Michelle Keegan reveals RIVAL TV show inspired her new police drama The Blame

Michelle Keegan knew just who to ask for advice when she landed her first TV cop role — her dad. When she took on her first-ever role playing a cop, Michelle Keegan knew the perfect person to turn to for advice – her dad. Advertisement The Fool Me Once actress stars as tough detective Emma Crane in new ITV thriller The Blame, which is an unflinching look at misogyny within the police as she tries to catch the killer of a schoolgirl. The murder inquiry spirals into a tangled web of lies, institutional cover-ups as she discovers the men she calls her colleagues might be involved. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Thank you! Email address Please provide a valid email. Your info will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy You'll now receive top stories, breaking news, and more, straight to your email. Michelle says she was determined to make sure she did justice to real-life officers, so would grill her dad Michael, who joined the force as a teenager and rose to the rank of Inspector. She said: 'This is the first time I've played a police officer and the thing is, my dad was in the police force. 'He was an inspector having been in the police since he was 17. So I used to go to him and go, 'Dad, what do you think about this?' 'When I was doing the meeting scenes, because my dad obviously was quite high rank, I was like, 'How would you talk to people in the police force and how was your body language?' 'I used to go to him quite a lot actually. He was a good resource. Advertisement 'I spoke to him about the kind of misogyny and sexism that he experienced when he was working in the police force. 'He said because he was a police officer back in the '70s and '80s, there were hardly any women in the police force, and he only had a couple in his team. 'But he said they were treated equally. There might have been lad banter, which we get nowadays. He said that's never changed, that's always been there.' Advertisement There was also inspiration for the ITV thriller from a TV show on rival Channel 4. Michelle said: 'We also watched a lot of 24 Hours in Police Custody. It's quite addictive. 'And we had an amazing police adviser on set, Lisa. Again, great for me, a female police officer, and she was absolutely fantastic.' Michelle said Lisa would pull them up if something did not ring true, especially during tense interview scenes. She added: 'She was there saying stuff about body language. She was very black and white, like, 'That don't make sense, you wouldn't do that.' Advertisement 'You want to get it right on screen so it was great to have her.' Michelle admits she felt a 'sense of responsibility' portraying Emma, a strong female detective trying to hold her own in a male-dominated workplace. She said: 'I felt a sense of responsibility to make it as fair and accurate as possible, definitely. 'Emma, as a character, she's a very strong female in a male-dominated environment, and I feel like she holds her own. She's one of those girls that will take no nonsense. And I just found that really exciting. 'We love to see it on screen and there's not enough of it on screen.' Advertisement While the focus is on misogyny within the police, with the show's writer using real life text exchanges between officers, Michelle reckons the issue is felt in offices up and down the country. And she hopes the drama will prompt others to speak out. She said: 'I think with this show, we want to start a conversation at the end of it. 'Something that people can relate to in their workplace and speak up and feel comfortable to speak up as well. 'If they don't feel comfortable in a certain way, they have got a way now of talking to different people and speak up about it up, and hopefully people can recognise that behaviour as well. Advertisement 'Be more Emma. What would Emma do?' But there was one part of becoming a detective Michelle found particularly challenging, mastering the mountain of police jargon. She admitted: 'It's very heavy with police terminology and you have to get it spot on every single time.' Co-star Douglas Booth, however, helped stop her from panicking whenever she stumbled over her lines. Michelle said: 'Doug would always have my back. Advertisement 'Even if I fluffed a few lines, he would make me feel very, very calm about it, and I wouldn't spiral like Emma would spiral. 'I never spiralled, and that was because of Doug.' And viewers can expect plenty of surprises when The Blame hits screens because even Michelle was blindsided by its twists. She teased: 'I'm gonna say how it is. I did not see the twists coming. 'I was very shocked. I think the audience are gonna be shocked as well.' Advertisement The Blame launches on ITV1 and ITVX September 20. Juggle is real for AJ & Will AJ Odudu has squeezed into another latex number to launch the new series of Big Brother with co-host Will Best. And they'll both need to be flexible to juggle a manic workload this autumn. After finishing on ITV's reality series, AJ will jet off to Australia for I'm A Celebrity, while Will is featuring on this year's Strictly Come Dancing. Advertisement He laughed: 'I have no idea whether I can dance so it's going to be quite stressful. But the juggle will be fine. 'And the main thing is, I've got Big Brother every night to watch to calm me down.' AJ added: 'I'll be doing all the Big Brother social stuff and I'll be watching [new spin-off] The Group Chat. That will be my main focus, and then Will will be dancing. 'It's going to be the biggest, longest series in this iteration of Big Brother ever.' The show returns on Sunday on ITV2 and ITVX at 9pm. Advertisement Wossy's the new cuff guy Jonathan Ross has started work on the new series of Handcuffed on Channel 4 following the huge success of the first series. Though he says doing it is a little tiring as he has to get involved more this time. On his Reel Talk podcast he said: 'I do actually physically cuff them. I'm doing the cuffing. Oh baby, I've been promoted! 'And I quite like doing the cuffing. It gives me a sense of power over these poor people.' Advertisement He added: 'There's some really interesting pairings this time. Seven couples have already been sent off, and I'm not gonna say what's happened but we've had quite a lot of drama already and quite a lot of nice human kind of like quite touching moments as well, so it's really interesting. 'But it's a hard day's work for someone of my age because on the day when you send them all off you're on your feet all day and you're interviewing like eight people more than once, twice, and then you do them on stage again, and then you do the handcuffing. 'It's only a few days of the year, don't worry. But I'm looking forward to taking a break.' Ray: It's Strictly business Advertisement Ray Winstone is giving Strictly bosses a fresh headache ahead of the new series. The movie hardman has teased himself and Danny Dyer could come to blows in the audience if their daughters Jaimie and Dani – fall out during the competition. The Cockney stars are old pals and have recently finished filming a movie, but according to Ray, their relationship could be severely tested when the series kicks off on September 19. On Ramesh Ranganathan's podcast, Ray said: 'Maybe we'll meet up, me and Danny, watch our daughters do their thing and we can have a fight in the audience – and end Strictly for good. 'That was a liberty, Dan. Your daughter took a liberty then.' Advertisement RECOMMENDED STORIES 'Imagine if Strictly Come Dancing finishes? The Dyers and the Winstones blow it up.' Makes a change from the infighting behind the scenes.