DQ100 2023/24 by C21Media

D100Q £5/US$8 £5/US$8

Drama Quarterly’s guide to the biggest series and the actors, directors and writers making them

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From Oscar-winning director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade

ONE ROAD, COUNTLESS VICTIMS, 30 YEARS UNPUNISHED.

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Best launch ever in france.tv platform’s history with 1 million views in 48 hours “An enlightening mini-series where the true crime becomes a social issue.”

Télérama

“Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s latest masterpiece.”

France Info “This standout mini-series retraces 30 years of collective disregard, and finally gives a voice to victims.”

La Croix

Les Echos

“Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s new series is highly accurate, and avoids the usual trappings of ‘true crime’, resulting in an outstanding piece of fiction”

”A superb and emotive piece of work.”

L’Humanité

Le Monde “Everything is spot on. This is a series that wakes you up to really see things through an honest lens.”

Le Parisien

Crédit photo / getty Images - Holly Harris - 4x6 - arnon toussia-cohen - lilly3 - Steve Bramall

“A disturbing yet essential series that shines a spotlight on the very slow response by society and key institutions when it comes to sexual crimes.”

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DQ100 2023/24 Features

Obituary star Siobhán Cullen features on our list of actors

Director Glendyn Ivin

Sophie Turner’s Joan is among our pick of series

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT: BYO Films The prodco’s founders, Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen, discuss backing new talent and why they don’t want an easy ride to a green light.

IN FOCUS: Big Mood Writer Camilla Whitehill joins stars Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West to tell DQ about this Channel 4 series that shines a light on mental health from the perspective of two best friends.

WELCOME TO THE DQ100 Drama Quarterly editor Michael Pickard introduces this special issue.

DQ100: Actors Our pick of 20 actors whose performances are really catching the eye.

DQ100: Directors Find out who’s behind some of the most eagerly anticipated new projects.

DQ100: Writers DQ presents a mix of new and established names behind some of the hottest series coming to TV.

DQ100: Series Our selection of 20 upcoming series worth staying in for.

DQ100: Trends & Trailblazers The people, places and things providing the biggest talking points in television drama in both the past year and the months ahead.

End Credits 37

Mae Martin is one of our writers to look out for

62 64 65 66

SCENE STEALERS: Hullraisers FIVE MINUTES WITH: Michael Connelly SIX OF THE BEST: Olivier Wotling THE DQ100 INDEX

Bilal Baig’s Sort Of

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT: BYO Films

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Vicky McClure (right) in Without Sin, BYO Films’ ﬁrst production

herever an actor might come from, the chances are that before long, they board a plane bound for LA with hopes and dreams of cracking Hollywood. But for Vicky McClure, home has always been where her heart is. The star rose to prominence working alongside Shane Meadows on the director’s 2006 film This is England and its trilogy of television sequels, before becoming a household name in the UK thanks to her role in Jed Mercurio’s compelling crime drama Line of Duty. But heading to America has never appealed to the Nottingham-born actor.

“I’ve never been to LA, and people go, ‘What?!’ I’ve never needed to,” she tells DQ. “It’s not my heart’s desire.” “Why go to LA when you’ve got Nottingham?” says fellow actor and director Jonny Owen (Shameless, Glue). He’s joking, sort of, because it’s a comment that goes to the heart of the ethos behind BYO Films, the production company led by co-CEOs McClure and Owen that aims to work with and champion local writers and working-class stories, and showcase the creative expertise in and around Nottinghamshire. The couple, who recently married, launched BYO in 2021 and last year secured backing from global production and distribution group All3Media to help develop, support and

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT: BYO Films

DQ100 . 2023/24

Building their own Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen are among the rising number of actors forging a path into series development and production through their own companies. They speak to DQ about establishing BYO Films, backing new voices and why they don’t want an easy ride to a green light.

grow their scripted and non-scripted shows, with a slate that now stretches to 21 projects. They’ve also put a team in place that includes head of development Natasha Phillips and script editor Danny Moran. “This last year has been our most exciting year for sure,” says McClure. “We’ve got some new and some well-known writers we’re working with. We’ve got some adaptations of books, we’ve got lots of varied things on our slate and it’s just grown into what we really wanted it to be, which is to give people opportunities and to make projects we’re passionate about, whether that’s for a working-class audience or making sure we’re supporting people who need to be given a shot.”

BYO’s first production, ITV drama Without Sin, debuted in 2022, with McClure starring as a mother still grieving the death of her daughter after several years. It was a coproduction with Left Bank Pictures (The Crown), and that formula has been repeated for Insomnia, a Paramount+ series based on Sarah Pinborough’s novel that is currently in production. McClure again stars, this time as a woman whose dream life turns into a nightmare when she stops sleeping. The company is now developing further projects with ITV and the BBC, though McClure notes that she’s not attached to star in everything the company hopes to make. “It’s not a vanity project,” she says of the prodco. “As an actor, you’ll always be cautious that you may never get >

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT: BYO Films

DQ100 . 2023/24

“

McClure is best known for starring in Jed Mercurio’s hugely popular BBC drama Line of Duty

< work again. But the intention was never for me to get work off the back of it. It was always about Jonny’s passion and his experience in this industry and just doing something for others. “I’ve had lots of people in my life, whether it be Shane Meadows or Jed Mercurio, who have given me a shot. And Jonny’s had people who have given him a shot. Now it’s our opportunity to say, ‘Right, we’ve built something. Now let’s give other people a shot as well.’” Support from All3Media ensures that BYO – which stands for Build Your Own – is able to pay people to be in development with them, particularly those with no history in the television business. “That was key,” McClure says. McClure and Owen are across every project, whether it’s a drama, period drama or comedy. “The variation is there, and it’s not to tick boxes,” McClure continues. The founders are also upfront about the fact that while their names might get them an initial meeting or an email address, they’re not guaranteed a green light for every project – nor would they want it that way. “With our morals and our ethos as a company, that would be a bit shitty, really, if there are all these other great companies that are trying to do similar things,” the actor adds. “I don’t want it to feel like a competition. There’s room for everybody’s ideas and creativity, and everyone’s got to have a fair shot. “When you’ve built something and you’ve worked for it and you’ve gone through the motions and then you get a green light, it’s so much sweeter than somebody just going, ‘Whatever you want, just make it’ and then you make a piece of crap.” The decision to launch BYO was instigated by Welshman Owen, who had moved from acting to directing and thought it would be a good idea to set up a company where they could

A lot of people form their own companies but, with Vicky, we’ve said the moment we get that first commission that she isn’t starring in, we have really arrived as a company. Jonny Owen BYO Films

”

have more control over the types of projects they worked on and how they were produced. Words of encouragement also came from Henry Normal, who co-founded Baby Cow with actor Steve Coogan and worked with Owen on I Believe in Miracles, a 2015 documentary about Nottingham Forest Football Club. Their plans then took shape during the Covid pandemic, and when All3Media came on board, they began building their slate. “We’re very lucky in the sense that certainly Vicky’s name and her reputation as an actor is second to none, and that does get you a long way down the line,” Owen says. “A lot of people form their own companies but, with Vicky, we’ve said the moment we get that first commission that she isn’t starring in, we have really arrived as a company.” McClure admits it had never been in her thoughts to move into production. But it was when she starred in ITV bomb-disposal unit drama Trigger Point – which comes from Mercurio’s HTM Television – that she started to become more involved behind the camera. She then became an executive producer on Trigger Point S2, which wrapped production earlier this year, while Meadows, Hat Trick

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Productions MD Jimmy Mulville and Left Bank CEO Andy Harries have also been on hand to offer advice. “It’s been a massive learning curve. It’s been like a bit of a crash course,” says the actor. But how have their screen careers informed the way they want to manage BYO Films? McClure says how they “run the floor” is their priority, with the hope of fostering a creative, collaborative and inclusive set on all their projects. “It’s such stressful, long hours. Anything can go wrong. You’re constantly getting [script] amends and everybody’s head’s a bit scrambled,” she says. “For me, what makes the job easier and better for everyone is the atmosphere and the environment you put down, and it’s really important for that to start at the very top, because jobs can be really tricky when they don’t need to be. Putting on a bit of music on set, buying everyone a coffee… little things can go a very long way when it’s a gruelling shoot.” “Somebody said, ‘Never be shy of hiring people who are more talented than you,’” says Owen, “and people like Natasha and Danny are fantastic. They’re much better at me at dissecting the script, so you try to employ people who are really talented. That’s one of the main principles of the company for me, to try to work with the best people.” Producing Without Sin was “a no-brainer,” McClure says. It was written by Nottingham native Frances Poletti, and the BYO team were insistent that it also be shot in the Midlands city, giving a platform to the local filming infrastructure. “Nothing gets shot here so it was like, ‘We have to make it happen,’” McClure says. “And we did and it was brilliant and it worked. It brought money to the city, it opened up the city visually to lots of different parts of the country, and the accent and feeling of community was strong. “Then with Insomnia, it’s a very different story. We’re filming in London, it’s set in London and it’s a Paramount+ show, so it does open up our slate to the streaming side of things as well, which is great.” Notably, Insomnia came to McClure as an acting job, but she said BYO needed to be involved if she was to take the role. “Andy [Harries] can see what we’re doing and he can appreciate that I can’t just take three or four months out of what I’m doing in development and not be working on the company,” she says. “[BYO] is my priority now. Whenever things come up, we’ll always discuss stuff with All3Media and make sure they’re happy and know what we’re doing. We’re very respectful of the agreement we’ve got and the fact we have to make it work.” Looking ahead, BYO’s five-year-plan includes securing some returning dramas and “world domination,” Owen remarks. “What will be really exciting is if we got quite a few things greenlit that I’m not acting in and it’s off the basis of great writers and the development that everybody’s put in,” adds McClure, who is also heavily involved in charity work through the dementia choir she has established. “Just getting stuff made, putting it out there and seeing our logo on its own would be pretty special.” For those looking to break into the business, McClure also offers this advice: “To anybody who feels like it’s not something that’s available to them because of a lack of education or lack of experience in that field, I left school without any GCSEs. I don’t have that kind of business mind. But I’m very interested and I’m very involved in this industry. And if they are as well, that’s OK. As long as you’ve got good people backing you and you’ve got people who want to work alongside you with the same mentality, do it.” DQ

