Mandeep Dhillon on ‘Mobland’, making music and the magic of Cartier 

Mandeep Dhillon was enjoying herself at a recent Usher concert when a group of concerned people came up to her mid-gig. “Is Seraphina okay? Please tell us,” they implored, “is she okay?” Days later, more people stopped her in the street to ask her the same question. Others, meanwhile, begged her not to tell them any spoilers whatsoever. This is what happens when you star in one of the most talked-about television shows of the year. 

“It’s a lot of fun to be part of a show where everyone’s waiting on a new episode on Sunday night,” Dhillon smiles over video call from her London home. The show in question is Mobland. From the world of Guy Ritchie, it follows an Irish crime family as they seek to take over the territory of rival drug-dealer gang. Women are at the centre of the action – like Dhillon’s character Seraphina, a high-end jewellery dealer and daughter of crime boss Conrad Harrigan (Pierce Brosnan) – and Helen Mirren’s Maeve, wife to Conrad and malevolent matriarch who makes Lady Macbeth look kind. Throughout the show’s ten, action-packed episodes, both emerge as potential front-runners to helm the family empire. 

“We need more females being badass boss bitches out here, don’t we?!” Dhillon says with a laugh, reflecting on her and Mirren’s characters in the show. “Seraphina is such a boss…and so driven by power and is more like Conrad than any of the children.” Her character in the show is half-sister to Conrad’s other children, eldest son Brendan (Daniel Betts) and Kevin (Paddy Constadine), having been the result of a one-night-stand Conrad had in his youth. Mirren’s Maeve despises Seraphina on account of this, so much so that she tried to have her killed – hence why fans were nervously asking if Seraphina was okay. 

“It’s a very fun playground because Seraphina knows she is loved by her dad and she’s the only person who doesn’t fear him – everyone else does,” Dhillon continues. “Maeve – who hates my character – knows Seraphina is a daddy’s girls and that he’s got her back, which is why she can be so up in Maeve’s face and give it back to her because she knows what’s what and Maeve hates that,” she laughs. In the show, Dhillon went toe-to-toe with Mirren in many scenes, something she describes as “pure joy”. “I want way more stuff with Maeve because it’s just wonderful to be able to go head-to-head. They’re two brilliant characters and the audience can have a lot of fun with that.”

Dhillon didn’t audition for the part of Seraphina in the show originally – in fact, in the first script she read, Seraphina wasn’t even there. She auditioned for the part of Zosia (now played by Jasmine Jobson) but was later offered Seraphina. She had 24 hours to accept and after hearing about the rest of the cast – which also includes Tom Hardy as family fixer Harry – she knew she couldn’t say no. “I remember getting the new script and reading the part of Seraphina…and I was like, ‘she’s amazing’. I saw Pierce was my dad, Helen was my step mum and Tom Hardy was the family fixer. I was like, ‘yeah mate, I’m in!’”

Another draw was the show’s wardrobe. Seraphina is frequently kitted out in high jewellery and designer styles in the show – something that she says is a world away from her own look, pointing to the blue hoodie and jeans as she chats to us. “I was in and out of Mayfair – Selfridges and Harrods – in and out of all these fancy jewellery and designer stores, just being in Seraphina’s world to prepare,” she explains of her research. “I loved Seraphina’s rings, and they really let me stack my ears with all these piercings. I loved my Cartier – especially the watch and bracelet. The whole wardrobe was incredible – shout out to Victoria Beckham – I wore a lot of her clothes. GANNI and Sandro, too. I kept messaging our costume designer. ‘You know that Burberry mac she wears? Can it just go missing?!’” 

Before getting the part, Dhillon says she knew little of the gangster genre at all. “I was famously one of those where people are like, ‘have you seen Scarface and I was like ‘no.’” However, she binged all the greats in the lead up to filming and realised then that her character was a watershed moment in the genre. “I hadn’t seen anyone like myself in the other gangster movies that I watched,” she explains, saying there were few women, and even fewer women of colour. “There are some female characters, but no one who’s of Indian descent.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a character like her…a lot of young Indians in the community have been saying it’s been so nice to be represented and I’m so happy I can do that. That’s what it’s all about: making it normal for the next generation.”

