Passion and exoticism in India's heat

Julie Walters as Cynthia and Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Ralph in Indian Summers.

Emotions run hot in the quietly subversive drama ‘Indian Summers’, starring Henry Lloyd-Hughes

What was the attraction of Indian Summers?

When you're presented with a one-line description of a show like Indian Summers you think: Okay, the British Empire in India, I think I know the way this is going.

But Paul [Rutman, the writer] is a quietly subversive person. At every stage of the script characters do things that are strange and make people uncomfortable. It presents a much more interesting and complex portrait of that world and that time than has ever been done before. There's this creeping sensation of people trying to cling on to something they know is slipping away from them.

How does Ralph fit into that?

As private secretary to the Viceroy of India, Ralph knows he has to keep this world going - his job is to keep one step ahead of facts and information, and maintain a sense of business as usual even when the subtext indicates the opposite.

The luxury of playing a character in a 10-part series like this is that I get to spend so much time with the character of Ralph and explore him in real depth.

Ralph is immersed in India and everything about it, yet he's an establishment man. How conflicted is he?

It's complicated. Ultimately, having grown up in India he feels more Indian than English. He embodies everything the British Empire is about, but he has also done everything he can to maintain his way of life in India because he has become obsessed with the place.

It all happens in quite a subtle way: he says one thing to the viceroy then does something slightly different. These political machinations reflect how he is a bit more progressive than he at first appears.

How long has Ralph been in India?

He lived there as a child, with his sister Alice, played by Jemima West, from birth to the age of 13. Then he was educated in England to the age of 21, after which time he returned to India and has been there for nine years.

Has he always been groomed for the top?

Absolutely. His father was a district officer in the civil service, but Ralph has already outstripped that rank.

He comes from a government family and through school and university. It was unequivocal that he'd follow in his father's footsteps.

His relationship with his sister, Alice, is a strange one.

Alice embodies an ideal of his childhood and of family, because they're both orphans.

He loves her, but he loves her so much he wants to keep her in a glass cabinet. It's an overbearing, overprotective love. But he really wants her to be happy in India, under his tutelage.

Ralph and American socialite Madeleine, played by Olivia Grant, get together early on. How does that relationship develop?

The physical connection is incredibly strong. Ralph is in love with her exoticism. She's American, sexy, from a completely unknown sensibility.

It's not that they don't have a romantic relationship, it's whether he can access those emotions himself. There are aspects of his life that are closed to him, that he has repressed because he's not fully in control of them.

Did you need to do much background research for the part?

Yes. I spent time at the British Library, which had an unbelievable archive - not even prints or copies, but the real thing. Looking through private diaries and photo albums made all the difference. I also spent a day in the civil service at the Treasury, which helped me work out exactly what it meant to be a private secretary. These guys are so smart and quick that I allowed myself to think the sky was the limit in terms of their cleverness.

Indian Summers premieres tonight at 8.30pm on TV One.