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT: BYO Films

Actors in charge Lenny Henry A familiar face on British television since the 1970s, comedian, presenter, actor and writer Henry’s recent screen credits include The Witcher: Blood Origin and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. He also recently penned and appeared in Three Little Birds, an ITV drama produced by his company Douglas Road, which he has now moved away from to launch Esmerelda Productions, which will develop comedy and drama with underrepresented writers, cast and crew. Henry as Sadoc Burrows in The Rings of Power

Dusseldorp also stars in Bay of Fires

Elba in Apple TV+ series Hijack

The Morning Show

Raz in Israeli drama hit Fauda

Graham and Walters both act in Boiling Point

Marta Dusseldorp The Australian star, best known for roles in A Place to Call Home, Janet King and Jack Irish, is behind Tasmania-based Archipelago Productions, which seeks to tell distinctly Australian stories for a global audience. Its first series, Bay of Fires, debuted this year. Idris Elba Luther and Hijack star Elba founded Green Door Pictures in 2013 with a mission to champion diversity in front of and behind the camera. Its credits include In the Long Run, Turn Up Charlie and Mandela, My Dad & Me. Reese Witherspoon The Legally Blonde, Big Little Lies and The Morning Show actor has turned her Hello Sunshine production company into a creative empire, championing women storytellers through television, film, Reese’s Book Club and other initiatives. Lior Raz Israeli prodco Faraway Road was founded by Raz and journalist Avi Issacharoff, who together cocreated and write action drama Fauda, in which Raz also stars. The company has also produced Netflix original Hit & Run and Showtime’s Ghosts of Beirut. Stephen Graham and Hannah Walters The husband-and-wife acting team have turned producers through their label Matriarch Productions, championing diversity and inclusivity through BBC series Boiling Point and Disney’s A Thousand Blows.

IN FOCUS: Big Mood

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Lydia West (left) and Nicola Coughlan play best friends Eddie and Maggie

SETTING THE MOOD Channel 4 comedy-drama Big Mood shines a light on mental health from the perspective of two best friends. Writer Camilla Whitehill joins stars Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West to reveal more.

Whitehill and Coughlan 15 years after they met while training hen Camilla Whitehill started thinking about to be actors, initially at the Oxford School of Drama and then at who might play the lead in her first original the Birmingham School of Acting. “When we first met, we did series, she didn’t have to look far. Counting a lot of improv and I thought she was so funny and so smart,” Bridgerton and Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan recalls of her friend. “I dreamed that we would work Coughlan as one of her oldest friends, she wrote the part with together to do something. We definitely had grand ideas.” Coughlan in mind, “so she couldn’t not do it,” the writer laughs. Sharing a similar sense of humour, they wrote a comedy “There was no moment when I asked her if she wanted to podcast called Whistle Through the Shamrocks – a story about do it. I kept saying, ‘Well, what’s she going to do? Say no?’ She “Ireland, love, murder and potatoes.” That cemented a creative literally couldn’t. Luckily, she liked it. It could have been trash.” shorthand that would come in handy on Big Mood, which they Coughlan responds: “People were like, ‘When did you know say has come at the perfect time in you were going to do it?’ It’s like, well, their careers. I had to.” “We were not on the same path in The role in question is that of our 20s,” Coughlan says. “We were Maggie, the central character in both struggling and working in our Channel 4 comedy-drama Big Mood. desired fields and it was hard. We’re Created and written by Whitehill, This show isn’t an education now both at a point in our lives where the story follows Maggie and best we both so appreciate actually getting friend Eddie (It’s a Sin’s Lydia West), manual about bipolar to do this. Had it happened before this whose chaotic friendship is put to the disorder, but it’s going to point, it wouldn’t have been what it is.” test when Maggie’s bipolar disorder open it up to people in a way Whitehill describes the characters returns, leaving Eddie to question that populate Big Mood as whether their relationship is in either it hasn’t been before. It was “amalgamations” of herself and of their best interests. definitely very eye-opening. people she knows. “I really wanted Exploring the complexities of both to write about female friendships, female friendship and mental illness, Nicola Coughlan because I’ve found my friendships to the six-part series brings together

“

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be the most important, defining relationships in my life,” she says. “They see you through a lot of changes, but they also don’t always last forever. That side of friendship can often be overlooked.” From the beginning, the bond between Maggie and Eddie is clear to see, though it is Eddie who often gets pulled along in the wake of Maggie’s exuberance. “Maggie is a fun, funny, charismatic woman who can be a bit immature, and can be spontaneous to a fault,” the writer explains. “She doesn’t see herself as a responsible person and therefore doesn’t act like a responsible person. She relies heavily on Eddie, who is purposefully responsible in a way that is not always in her best interests. “Eddie comes across as quite a strong person in the sense that she can be defensive, she can be aggressive if she wants. She’s quite streetwise and can come across as a bit hard. But I think underneath that is an extremely sensitive person who feels she must take care of somebody. And if she’s not taking care of someone or something, she begins to doubt her self-worth. That’s how they end up so close and co-dependent and how that might also not be the best thing for each of them.” West was sent the script a couple of years ago and jumped on a call with Whitehill to discuss the project and playing Eddie before it was even commissioned. “I was just like, ‘I hope this gets picked up. It’s amazing.’ And then it did,” she says. “I’ve never played in anything like this. It’s a difficult subject matter. It’s also very close to home; I’ve always wanted to be a part of something that involves mental illness. You treat it with sensitivity but then it is so funny and fun. I was just so excited to be part of it and to support Nicola.” Playing someone with bipolar, Coughlan watched documentaries on the subject and she says the role gave her a greater insight into what life is like for people with the condition. “Depression is something that everyone understands and unfortunately most people experience,” she says, “but the manic side of Maggie was something I didn’t fully understand. This show isn’t an education manual about bipolar disorder, but it’s going to open it up to people in a way it hasn’t been before. It was definitely Sally Phillips also very eye-opening to me.” features among the cast

IN FOCUS: Big Mood

The role was also unusual for Coughlan in that it required her to use her native Irish accent – but this meant she wasn’t able to find the character’s ‘voice’ to inform her performance, as she has done with other parts. “When a script is good, you’re just like, ‘Oh, it’s actually fine.’ But doing something like this, it’s fun because it’s heightened in a certain way, but then it gets so real,” she adds. Whitehill wrote the scripts on her own, describing the show’s darkly comedic tone as the place she feels most comfortable. “For me, it’s all comedy. I’m not a drama writer and I wouldn’t ever write drama,” she says. “I always land on the lens of comedy, even if it’s something really dark. It’s just how I’ve always written and how I see the world. There were lots of struggles in writing, but I don’t think the tone was one of them because I just knew what it was intrinsically.” The writer also acted as showrunner on Big Mood, giving her the opportunity to ensure her vision was carried across the series, which is produced by Dancing Ledge (The Responder) and distributed by Fremantle. She was on set every day to support director Rebecca Asher and her leading actors, who had challenges of their own. During the shoot, West spent her weekends rehearsing for a one-woman play, which consisted of an hourlong monologue. “I look back at that time in my life and think, ‘Never again,’” she admits. Meanwhile, as well as switching between Maggie’s depressive and manic states, Coughlan also had to spend three weeks switching characters entirely, as the Big Mood filming schedule overlapped with that of the third season of Netflix period drama Bridgerton, in which her character Penelope Featherington takes the lead. “My head was fried,” she remembers. “I’d never been the lead on any show before, and this was two at once – and they were vastly different. But in a way, it was good because I didn’t have the time to stress and overthink it because it’s a really challenging part. I can really overthink stuff, get really anxious and worried and back myself into a corner, but I simply didn’t have time.” Few people have seen Big Mood yet – it’s set to debut on Channel 4 in 2024 – but Coughlan says the reaction so far has been “amazing,” adding: “I feel so proud of it. The first time I watch anything I’m in, I’m like, ‘Argh.’ But the first time I watched this, I was like, ‘It’s really good.’” Whitehill just hopes that while Maggie and Eddie must face up to the show’s difficult subject matter, the show’s humour can shine through. “My main thing is I hope they think it’s funny,” she says. DQ

Content London 2023

Spanish Fiction takes the Spotlight!

