Half Man stars unpack pivotal episode 3 scene, with "subtle" key to understanding Ruben's violence

*Warning – contains spoilers for Half Man episode 3.*

The third episode of Half Man is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now, and it sees Niall facing a dilemma.

His mother, Ruben and Ruben’s mother Maura all want Niall to testify that Alby groped Ruben before he beat him to a pulp. Given Niall’s own feelings towards Alby, and his guilt at what happened this proves complicated, with the decision made even more murky by the fact that Ruben has reportedly changed of late, volunteering at a children’s centre.

As Ruben and Niall are in the car together, the former senses the latter’s conflicted nature on the matter. Growing angry, he suddenly pulls the car off the road on to a field, and pulls Niall out of the car to confront him.

He makes Niall say over and over that Alby groped him, as the pair have an all out confrontation.

It’s a powerful scene, and one which Niall star Mitchell Robertson and Ruben star Stuart Campbell say is both of their favourites of their scenes together.

“There’s a scene where it’s Niall and Ruben in a field, with a backdrop of the city, and we loved filming it,” Robertson said, while speaking exclusively with Radio Times. “Stuart said this thing that I think really sums it up great – Stuart said that it feels like it actually happens, and someone just happened to be there with a camera. It does feel really raw and human.”

Campbell added: “From the moment that the – ‘Right, f*** this, car goes over’ – and that whole sequence, it feels very bird’s eye perspective. It doesn’t feel like it’s a staged performance. And for me personally, it doesn’t fully open up, but it gives a little bit of reason as to why he does some of the things that he does.

“It’s a very subtle moment in that scene. It felt kind of weirdly cathartic for me to film, but also it just felt very raw and human.”

Ruben’s violent outbursts have been persistent across the first three episodes, with the latest instalment ending with him shouting and grappling to get to Niall, after he reveals the truth in court.

“What I love about it as well, obviously the relationship, the dynamic between the two characters is constantly shifting and constantly changing,” Robertson added of the scene in the field. “And that scene that we’re talking about, it really feels like everything’s kind of coming to a head.

“The Niall that exists in that scene, the way he’s talking to Ruben, could never talk to him like that in episode 1. So there’s this kind of feeling, and not to say this is fact, but there’s a feeling where it’s like maybe in this moment, when they’re having it out, they are on a similar playing field.

“Maybe for the first time? I don’t know. But there’s this feeling of two people really going at it with each other.”

“It wasn’t planned,” Campbell said, of how the scene turned out. “I love you in that scene, in the way you’re kind of on a diagonal, but you sort of look up at me and none of that was really talked about.

“I remember it being so cold that morning. We both turned up in these huge dry robes, maybe two dry robes. I remember arriving early, it was still dark, and being like, ‘There’s no way we can shoot today. This is not gonna happen.'”

Robertson added that there was frost on the ground, to which Campbell said: “It was like snow! And then it just all sort of started happening without really thinking too much about it. The result, to me, does feel like something that actually really happened.”

Half Man will continue on BBC iPlayer at 6am on Friday 15 May.

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