Sea of Souls
01/02/2004 . Source: Jessica Martin 
Interviews with actors Bill Paterson and Archie Panjabi, stars of the BBC's shortly-to-be-released new X Files-style television series, 'Sea of Souls'. Parapsychology: The study of mental phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance and psychic healing which are beyond the scope of normal physical explanation
The car rounds an unknown bend and suddenly you absolutely know what you are going to see - and there it is, exactly as you predicted.
The phone rings and before you pick it up, you know who is calling. A loved one is severely ill, but believes some external power can save him -and it does.
Coincidence, a trick of the mind, a fluke - or glimpses of powers beyond our knowledge, a whole range of extraordinary possibilities that, if harnessed, could change our world for ever?
One man's truth is another man's hocus-pocus and that is where Dr Douglas Monaghan and his team come in. They make up the fictional Parapsychology Unit at Clyde University that is at the heart of Sea Of Souls, a new drama for BBC ONE which looks at the power of the paranormal.
From voodoo to cult rituals, past life experiences to telepathic twins, the trio of bewitching storylines featured in Sea Of Souls tap into the public's growing fascination with all things paranormal as Douglas Monaghan's team of parapsychologists endeavour to explain the inexplicable.
"Our series is rooted in the work that these units do all over the world," explains writer David Kane.
"They look at things from a scientific point of view and try to explain why people choose to believe the paranormal over the rational. There are powerful reasons why they want to believe. That is what is so interesting.
"People have always wanted to believe there is more to the world than we can see and understand and the more people become disillusioned with organised religion, the more they will need to believe in these things."
The characters featured in Sea Of Souls cover a spectrum of beliefs which echo the world's continued fascination with all things paranormal.
Research fellow Andrew Gemmill errs on the side of scepticism; post graduate student Megan Sharma desperately wants to believe in the paranormal and the team leader, Dr Douglas Monaghan, is caught somewhere between the two extremes.
Together, the mix of beliefs propels the team on a mission to uncover the truth.
"I consider myself to be a bit like Monaghan - I want to believe but need proof," Kane admits with a laugh.
"People are always gripped by these kind of stories and so am I if they are told in an intelligent way and treated seriously. Although a lot of the stories came straight from my imagination and the facts were checked afterwards."
BBC Scotland's Head of Drama, Barbara McKissack, feels the time is ripe for a series about the paranormal.
"We've reached the 21st century and a lot of the universe's external mysteries have been uncovered," she explains.
"Now the world is divided into people who have faith and those who don't and many of those who don't are looking for explanations - the human mind is the last major uncharted territory.
"What we wanted to do was show the different beliefs that are around and what the stories are saying is, 'This could be you, or someone you know'."
Casting was crucial to make the series work and McKissack is delighted that Bill Paterson is playing Monaghan.
"He needed to be Everyman, but also a very credible figure of authority. Bill doesn't appear like a rarefied academic, his humanity shines through - as it does in real life.
"Archie Panjabi and Peter McDonald bring energy and freshness to the team between them, with Megan's enthusiasm and joy at the discoveries that they are making as a lovely counterpoint to Gemmill's immense cynicism."
David Kane, who has written successes such as This Year's Love and Ruffian Hearts, concludes:
"We want to do what parapsychologist units do, give people the choice - the audience will have that choice to say, 'That didn't really happen, it's all in the mind', or they could go down the paranormal route. It will be interesting to see which way they decide."
More details at www.bbc.co.uk/seaofsouls
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Interview: Bill Paterson plays Dr Douglas Monaghan
The past life of Bill Paterson is crowded with characters from doctors and policemen, to lovers and losers. But it only goes back as far as his birth in Glasgow in 1945 -and no further. No re-incarnation concerns for him.
The in-demand Scots star has never been drawn to the dark side.
"I'm open enough but I'm not one of nature's fantasists, I'm not a paranormal person," he declares stoutly. "I'm much more interested in the practical, the hands-on and the factual than in the metaphysical.
"But that has helped me to play Monaghan, who may be an expert but who also has doubts and concerns - he's not some sort of loopy mystic."
Instead, as head of the Parapsychology Unit at the fictional Clyde University, Dr Monaghan is a consummate professional, the safe pair of hands when life slips from the norm into the nightmare.