La Ley del Mar

La Mesías

Your Next Copro Partner is from Spain

DQ100: Introduction

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Welcome to the DQ100 Director Xavier Giannoli

ince it first launched in 2014, Drama Quarterly has sought to curate coverage of the boldest, most exciting and ambitious scripted series coming to television at a time when there is more to watch – and more platforms to watch it on – than ever before. And even if the international drama boom that began a decade ago is slowing down, there’s still a plethora of eye-catching, compelling and addictive scripted series to consume. DQ aims to help its readers find those shows that stand out from the crowd, the popular hits or the hidden gems that are worth spending hours of their valuable time watching. But Drama Quarterly isn’t just about which shows are being made. It’s also about how they are made. Uniquely, DQ aims to go deeper into the production process to explore the craft of making TV drama. That means speaking to actors, writers and directors not only about storylines and characters, but also how they do their jobs, from auditioning for roles to setting up writers rooms, storyboarding, stunts and their experiences on set. DQ also seeks to highlight the work of numerous other aspects of production, from costume, production and makeup design to casting, location scouts, visual effects and music, to find out how those in the business do what they do, both in front of and behind the camera. DQ also recommends the hottest new shows airing around the world, as well as highlighting some of the actors, writers and

Sort Of

directors with new projects to watch out for. Now, following its launch in 2021, that information has once again been compiled to create the DQ100 — our rundown of some of the most exciting, intriguing and highly anticipated projects airing this year, next year and beyond, and some of the key players worth watching out for — both newcomers in their field and some more established names. Actors featured in the list include Jing Lusi, the star of upcoming thriller Red Eye; Italian Michela de Rossi, star of Australian period dramedy While the Men Are Away; French actor Tewfik Jallab; Loki and Damilola: Our Loved Boy’s Wunmi Mosaku; Rose Ayling-Ellis, who is starring in ITV crime drama Code of Silence; Domino Day’s Siena Kelly; and Irish actor and writer Stephen Jones, who takes the lead in Northern Lights, a series based on his own play. Among the directors to appear in the DQ100 are French filmmaker Xavier Giannoli, who moved to the small screen for true crime drama D’argent et de sang (Of Blood & Money); Meenu Gaur, who is behind the camera for the BBC’s Agatha Christie adaptation Murder is Easy; actorturned-director Michael Sheen, who makes his directorial debut with The Way; and Joelle Mae David, who is lead director on Queenie, Channel 4’s adaptation of Candice Carty-Williams’s bestselling novel. Swedish writer Jesper Harrie, who is behind Disney’s first Nordic original To Cook a Bear,

Soﬁa Vergara in Griselda

features on our list of writers to DQ editor watch, alongside Douglas Stuart, Michael Pickard who is adapting his Booker Prizeintroduces winning novel Shuggie Bain for the BBC; Camille de Castelnau, this year’s special issue who has worked on The Bureau focusing on 100 of the and Call My Agent and has now written her own series, Tout people, shows and trends va bien (Everything is Fine); shaping the TV drama and Daniel Lawrence Taylor, industry in 2023 and the writer behind comedies beyond. Timewasters and Boarders. Among the trends and trailblazers highlighted in the DQ100 are Extraordinary writer Emma Moran, eco thrillers, musical Michela de Rossi in dramas, European While the Men Are Away broadcast alliance the New8 and Canadian comedy Sort Of, which has led the way for diversity in front of and behind the camera. Looking ahead to 2024 and beyond, our pick of series to look forward to includes Joan, the true story of a British jewel thief played by Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner; Billionaire Island, a Netflix series from the Norwegian creators of Lilyhammer; English/Frenchlanguage period drama Winter Palace; and Griselda, which marks the dramatic debut of Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara. With more television to watch Writer Daniel Lawrence Taylor than ever before, the DQ100 spotlights some of the best new shows to tune in for and the people involved in bringing them to the screen. These are our ones to watch. DQ

COMING IN 2024 FALLEN.ECCHORIGHTS.COM

DQ100: Actors

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100 Actors

SIENA KELLY

KELLY APPEARED IN SERIES SUCH AS VANITY FAIR AND TEMPLE BEFORE LANDING A PART IN ADULT MATERIAL, the Channel 4 series about a woman who ﬁnds her star is falling in the adult entertainment industry. She then joined the cast of Netﬂix’s Israeli thriller Hit & Run, about a man whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a mysterious accident in Tel Aviv. Kelly is now set for her breakout role as the lead in Domino Day, a BBC drama produced by Dancing Ledge Productions that blends supernatural thriller with themes of identity and the modern dating world. She plays the title character, a young woman coming to terms with her powers as a witch while traversing modern life in Manchester, where a mysterious coven is already following her tracks.

STEPHEN JONES IRISH STAR JONES HAS APPEARED IN LOVE/HATE, KIN AND RED ROCK, and will next be seen in Northern Lights – a project that also marks his screenwriting debut. The six-part series, produced by Deadpan Pictures for Irishlangauge TG4 and Germany’s ZDFneo, begins when Lloyd (Jones) meets Áine (Elva Trill) on Dublin’s Grattan Bridge, which spans the River Liﬀey. Fearing the worst, he decides to intervene, and a series of revelations, confessions, secrets and lies lead them to becoming beacons of light for each other when they need it most. Jones adapted the series, which deals with themes of grief, tragedy and hope, from his original stage play of the same name.

DQ100: Actors

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KYLA HARRIS FILMMAKER, WRITER AND ACTIVIST HARRIS HAS PARTNERED WITH FELLOW WRITER LEE GETTY AND PRODCO ROUGHCUT TV (STATH LETS FLATS, BIG BOYS) FOR BBC SERIES WE MIGHT REGRET THIS, a six-part comedy based on the

lives and experiences of its creators. Harris will also take the lead role as Freya, a 30-something Canadian artist and tetraplegic who has moved to London to be with 50-something lawyer Abe (Darren Boyd). Their highspeed romance sees Freya move into Abe’s house but, because of her disability, living together includes having an ever-present personal assistant who is always in earshot for every romantic moment and domestic row. When they fail to find the right person, Freya offers the job to best friend Jo (Elena Saurel). As well as her acting and writing work for the screen, Harris is also a member of the Disability Screen Advisory Group for the British Film Institute, and has written a toolkit for inclusion and accessibility in documentary film with Filmmakers With Disabilities.

FANS OF ENGRENAGES (SPIRAL) WILL RECOGNISE JALLAB FROM HIS ROLE AS ALI AMRANI IN THE LONG-RUNNING FRENCH CRIME SERIES, while the actor’s recent credits also include military drama Cœurs Noirs (Black Hearts) and factual story Oussekine, which dramatises the death of a young student at the hands of police oﬃcers in 1986. He will next be seen on the small screen in Pax Massilia (Blood Coast), a Netﬂix original series from director Olivier Marchal, in which a rogue police captain and his daredevil

SIOBHAN FINNERAN

THANKS TO ROLES IN HAPPY VALLEY, BENIDORM, TIME AND DOWNTON ABBEY, among numerous other projects, Finneran has become a household favourite since making her screen debut – classic British comedy feature Rita, Sue & Bob Too – in 1987. Often appearing in a supporting role, Finneran will take the lead in Protection, an ITV drama set in the world of witness protection. Produced by New Pictures, the six-part series follows Detective Inspector Liz Nyles (Finneran), who ﬁnds herself in the middle of a protocol breach after an aﬀair with a colleague. As she works to restore both her reputation and that of her lover and keep her witnesses safe, Nyles must also uncover the source of corruption within her unit. Finneran will star opposite Nadine Marshall and Katherine Kelly.

team attempt to take down a vicious drug dealer who is attempting to take over Marseille. Then there’s Paris Has Fallen (pictured), a Canal+ series based on the Has Fallen movie franchise (Olympus Has Fallen, London Has Fallen). Jallab stars as protection officer Vincent Taleb, who finds himself working with street-smart MI6 operative Zara Taylor (Ritu Arya) when a terrorist group attacks a high-profile event in the French capital – but they soon find the sinister plan extends to one of their security colleagues.

TEWFIK JALLAB

DQ100: Actors

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NATHAN STEWARTJARRETT A FAMILIAR FACE ON SCREEN FOR ALMOST 15 YEARS, Stewart-Jarrett's earlier work includes Misﬁts and Utopia, while he has more recently appeared in the television adaptation of Four Weddings & A Funeral, fact-based drama The Trial of Christine Keeler and the big-screen remake of Candyman. He now leads an ensemble cast including Gemma Arterton, Niamh Algar, Kirby, Ned Dennehy and Eddie Izzard in Culprits, a Disney+ crime thriller set after a highstakes heist. After a group of elite criminals go their separate ways and attempt to leave their old lives behind, a ruthless assassin starts targeting them one by one.

FELICITY WARD THE OFFICE IS MAKING A NEW HIRE. Comedian

Ward will play Hannah Howard in an Australian adaptation of the acclaimed British mockumentary comedy ordered down under by Prime Video. Howard, a modern-day David Brent, is the managing director of packaging company Flinley Craddick. When she gets news from head oﬃce that they will be shutting down her branch and making everyone work from home, she goes into survival mode, making promises she can’t keep in order to keep her ‘work family’ together. Ward will be familiar to audiences from roles in Wakeﬁeld and The Inbetweeners 2. 2

THE BRITISH-CHINESE ACTOR RECENTLY STARRED IN NETFLIX THRILLER HEART OF STONE OPPOSITE GAL GADOT,, and has also appeared in Crazy Rich Asians,, Apple TV+ spy drama Argylle, DC series Pennyworth and Sky duo Gangs of London and Stan Lee’s Lucky Man (pictured). In thriller Red Eye,, an upcoming ITVX drama produced by Bad Wolf, she plays DC Hana Li, a nononsense London officer who is charged with accompanying a man accused of murder on an all-night flight from London to Beijing – and finds herself in an escalating conspiracy. Speaking about her role, Lusi describes Red Eye as a “turning point in British Asian representation.”

JING LUSI

DQ100: Actors

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ARTHUR HUGHES WHEN BARBARA MET ALAN AND HELP STAR HUGHES IS SADDLING UP FOR SHARDLAKE, a Disney+ adaptation of CJ Sansom’s Tudor mystery novels. He plays Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer with an acute sense of justice and one of the few honest men in a world beset with scheming and plots. Despite Shardlake’s unwavering loyalty to his boss Thomas Cromwell and the Crown, his position in 16th century English society is unfavoured due to his appearance – as a person living with scoliosis during the Tudor period, he suffers the indignity of being abused as a ‘crookback’ wherever he turns. The series, based on the first novel in Sansom’s series, sees Shardlake called to investigate the murder of one of his commissioners at a monastery in the remote town of Scarnsea. Hughes, who became the first disabled actor at the Royal Shakespeare Company to play Richard III, has also starred in The Innocents.

CHARLOTTE HOPE

AS THE LEAD ACTOR IN HISTORICAL DRAMA THE SPANISH PRINCESS, British

actor Hope played Catherine of Aragon, the woman who would become King Henry VIII’s ﬁrst wife. More recently, she travelled to Cape Town to ﬁlm MNet crime drama Catch Me a Killer, based on the book of the same name. Hope plays Micki Pistorius in the true story of how Micki became South Africa’s

ﬁrst serial killer proﬁler. The show opens in 1994, when Micki joins a police task force on the hunt for the notorious Station Strangler, a serial murderer who has left a trail of 22 dead boys in his wake. But as she attempts to understand and entrap the killer, Micki must also deal with a host of personal issues and overcome her status as an outsider in the police force and the community she serves.

