James Murray is Wesley Finch

Playing a leading role in a series that focuses on the ideas and ideals of self-image has meant James Murray has had to film some rather challenging scenes… in his underwear.

"There are a fair amount of scenes at the beginning where my character Wes is in his awful 1980s Y-front underpants. When I read that I understood what he is trying to do - which is to portray how image conscious we all are - but then Wes isn’t looking in the mirror and thinking how beautiful he is, but rather thinking he has reached a stage in his life where he is out of shape and is not as healthy as he could be, which made me okay with parading around in my pants.

"Also, it is good to do something that pushes you out of your comfort zone, and when it comes to the moment you shake all of those concerns off and it becomes a moment of fun. Deliberately making Wes a bit out of shape was refreshing as an actor who is not as young as I used to be. In the past 15 years it was always if you get your top off you have to look a certain way so it was nice to get a role which was the antithesis of that and for which it was okay not to be in perfect shape."

Returning to the familiar world of Manchester salons in Debbie Horsfield’s new family drama, James reveals what is similar and what has changed in the past decade.

"When I saw the scripts, it immediately took me back to Cutting It because it is undeniably Debbie Horsfield. Debbie has a very particular style, especially when she is writing about the world of young, working professionals in a slightly heightened universe. She has a unique voice in that respect. However, this story and the way she has written it has a fresh and more modern view on life than perhaps Cutting It did as that was more than 15 years ago. Tonally it takes itself a bit more seriously, but not too seriously that it is self-conscious. It is a wonderful, heart-felt romp with poignant and timely overtones."

James talks about these poignant over tones and discusses the topical and ethical themes being addressed by this drama.

"There are moral codes, which form the backbone of Age Before Beauty, and so there are messages within the piece, which are almost subliminal. It is about how image-conscious young people are nowadays, more than ever and how frighteningly easily it is to go and change your image if you feel it is not right, through surgery or an over-indulgence in beauty products. Debbie has been very clever, with subtlety suggesting the ugly side of that world by seemingly making it look quite glamorous and attractive, but if you scratch the surface you find that there is darkness there. Debbie is selling the message of beauty being within, through a story set inside a beauty salon which, if you think about it, is a paradox that she manages very well."

James tells us about his role, Wesley Finch, and what is in store for him in the series:

"Wes is a family man with a big heart who has reached the point in his life where his kids are grown up and off to university, his marriage isn’t stale but it is in need of a bit of a turbo charge, and instead of doing the right thing he does the wrong thing. Wes makes a calamitous mistake very early on in the series which leads to disastrous consequences and he snowballs from there. One bad thing after another happens to him and it is about how he reacts and gets himself out of the huge hole he has dug for himself."

James reveals he formed a special bond with his cast member, Robson Green, over a shared love of fishing:

"On down days Robson and I go fishing together and we are off to Scotland next week when we wrap to try and catch salmon. Thank God for Robson because as much as it is great to talk about the script between scenes there is only so much I can offer within this particular world of beauty so it was great to have someone to talk to about treble hooks and fly lines and all of that wonderful stuff!"

James not only enjoyed working alongside a fellow fisherman but also returning to his hometown to film the series.

"I am from Manchester so I am biased, but it has always been a cosmopolitan, exciting and cultural place to be. There is a real cross-section of people and cultures here so I wasn’t surprised that they were going to pick this place to film a colourful BBC drama. The only thing I was surprised about was how much it has changed since the last time I filmed something here. You go away and when you come back there is another cool corner or great massive mural painting that wasn’t there before.

"Since the bombing at the stadium it has really made people focus on what a special place Manchester is. I am proud to be from here and I think it was timely to come and spend the summer here, after that, and see the love in the city and support the people have for each other and the compassion after such a tragedy. It was really humbling to be around that for the summer so I am very glad it was filmed here."

A Foreword by Debbie Horsfield

"In 2001 I worked with Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes on a series called Cutting It, which was set in the world of hairdressing. Fifteen years on, Laura, Sally and I were discussing what had changed in the world of makeovers and personal grooming, and we agreed that women - and increasingly, men - had become much more obsessed with looking youthful. The anti-ageing side of the beauty industry had exploded in those intervening years so we thought it would be interesting to explore the impact on three generations of one family by using it as the backdrop to our saga.

Age Before Beauty explores the expectations we have, and the 'rules' we create about what people are 'allowed' to do at any given age. It was inspired by a feature I read about what women were and weren’t 'allowed' to wear, according to their age and shape! [No bikinis after 35. No long hair over 40. No mini-skirts after 25. No leather trousers ever unless you’re 6ft tall and a size 8!] It made me wonder what other rules are there out there, which people feel they have to abide by? Especially in a world of selfies and social media where so many people are keen to pass judgement and so many people feel they have much to live up to.

So Age Before Beauty became less about specific anti-ageing beauty treatments and much more about characters deciding to confound age-related expectations - for better or worse - at whatever age they fancied! I say for better or worse because one of the things we explore is the midlife crisis. We ask the question: Is it automatically better to be young? Does age always envy youth? Is beauty always the thing to aim for? Or does youth and beauty ever have anything to learn from age and maturity?

We’re looking at three generations of one family and exploring how they deal with the demands of youth, age and everything in between. And how they confound expectations. So for instance, the worst-behaved generation is actually the oldest and the most sexualised and overdressed is actually a nine year-old!

Family has always played a large role in my work and I enjoy exploring the dynamics between siblings and different generations. In Age Before Beauty we have three generations, aged from nine to late 60s, and we’ve been fortunate enough to assemble an extraordinary cast. The drama is set in my home town of Manchester. Obviously I’m biased but I feel there are particular qualities about the city (its vibrant multiculturalism and ever-changing faces) and its inhabitants (their resilience, irreverence, inventiveness, humour) - which make for particularly entertaining drama.

It’s been fun to return to the world of contemporary Manchester after being immersed in 18th century Cornwall for the past few years, but in truth I’ve loved both worlds and would happily return to either and both!"

Related Programme Information

• Episode one
• Episode two