May 21 – Interview with Emma Paetz who plays who plays Dr Graves in The Famous Five The Eye Of The Sunrise

What three things should we know about Dr Graves?

She’s very smart and dedicated but you probably shouldn’t trust her.

Tell us more about Dr Graves?

Dr Graves is a psychiatrist and she works for the Greenpoint Institute. She’s very ambitious and she really cares about her patients. You could say she’s a baddie or you could say she’s misguided, that she’s not going about it in the right way. She’s got such clear intentions and strong convictions, she’s really fun to play.

What do you think her motivations are?

She’s seen some pretty traumatic things with her patients, specifically with PTSD that they experienced after the First World War, and she’s just trying to find a way to help people. She’s really influenced by these developing ideas from Jung and Freud, she believes very passionately that she can help people. She has really zeroed in on how she’s going to help people and is not focussing on the harm that she’s doing to others.

Have they met their match in The Famous Five?

Definitely, Dr Graves and Sir Lincoln Aubrey are no match for The Famous Five!

What three words would you use to describe The Famous Five?

Courageous, inventive and loyal.

Would you say you’re similar to any of the Five?

I wouldn’t say I’m similar to any of them specifically but something about running around in all these countryside locations does remind me of when I was a kid. I grew up in a neighbourhood with a gang of kids my age and we all rode around on our bikes until it got dark.

The Famous Five is so well-known, how is it being made fresh and new for modern audiences?

I think what’s new and fresh about it comes from the scripts. It is set as a period piece but the way they speak to each other and relate to each other is familiar to us, it doesn’t feel separate and divided from us in time, it feels very immediate.

Did you have a favourite scene?

I’m really enjoying the circus scenes. I really like it whenever you get to do something where there’s a lot of crowd work and costumes, hair and make-up. There’s a sense of adventure for us filming it, there are so many different locations we’re going to. We’ve been in the studio and in the Welsh countryside, they are such beautiful spots that you feel like you don’t have to work that hard to lock into an adventurous tone.

Which locations have you been to?

We were outside Abergavenny, which is the cottage exteriors of their house, with beautiful hillsides, sheep, rabbits and a lot of wasps.

We’re at Giffords Circus which is a real circus. A lot of the circus performers are the supporting artists in our scenes, there’s a fire-breather and a lot of ponies – the ponies have their own hair and make-up – and amazing acrobats who have been doing their own routines.

What do you hope people feel when they watch?

I hope it makes people feel good, you’re very easily transported. It’s very wholesome and familiar.

Nicolas Winding Refn (byNWR) and Matthew Read (Moonage Pictures) bring Enid Blyton’s classics to life with a new and fresh reimagining of the iconic stories.

Joining the cast for the third episode, The Famous Five – The Eye Of The Sunrise, are Jason Flemyng (Snatch) as circus magician the Great Supremo and Art Malik (True Lies) as Sir Lincoln Aubrey.

It’s late August 1939 and George comes across the Great Supremo who is on the run from malevolent pursuers. She manages to convince her cousins that they should protect him and the Five hide him in their den where he tells them about a powerful treasure he guards, the Eye of the Sunrise.

But the Five’s promise proves impossible to keep as Dr Rosamund Graves and her burly assistant Bradley arrive from the local psychiatric institute to take Supremo away. He’s not just a magician, he’s a psychiatric patient. Can the Five trust anything he says?

But George believes in Supremo and she wonders if Dr Graves’ care is really in the Supremo’s best interest?

In an action-packed episode, the Five take on another epic adventure as the circus comes to town and they must contend with new adversaries, a terrifying new threat and an old enemy now offering the hand of friendship.

George is played by Diaana Babnicova, Julian by Elliott Rose, Dick by Kit Rakusen, Anne by Flora Jacoby Richardson, Jo by Tilly Walker, Dr Graves by Emma Paetz, Bradley by Arthur Sylense, Wentworth by Jack Gleeson, Fanny by Ann Akinjirin and Quentin by James Lance.

The Famous Five is a BBC commission in co-production with German ZDF and in association with The Mediapro Studio for Spain, Portugal and Latin America. BBC Studios, who have a minority investment in Moonage Pictures, are distributing the series internationally.

• Watch The Famous Five – The Eye Of The Sunrise on BBC iPlayer from Saturday 25 May, on CBBC on Sunday 26 May and on BBC One on Monday 27 May

• Watch episode one: The Curse of Kirrin Island and episode two: Perils of the Night Train on iPlayer now

• All six epic episodes to exclusively premiere on Hulu in the U.S. on Friday, May 31