Kerry Godliman on UKTV Play drama Whitstable Pearl and the 'underbelly' of British seaside towns

The first scene of the series sets the tone for things to come, as Godliman’s character pulls a dead body out of the sea and on to a fishing boat.

Godliman, 50, who has also appeared in Derek and After Life, says the Kent town of Whitstable is the perfect location for this kind of drama.

“It’s got loads of little alleys, so it’s really good for people hiding and having secrets – there are lots of really good shots of us running down alleys and emerging on beaches, or emerging in boat yards,” she says.

“It’s a warren of very old little nooks, and it’s a handsome town.”

Seaside towns have a reputation, she says. “You know there’s an underbelly to seaside towns. There’s import and export [dealings] that are not always above board.”

But Whitstable is slightly unusual, with Godliman continuing: “I associate British seaside towns with end-of-the-pier arcades and Ferris wheels and things like that, but Whitstable isn’t really that sort of town. It’s more industrial than that.

“It’s got a very nice working harbour, it’s got the oyster farms, it’s got a concrete factory or something pretty ugly and industrial-looking right down on the front. It isn’t a picture postcard summer town – there’s no fair or arcades, it’s not like that. It’s got a different sort of vibe.”

In the six-part first series, Pearl is a “local woman who’s lived all her life in Whitstable and is a passionate community member”, Godliman explains.

“She’s a single mum and she runs a seafood restaurant, but she’s had a lifelong desire to be a private investigator. Now at this time in her life, her son’s about to leave home, she is having a go at that as a career, as a new chapter in her life.”

All is not as it might seem with Pearl, who’s got “a few dark secrets in her past that come out through the series”, Godliman says.

While the show’s content might be dark, Godliman says filming – which happened in the middle of the pandemic – was particularly pleasant.

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“I love Whitstable – I didn’t know it as well as I do now, but I had visited. It’s a really lovely little town and we had it practically to ourselves, because we were still under some of the restrictions. So even though we were allowed to shoot, restaurants and pubs and everything weren’t open.”

She calls this quite a “luxurious” experience, as “we had the beach to ourselves, we had the high street to ourselves”. Godliman appreciated that even more after returning to film the second season, which was “more challenging” because Whitstable was “back open for business” and a lot busier.

The first season of Whitstable Pearl came out in 2021 on subscription streaming platform Acorn TV, and it is now getting its first linear broadcast on UKTV.

“I’m really chuffed about it, because I know not everyone’s got Acorn – so it’s an opportunity for more people to watch it,” Godliman notes.

“I think it’s doing all right abroad, but less people are familiar with it in this country – which is a slight shame, because obviously it’s set in this country.”

Plus, she says there’s plenty in the show that viewers might find relatable, like Pearl’s complicated relationship with Mike McGuire, played by The Musketeers actor Howard Charles, who comes into town from a big city.

“There’s a bit of hostility between them initially, but there’s an undoubted attraction that grows through the show – and I think she’s got mixed feelings about that,” Godliman says.

Pearl “can’t help herself being attracted to him – but she’s also jealous of him, because he’s got her dream job. He’s a legitimate police detective, and she’s a private detective”.

“If life had gone another way, she would have stayed with the police, because she was in the police when she was young, but when she got pregnant she had to give it up. There’s that side of her that wishes she could do what he did.”

Then there’s the relationship between Pearl and her mother Dolly, played by Frances Barber, who works with her at the restaurant.

“Her mum is brilliant – vital and vivid and funny. But she’s also a bit of a pain, because she’s quite nosy, she’s quite controlling, she’s very opinionated,” Godliman adds.

“I think Pearl and Dolly are really similar, they’re cut from the same cloth, but they’re just different generations.”

She says mother-daughter relationships are “really interesting” to show on-screen, “especially when you’re similar in nature”.

Godliman has performed stand-up throughout her career and appeared in comedy game shows like Taskmaster and Mock The Week, but Whitstable Pearl gave her the chance to show off her dramatic chops.

“When you’re doing comedy, sometimes you resist digging too deep into certain things – obviously, the release is the joke. You’ve always got to get the joke – there’s a clear outcome to everything, which is humour, the joke, the laugh at the end.

“When that is absent, you’ve got a lot of freedom. Drama allows you to explore much more complex things, more complex storylines and character tropes and beats. You don’t have to have that gag all the time, so you’re allowed to go a lot deeper.”

Whitstable Pearl airs on March 14 at 9pm on Drama and UKTV Play.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​