Brit of a do

ER doctor Alex Kingston relished "getting down and dirty" on location in Romania as the legendary Boudica in ITV1's film about Britain's warrior queen. Her look as the chariot-driving fighter who took on the Romans was very different to well-groomed Dr Elizabeth Corday in the hit American medical drama.

"Each morning I would put on my wig, braid the extensions with my own hair, then mess it all up," she recalls.

"My face and body would be covered in dirt and grime, my nails were filthy. Sometimes at the end of a long day's filming, there was no water left for us to wash it all off. So we'd get into our cars for the one-and-a-half hour drive back to the hotel, and then stomp through the reception area covered in blood and gore."

Boudica marks Kingston's return to work for British TV after a five-year absence. Filming was slotted around her ER schedule.

"Like most little girls, I was aware of the story of Boudica when I was at school, and knew the potted history of a woman who took her passions and beliefs into her own hands. It's a particularly wonderful story for little girls. It really captured my imagination," says Kingston.

The project reunites her with writer Andrew Davies and producer Gub Neal, with whom she previously collaborated on Moll Flanders. But she has no raunchy love scenes as she did in that series. "I didn't put a 'no nudity' clause into my contract," she says.

"I didn't stipulate, as I would never want to stifle a writer. If nudity is justified, as it was in Moll Flanders, then that's fine by me. But Boudica clearly wasn't going to be a sexual romp, as that's not the main thrust of the story. And Andrew, of course, found plenty of scope for that in the sexual activity of the Romans."

The actress is fascinated by the history of first century Britain and the role of women in that society. It's hard to understand, she says, because we're so bound up in psychotherapy and analysing every action before we do anything, whereas the ancient Britons lived for the moment. "This was long before the days of Freudian analysis. They acted on instinct," she says.

"I had great fun with the character. She lived in an amazing time when there was no prejudice in having a woman leading a tribe or clan. Part of a woman's function was, of course, to have children and raise a family, but they were also required out on the battlefield alongside their kids, fighting with the men.

"The whole set-up was wonderfully organic. The Iceni worked together within the village, everyone pulling together in all aspects which, I think, is something to be encouraged."

The skills she had to master to play Boudica including sword-fighting, horse-riding and chariot driving. She was fairly confident in the saddle, having ridden in several dramas before, but realised she was going to be spending more time at the reins of the chariot and spurring on the horses than anything else.

Chris Halstead was hired to turn her into an all-round fighter, able to fight with swords, both from horseback and while driving a chariot. He even built a proper wooden chariot for her to practice on the streets of Los Angeles. At first, he hooked his bike on to the front of the chariot, peddling away furiously as Kingston did her carefully-choreographed moves while balancing on the chariot.

"One morning a policeman pulled up alongside us and, apart from wondering what had happened to my horse, he was incredibly nice," she says.

"He didn't seem at all bothered by my swords and daggers, which surprised me as they were pretty sharp. He asked what we were up to, I sheepishly explained, and he was thrilled as by pure chance he'd seen a documentary the night before on Queen Boudica. So he didn't book me."

Then it was time for the real horse-drawn thing - a replica, copied from remains recently dug up and now in the British Museum.

"It turned out that the original, ancient chariot had the first suspension system ever created. It was so comfortable, you felt as if you were floating on air. So it was already pretty sophisticated, we just evolved it and modified it for stunts.

"However, I have to admit it was a bit frightening when the weather was bad, when it was slippery and muddy. I was fearful it might tip over, particularly when I was brandishing my weapons.

"All in all, it would have been easier to film in the summer. But the bad weather and general conditions contributed to the realistic look. We all began to feel like Celts, as we ate fairly basic food and trudged through the freezing snow and mud, with leather wrapped round our feet."

She feels a film about Boudica is very timely, in the wake of the success of films like Gladiator and Braveheart. Producer Gub Neal agrees: "It's epic in scale and it's got battles. It's clear that there's an interest at the moment in historical films with clashing armies. The other good thing about Boudica is that there's a romping good story there."

Kingston will be fascinated to see the American reaction to the film as she replaces the muddy wilds of Romania for the more antiseptic world of ER, for which she recently signed a further two-year contract.

Boudica, ITV1, Sunday, 9pm

25/09/2003