{"id":893181,"date":"2026-09-15T19:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893181\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T19:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:08:10","slug":"im-fearless-i-was-in-a-boys-rugby-team-slow-horses-aimee-ffion-edwards-on-playing-a-cocaine-snorting-spy-television-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893181\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m fearless. I was in a boys\u2019 rugby team\u2019: Slow Horses\u2019 Aimee-Ffion Edwards on playing a cocaine-snorting spy | Television & radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a moment, just before Aimee-Ffion Edwards jumped off a nightclub balcony in Slow Horses<\/a>, when she had to lie to herself about what she was about to do. \u201cIt was quite hard,\u201d says the actor. \u201cYou basically tell yourself, \u2018You\u2019re not jumping.\u2019 Obviously, you know you\u2019re harnessed in, but you\u2019re also going, \u2018This is mad! This is mad! This is mad!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughs. \u201cI couldn\u2019t feel my fingers for a second. I was like, \u2018Huwwaah!\u2019\u201d She sucks in her breath, then says: \u201cBut there were 200 people stood there watching. You\u2019re like, \u2018Well, I gotta do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the scene that we see, though, Shirley Dander \u2013 the tough, traumatised, cocaine-snorting MI5 agent Edwards plays \u2013 does not hesitate, leaping from the balcony to land on a suspect. That collision (on a stuntman) was no soft landing either and, at 38, Edwards knew she\u2019d feel it the next day. And yet she jumped off the balcony \u201cfive or six times\u201d during filming. \u201cI played rugby in a boys\u2019 team,\u201d she explains, \u201cand I think I have a fearlessness that comes from that. It\u2019s quite instinctive.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markMy biggest achievement? I was an answer on Pointless!<\/p>\n

Edwards is wearing an elegant sleeveless blouse, smart navy trousers and gold hoop earrings. She does not, as she sits there sipping a flat white in London\u2019s Soho Hotel, look much like a rugby player. Yet, with some pride, she reveals that her childhood dream was to play rugby for Wales<\/a>, where she was born and raised. \u201cThat was all I cared about. And I did! I played one match for Wales. Then I was like, \u2018I\u2019ve done that. I think I\u2019m going to do some acting.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s so much to play\u2019 \u2026 with Christopher Chung in Slow Horses. Photograph: Jack English\/Apple TV+<\/p>\n

Edwards, a fluent Welsh speaker, still lives in Newport. She had a paper round there until she was 19 and grew up the middle child of five. \u201cI have a strong sense of being part of a pack,\u201d she says. The actor regularly commutes to London (\u201cit\u2019s so close \u2013 an hour and 35 minutes on a good train\u201d) and finds it refreshing to be able to play a British spy with her authentic Welsh accent, pleased Shirley\u2019s Welshness is not a talking point in the hit show.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody ever mentions it,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s really important. It\u2019s good to normalise it. We hear northern and other accents all the time, but Welsh accents have been underrepresented.\u201d Except, she adds, in comedy roles. \u201cLike there\u2019s a novelty aspect to being Welsh \u2013 like it\u2019s some sort of kooky thing. It\u2019s really not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Slow Horses, which follows a ragtag bunch of reject MI5 agents who are presumed to be inept despite usually saving the day, Edwards had to fake a Brummie accent as the opportunistic criminal Esme Shelby in Peaky Blinders<\/a>, and adopt a southern one as manipulative Elizabeth Barton, the \u201cHoly Maid of Kent\u201d in Wolf Hall.<\/p>\n

