Brotherly LOVE

OLIVIA WILLIAMS and MONICA DOLAN on their touching new drama

- SEAN MARLAND

MY NAME IS LEON

NEW FRIDAY, 9 PM, BBC2 DRAMA

Monica Dolan's eyes fill with tears and she looks away from her laptop camera during our video interview. 'I'm starting to go now...' she says.

We've been discussing a moving scene in BBC2's new prime-time drama My Name Is Leon.

Based on the award-winning 2016 debut novel of the same name by Kit de Waal, the story is set in 1980s Birmingham against the backdrop of the race riots and centres on Leon (TV newcomer Cole Martin), a nine-year-old mixed-race boy who dreams of reuniting his family.

Following the birth of his white baby brother Jake, Leon's mother begins to struggle with depression, resulting in social worker Salma (Shobna Gulati) placing the two boys with foster carer Maureen (Monica).

Leon's devastated when Jake is subsequently adopted by a new family, leaving him with Maureen and her sister, Sylvia (Olivia Williams). However, he finds solace at the local allotment in the company of a Jamaican man, Tufty (Malachi Kirby), who opens his eyes to black culture.

Here, Monica and Olivia, both 53, tell us more...

Olivia, we hear you had read the novel a while ago...

OLIVIA Yes, I have a big connection with the book. I read it before it came out, because I was a judge on the Booker Prize in the year it was published. It didn't make it through, but I loved it and it really spoke to me of my husband's experience as an African-American who moved to rural England when he was six [Olivia is married to Keeping Faith star Rhashan Stone]. It's such a funny, sweet and moving book.

What are your takes on your characters, Maureen and Sylvia?