He is a man who hides the scars of personal tragedy but whose warmth and understanding endear him to people on the edge.
"I like him," says Paterson simply. "At my age there is the danger of that cliché of the slightly crumpled and rumpled man being a bit grumpy going through life and four divorces later, a tendency to hit the bottle. But Monaghan is not like that.
"I can understand his life - he has lost his wife and child and that has left him scarred. That is a major back-story, a very powerful thing. But I like his company.
"He's not unlike me - he's a bit of a technophobe, not very good with machinery.
"We don't see much of his home arrangements, but I think he's probably a bit lonely. Although they do keep bringing in these lovely ladies who come to me with their problems," he laughs.
"Siobhan Redmond, Rakie Ayola and Michelle Collins - who can complain?"
Scenes for the series involved turning part of Almeria in Spain into a Druse village in Lebanon, where locals are totally convinced about re-incarnation.
But it left Paterson feeling as though he had passed into a future life - in hell.
"We were there at the height of the summer and it was 45 degrees," he recalls. "I've filmed in hot places from Java to the Khyber Pass, but I've never been anywhere that was so searingly hot."
Paterson may be sceptical about the paranormal, but he does admit to the odd bit of superstition.
"I do have attitudes to places and think that inanimate things have a life. I even talked to the little trailer I was in while we were filming. It's as though it's known me for quite some time now and has a life - we affect each other.
"I also have this superstition never to do things in the same order when I appear on stage. I know lots of actors who have the opposite superstition - they have to do things in the same order. I make sure I never do."
Although he now dismisses it as an odd coincidence, Paterson also reveals that he once had an alarming premonition.
"I suppose you'd call it ESP, " he says. "It concerned the actor Alex Norton who I've worked with thousands of times on stage from the late 60s onwards.
"I had this strong feeling that he had been involved in an accident with the wheel falling off his car -and discovered that the wheel had fallen off his car at exactly the moment I had dreamed about it. Luckily he wasn't injured."
Paterson - star of Danielle Cable: Eyewitness, The Crow Road, and Doctor Zhivago - also admits to a 'beyond the norm' relationship with his wife, theatre designer Hildegard Bechtler.
"We are always having experiences of thinking exactly the same thing at the same time, or trying to ring each other at the same moment - it's almost embarrassing," he grins.
"I know that many people experience something like that and the temptation is to no longer believe it's just coincidence, but that something else is going on.
"But maybe we all used to have this sense of awareness and modern life has pushed it away.
"Then there is the absence of the power of formal religion in our culture. The Church and State used to be such solid rocks in our lives, even up until my childhood.
"Then it disappeared into the background and for a time was thought not to be needed.
"Add to that the fact that we have more leisure time to explore the internal, we are not so caught up in the daily grind, so now we are seeking spiritual and psychic support."
Seeking Dr Monaghan's support are people trying to make sense of the seemingly senseless.
"We deal with three subjects which - for most of us who don't have any real knowledge of the paranormal - are the ones that will always intrigue us, especially the second storyline, re-incarnation.
"Then there's the question of identical twins and how much of life is nature or nurture.
"The third one takes us into the very different realm of Muti voodoo killings and is quite dark.
"But these things are not science fiction, they are quite down to earth paranormal experiences.
"The strength of the series is that we keep within the realms of an academic investigation. We are led by accident, but inexorably towards being caught up in dangerous and deadly deeds. We are not pushing them.
"I feel it is closer to Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl, than The X Files. It's much more human and ordinary - and that makes it more disturbing."
Despite his admitted technophobia, Paterson's research for Sea Of Souls led him to the internet. But he admits that he didn't delve too deeply.
"I didn't want Monaghan overburdened with too much jargon," he explains.
"I want it to feel truthful, so that if the filming was stopped at any point and someone asked me, 'What are you talking about here? Why are you doing that?', I would like to have an answer. That's my criteria of research. I don't want people to think, 'Isn't he a clever bugger!'.
"But Sea Of Souls does pose lots of really important questions and I think viewers are going to be caught up in the debate about just what is true and what is 'in the mind' &."