DELFINA CHAVES A STAR IN HER NATIVE ARGENTINA THANKS TO ROLES IN LOVE AFTER LOVING, LA CASA DEL MAR, DÍAS DE GALLOS AND ARGENTINA, TIERRA DE AMOR Y VENGANZA, Chaves is set to break out in Europe thanks to her title role

in Dutch royal drama Máxima, a biopic of the current Queen of the Netherlands. The series, produced by Millstreet Films in association with Beta Film for Videoland, dramatises Máxima’s ﬁrst encounter with then Crown Prince Willem-Alexander on her way to becoming a public ﬁgure, highlighting her determination and ambition as well as her struggle to balance loyalty to her family and her own identity. Flashbacks also reveal her childhood growing up in Argentina.

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DQ100: Actors

ROSE AYLING-ELLIS

AYLING-ELLIS HAS MORE THAN 100 EPISODES OF BBC SOAP EASTENDERS (PICTURED) TO HER NAME, as well as a role in Stephen Poliakoﬀ’s Summer of Rockets, but she became a household name in 2021 when she became the ﬁrst deaf contestant to win Strictly Come Dancing. She will now star in ITV crime drama Code of Silence, written by Catherine Moulton and produced by Mammoth Screen. Ayling-Ellis plays a deaf catering worker who is called on to lip-read the conversations of dangerous criminals, plunging her into a police investigation that threatens to spill over into her private life when she becomes drawn to one of the main suspects.

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ITV AND BRITBOX’S DARKLY COMIC THRILLER PASSENGER FOUND ITS LEADING ACTOR IN MOSAKU, who is best known for roles in Loki, Damilola: Our Loved Boy, Lovecraft Country (pictured), We Own This City, Guerrilla, Temple and Luther. In Passenger, she plays former Metropolitan Police detective Riya Ajunwa, who starts to investigate a series of strange happenings and increasingly horriﬁc crimes unfolding in the small village where she lives. As she attempts to convince the short-sighted residents that all is not as it seems, Riya is drawn into a universe unlike anything she has ever seen.

WUNMI MOSAKU

DINA SHIHABI

Mossad for more than two decades. Shihabi plays Lena in the series, which uses US, Israeli and Lebanese perspectives to Saudi Arabian actor Shihabi trace Mughniyeh’s origins from heads an international cast the Shiite slums of South Beirut in Showtime series Ghosts of to his masterminding of the Beirut a four-part miniseries concept of suicide bombers, based on the real-life manhunt for Imad Mughniyeh, the elusive a deadly tactic that led to his Lebanese terrorist who outwitted swift rise as the world’s most dangerous terrorist. his adversaries in the CIA and FOLLOWING ROLES IN DAREDEVIL, ALTERED CARBON, TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN AND ARCHIVE 81,

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RICHARD RANKIN

NORDIC STREAMER VIAPLAY PICKED RANKIN TO LEAD ITS FIRST UK DRAMA COMMISSION – a

reimagining of Rebus, based on the iconic character from the novels written by Sir Ian Rankin (no relation). The new story is set in contemporary Scotland and stars Rankin as police detective John Rebus, who finds himself at a psychological crossroads in his late 30s. At odds with a job increasingly driven by corporate technocrats, involved in a toxic affair he knows he needs to end, and all but supplanted in his daughter’s life by his ex-wife’s wealthy new husband, Rebus begins to wonder if he still has a role to play – either as a family man or a police officer. In a world of divisive politics and national discord, does the law still have meaning, or is everyone reverting to an older set of rules? And if so, why shouldn’t Rebus do so too? Scottish actor Rankin has previously had a starring role in Outlander (pictured) alongside appearances in Trust Me, The Last Kingdom, The Replacement and Thirteen.

DQ100: Actors

MICHELA DE ROSSI ITALIAN ACTOR DE ROSSI RECENTLY RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH SOPRANOS in feature-length prequel The Many Saints of Newark and has also had parts in shows such as I Topi (The Rats) and upcoming Netﬂix series Briganti. Most recently, she starred in SBS Australia’s eight-part series While the Men are Away, which is described as a revisionist Second World War dramedy set in 1940s rural Australia. De Rossi plays Francesca, an Italian immigrant struggling to run her husband’s farm after he enlists – or does he?

IWAN RHEON HAVING MADE HIS NAME AS THE WICKED AND CRUEL RAMSAY BOLTON IN GAME OF THRONES, Welsh actor Rheon recently appeared in 2022’s well-received Welsh drama The Light in the Hall (pictured). This year he stars in two BBC projects. The first was Wolf, a crime drama based on the novels by Mo Hayder about a detective drawn into a terrifying game with a psychopath. He also heads the ensemble cast of Men Up, a feature-length drama based on the world’s first medical trials for the drug that became Viagra, held in Swansea’s Morriston Hospital in 1994. Rheon plays Meurig Jenkins, one of a group of men all suffering from impotency and given the chance to take part in a trial for an unknown drug that may hold the key to reigniting their spark.

DQ100: Actors

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COLIN MORGAN THE NORTHERN IRISH ACTOR IS BEST KNOWN FOR PLAYING THE TITLE CHARACTER IN LONG-RUNNING BBC FANTASY DRAMA MERLIN. He has also appeared in recent series such as Mammals, We Hunt Together, Three Families, Humans and The Fall. Most recently, Morgan returned to a leading role in Paramount+ drama The Killing Kind, in which he plays John Webster, a man previously accused of harassment and stalking who reappears in the life of his barrister (Emma Appleton) and threatens to unravel it.

VARUN DHAWAN SIOBHÁN CULLEN

TELEVISION AND THEATRE ACTOR CULLEN (THE DRY, ORIGIN) TAKES THE LEAD IN IRISH DRAMA OBITUARY, commissioned by US streamer Hulu and Ireland’s RTÉ. She plays Elvira Clancy, a 24-year-old who feels unfulﬁlled despite loving her job as an obituaries writer. When she ‘accidentally’ kills a town villain, she discovers an untapped bloodlust and begins using increasingly crafty methods to kill oﬀ the town’s unpleasant residents while making them look like accidents – until she falls for the paper’s suspicious new crime correspondent, who has a penchant for conspiracy theories.

DHAWAN WILL STAR IN THE INDIAN INSTALMENT OF SPY DRAMA CITADEL, a global event series with interconnected stories set in the wake of the destruction of the titular espionage agency, from the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Endgame) and Prime Video. It joins the US version starring Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Stanley Tucci, which launched on April 28, while an Italian series starring Matilda De Angelis and other local-language Citadel productions are also in the works. A huge star in India, Dhawan is known for awardwinning turns in Hindi-language movies such as Dishoom and Badlapur.

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DQ100: Directors

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KIM HONG SUN KOREAN FILM AND TELEVISION DIRECTOR HONG SUN IS TAKING THE REINS OF SKY ACTION DRAMA GANGS OF LONDON FOR ITS THIRD SEASON. He was named best new director at the Blue Dragon Film Awards for his debut feature, 2012 organ-dealing thriller Traﬃckers, while his more recent work includes occult horror Metamorphosis (2019) and Project Wolf Hunting, an action horror about a prison transfer between the Philippines and Korea gone wrong. He

now comes to Gangs of London as part of a new creative team for its third instalment, alongside Irish lead writer Peter McKenna (Kin). The story will continue to follow Sopé Dìrísù and Joe Cole as Elliot Carter and Sean Wallace, with ex-undercover cop-turned-gangster Elliot now operating as a top-level criminal and having to deal with the fallout of a spiked cocaine shipment that leads to hundreds of deaths across London.

Sorogoyen (left) on set for Los Años Nuevos (New Year’s Eves)

RODRIGO SOROGOYEN

100 Directors

Hong Sun (left) with Gangs of London star Sopé Dìrísù

THE ACCLAIMED SPANISH DIRECTOR AND SCREENWRITER PREVIOUSLY PARTNERED WITH BROADCASTER MOVISTAR+ FOR ANTIDISTURBIOS (RIOT POLICE), a fictional exploration of Spain’s riot police and the country’s record of police brutality. But his latest project with the streamer couldn’t be more different. Los Años Nuevos (New Year’s Eves) follows the life of a couple, Ana and Óscar (Iria del Rio and Francesco Carril), over a decade, with each of the 10 episodes dropping into their lives at the same time of year: New Year’s Eve. Sorogoyen will direct four episodes of the show, produced by Caballo Films, and is also the co-creator and executive producer. The director’s other credits include series Offworld, while his latest feature, The Beasts, won the French César Award for best foreign film.

DQ100: Directors

LULU WANG

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Wheatley (standing) pictured during ﬁlming on High Rise

AWARD-WINNING, BAFTANOMINATED FILMMAKER WANG IS BEST KNOWN FOR FEATURE FILMS POSTHUMOUS AND THE FAREWELL. For her latest

project, she is creator, director and executive producer on Prime Video’s Expats, a six-part series set against the vibrant and tumultuous tapestry of 2014 Hong Kong. It’s here that the lives of three American women – Margaret (Nicole Kidman), Hilary (Sarayu Blue) and Merci (Ji-young Yoo) – intersect after a sudden family tragedy, leading to an interrogation of privilege and an exploration of what happens when the line between victimhood and culpability becomes blurred. Notably, the feature-length ﬁfth episode, Central, which centres on the hidden world of domestic workers, was screened as part of the 2023 London Film Festival ahead of the show’s launch in January 2024.

