TelevisionThe teen actor from Rotherhithe on playing a young Burke, winning awards and joining Call The Midwife"God, you know what kids are like these days." Without the slightest touch of irony, Ami Metcalf, 18, throws a conspiratorial eyeroll. Saving a dramatic sigh specially for the supposed excesses of modern youth, Metcalf is sitting in the west London offices of a TV production company, romanticising the appeal of being a teenager some 30 years ago. "It's such a different time, it was simpler then. Just two friends together on their own, not having to impress each other."
Back in 2010, Ami played a teenage Kathy Burke in Sky1's series of celebrity Christmas shorts, Little Crackers. Sky was so impressed with Burke and her onscreen mini-me, it commissioned a standalone series: Walking And Talking, a semi-fictionalised look at Kathy's life, aged 14, scrapping on the streets of Islington in 1979. The series itself was written entirely by Burke, who also stars in it as sweary, chain-smoking Angry Nun, the foil to Pretty Nun, played by Sean Gallagher, both teachers at the school the girls attend. It's a wonderfully sweet show, anchored by the central relationship between best friends Kath and Mary. Burke exactly nails the tone and the priorities of teenage girls; chiefly boys, snogging, local loons and terrifying teachers. Even the most insignificant minutiae of daily life is important when you're 14 and Burke does well to remember what it felt like to be that age. ("They call her Kentucky … cos she's finger-lickin good!").
Still, Burke is understandably a little nervous about the programme's reception: "I didn't realise it was such a big ask to have just two girls on screen, with not very much going on, but [Sky] went for it. I just hope [the audience] get all the little nods to those 70s books and films."
Even if they don't, it's difficult to see how anyone could truly dislike it. Kathy Burke inspires so much matey goodwill, is so genuinely charming and funny without much trying, that it's near impossible to slag her off. Or find anyone else who will.
'I remember thinking at the first audition: I don't even look like Kathy Burke'
"Everyone loves Kath," agrees Ami. "But everyone on this show was really nice, to be honest. I really got on with them." Dressed in a regulation adolescent ensemble of black skinny jeans, stripes, hoodie and a wristful of beads, her cockney vowels spiral around the room, intermittently punctuated by nervous giggles.
"Kids can do more now than they did then. They can be connected to anyone, but … I just find people my own age really annoying," she blurts out. "I've always preferred hanging out with older people." It's just as well: Ami quit her A-levels last year to focus on "being a grown-up" and concentrate on acting full time. The youngest of three sisters and one brother, she grew up in south-east London, with a single mum who works as a teaching assistant. "I've lived in the same house all my life."
Her first role came in the sophomoric daytime drama, Doctors, two years ago. Metcalf was swiftly nominated for a British Soap Award for Best Dramatic Performance from a Young Actor – "I only found out two days before the ceremony," she says – and then, to her shock, won. It was a major coup for her but also for Doctors: in the 13 years the ceremony has been going, the programme has only won a total of nine awards to the 79 and 68 collected respectively by EastEnders and Coronation Street.
The gentle buzz building since around Metcalf's career has been palpable; Kathy Burke calls her "a little smasher" and says, "I like the cut of her jib." Casting directors certainly seem to be paying closer attention since the two worked together. Metcalf is currently filming the Christmas special of Call The Midwife, the medical drama set in the East End of the 50s. She also spent five months on the revived Upstairs, Downstairs last year, playing scene-stealing kitchen skivvy Eunice.
It's Walking And Talking, though, that folk have their eyes on; a chance to see how far Metcalf can shine in a major lead role. True, the series is an exercise in indulgent nostalgia – but only in the very best way: the minute attention to period detail; the way it looks as if it was actually made in the 70s; and the tribute it pays to that classic, lost TV staple, the working-class sitcom (a genre last seen floundering in the 90s with Only Fools And Horses, Desmond's and Birds Of A Feather, before giving way to middle-class comedies such as My Family, Outnumbered and Rev).
"I remember thinking at the first audition, 'I don't even look like Kathy Burke," Ami says now. A crooked set of fake teeth and a raggedy wig have played their part in Metcalf's transformation but the real work – adopting Kathy Burke's bobbing gait, the flat pitch of her voice, the naturally funny timing – is all her. "I can't remember what tips Kath gave me; I'm useless aren't I? She was just really warm and lovin'. I look up to her a lot."
'They say as you get older you learn from the young. Ami was mother-henning me more than I was her'
Later on, I ask Burke if the redhead from Rotherhithe was a sure thing from the very first audition. "There was actually a girl who looked a lot more like me, but [Ami's] got an old-fashioned charm. She's got to engage [the audience] at the end of the day, and she is a real leading lady. Beautifully brought up as well. She's new London but she doesn't talk in that street way kids from round there do now, which is so rare." I wonder whether Burke feels a sense of responsibility for the rapid upward trajectory Ami's career will take once the series is broadcast. "Listen, they say as you get older you learn from the young. She was mother-henning me more than I was her!"
Ami scoffs at the suggestion. Sitting opposite me on a small sofa, she sounds confident – bright, breezy. But she's also obviously shy and unconsciously builds up a wall of cushions between us, often breaking off to apologise in the middle of a question, asking, "Can we come back to that one?", hyper-aware of her own nerves. I query whether or not she identifies with young Kathy's character much. "Oh, definitely. Her best mate's the one with the boyfriend and Kath is always left on the side. That's like me. She's the one who gives her mate all this advice and wants to protect her, and I'm really strong about all that stuff, too.'"
That said, Ami hasn't kept in touch with any of her old school mates and is best friends with her older sister: "She's 22, we just drive around in her car, doing silly voices and having a laugh." But she's definitely something of a throwback, an old head on young shoulders. Metcalf doesn't care much for youth culture cool, but adores Morecambe & Wise, Madness, Lee Evans, Michael Caine and West End musicals. "I'd love to work on something really happy like Jersey Boys or Priscilla except I can't actually sing or dance. Same with film, I want to do it but I'm not good enough yet." Surely she's not supposed to admit that? "But it's true. That's why right now I like doing comedy; you can just be a bit of a dickhead and really let yourself go."
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