I auditioned in Britain and got the role. The casting was led internationally by Jeremy Zimmermann, alongside Laure Cochener and Lilia Trapani.

Jeremy has worked internationally for more than thirty years, with credits stretching from Willow and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves to Hellboy II, Moon and Tár. Being selected by a casting director with that range carried its own weight.

It was not about pretending a featured role was the centre of the series. It was about something more useful: a highly experienced casting department had seen the audition and decided I could be relied upon inside a major production.

The production flew me to Italy and put me in a four-star hotel. From there came the transport, costume, holding areas, caravans and the movement of a large international crew through some of Turin’s most imposing historic interiors.

The series filmed for five months across France, Italy and Malta. Turin and Piedmont supplied much of its nineteenth-century grandeur, including Palazzo Carignano—the historic home of the first Subalpine Parliament.

Scale changes the rhythm of the work. More departments, more money and more people depend on every actor doing exactly what is required. Reliability stops being a pleasant quality and becomes part of the production infrastructure.