Dodger – Con & Bex talk living in Dickensian Times with Billy Jenkins, Ellie-May Sheridan and Mila Lieu!!!
What’s the best magic trick you’ve ever seen? (Con age 14)
Billy Jenkins – Recently I was on Blue Peter and magician, Dan Rhodes, performed a really cool card trick on Aabay (Charlie in Dodger) and myself it was so clever, I was really impressed.
Ellie-May Sheridan – Probably Billy doing the ‘Find the Lady’ card trick as Dodger. I remember thinking ‘I could easily find the right card!’, but when I actually tried I couldn’t do it even with loads of attempts!
Mila Lieu – The best magic trick I’ve seen was when Dynamo walked on water on the River Thames. How is that even possible?!
Have you ever stolen anything and if yes what was it and why did you steal it? (Bex age 10)
Billy Jenkins – No I’m not like my character I would never steal! However my dog Buddy loves to steal peoples socks!
Ellie-May Sheridan – Unlike Polly, I don’t need to steal to survive so I don’t! However, my older sister loves to tell people the story that when I was around 3, I had an obsession with one of her toys, so I took it, and accidentally dropped it into a river. We were both devastated. I really loved that toy! Just shows that stealing doesn’t get you anywhere!
Mila Lieu – No, I’ve never really stolen anything intentionally but occasionally I will take the phone charger out of my parents’ room and my Mum would be frantically searching for it.
What do you think would be the scariest thing about living in London during the time of Dodger? (Bex age 10)
Billy Jenkins – The scariest thing about living the time of Dodger would be getting ill and having to have an operation without any pain killers or going to
Ellie-May Sheridan – Probably getting ill! Diseases used to spread quite easily in the poorer areas of London due to overcrowding. It didn’t help that drinking water was often contaminated with sewage! Also, health care was not very accessible for people who didn’t have much money, so if you did get sick, it was really difficult to get the right medicine.
Mila Lieu – The scariest thing about living in London would be the pollution in the city that is extremely bad
for people, especially young children. My character Tang was poorly because of this.
What’s the hardest thing about acting in a Period drama show? (Con age 14)
Billy Jenkins – I really enjoyed acting in a period drama. However, if I had to pick one thing that I didn’t enjoy it would be having the rotten teeth painted on every day, it tasted disgusting!
Ellie-May Sheridan – We improvised a lot on set and there were lots of words that we would say that weren’t used back then. We all got pretty good at knowing which words to avoid, but we got caught out saying ‘ok’ loads of times because we’re all so used to saying it!
Mila Lieu – By far, I think the daily Make-up they apply is the hardest! I had to have tons of conditioner in my hair in order to make it look greasy, have black & brown make-up on my face AND some sort of teeth paint making my teeth look terrible! My Mum was horrified when she first saw me with my dirty teeth as she is a Dentist!
What was your favourite scene you filmed in Dodger and why did you enjoy it so much? (Bex age 10)
Billy Jenkins – My favourite scenes in Dodger were the action scenes, I love the stunts. The river scene when Jack Dawkins is trying to escape the mill was really fun to do.
Ellie-May Sheridan – My favourite scene is a major spoiler! But there are so many moments I loved. In episode 3, there’s a scene I really enjoyed filming with Billy and Julian Barratt. Billy was wearing this ridiculous outfit with an equally ridiculous wig and that was making me laugh all day anyway, but then him and Julian started doing this hilarious little dance barefoot on the grass which no one was expecting because they’d both made it up on the spot! I love working with Billy, and it was a treat to have Julian on set for a few days, he’s really lovely and so effortlessly funny.
Mila Lieu – My favourite scene has to be when Sam (who plays Bill Sikes) helps me and the gang down the ladder to Madam Tussaud’s workshop & I got to mess around with fake wax eyes and scared Tom with them.
If you could meet anyone from that period, who would you want to meet and why? (Bex age 10)
Billy Jenkins – If I could pick someone to meet from that period, I think it would be Charles Dickens. I’d love to have a chat and maybe have him read me one of his stories!
Ellie-May Sheridan – I’d love to meet Emily Pankhurst. She kickstarted the Suffragettes and it would be wonderful to talk to someone with that much courage. She went against everything that was considered ‘acceptable’ at the time and that takes an incredible amount of bravery.
Mila Lieu – I think I would like to meet Harriet Tubman as she is a very brave lady who help free lots of slaves in America.
She also did lots of other amazing things too! She showed bravery and compassion.
If Charles Dickens was to watch Dodger, what do you think he’d say about it? (Con age 14)
Billy Jenkins – I think Charles Dickens would be really pleased and enjoy watching Dodger. I think he would be proud of the new characters that the writers, Rhys Tomas and Lucy Montgomery, have created and enjoy the stories they have written using his original characters.
Ellie-May Sheridan – I’d like to think he’d really enjoy it. It shows all the madness of Victorian London, which he is said to have loved. It has parts to make you laugh and parts to make you cry, just like his books!
Mila Lieu – I think he’d say he really enjoyed it as Dodger is a mixture of comedy and have serious parts showing what life was like for lots of young people who are trying to survive in a world full of mean adults!
Dodger Available on iPlayer and CBBC – Review CLICK HERE!!!