Interview: Archie Panjabi plays Megan Sharma
Deeply spiritual actress Archie Panjabi makes no secret of the fact that wherever she goes she carries a small, gold amulet - a gift from her Guru in Malaysia and a potent symbol of his protection.
"It is always with me. I really don't know what I would do if I lost it," she admits.
"It may sound strange but it is really important to me. I've always been quite psychic and believe there's a reason why things happen and that we need to learn from them.
"I think that is especially important in this business, it chews a lot of people up. It's one of the hardest professions in the world to maintain any kind of stability.
"But my spirituality helps with that - and you're not considered some kind of sissy when you start talking about your paranormal experiences now."
Panjabi was introduced to her Guru by an aunt and has since visited him as often as she can and frequently keeps contact by phone.
"Anytime I'm down I phone him up and he always seems to be in touch with my gut instinct and knows what's on my mind," she explains.
Panjabi believes that she has more in common with academic psychologist Megan Sharma than any other character she has played.
"I am becoming more and more open to the whole area of spirituality and alternative ways of looking at things and I think I have that in common with Megan.
"In fact I based her very much on things I already had in my own life - more than any other characters I've played. There were so many parallels.
"'If she sees a lot of evidence then she does get excited and her gut instinct is usually quite right. That is down to her being an intelligent and spiritual woman. Women always have a sixth sense and a certain instinct and Megan definitely brings those qualities to the group.
"She has all the intellectual abilities, but is more streetwise than the other two. Her social skills are the biggest attribute to the unit - because even though they are dealing with the paranormal, they are dealing with people.
"Megan is much more aware of people's emotions and it's often her who's able to scoop out the truth from people."
Panjabi draws other parallels between herself and this enthusiastic postgraduate student of parapsychology - she believes they have both had their battles to fight against other people's expectations.
"Megan is very bright and knowledgeable and has been selected by Monaghan to join him in the parapsychology unit as a team member and she is thrilled.
"But I think maybe a lot of her friends laughed at her choice of profession because they were mostly lawyers or bankers. They would have scoffed at parapsychology, just thinking of the odd séance on a wet Wednesday afternoon. That just makes her more determined to be a success.
"In my case, I went to university to study management before I became an actress and a lot of my friends and friends of my family said, 'How can you want to be an actress?'
"But I think it is vital to fight to do something you want to do despite not gaining your community's or your friends' approval - they all wanted to be doctors and lawyers, 'proper' professions.
"Luckily my parents were not against my ambition, they've always been very supportive. But they were adamant that I went to university first.
"I went to Brunel University and very much wanted to go on to do a PhD in management, but then my acting career started to take off.
"In those days when you switched on the box there were hardly any brown or black faces so they worried that I wouldn't be able to make a living. They saw it as a very risky profession."'
Panjabi began getting small roles in series such as London's Burning and The Knock. Then she had the bright idea of writing to the cast of EastEnders for advice.
"I got this lovely letter from Nick Berry who suggested I got an agent through The Stage newspaper. That's what I did and things really began to take off. I really wasn't aware how the whole business worked until then.
"At the time there was just a handful of roles on TV being played by Asians, so I was very lucky. I've still not met Nick to thank him personally. I owe him a lot."
One of Panjabi's biggest personal triumphs is the fact that, as an Asian woman, she won the role of Megan who was not written as an Asian character.
"When the BBC went out to cast Megan, they didn't go out to cast an Asian Megan,"' she explains. "It is so refreshing to be able to be seen for a part where there is no reference to ethnicity.
"I believe one of the most important ways of combating racism - and trying to get people to accept everyone for who they are - is to just cast from a group of people and see which one is right," she argues.
"It has been wonderful to get roles in the films Bend It Like Beckham and East Is East. But playing Megan has a different quality about it - it's been a really good feeling to know I'm here strictly on merit."
Panjabi lives with her partner Raj in north west London and helps him run a high class, bespoke tailoring company.
"It gives me the chance to put my management skills into practice," she laughs. "It is also more glamorous than acting, believe it or not. Raj gets to travel all over the world."
Now the couple are hoping to start a family and Panjabi has been getting a little bedtime story practice in ahead of time.
"I am one of the new characters in the brand new series of Postman Pat," she says delightedly. "It has been a joy to do - and just a little different from the world of the paranormal."
Jessica Martin |
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