JAVIER CALVO & JAVIER AMBROSSI

ACTORS, DIRECTORS AND PRODUCERS CALVO (LEFT) AND AMBROSSI – ALSO KNOWN AS LOS JAVIS – are considered to be two of the most inﬂuential talents in Spain today, producing work that is full of emotion, humour, colour, music, diversity and LGTBIQ+ awareness. Their HBO Max coproduction Veneno, based on the life of trans icon Cristina Ortiz, drew international recognition, while they have also created theatrical musical Holy Camp! and Netﬂix original Poquita Salas. Their latest work, Movistar Plus+ series La Mesías, tells the story of Enric, a man tormented by a childhood marked by religious fanaticism and a mother with messianic delusions, whose memories are triggered when a video of a Christian pop group goes viral.

BEN WHEATLEY WHEATLEY IS A WRITER-DIRECTOR BEST KNOWN FOR CULT FEATURE FILMS SUCH AS SIGHTSEERS, KILL LIST, HIGH RISE AND REBECCA. Generation Z now marks his ﬁrst original television series, a darkly comic drama set in the ﬁctional town of Dambury, where a chemical leak

turns residents of a care home into a violent, ﬂesh-eating army. It’s then up to a group of local teenagers to battle the zombie horde – while also dealing with the messy feelings and complex relationships that come with normal teenage lives. The Forge is producing for Channel 4.

DQ100: Directors

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DYLAN RIVER MYSTERY ROAD: ORIGIN AND ROBBIE HOOD’S RIVER IS HELMING THOU SHALT NOT STEAL, an upcoming Australian road series that boasts a cast including Sherry-Lee Watson, Will McDonald, Noah Taylor and Miranda Otto. River is also co-creator of the drama, which is set in Central and South Australia during the 1980s. It follows Robyn (Watson), a young Aboriginal delinquent searching for the truth behind a mysterious family secret, who escapes from detention and reluctantly teams

up with awkward teenager Gidge (McDonald). Together they flee her small central desert community on a perilous journey across the outback, finding answers and learning some hard life lessons along the way. Hot on their heels are Maxine (Otto), a sex trafficker whose taxi Robyn stole, and Gidge’s domineering father Robert (Taylor), a fraudulent preacher.

MINKIE SPIRO

SPIRO HAS SHOT EPISODES OF A WIDE RANGE OF BRITISH DRAMAS, including Downton

Abbey, Call the Midwife, Doc Martin and Skins. More recently, she has been working in the US, where her credits have included The Plot Against America, Pieces of Her and the upcoming Netflix series 3 Body Problem. Spiro has also partnered with Netflix and writer Jack Thorne on Toxic Town, a British limited series that examines the real-life case of the Corby poisonings. The four-parter focuses on three mothers in a David-vsGoliath fight for justice in what became the first case in the world to establish a link between atmospheric toxic waste and birth defects.

XAVIER GIANNOLI

AWARD-WINNING FRENCH FILMMAKER GIANNOLI RETURNED TO THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL THIS YEAR – only this time he brought his ﬁrst ever television series to the ﬂoating city. Produced by Curiosa Films for Canal+, D’argent et de sang (Of Money & Blood) is based on the real

life “scam of the century” that took place in France in 2009 when a gang of small-time crooks partnered with an upper-class trader to carry oﬀ an epic swindle involving carbon tax fraud. The director’s previous ﬁlm credits include Superstar, Marguerite and Lost Illusions.

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DQ100: Directors

RACHEL CAREY

DQ100 . 2023/24

CAREY’S DEBUT FEATURE FILM DEADLY CUTS PREMIERED AT THE DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN 2021, winning the Discovery award. She is now lead director on The Hardacres, a six-part period drama commissioned by the UK’s Channel 5 and produced by Playground, the makers of All Creatures Great & Small. Based on CL Skelton’s Hardacre novels, the series chronicles the sweeping rags-to-riches story of the Hardacre family in 1890s Yorkshire as they move from a grimy ﬁsh dock to a vast country estate. When an accident at work on the docks lands Sam and Mary Hardacre – along with their three kids Joe, Liza and Harry, and Mary’s inimitable mother Ma – unemployed and destitute, they have to think fast. In a bid to avoid the workhouse, the driven and determined family put their last penny into a radical business venture they hope will free them from their harsh existence on the quays of the North Yorkshire coast.

THE FINNISH FILM DIRECTOR MAKES HIS ENGLISHLANGUAGE TELEVISION DEBUT WITH ALICE & JACK, which debuted at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and will air on Channel 4 in the UK and PBS Masterpiece in the US in 2024. Described as a love story for the ages, when Alice (Andrea Riseborough) and Jack (Domhnall Gleeson) ﬁrst meet, they’re bound by a connection so powerful it seems nothing can break it. But will their path lead them to a place of happiness and togetherness? Or will life and their own emotional complexities get in the way? Kuosmanen’s previous credits include TV series Zone B and Kakarat and ﬁlms Compartment No 6 and The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki.

JOELLE MAE DAVID THE FOUNDER OF BLUEBIRD PICTURES, David began in

documentaries before moving to narrative storytelling, writing and directing stories that subvert negative stereotypes of marginalised groups in society across a range of genres. She has worked on series such as The Split, Harlots and The Innocents, and also shot episodes of web series Dreaming Whilst Black. David is

now lead director on Queenie, Channel 4’s adaptation of Candice Carty-Williams’ debut novel about a 25-year-old Jamaican-British woman living in South London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. After a messy break-up with her long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places, and begins to realise she has to face the past head-on before she can rebuild.

JUHO KUOSMANEN

DQ100: Directors

DQ100 . 2023/24

ALON ZINGMAN

GORAN KAPETANOVIĆ

ZINGMAN HAS BEEN ATTACHED TO TWO OF ISRAEL’S BIGGEST SERIES OF THE PAST DECADE IN CRIME DRAMA MANAYEK AND FAMILY DRAMA SHTISEL.

BOSNIAN-SWEDISH DIRECTOR KAPETANOVIĆ’S RECENT TELEVISION CREDITS INCLUDE SWEDISH THRILLER CALIPHATE, crime thriller Darkness: Those Who Kill and true crime series Knutby. He is now partnering with writers Alex Haridi and Lotta Eriksson for Stenbeck, a biographical drama about controversial businessman Jan Stenbeck, produced by FLX for broadcaster SVT and expected to air in 2025. The ﬁve-part series will follow Stenbeck as he reluctantly takes over the family business and turns it into a pioneering media empire that changes Sweden and the world – but Stenbeck also makes enemies and pays a high price for his success.

His latest project sees him direct highly anticipated series Red Skies, which was renewed for a second season before the first aired in mid-June. Based on the novel by a former Israeli intelligence officer, Red Skies goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of two friends who are forced to choose sides in a story about friendship, love and conflicting loyalties. Notably, the Reshet 13 series has been declared the biggest drama ever produced by an Israeli network.

MICHAEL SHEEN ON SCREEN, WELSH STAR SHEEN HAS ALREADY BEEN SEEN THIS YEAR IN THE SECOND SEASON OF FANTASY DRAMA GOOD OMENS, plus BBC miniseries Best Interests, in which he and Sharon Horgan play the parents of two girls, one of whom has a life-threatening condition and whom doctors believe should be allowed to die, leading to a huge legal process to determine what should happen next. But behind the camera, Sheen is making his TV directorial debut with three-parter The Way, which tells the story of an ordinary family caught up in an extraordinary chain of events that ripple out from their hometown. After civil unrest, the Driscolls are forced to escape the country they’ve always called home and leave their lives behind – but will they be overwhelmed by their past?

DQ100: Directors

DQ100 . 2023/24

SOPHIE DERASPE DERASPE’S 2018 FILM ANTIGONE WAS CHOSEN TO REPRESENT CANADA AT THE FOLLOWING YEAR’S ACADEMY AWARDS,

before she helmed six-part series Bête Noire, which explores the impact of a mass shooting at a school. She also directed Motel Paradis, a series about a woman out to solve the mystery behind her sister’s disappearance. Her next television project is Les Aﬄuents, a multilingual eco-thriller about a lawyer who, investigating her neighbour’s murder, uncovers a series of controversial mining practices.

GINESTA GUINDAL DIRECTOR GUINDAL HAS SHOT EPISODES OF BREAKOUT NETFLIX HIT ÉLITE, while also partnering with creator Leticia Dolera on HBO Max’s Vida Perfecta (Perfect Life). She is now linking up with Élite star Ester Expósito for La Isla Bonita, an irreverent dramedy set in Ibiza that aims to tackle challenges facing young people today, namely inequality, mental health and the climate crisis. The story focuses on a group of friends from diﬀerent walks of life who share a house on the Balearic island and must ﬁnd new ways to fund their lifestyle.

ELIASSON IS ON BOARD TO DIRECT ÅREMORDEN (THE ÅRE MURDERS), a Swedish series based on the crime novels by Viveca Sten. Set against the backdrop of the beautiful but bleak mountains of Northern Sweden, the story concerns Stockholm police oﬃcer Hanna Ahlander, who takes refuge from personal and professional problems in the scenic village of Åre. But when a young woman disappears, Hanna is rapidly drawn into the investigation. Eliasson’s previous credits include thriller Heder (Honour) and crime drama Gåsmamman.

JOAKIM ELIASSON

DQ100: Directors

DQ100 . 2023/24

A LONDON FILM SCHOOL GRADUATE WHO WORKED ON 2021’S DOCTOR WHO FLUX, Saleem’s work will soon be seen in Prime Video’s Anansi Boys and ITV drama After the Flood. Based on Neil Gaiman’s book of the same name, Anansi Boys follows Charlie Nancy (Malachi Kirby) who discovers his father was Anansi, trickster god of stories (Delroy Lindo), and that he has a brother, Spider (also Kirby), who is determined to make Charlie’s life more interesting and a lot more dangerous. Meanwhile, After the Flood is a mystery thriller set in a town hit by a devastating ﬂood. When an unidentiﬁed man is found

dead in a lift in an underground car park, police assume he became trapped as the waters rose. But as the investigation unfolds, PC Joanna Marshall (Sophie Rundle) becomes obsessed with discovering what really happened to him.

