The Hill Gang are enjoying sunny Spain the second season of Snatch, but the holiday is soon flipped on its head when their lives and fortune are put in dire risk. Despite settling in the fictional coastal town of San Toledo very quickly, the Hill family runs afoul of the local kingpin, and soon find themselves pressed into the service of the crime boss.
Phoebe Dynevor and Juliet Aubrey return for Snatch season 2
With more drama than ever before expected by fans, we caught up with series star Juliet Aubrey, who plays matriarch Lily Hill, to see if we could prise any information from her about the new episodes! Here's what she had to reveal...
Can you tell us a little bit about the second season of Snatch and what fans should expect from the new batch of episodes?
The second series of Snatch is filmed as you probably know already in really sunny climes, a lot sunnier than rainy old Manchester. The characters have moved on; they start at an all-time low, and they go on some incredibly exciting journeys full of “snatchy” enterprises.
You play Lily Hill in the series; what are some of your favourite things about taking on this character?
Well Lily Hill is an interesting character, I was drawn to her, first and foremost because of Alex De Rakoff’s script which… he’s such a great writer. I was interested in her because she’s a learned parent bringing up two boys on her own while her husband’s in prison, trying to make all ends meet. She’s trying to avoid a life of crime but gets entangled into petty crime, but she’s an incredibly strong, very tough woman, who also shows that she has a wonderful sense of humour in difficult situations. She’s a great learner, she learns how to shoot a gun in 10 seconds; she learns how to drive a speedboat, powerboat, yacht, drive cars, and also at the same time, keep all the youngsters under control. Lily’s definitely the matriarch of the family and no decisions are really made without Lily’s say-so, so it was interesting to investigate her. She’s a very powerful woman, but with a very human side and a great sense of fun, and she’s not scared to change. She goes on an immense change throughout series 2, which I hope you will enjoy!
Can you tell us a little bit about a typical day filming Snatch? If there were indeed any ‘typical’ days!
Well my typical day, we were living in Spain where the climate was so gorgeous. I’d wake up in the morning, put my coffee on, have a quick dip in the sea, come back, do my yoga, have my coffee, squeeze my oranges and go to work, with an amazing, beautiful Spanish crew; wonderful, wonderful people. I was learning Spanish on a daily basis which was quite exciting because it’s so easy to learn while you’re in the country.
So there, you get to set and there is the big fandango of all the caravans, Winnebago’s, the big circus set-up; a lovely group of people and interesting directors. We were shooting very, very quickly. We were having to think on our feet and react very quickly to new scripts that were being shoved through the door at the last minute, which is also very exciting as an actor because I’ve done a lot of theatre, and there you know what your character would do in any situation at any given time, you have time to research, you have time to improvise, to know completely your backstory, so the same theory applies to such a “snatchy”, fast way of filming, but you have to have that knowledge behind it in order to make it work so quickly on a day-to-day basis. Great people, lovely scripts, I’ve enjoyed it a lot.
How did you find working with the likes of Luke [Pasqualino, who plays Albert Hill] and Dougray [Scott, who plays Vic Hill] in the series?
Dougray Scott, he plays my husband Vic. In the first series he’s in prison a lot of the time and I’m at home a lot of the time, living very, very separate lives and we are very much at odds, but in her personal life we get on extremely well; I admire Dougray very much as an actor and we had a great work ethic together; I really enjoyed working with him.
Luca I absolutely loved working with as well; he’s a very talented actor who is also very excited about exploring new avenues, and is not scared of change and going with the flow; he’s happy to improvise with me as well, which is fun.
How about director Tom Dey? What’s he like to work with?
Tom Dey is a lovely man; he’s a gentle giant; he’s very clear, very precise. I think it was a tough schedule for all of the directors. We were shooting a lot of footage every day. He kept his sense of humour; he’s a very calm, lovely man.
The second series mid-September in the US; how have you found the response from fans following the new season’s release?
The fans have been unbelievably positive about it; it’s very exciting, and it’s keeping up, and the fans here [in the UK] who are going to start watching it soon from next week – it’s keeping that separate from them! Because they all wanna know what happens as well. The response has been fantastic actually, yeah, very positive, so it’s exciting.
What are some of the biggest teasers you can give us about Snatch season 2 without giving away any big spoilers?
Oo, teasers! Well… Everyone goes on a journey; Lily in particular goes on a journey that you would not expect in any way. It involves mastering a specific skill which is dangerous, and she has to be fast and think on her feet at all times!
What would you personally like to see your character go through after this season? How would you like to see her develop?
Personally, if I was to bring my own personal life into it, I’m a massive extreme sports enthusiast, water sports especially, I’d love to see Lily kitesurfing, that’d be great.
Away from Snatch, are there any other TV shows that you’d love to be a part of in the future?
Yeah, my own that I’m writing at the moment! No I’m joking. There are many projects that I’m interested in; there are many roles that I want to play. I continue to keep going back to theatre which is my first love, so there are lots of roles in the theatre that I would love to play. Thinking on my feet I would probably say Mother Courage is a play I would love to do, and I respond when I read the script, and you never really know with an original piece of writing until you read it whether you want to do it.
What do you like to do in your spare time away from work to relax and unwind?
My go-to every day that I do every day is yoga. I practice yoga every day, which is wonderful in Spain because I had the time and the space to do that, and I like to run, and I surf. I do a lot of surfing. I tend to surf a lot in the North East of England which is cold, you need at least a 5, 4mm wetsuit if you’re staying for any length of time in the North East.
Finally, what’s next for you in the coming months leading into 2019?
I can’t actually talk about that right now! There’s a few projects that are “possibles”, that I haven’t yet committed to, but there are some very exciting things that are coming up for me.
Actually in between filming and theatre projects I really love to do radio, and I’m reading a book next week for Radio 4 which is about Marie Colvin, the American journalist, who died when she was in Syria. So I’m playing her next week for Radio 4. Other than that I have a film project and theatre project next year that I’m really excited about.
Snatch season 2 airs Tuesdays at 9pm on AMC on BT TV.
Tagged in Snatch