Bring the Drama: There’s music, love, and romance as the actors face one of Downton Abbey’s most famous dance scenes

The series Bring the Drama, which reaches its penultimate episode tonight, has taken eight aspiring thespians who never got the opportunity to turn professional and given them the chance to see whether they have what it takes to make it a notoriously tough industry.

Under the watchful eyes of presenter Bill Bailey and their mentor, renowned casting director Kelly Valentine Hendry, they’ve visited the sets of celebrated UK dramas such as Peaky Blinders, EastEnders and Silent Witness and tried their hands at different types of screen acting.

But will the series have encouraged viewers that they can follow their own dreams, or convinced them that maybe an actor’s life isn’t for them? Kelly says she wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a little bit of both.

She says: “I hope that the viewers get a parallel experience of watching what someone can achieve without professional training if they are given a chance but at the same time, how in reality being an actor requires a huge amount of skill, determination and hard work. You hear a lot of people saying ‘oh I could have done that’ but the reality is something quite different.”

She adds: “Also I think it is so much fun to see what goes on behind the scenes and then also watching our actors on set at some of our most popular shows. The biggest take away is for it to encourage someone to give our industry a shot with the understanding of how difficult it can be. Dream big but dream with realism.”

However, Kelly also hopes that the show will also highlight some of the obstacles many people who do have the talent and resilience face when trying to break into acting.

She says: “We all know already that there are barriers to many of the arts. Not only the [cost of] schools and courses but the accommodation in the cities that offer them.

“Also you need help when you are not working to sustain and of course the mental health struggles that go alongside it all.

“We will follow eight people who have a range of reasons why they didn’t pursue their dreams and hopefully we will show that for some of them it prevented a very real career where they would be living their dream. Everyone deserves a shot at that.”

Tonight, the aspiring actors face one of their biggest challenges – a dance scene. To add to the difficulty factor, they’ll also need to show they can master period drama as they re-enact one of Downton Abbey’s most famous romantic scenes between Lady Mary and Matthew Crawley.

To help them get it right, they’ll have guidance intimacy coordinator Joshua Okpala (Sex Education) and coaching from Downton star Ed Speleers. But who can create chemistry with their co-star and convince the judges they should be the actors of the week? And even more importantly, who will secure a spot in next week’s final industry showcase?