AZHUR SALEEM

GLENDYN IVIN AUSTRALIAN DIRECTOR IVIN IS ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S LEADING FILMMAKERS, having recently helmed series such as The Cry and Safe Harbour. He also directed all seven episodes of this year’s The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, a Prime Video drama based on Holly Ringland’s debut novel of the same name. The show focuses on the titular Alice, whose violent childhood casts a dark shadow over her adult life. After a family tragedy in which she loses both her abusive father and beloved mother in a mysterious ﬁre, nine-year-old Alice is taken to live with her grandmother June on a ﬂower farm, where she learns that there are secrets within secrets about her and her family’s past.

MEENU GAUR

BRITISH-INDIAN FILMMAKER GAUR’S FIRST FEATURE AS A WRITER-DIRECTOR, Zinda Bhaag,

was selected as Pakistan’s entry for the Best Foreign Language film at the 2014 Academy Awards. She then went on to direct films including Jeewan Hathi, Pakistani crime miniseries Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam and an episode of the second season of British drama World on Fire. She will now shoot both episodes of the BBC’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation, two-parter Murder is Easy. Written by Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre, the 1950s-set story begins on a train to London where Luke Fitzwilliam meets Miss Pinkerton, who tells him that a killer is on the loose in the sleepy English village of Wychwood under Ashe. The villagers believe the deaths are mere accidents, but Miss Pinkerton knows otherwise – and when she’s later found dead on her way to Scotland Yard, Luke feels he must find the killer before they can strike again. DQ

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DQ100 . 2023/24

DQ100: Writers

Hasak (left) with James Franco on the Karantina set

ADI HASAK

THE US WRITER IS BEST KNOWN AS THE CREATOR OF JENNIFER LOPEZ CRIME DRAMA SHADES OF BLUE, but he’s also steadily built a reputation for

100

English-language series across Europe. Hasak was behind an Englishlanguage adaptation of Norwegian drama Øyevitne (Eyewitnesses), and later created Swedish psychological thriller The Box, and now he’s turned German crime drama Tempel into Arabic series Karantina for Middle Eastern broadcaster MBC. Produced with Dynamic TV and Asacha Media Group, the eight-part family crime drama tells the story of Dahab (Yaqoub Al Farhan), a ﬁghter and the muscle for a Beirut-based American crime boss played by James Franco. When he’s released from prison, he promises his wife and daughter he will put his life of crime behind him – but when they are put in danger, he returns to his past to keep his family together. Other upcoming projects from Hasak include medical procedural The First 24 and Margeaux, a reimagining of the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.

Writers

CAMILLE DE CASTELNAU

TOUT VA BIEN (EVERYTHING IS FINE) IS THE FIRST ORIGINAL SERIES FROM FRENCH SCREENWRITER DE CASTELNAU, who

has previously worked on shows such as The Bureau, Standing Up and Call My Agent. Coming to Disney+ in early 2024, Tout va bien centres on an ordinary family that faces catastrophe when one of its children becomes seriously ill, shattering the lives of every one of its members – selfhelp author Anne, her neglected husband Pascal, their daughters Claire and Marion and son Vincent. As Rose undergoes a bone marrow transplant, life continues with its daily problems, but not without hope and humour. De Castelnau wrote the series with Gaëlle Bellan, Benjamin Adam and Christophe Régin.

DQ100: Writers

DQ100 . 2023/24

ZARA HAYES

HAYES IS BEST KNOWN AS THE WRITER AND DIRECTOR BEHIND PARAMOUNT+ DRAMA THE KILLING KIND AND BBC LEGAL THRILLER SHOWTRIAL, as well as

documentary work including Netﬂix’s Captive and Nat Geo’s Sigourney Weavernarrated Dian Fossey: Secrets in the Mist. She is now reuniting with The Killing Kind producer Eleventh Hour Films on a more permanent basis, joining the Sony Pictures Television-backed company as an executive producer and in-house writer, building her own slate of original projects – both scripted and factual.

DANIEL LAWRENCE TAYLOR

AS AN ACTOR, TAYLOR HAS BUILT UP AN EXTENSIVE LIST OF COMEDY CREDITS THAT INCLUDES APPEARANCES IN THE INBETWEENERS, Hunderby, Cockroaches, Uncle and Timewasters – the latter an ITV series about a time-travelling jazz band that he also created and wrote. His latest project sees him partner with BBC Three and Studio Lambert (The Nest) for Boarders, a six-part series that follows the lives of ﬁve talented, under-privileged black students from inner-city London who win scholarships to an elite boarding school. Taylor is the creator and lead writer, and was joined in the writers room by Emma Dennis-Edwards, Yemi Oyefuwa and Ryan Calais Cameron. He will also star in the series, playing a mentor to the ﬁve students.

CAT JONES

PLAYWRIGHT AND SCREENWRITER JONES BROKE INTO TELEVISION WRITING ON BRITISH SERIES INCLUDING DOCTORS, WATERLOO ROAD AND EASTENDERS,

before joining the writing staff of Will, Harlots and Wolfe. Her first original series has now landed at the BBC, with Jenna Coleman set to start in The Jetty. In the four-part miniseries, Detective Ember Manning must work out how a devastating fire at a holiday home is connected to a podcast journalist investigating a missing persons cold case and an illicit love triangle between a man in his 20s and two underage girls. But as Ember gets closer to the truth, it threatens to destroy her life and everything she thought she knew about her past, present and the town she calls home. Firebird Pictures (Wilderness) is producing.

DQ100: Writers

ISRAELI PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA NIGHT THERAPY IS THE FIRST SERIES FROM CREATOR AND WRITER CASPI. The 10-parter, from producers Yes TV and Eight Productions and distributor Yes Studios (Fauda), stars Yousef Sweid (Munich Games) as Louie, an Arab-Israeli psychologist struggling to raise his two children after the suicide of his JewishIsraeli wife. To strike a better work-life balance and support his kids during the day as they rebuild their lives, he decides to shift his practice to receive patients at night. Unorthodox actor Shira Haas will play one of his patients – a computer genius who rarely leaves her home, preferring to lead her life in the virtual world. Meanwhile, ﬂashback scenes will show Louie as an unseen observer of his patients’ problems.

RAANAN CASPI

SUZIE MILLER

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AUSTRALIAN WRITER MILLER HAS RECENTLY WON INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM FOR PRIMA FACIE, the one-

woman stage play starring Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer that has played to packed houses in London’s West End and on Broadway. She has also written the ﬁlm adaptation, which will star Cynthia Erivo in the lead role, and is developing a feature based on another of her plays, Dust. Her current TV slate includes original television series in the UK and Australia for Drama Republic, Matchbox Pictures, Curio and Synchronicity. For Film Art Media, Suzie is adapting Heather Rose’s novel Bruny.

Prasanna Puwanarajah (left) alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in Patrick Melrose

PRASANNA PUWANARAJAH HE’S BEST KNOWN FOR STARRING ON SCREEN IN SERIES SUCH AS PATRICK MELROSE, Ten Percent,

Doctor Foster, The Crown and Critical. A former junior hospital doctor, Puwanarajah is now part of the writing team behind Breathtaking, an ITV medical drama that follows a consultant working on the front line of the

Covid pandemic. He writes the scripts with fellow doctor and writer Rachel Clarke and fellow former doctor Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty), with the series based on Clarke’s personal memoir. Furthermore, Puwanarajah’s award-winning debut feature ﬁlm Ballywalter was released in cinemas in September.

DQ100: Writers

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MAE MARTIN CANADIAN MARTIN MIGHT BE BEST KNOWN AS A STAND-UP COMIC AND AS THE CREATOR AND STAR OF BITTERSWEET COMEDY FEEL GOOD, but they’re entering the world of thrillers for their latest project, Netﬂix’s Tall Pines.. Martin is the creator, co-showrunner and star of the limited series, which is set in a bucolic but sinister town and explores the insidious underbelly of the “troubled teen industry” and the eternal struggle between one generation and the next. Martin describes it as “an insane roller coaster and so diﬀerent from anything I’ve done before.”

A GHANAIAN FILM DIRECTOR, PRODUCER AND SCREENWRITER,

AA DHAND ENGLISH CITY BRADFORD WILL TAKE CENTRE STAGE IN VIRDEE, a BBC series written by former pharmacist Dhand and adapted from his own crime novels. Sacha Dhawan will play Detective Harry Virdee, a Bradford cop disowned by his Sikh family for marrying Saima, who is Muslim. Harry struggles with the abandonment, constantly attempting to reunite with his family. With his personal life in chaos, he must hunt down a killer targeting

the Asian community. When the murderer kidnaps a local MP’s daughter in Bradford and holds the entire city to ransom, Harry realises that he is going to need the help of his brother-in-law Riaz, a drug kingpin who runs the largest cartel in the county. Pulled together in an alliance that could ruin them both, Harry must make a choice: save himself and his family or save his city. He will not be able to do both.

NICOLE AMARTEIFIO

Amarteifio created the awardwinning series An African City, which was released on YouTube in 2014. It follows the lives of five friends who have moved back to Africa after living abroad as they navigate love, careers and nightlife in the Ghanaian capital, with frank discussions about sexuality. Amarteifio later adapted the show into a feature film and book series. Her first feature film, Before the Vows, premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2018, and most recently, she was in the writers room for comedy drama The Best Man: The Final Chapters for Peacock – a series that became the US streamer’s first original project to land in Nielsen’s Streaming Series Top 10.

DQ100: Writers

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GEORGIA LESTER

SEX EDUCATION AND SKINS WRITER LESTER IS BEHIND KIDNAPPED (working title), a BBC factual drama based on the true story of Chloe Ayling, a British model who was abducted in Italy in 2017 after travelling there for a photo shoot. The writer has worked with Ayling to dramatise her ordeal, including the terrifying kidnap, her time spent in captivity and the court case that later put her kidnappers in jail. The six-part series, produced by BBC Studios for BBC Three and iPlayer, will also explore the headlines that accused Ayling of faking her own kidnapping, putting her at the centre of a media storm.