But as Shirley, and especially as Richard Burton\u2019s older sister Cis in the 2025 film Mr Burton, she has increasingly been able to lean into her Welsh identity. And now she is voicing Princess Leia in the first-ever Welsh language-dub of 1977 blockbuster Star Wars. Due to be broadcast in Wales on Christmas Day, its Han Solo will be voiced by Matthew Rhys. So is she a fan? \u201cOh my God, I was pinching myself. That was so surreal, being in a booth, watching the film and lip-syncing I was going, \u2018I don\u2019t know how I got here, but I\u2019m here \u2013 and I\u2019m here for it.\u2019 It was amazing. And it\u2019s brilliant the Welsh language dub is happening. I\u2019d be excited even if I wasn\u2019t in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking for contradictions \u2026 as Esme Shelby in Peaky Blinders. Photograph: Robert Viglasky\/BBC\/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd.<\/p>\n

In season six of Slow Horses, about to launch on Apple TV, Shirley\u2019s anger and grief about the death of her colleague Marcus, played by Kadiff Kirwan, keeps bubbling to the surface. This grief is, to some extent, genuine: \u201cI found it really hard when Marcus died, especially coming in for season five, because it was quite a lonely experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and Kirwan were \u201cpartners in crime\u201d, she says. \u201cThat unique relationship between Shirley and Marcus \u2013 it was purely platonic, but with a lot of love, a lot of frustration, a lot of projecting each other\u2019s nonsense back at each other.\u201d At the same time, his death has helped her to develop Shirley\u2019s character emotionally. \u201cThere\u2019s so much to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a strong, dangerous woman whose physical bravery and moral courage is undermined by her emotional cowardice, explosive temper and penchant for violence, Shirley is \u201cliberating\u201d to play. \u201cI love that she\u2019s scrappy,\u201d says Edwards. \u201cThere\u2019s so much negative energy in her and she doesn\u2019t know what to do with it. She can\u2019t communicate it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I love making things with wood\u2019 \u2026 if she ever gave up acting, Edwards would get a dog and become a carpenter. Photograph: Linda Nylind\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Edwards \u2013 whose first major role was as Sketch, the stalker in teen drama Skins<\/a> \u2013 looks for contradictions in the women she plays, which may explain why she is so good at humanising liars, criminals and sneaks. \u201cI\u2019m fascinated by people\u2019s strengths,\u201d she says, \u201cand the mechanisms we have to protect ourselves when we feel vulnerable.\u201d Shirley, she says, gives off a \u201cstench\u201d of \u201cTry it \u2013 come and get it\u201d when she walks into a room. \u201cBut I understand why she is like she is. I keep trying to pick at those threads, to expose them a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary Oldman, who plays the chain-smoking, whisky-drinking, rarely washing boss Jackson Lamb, is the joker of the cast. \u201cHe loves making people laugh. He\u2019s always got an anecdote, a tale to tell. He\u2019s very silly and funny \u2013 a fun father figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her spare time, Edwards exercises a lot, mainly swimming and running, because team sports are a problem. \u201cThe nature of this work means you can\u2019t commit,\u201d she says, adding that she also enjoys making furniture in her garage. If she ever gave up acting and working far from home, she\u2019d like to get a dog and become a carpenter. \u201cI love making things with wood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social media doesn\u2019t interest her much. \u201cI\u2019m here for YouTube videos about carpentry, but I don\u2019t know why anyone would ever be interested in what I had for breakfast.\u201d She prefers to keep her personal life private, to protect her family and those she loves. And perhaps as a result, even though strangers often smile at her like they know her, they rarely identify who she is, even in Newport. \u201cThey think we went to school together or I work in the corner shop, rather than know me off the telly.\u201d<\/p>\n

This suits her. No actor, she says, ever regrets someone appreciating their work. \u201cIf they do, they should quit.\u201d But she feels lucky she gets to live \u201ca normal life\u201d in her home town, where no one bothers her. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what my biggest achievement is: so many people messaged me one day, because I was once an answer on Pointless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question on the TV quizshow was: name a famous Edwards. \u201cWhich is ironic, because nobody knew who I was.\u201d She beams. \u201cWhat a contradiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slow Horses series six launches on Apple TV tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a moment, just before Aimee-Ffion Edwards jumped off a nightclub balcony in Slow Horses, when she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-893181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}