Interview with David Suchet
Interview with David Suchet, who plays George Emmerson, CEO Worldwide News
Published: 2 September 2018
What goes on backstage in the newspapers, that’s fascinating. It draws people, it excites people. They have to meet deadlines! They are called DEADlines! If you don’t hit them... if you don’t make them... it’s dead.
David Suchet plays George Emmerson, CEO Worldwide News
Tell us about your character.
I am playing George Emmerson. He owns The Post. One of many things I think he owns. He’s not Murdoch and he’s not Maxwell - he’s not any of these great big tycoons, but he is his own sort of tycoon. He’s got very good values. He doesn’t want sleaze and I think that’s important. He doesn’t want sensational news, he wants good journalism. He’s very, very sure about that. He’s wry, he’s humorous - but don’t mess with him, because in the end he holds every single string.
Tell us about Mike Bartlett’s scripts.
Working with Mike Bartlett has been a real treat for me - I was in Knock Knock, an episode in series 10 of Doctor Who, and I liked his script very much indeed. And then when I was offered this script and here we are again… another wonderful script by Mike.
Why do you think Press will appeal to audiences?
We know there’s fake news and there’s real news - all this is exploding in our faces at the moment - it’s the power that news has. Everybody also loves behind the scenes. What goes on backstage in the newspapers, that’s fascinating. It draws people, it excites people. They have to meet deadlines! They are called DEADlines! If you don’t hit them... if you don’t make them... it’s dead.
Describe the show in a sentence.
It’s how newspapers work and how life and relationships try and fit in around this cut-throat industry.
