TV Week, 28/11/98
The Hot Young Talent of 98 (Lucy came in at number 16 in this TV Week poll)
It's amazing what a difference a few weeks can make in the television industry. When Murder Call's Lucy Bell stepped into the studio on a dreary Saturday afternoon she filled the cavernous room with laughter and energetically high kicked her way through a lightning fast photo shoot.
Only a matter of weeks later, the strain of working long hours for months on end are starting to show. Murder Call is only a matter of weeks away from finishing work on it's second season and both cast and crew feel a little like they've been through the wringer. In fact, before a massage from her long time friend and Murder Call co-star Jennifer Kent, Lucy felt like she'd been through the wringer, spin cycle and then tumble dried.
Talking about a break in the not too distant future is the perfect complement to her massage, and soon she's mentally as relaxed as she is physically.
"It feels like there is so much happening out there right now," she says. "There are so many films, there's interesting television things happening and there's great theatre happening here at the moment with new and established theatre companies. There's a real excitement about representing our culture in all of those mediums which I think is very energising. It's not just American shows and movies anymore."
Like many of her twenty-something peers, Lucy is planning to put her public profile, her ideas, and her spare time to good use when Murder Call wraps for the year.
"When you are starting out in drama school it feels like you just go wherever the offers are, but now it's a bit more like I know the kind of work I want to do and I want to make some of my ideas into realities," she says.
"I don't know if I'll be doing it single handedly, but I'll be trying to generate other projects for myself, that's for sure. There is something very attractive about making an idea come to life. I feel like I want to stretch myself."
"As an actor, my hope for the future is that people will be able to see a variety of what I can do. When you're doing a series, there is one of facet of your character that people get to know. I'm hoping that the work I do in the future will be different. I'm hoping there will be some comedy and some different kinds of roles."