The action centres around Ripley Holden, played by David Morrissey. He is a flawed hero; a charismatic family man who trained at the school of hard knocks. Ripley is poised to make top dollar as the seaside town reinvents itself as the Las Vegas of the Lancashire coast. As he struggles to keep his chaotic family in check, Ripley hangs on to one hope - the good life is just around the corner. But family life begins to take its toll, and when the body of a young man is found in his showpiece arcade, he finds himself brought down by a series of events that are out of his control. Behind every successful man... Well, as the saying goes, behind every successful man there's a good woman, and for the Holden family, that couldn't be more true.
 | | Natalie and Ripley |
Sarah plays Ripley's neglected wife Natalie, whose attention is drawn elsewhere when Ripley becomes distracted by his money-making ventures. But without her, Ripley would be nothing... yet he doesn't realise that yet. They've been together since their late teens, and Natalie is the mother of Ripley's two children - Shyanne and Danny. Natalie has a home to be proud of and wants for nothing - except the love and affection of her wayward husband. "They live in a fantastic house, they've obviously done incredibly well in the time they've been together," says Parish, who has also appeared in Hearts & Bones and Peak Practice. "But Natalie's a bored housewife, which is why she does charity work - she works at the Samaritans, she works at Oxfam - she'll go anywhere that people need her. "Natalie is one of life's lovely people. She's quite a hard-done-by person and is very much under the thumb of Ripley, who's a very vivacious, huge character. "You often find in couples like that that one person swamps the other person's personality. "I think Natalie, through the years, has become quite dominated by Ripley and has lost a lot of herself - she's become smaller and smaller over the years." Difficult teenagers Parish, once again, finds herself playing a woman with children in their late teens, despite having no children herself and only being in her mid-thirties: "It's funny, isn't it?" she laughs. "I've been doing it ever since my first television job, Peak Practice - I had three kids in that and the oldest was about 15, and I was only 28!" Her daughter in Cutting It, Ruby, is in her late teens and, in Blackpool, Shyanne is 19 and Danny, 16. "Natalie is supposed to be around 38, I would've thought, so she's only got two years on me. Every series I do the kids get older and older though, and I think, 'I must go and have that facial!'" In Blackpool, Natalie has a fraught relationship with her children and finds it hard to relate to them. "Her daughter is very brittle towards her and her son is a very messed up young lad who doesn't really know how to talk to his parents. "She's a very timid, sweet, lovely, good mother but she's in a place in her life now when she feels that she isn't needed by anyone. "Her kids have grown up, Ripley doesn't need her and suddenly, someone comes along who takes an interest in her and wants to listen to her." That someone happens to be DI Carlisle, the policeman investigating Ripley Holden for murder, but it's a while before Natalie finds out about her new friend's career. "He takes an interest in her and wants to listen to her and pay her some attention - that hasn't happened to her in such a long time." On song | "Another great song is Should I Stay or Should I Go. It just reminds me of being a Goth and charging around lots of different clubs in Yeovil!" | | Sarah Parish |
Parish relished the chance to brush up on her song-and-dance skills for the role, but admits that she had to work hard at it. "When I was younger I did ballet, until I was about 15. I also did a musical at the Donmar Warehouse called Nine - I had to dance a lot and do a bit of singing - but I wouldn't say that I'm a born dancer or singer at all. "The most fun song I've done in this is probably Don't Leave Me This Way, by The Communards, because it was a huge dance number. That was really good fun. We all came out feeling like we'd done a day's work after that! "There's been loads of great songs though - David Tennant [DI Carlisle] and I did the Gabrielle song, Should I Stay, and that looks beautiful, and the Elvis Costello one, King Of America, is a great song. "My brother was always a big Elvis Costello fan - I must've been around 14 or 15 at the time. "Another great one is Should I Stay or Should I Go, by The Clash. It just reminds me of being a Goth and charging around lots of different clubs in Yeovil! "I'm into old funk music these days - Stevie Wonder, Sister Sledge - things that are really quite corny! I love going to discos and dancing around my handbag!" Love story Parish describes Blackpool as a "beautiful love story" but, like all good love stories, the course certainly doesn't run smoothly. "It's a story about things falling apart - a marriage falling apart, a man falling apart, his business falling apart, a dream falling apart, but the songs kind of bring it up." Parish believes that viewers will be drawn to the drama because it's so different from anything else. "People will watch because they've never seen anything like it before. It's colourful and bright and fun." Back to the salon After spending weeks up in Blackpool filming the drama, Parish has a couple of months off before returning to the north west of England. "I'm going back to do Cutting It in Manchester," she says. "It's good fun up there. We always have a scream and they're a great bunch of people. We try to get apartments in the same block together. "It's a riot, it's exhausting - that's why I need two months off before I go back." When can I see Blackpool? The first episode of Blackpool is due to be screened on BBC ONE on Thursday 11 November at 9pm. You can get more of a sneak preview of the series by taking a look at our photos of Sarah in our gallery - the link is at the top of the page. Fancy being the Bard of Burnham? The BBC wants you to write a ballad of your home town, and you could have it performed on BBC Radio 2's Mark Radcliffe show. The competition, Get Writing with Blackpool, is being launched to accompany the first episode of the series. You can get information about how to enter the competition, plus tips and advice for improving your creative writing on the BBC's Get Writing site - the link's at the top of the page. | 