Dhillon has a history of being a first in this way, not least during her groundbreaking breakout role in BBC 3’s Some Girls, about a group of teenage girls on an inner-city estate. The comedy, which first aired in 2012, won praise for its diversity, representation of women, and its portrayal of the working classes. In 2015, she starred in the stage adaption of Meera Syal’s bildungsroman Anita and Me, about life in multi-cultural Britain, and a year later went on to work with Ricky Gervais in the Office-spin off, David Brent: Life on the Road and Afterlife. She was also a lead in acclaimed BBC police drama The City and the City alongside David Morrissey, which Dhillon has previously praised for its approach to colour-blind casting.

“Some Girls was a game changer,” she reflects now. “It was amazing what it did for the culture. To see a working-class comedy with four female leads, including one black and one brown… I think it was ahead of its time.” The show ran for three seasons and led a new wave of shows that pushed the needle on diversity. She reveals she’s recently been trying to get the cast back together. “I was trying to get a reunion off the ground. I got in touch with the BBC – I don’t know the outcome yet. I don’t know if it will happen or not but hey, let’s start a petition!”

Dhillon filmed the show while still living at home with her mum, a social worker, in Hertfordshire. The youngest of three, she dropped out of college after realising A-Levels weren’t for her and decided to study acting at college in London instead. She worked at a gym “rolling towels” she laughs, to make ends meet. As a working-class creative in an industry where there are few, things weren’t easy. “All the hard work was worth it,” she says, but adds that things “need to change” when considering that only eight percent of those working in TV are from backgrounds like hers.

“I think people from working class backgrounds have so many incredible stories to tell and stories that can heal, inspire and make change in the world. I don’t know how long it will take, but it has to happen. My experience in the industry has honestly been great, but I know many other people whose experience is not that.”

Dhillon grew up in a single-parent family, with her dad absent from infancy. She says when it came to Mobland and her relationship with her on-screen father, this was something that initially caused her consternation on account of having no such real-life relationship to draw from. “I remember learning the lines and being like: ‘how am I going to say ‘dad’ in a way that actually feels organic to me?’” 

She says Brosnan helped her by becoming a surrogate dad, both on and off set. “I love Pierce. He’s been such a joy to work with and to be around,” she effuses. “He made work so easy. I said to him I was a little bit nervous coming into this because I didn’t grow up with a dad myself.” After one day on set, he alleviated all her worries. “I met him and all of that [fear] went because he just treated me like a daughter straight away and it was actually so beautiful and healing for me. I’ll always, always be grateful to Pierce for that experience.”

Another great experience on Mobland came from working with Snatch director Guy Ritchie, who produces the show and directs several episodes. She says she loved the director’s famous improvisational style on set. “It’s organised chaos but I do believe in those moments,” she says. “That’s where the magic happens.”

She explains that one of the show’s early standout scenes in which she is in a café with her on-screen half-brother Brendan (Daniel Betts) – where he “jokingly” calls her “quite-fit” in a moment that’s fittingly cringey for the character – was not in the script at the start of the day’s filming, but is now one of the scenes she is most asked about. “Thank you very much for that, Guy,” she laughs. 

“In the morning [the crew] were like ‘oh, Guy said to come to his trailer, he just wants to go through the scene with you and Daniel.’ We rewrote the scene and then he was like ‘okay, I’ll start wide and by the time I get closer, you’ll know the lines.’ He then came onto set and said ‘I’m just going to throw some stuff out at you Mand – are you willing to just go along with it and do whatever I say?’ and I was like ‘yeah, let’s do it!’ I love stuff like that – which also goes back to working with Ricky Gervais for so many years.”

Like Ritchie, Gervais is known for his improvisational style. “A lot of stuff with Ricky in the past has all been improv,” Dhillon explains. “Some of our best camera moments are all improvised and I do think that if they’d have been scripted, they wouldn’t have been as impactful.” She says she learned a lot from Gervais about writing and directing – particularly as someone who has her own TV show in development now. “It was fascinating to watch Ricky direct. He really taught me to take ownership of your decisions and trust your gut on stuff – especially creative stuff.” She still sees Gervais today, as he lives close by her in London. “He always says he’s really proud of what I’m doing – as I am of him, too.”