TIG TERERA

RISING TALENT TERERA’S FIRST SERIES, SWIFT STREET, is pitched as a fast, funny and gritty Australian family crime drama, set in bustling inner-city Melbourne where the rich and poor collide. It’s here that street-smart 21-year-old Elsie must team up with her jaded, old-school hustler father Robert to get him out of debt and save him from a merciless crime boss who wants her money back. The pair embark on a series of hectic scrapes and near misses as Elsie endeavours to help Robert hustle for the money. But with an unhinged gang of debt collectors on their trail, the duo must commit a series of increasingly serious crimes, against a ticking clock and while fumbling through their dysfunctional relationship.

L-R: Camilla Whitehill with Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West

CAMILLA WHITEHILL

DERRY GIRLS STAR NICOLA COUGHLAN AND IT’S A SIN’S LYDIA WEST WILL HEAD THE CAST OF WHITEHILL’S CHANNEL 4 COMEDY BIG MOOD, which is described as a vivacious and rebellious portrayal of female friendship when inﬁltrated by the complexities of a serious mental illness. The sixpart series will explore the messy pitfalls and idiosyncrasies of navigating adulthood through wicked humour, daft anecdotes and unsettling truths, as best friends Maggie and Eddie (Coughlan and West) begin to question whether their friendship is in either of their best interests. Whitehill previously wrote on medical comedy Porters and co-wrote comedy podcast Whistle Through the Shamrocks.

DQ100: Writers

FELICITY PACKARD

PACKARD MADE HER NAME WRITING A HOST OF AUSTRALIAN SERIES SUCH AS UNDERBELLY, Anzac Girls, Wolf Creek, Janet King and Pine Gap. For her latest project, Packard is lead writer on Scrublands, a Stan and Nine Network commission based on the novel by Chris Hammer. The story opens in an isolated country town, where a charismatic and dedicated young priest (Jay Ryan) calmly opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners. One year later, investigative journalist Martin Scarsden (Luke Arnold) arrives in Riversend to write what should be a simple feature story on the anniversary of the tragedy. But when Martin’s instincts kick in and he digs beneath the surface, the previously accepted narrative begins to fall apart and he finds himself in a life-and-death race to uncover the truth.

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PLAYWRIGHT AND YOUNG VIC ARTISTIC DIRECTOR KWEI-ARMAH (ELMINA’S KITCHEN, BREAKING) IS BEHIND FASH, an ITV series described as an unflinching, vital and deeply thoughtprovoking factual drama about the complex and conflicted relationship between two brothers and the institutional prejudices that tore them apart. The story focuses on Justin Fashanu, who became the first black British footballer to be sold for £1m and the first professional footballer to come out as gay. He later committed suicide at a time when he was completely estranged from his younger brother, fellow pro footballer John Fashanu.

KWAME KWEIARMAH

DOUGLAS STUART STUART WON THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE FOR HIS NOVEL SHUGGIE BAIN, the story of a motherand-son relationship in 1980s Glasgow. He is now adapting it for the screen after the BBC commissioned his ﬁrst television series. With themes of pride, sexuality, addiction and love, it follows Shuggie’s battle to care for his alcoholic mother while struggling to ﬁt in and become the normal boy he desperately longs to be.

DQ100: Writers

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JAKOB RØRVIK

TO COOK A BEAR, SCRIPTED BY HARRIE, IS DISNEY+’S FIRST NORDIC ORIGINAL SERIES. The six-part drama is based on Mikael Niemi’s 19th century crime novel of the same name, which focuses on a pastor and a runaway

Sami boy who develop a relationship while investigating an unexpected murder mystery. Harrie is best known for his work on series including Fartblinda (Blinded), Bonusfamiljen (Bonus Family) and Solsidan.

JESPER HARRIE

OSKAR SODERLUND

A NORWEGIAN DATING SERIES WITH A TWIST, DATES IN REAL LIFE MARKS THE FIRST TELEVISION DRAMA FROM FILMMAKER RØRVIK (Thomas vs Thomas, Nothing Ever Really Ends). He writes and directs the six-part NRK dramedy, which follows the romantic adventures of Ida, a young Gen Zer who has spent most of her social life in a virtual reality world. But when her online boyfriend declares he has a ‘real’ girlfriend, she becomes determined to ﬁnd her own ‘physical’ partner in a world she has little experience in. The show is produced by Maipo Film and distributed by Dynamic Television.

SODERLUND IS ATTACHED TO WRITE AND SHOWRUN A MOST WANTED MAN, a series based on John le Carré’s novel of the same name from The Ink Factory and Amusement Park. The Snabba Cash and Greyzone screenwriter will set the espionage thriller against a modern European backdrop, updating the story of a Muslim illegal immigrant who draws the attention of a idealistic human rights lawyer determined to save him from deportation, and intelligence services who believe he is a threat. DQ

In 2024, you will discover the revenge of

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, face humanity’s greatest threat in

THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM, start the final struggle with MACHINE, dive into the world of Japan’s YAKUZA, join a journalism group battling fake news in

THE KOLLECTIVE, explore the intricacies of counter-terrorism in 9/12, become part of a surprising investigation team in SERIAL HUNTER, be able to see the future in THE OTHER SIDE, and live one of the greatest literary love stories of all time in ONE DAY.

Behind the most beautiful stories.

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GRISELDA

DQ100: Series

100 Series

ISOLATED

SOFÍA VERGARA MAKES HER DRAMATIC DEBUT – AND UNDERGOES AN EQUALLY DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION – in this true crime drama launching on Netﬂix in January 2024. The Modern Family star plays the title character, Griselda Blanco, a savvy and ambitious Colombian businesswoman and devoted mother who created one of the most proﬁtable cartels in history. With her blend of unsuspected savagery and charm, she expertly navigated between business and family, leading her to become known as ‘the Godmother.’ Vergara is also a co-creator and executive producer on the series alongside Eric Newman (Narcos) and director Andrés Baiz. Catherine Zeta-Jones previously played Blanco in 2018 Lifetime movie Cocaine Godmother.

THIS EIGHT-PART FINNISH SERIES IS SET ON THE REALLIFE UTÖ ISLAND, the outermost inhabited island in the Finnish archipelago in the Baltic Sea. When the local population is suddenly cut oﬀ from the world by an extraordinary – and unexplained – event, residents are left fearful of what will happen next as food and water supplies begin to dwindle. Produced by Lucy Loves Drama and distributed by One Gate Media, Isolated is created and written by Lassi Vierikko and Petja Lähde, directed by Teppo Airaksinen and stars Elena Leeve, Pihla Viitala, Ville Virtanen and Turkka Mastomäki. It is due to launch in early 2024.

DQ100: Series

THE TURKISH DETECTIVE

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OUT THERE

BASED ON THE SERIES OF NOVELS BY BARBARA NADEL, this warm-hearted, thrilling detective drama follows the adventures of Inspector Cetin Ikmen and Detective Mehmet Suleyman, set against the backdrop of Istanbul. Suleyman, of Turkish heritage but raised in London, is in his 20s and takes himself and his work deadly seriously, whereas Ikmen, his superior, a family man in his 60s, is counterintuitively playful, an anarchic presence who nevertheless quickly reveals himself to be an extraordinary crime ﬁghter. Ikmen and Suleyman solve a unique case across each set of two episodes, with each one showcasing a diﬀerent and intriguing facet of this one-of-a-kind city. Blending English and Turkish languages, the series stars Haluk Bilginer as Ikmen, Ethan Kai as Suleyman and Yasemin Kay Allen. It is produced by Miramax and Ay Yapim, in association with Paramount International Television Studios, and distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

WINTER PALACE THE FIRST COPRODUCTION BETWEEN SWITZERLAND’S RTS AND NETFLIX, this English- and French-language period drama begins in the summer of 1899, when ambitious hotelier André Morel imagines opening a palace in Switzerland for the entire winter season. But with diﬃcult conditions, boorish staﬀ and demanding guests, will the risky venture be worth it? Manon Clavel and Cyril Metzger star in the series, which is shooting in Montreux and the Alps ahead of its launch at the end of 2024. Oble and Point Prod are producing.

MARTIN CLUNES REUNITES WITH ED WHITMORE AND MARC EVANS, THE TEAM BEHIND MANHUNT (pictured), for this six-part crime drama commissioned by ITV in the UK. Exploring the phenomenon of county lines drug dealing, the series stars Clunes as a farmer and widowed father who is confronted with dark forces seeping into his rural community and decides to make a stand against the urban gangs using the countryside as a ﬁeld of operation, moving drugs and money between their inner-city hubs and provincial areas. Produced by Buﬀalo Pictures, it is written by Whitmore and Evans, who is also the lead director.

SECOND DEATH

THIS MOVISTAR PLUS+ ORIGINAL SERIES, filmed in Cantabria, stars Georgina Amorós and Karra Elejalde. The thriller follows police assistant Sandra (Amorós), daughter of recently retired police officer Tello (Elejalde), who finds herself involved in a criminal investigation in a quiet Pasiego town when she discovers the body of a woman who was supposedly buried years earlier. But

MR LOVERMAN

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LENNIE JAMES WILL STAR IN THIS ADAPTATION OF BERNADINE EVARISTO’S NOVEL, produced

by Fable Pictures for BBC One. James plays Barrington Jedidiah Walker – Barry to his mates, trouble to his wife, his daughters and his lover. Antiguan-born, exuberant Hackney personality Barry is renowned for his dapper taste and fondness for retro suits. Carmel, his wife of 50 years, senses Barry has been cheating on her with other women. Little does she know what’s really going on: a secret, decades-long aﬀair with his best friend and soulmate, Morris. Now entering the next chapter of his life, Barry has big choices to make that will force his whole family to question their own futures.

with a complicated personal life, she tries to stay away from the ensuing investigation as Castro, her partner and the father of her son, is about to be released from prison, while she also cares for Tello, who is in the early stages of dementia. However, an unexpected turn will pull Sandra into a case that threatens to have implications for her and her home town.

