remember watching the '98 World Cup with my pals, and we were 14, and we said for the next one we’d be 18, and we’d be there. And that was how many years ago?

“So yeah, I’d like to see Scotland in the Cup with my pals.”

He pauses. “I think that’s achievable," he grins.

Mayflies is on BBC Scotland on December 27 and 28.