Culture: A new Dawn is coming for Lucy

There's been a bit of confusion over Lucy Davis' name. 'The photographer was saying 'there's no 'e' in Davis, is there?',' says the Birmingham-born actress, who has just finished a triumphant six-week stint on our screens as Dawn in the seriesThe Office.
'I said I wasn't sure - I was thinking: 'there must be some Ian Davises. They can't all be called Fatima or whatever'.'
Anyone who is unfamiliar with Davis as Dawn, the put-upon receptionist in the fake fly-on-the wall sitcom, might be more familiar with her voice: for the past seven years, she has voiced the part of Hayley Tucker, carer of children and old people andindeed general saint in The Archers. What has brought Davis most attention, however, is her role as the watchful Dawn at Slough-based paper-manufacturers Wernham Hogg in The Office.
'It's the closest I've ever got to an office job,' she quips. 'Very often I've had to sit behind my desk while everything's going on, so I have all my little belongings - my Vaseline moisturiser, toothbrush, peanuts - it's my little home from home.'
She has obviously loved being part of the team.
'It was just mad; when I knew I'd got the part and we'd got the series, it was just, like, wow, seven weeks of knowing you've got a great job, which is quite lucky, and knowing you've got more work coming up.'
'If you walked on set, it's like everyone's messing about the whole time, but everyone's obsessed with getting it right. They won't do something just for the sake of a laugh, but on the other hand we do have a laugh the whole time.
'There was a scene shown the other week where David Brent fires me and I have to cry, but I couldn't stop laughing. I thought: 'That's it, I really am sacked'. I had to resort to putting Vick's vapour rub on my eyes, but I still couldn't stop. EventuallyI had to cover my face with my hands.'
There's a big question mark over whether there will be a third series of the office - after all, Brent was made redundant last week. And while Davis and co-stars Martin Freeman (Tim) and Mackenzie Crook (Gareth) have developed excellent character parts for themselves, it's doubtful if the series would be able to sustain itself without Brent.
But while some may feel the weekly half-hour of cringing at Brent's crassness is one fix they can do without now, after two series, Davis points out that the show is more than a one-trick pony.
'When you're in it, you see things differently,' she says. 'You don't just sit down and watch that half-hour. We've been filming that episode for seven days and there's always something going on in the background - I always think you need to see it aboutthree or four times before you see all there is to see.' Put-upon Dawn is a little different from Davis' other best-known character, Hayley Tucker. But again, saintly Hayley, comforter of the bereaved, adoptive parent of others' abandoned infants, and befriender of the elderly and vulnerable, is almost unnaturally sweet and good.
Since marrying Roy Tucker 18 months ago, though, Hayley's had rather a back-seat role.old for her age. But the cast know her as Horrible Hayley, Angel of Death, because she befriends all these old people in case they snuff it and leave her all their money.
'I'm also getting very good at acting with speakers - they have to record all the children's parts in advance. But I love doing The Archers, especially as I only came in for one episode originally.'
However, it's The Office that has made Davis hot TV property over the past couple of years, despite a steady stream of work in television, film and radio in the nine years since she left the Italia Conti stage school in London.
Another recent role was a murder victim in the BBC's Murder in Mind series, as an attractive, blonde, kind and bubbly call-centre worker who the attracts the jealous and murderous ministrations of Pauline Quirke's obsessively-jealous, drab and plainmanager. It was a role that could have cost her her life, physically as well as fictionally.
'There's this rule that everyone goes in and does their thing - actors, costume, make-up,' she explains. 'When I started, I used to go in and, say, clear up some coffee cups. But then you'd get someone coming along and saying 'that's my job; if I don't do it properly, the responsibility stops with me'. It's disrespectful.
'Anyway, in Murder in Mind, Pauline had to come up behind me, put her hand over my mouth, and stab me with some dress-making shears. I'd just come from panto, and thought we'd have retractable-blade scissors. But no, it was the real thing, but I'd have this shield that was about as thick as a chair-back. So we did the scene - stab, stab, stab, everything fine. Then we had to shoot it from another angle, and they had to take the padding out because it was visible.
'I was thinking, 'Obviously they'd have told her', and almost didn't say anything. Then I thought, 'Lucy, this is your life here'. So I said 'Er, Pauline, you do realise they've taken the padding out...' She obviously hadn't heard - she just laughed abit nervously and nodded. So I repeated it. She didn't know! I didn't tell anyone about it, but I learned a lesson there.'
With her stunning looks - Davis is about five foot five, petite, with gorgeous greenyhazel eyes and wavy, baby-blonde hair - it's strange TV hasn't taken advantage of her obvious professional talents on a more frequent basis, although already the 29-year-old is beginning to think she's getting a little typecast.
'It's probably because I'm blonde,' she says. 'I've thought about dying my hair red to see what parts I get offered.
'People do have this ideas of blondes being dippy - but then again I am,' she says, self deprecatingly. But few blondes have the wit and irony that probably comes with the territory when you're Jasper Carrott's daughter.
'I was putting together my showreel the other day and was saying to my boyfriend that I've only ever done blonde parts - smiling and sweet - so how will I ever be considered for anything else? I've never played a cold-hearted bitch.
'But then again, I've done period drama - Pride and Prejudice ;The Grand, which was 1920s period drama, where I played a really screwed-up girl who is supposed to have been recovering from appendicitis, but really it's an abortion as she had beenrepeatedly abused by her dad; and there's The Belfry Witches with Laura Sadler from Holby City, which is children's drama, plus Hayley from The Archers., and a couple of bits of theatre and other TV work. So I have done lots of different things really.'
Davis has just finished filming a Dalziel and Pascoe Christmas two-parter, which will get her double exposure as she plays identical twins. The cast also includes Dervla Kirwan, John Sessions, Jack Dee, Bill Maynard, and Pauline McGlynn from Father Ted.
And yesterday she heard she has got the lead role in a film for BBC drama due out at the end of January called The Real Arnie Griffin. A long way from The Office's frustrated Dawn, who, until this week's bombshell for Tim, seemed destined to end her daysbehind the reception desk at Wernham Hogg.
'You have to live up to your potential, and I'm so lucky in that I really love what I do,' says Davis. 'You have to put yourself forward, but without being arrogant and pushy - it is a fine line.
'But I'd hate to get to the age of 50, look back and think I'd never done anything. It would ruin the second half of my life.'

©2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited

Print Articles
Birmingham Post
Evening Standard
A New Dawn
The Next Big Things
The Independent
We Love Lucy
10 Girlie Seconds with Lucy Davis
LA Home For Lucy

The Wedding of the Year
Daily Mail Engagement Announcement
Office Star Marries at St. Paul's
Office Romance ends in Fairytale Wedding
Lucy of the Office Marries at St. Paul's
The Office Royal Wedding
Lucy's Wedding Aids Kids