Off the Cuff
ACTRESS ELEANOR MATSUURA TELLS DIVA ABOUT NEW POLICE DRAMA CUFFS AND WHY IT’S GOING TO AVOID THOSE PESKY “TRAGIC LESBIAN” TROPES
WORDS CARRIE LYELL
Cuffs is a fresh, authentic, contemporary eight-part police series created for BBC1 by Julie Gearey. Packed full of humour and humanity, it’s a fast-paced and visceral drama portraying the everyday rollercoaster of life as a police officer in the UK. We caught up with Eleanor Matsuura, who plays lesbian cop Donna Prager, to find out more.
DIVA: Your CV is pretty extensive! What might DIVA readers recognise you from?
ELEANOR MATSUURA: Utopia, I guess. I did a film of Spooks earlier on this year, which was a movie made from the TV show. God, I’m trying to think what on earth I’ve done. Isn’t that terrible? First question out of the gate and I’m like, “Oh no!”
There’s a lot of anticipation and excitement around your new show, Cuffs. What’s it all about?
Cuffs is a police drama that mainly follows the work and life of eight police officers in and around Brighton. It really embraces everything the city is, with the gay community being the heart of it. I play Donna Prager who is one of the response officers on the team. How would I describe her? She is a very tenacious, tough, passionate woman. She has these two great loves in her life – one being her job and one being her girlfriend – and as the series progresses you see her getting torn at times between these two things.