According to Dhillon, one of the things she most enjoyed was working with Gervais on more emotive scenes in Afterlife, a show about mental health and grief. The actress is a passionate advocate for mental health and says she was pleased with how many conversations the show started. “I think anything that raises awareness about mental health is really important – we need more shows like it. Ricky is funny obviously, but I got to do scenes with him where I got to see the pain too. We got to act together and I loved that we had those moments – it was nice to be able to connect like that. He’s an incredible actor.”

Mobland also explores male mental health, but in unexpected ways, via the character of Kevin (Paddy Constadine) who is grappling with the abuse he experienced at the hands of a prison officer in his youth. “It’s so unique to have that sort of storyline in a gangster show like this,” she says. “And goodness me, Paddy broke my heart in episode nine [in a scene where he confronts his abuser]. It’s so important that men get to watch a man who goes through that experience break down and know that it’s okay. More stuff needs to be on TV to make it okay because you know, it’s 2025. We’ve all got to realise it’s normal. One in four people has mental health issues.”

On set, Dhillon says it was important they had lighter moments between shooting such intense scenes – of which Mobland has many – including one where Seraphina’s character nearly dies at the hands of a chainsaw-wielding drug baron. It sees her covered in blood (no spoilers – but it’s not hers) in a scene that ended up being shot dozens of times to get it just right. “It was intense,” she laughs. She says lightheaded moments joking around with other cast members on set helped, not least with Tom Hardy. She says they bonded over music. Dhillon has released music previously and is gearing up to release a new single, ‘12 Years’, which she says is “her most vulnerable song ever” and influenced by the likes of M.I.A., Lily Allen and Jessie Reyez.

“Tom loves a bit of hip-hop,” she laughs. “It’s been great working with him. He’s really cool. We both love music.” After that infamous chainsaw scene, Hardy’s character had to rescue Seraphina who was then, of course, covered in blood. “In rehearsals he was like, ‘do not hug me’ because he did not want all the blood on him and I was like ‘I’m going to fucking hug you Tom!’” In their next scene, Hardy is seen driving Dhillon’s character home. “A friend of mine, Steel Banglez, released an EP at the time and Nas was on one of the songs. It was called ‘Times’ and it’s a beautiful song. Tom loves Nas, so I was making him listen to that song during that journey,” she adds, saying the pair frequently blasted out Nas during filming. “He’s playful on set. There’s a few times me and him would get the giggles a bit. He just actually felt like a brother which is a bit like how Seraphina sees him, too.”

Dhillon hints that season two of Mobland could be on the way, although nothing official has yet been confirmed. “With Seraphina, the sky is the limit, so I’m excited to see what Jez [Butterworth, the show’s writer] has in mind. I have a few things that I want for her…I think there’s so much that she can do for series two. I think she’s definitely going to be stepping into her power and I want to see her be more consciously part of a crime, too. After that whole chainsaw scene, something in her switched and I want to explore that and see how dark it can go.” It’s evident she adores her character. “She’s not afraid to take up space and it’s been a joy to play a woman like that. In fact, there are moments when I look up to Seraphina and I’m like: ‘I wish I was more like her.’”

As for her future career? Dhillon has her sights set on one role in particular. “I wouldn’t mind being a Bond girl,” she beams. “I’m in training right now to get into shape to be able to do stuns and stuff, so I’m down.” Could former 007 Pierce Brosnan put in a good word perhaps? “I said to Pierce the other day I want to be a Bond girl. He was like, ‘yeah, why not’ and I was like, thanks Pierce!” He offered some advice. “It’s all for the taking, Mandeep – everything you want is for the taking.” And she does indeed want everything. “I want it all!” she laughs, before heading out into the city, where more Mobland fans will surely be ready to greet her. 

Credits

Photographer: All images from Paramount+
Cover design: Isabella Papaz
Editor in Chief: Ian Thorley
Deputy Editor: Kim Parker
Production: Malcolm Mafara
Features/Online Editor: Elizabeth Aubrey

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