Doing justice

Erin Richards stars as a Welsh magistrate whose past catches up with her in what becomes a personal case

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Erin Richards was determined to nail the role of Claire Lewis Jones in Mudtown, a dark new six-part drama.

The Welsh star plays a magistrate whose world unravels when her daughter's childhood friend is accused of arson. But the hardest part? Filming the entire series back-to-back - once in Welsh, and once in English. The English edition is airing on U&Alibi, while the Welsh version was shown last year on S4C.

“It was really challenging,” Erin, 41, says. “I speak Welsh and went to Welsh school, but my Welsh isn’t great. I don’t speak it a lot in my day-to-day life. Filming this series, I actually got a lot better and quicker. It clicked halfway through. I'm going to send my son to a Welsh school and pick it up more.”

Despite speaking the language, switching tongues on set has never been easy for Erin. “When I first came out of drama college, I took a job on a live Welsh magazine programme for BBC and S4C,” she says. “I had to speak Welsh and it was terrifying, because the whole time, my brain was whirling. It was an absolute nightmare. Mudtown was like that again.”

The show also marks Erin's first time leading a major drama, following roles in The Crown, Gotham, Being Human and Misfits. “It was definitely different. It felt like I had a real responsibility,” she says. Her previous experience behind the camera, when she directed episodes of