A SIX-PART SERIES COMMISSIONED BY UKTV’S ALIBI, The Red King is a character-driven mysterythriller that combines a knotty police investigation with chilling, atmospheric folk-horror through an island’s eerie past devotion to a pagan god called the Red King and the cult of the True Way. Smart, capable and by-the-book Grace Narayan (The Lazarus Project’s Anjli Mohindra) was ﬂying high as an inner-city police sergeant before being forced into a ‘punishment posting’ on the small, antiquated island of St Jory. Confronted by the forgotten and unsolved case of missing teenage boy Cai, Grace quickly discovers that she must overcome scarce evidence, extraordinary local characters and the island’s strange cult history to uncover the truth. The cast also includes Adjoa Andoh, Marc Warren, Jill Halfpenny and Mark Lewis Jones.

THE RED KING

DQ100: Series

THE FAMOUS FIVE

ENID BLYTON’S TIMELESS CHARACTERS ARE REIMAGINED FOR A NEW GENERATION IN THIS BBC SERIES FROM EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS NICHOLAS WINDING REFN (DRIVE) AND MATTHEW READ. Made in coproduction with Germany’s ZDF, the show follows ﬁve daring young explorers – George, Julian, Dick, Anne and their bearded collie cross Kip – as they encounter treacherous, actionpacked adventures, remarkable mysteries, unparalleled danger and astounding secrets in an unforgettable odyssey that evokes the power of camaraderie between the fearless young heroes.

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THIS PARAMOUNT+ ESPIONAGE THRILLER BOASTS AN A-LIST CAST, including Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Laysla De Oliveira and Morgan Freeman. In a story rooted in real life, De Oliveira plays Cruz Manuelos, a rougharound-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organisation from within. Meanwhile, Saldaña plays Joe, the station chief of the Lioness programme, who is tasked with training, managing and leading her female undercover operatives.

SPECIAL OPS: LIONESS THIS MGM+ CRIME THRILLER TELLS THE STORY OF ROMAN COMPTE, a

HOTEL COCAINE

Cuban exile, CIA operative and general manager of the Mutiny Hotel, the glamorous epicentre of the Miami cocaine scene of the late 70s and early 80s. Described as “Casablanca on cocaine,” the Mutiny was a glitzy nightclub, restaurant and hotel frequented by Florida businessmen and politicians, international narcos, CIA and FBI agents, models, sports stars and musicians. Compte was at the centre, doing his best to keep it all going and fulﬁl his own American dream. From Chris Brancato (Godfather of Harlem, Narcos) and Guillermo Navarro (Pan’s Labyrinth), the eight-part series is set to star Danny Pino, Mark Feuerstein, Michael Chiklis (pictured) and Yul Vazquez.

DQ100: Series

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BILLIONAIRE ISLAND WHEN NETFLIX LAUNCHED NORWEGIAN DRAMA LILYHAMMER, ITS FIRST ORIGINAL SERIES, IN 2012, nobody could have imagined the impact it would have – on the streamer itself and the global television industry as a whole. More than a decade later, Netﬂix has again teamed up with the creators of that show,

THE LATEST GERMAN ORIGINAL FROM STREAMER DISNEY+, this series puts a new twist on the mystery-romance genre by adding superpowers. When 18-year-old Pauline accidentally becomes pregnant – from a onenight stand – it’s just another problem for her in addition to school stress, the climate crisis and the downfall of society (better known as social media). What’s worse is she’s now developing feelings for her one-night stand Lukas, who, as it turns out, is the devil himself. Pauline discovers her pregnancy has given her supernatural powers, leading to an epic battle between good and evil. The series boasts a cast including Ludger Bökelmann, SiraAnna Faal, Andrea Sawatzki and Dimitrij Schaad, while it comes from the executive producer team behind Netﬂix’s How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast).

Anne Bjørnstad and Eilif Skodvin, for new Norwegian series Billionaire Island. Produced by Rubicon and directed by Marit Moum Aune (Made in Oslo), the series focuses on two families in a small coastal community in Norway who are sworn enemies in the global salmon industry.

SCENES AFTER MARRIAGE

WITH A TITLE THAT NODS TO INGMAR BERGMAN’S WORK, this Viaplay series comes from

PAULINE

writer Veronica Zacco (The Bridge) and director Anders Hazelius (Thunder in My Heart). Produced by B-Reel Films, it follows separated parents Lovis (Eva Röse) and Kian (Ardalan Esmaili), who meet every Friday afternoon at a pub beside the Öresund Bridge where they hand over their children, as they deal with the emotional storms created by their break-up in diﬀerent ways. In his ﬁrst role in a drama series, Swedish pop star Danny Saucedo plays bartender Bobby, who becomes a witness to these weekly meetings.

DQ100: Series

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BASED ON THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING NOVEL, DIRECTED BY SHAWN LEVY (STRANGER THINGS) AND WRITTEN BY STEVEN KNIGHT (PEAKY BLINDERS), this limited series weaves together the stories of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a brilliant teenager enlisted by Hitler’s regime to track down illegal radio broadcasts, over the course of a decade. With themes assessing the extraordinary power of human connection and how a beacon of light can lead us through even the darkest of times, the four-parter’s cast includes Mark Ruﬀalo, Hugh Laurie, Lars Eidinger and Marion Bailey, alongside Louis Hofman as Werner and newcomers Aria Mia Loberti and Nell Sutton as the older and younger MarieLaure, respectively.

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE BLUE CAGE THE FIRST SERIES COPRODUCED UNDER AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN US-BASED, SPANISHLANGUAGE PRODUCER TELEMUNDO GLOBAL STUDIOS AND TURKEY’S INTER MEDYA, this suspense drama follows Oğuz, who has lost his wife and resettled with his children in a coastal town where fate has him save a young woman by the name of Defne and bring her into his home. However, when she recovers her lost memory, Defne realises she was a con artist who must now remain in hiding. How long can Defne keep her secret safe, and what will Oğuz do when he ﬁnds out? The cast is led by Damla Sönmez and Caner Cindoruk.

NIGHTSLEEPER

SET IN REAL TIME, THIS SIX-PART BBC SERIES WRITTEN BY NICK LEATHER (PICTURED) UNFOLDS ON A SLEEPER TRAIN TRAVELLING FROM GLASGOW TO LONDON,

while a government agency desperately tries to intervene in the rapidly escalating events onboard. Can two people who have never met, one on the train and one not, work together to save its passengers as the Heart of Britain service hurtles towards what might be its ﬁnal destination?

DQ100: Series

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INSPECTOR SINGH

UNFORGOTTEN AND THE KUMARS AT NO 42 STAR SANJEEV BHASKAR WILL TAKE THE LEAD IN THIS DETECTIVE DRAMA COMMISSIONED BY BRITBOX INTERNATIONAL. Based on the novels by Shamini Flint, the series introduces the iconoclastic, rule-breaking, unorthodox and incomparable Singh – Singapore’s top sleuth – as he is sent to Kuala Lumpur to investigate the seemingly cut-and-dried case against a famous Singaporean model on death row for murder. Each season promises to tackle a complex murder rooted in the DNA of a diﬀerent Asian country.

THIS ITV DRAMA STARS GAME OF THRONES’ SOPHIE TURNER AS REAL-LIFE JEWEL THIEF JOAN HANNINGTON. The 1980s-set sixparter traces Hannington’s rise from petty oﬀender to talented diamond thief and criminal mastermind. Making full use of her sharp intelligence, charm and her talent for impersonation and performance,

REMATCH

A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER SET IN THE CROSSFIRE OF THE 1997 BATTLE BETWEEN WORLD CHESS CHAMPION GARRY KASPAROV AND IBM’S SUPERCOMPUTER DEEP BLUE, this six-part series is described as a highpressure confrontation between man and machine. Based on a true story, the Arte France drama is directed by Yan England (True North) and boasts a cast that includes Christian Cooke (The Promise), Sarah Bolger (The Tudors), Trine Dyrholm (The Legacy), Aidan Quinn (Elementary), Tom Austen (The Royals), Luke Pasqualino (Skins) and Orion Lee (First Cow). Federation Studios is distributing.

Hannington experiences ups and downs, heartache and joy as she strives to escape a violent marriage and create a better life for herself and her daughter. Hannington herself has spoken with writer Anna Symon to inform the drama.

JOAN

DQ100: TRENDS & TRAILBLAZERS

DQ100 . 2023/24

Sort Of creators Bilal Baig (left) and Fab Filippo

SORT OF

THE THIRD SEASON OF CANADIAN BREAKOUT COMEDY SORT OF BRINGS TO A CLOSE THIS PEABODY AWARD-WINNING SERIES THAT SOUGHT TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF GENDER AND SEXUAL DIVERSITY ON SCREEN. Created by Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo, the show also stars Baig as Sabi Mehboob, a nonbinary, gender-ﬂuid millennial who faces up to the diﬀerent identities they carry with them – from sexy bartender at an LGBTQ bookstore/ bar to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family and the de facto parent of a downtown hipster family. Produced by Sphere Media for CBC, Sort Of debuted in 2021 and has been sold around the world via distributor Abacus Media Rights. But it wasn’t just on screen that Baig and Filippo were able to promote diversity. Trans and non-binary writers and directors were also involved in making the series, while training schemes were set up to provide increased opportunities for diverse talent among the crew, in partnership with Canada’s Trans Film Mentorship.

100

Trends & Trailblaze rs

Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in Faraway Downs

THE IDEA OF A DIRECTOR RELEASING A NEW VERSION OF A FEATURE FILM IS NOTHING NEW, particularly if their original vision for the project didn’t quite match the one that ultimately ended up in cinemas. But Baz Luhrmann is now taking that idea to the next level. His 2008 movie Australia was an epic romance story that ran to 165 minutes – but he felt its original running time couldn’t adequately contain its intricate plot or sweeping vistas of the Australian outback. So much so that he has now reimagined the ﬁlm as a six-part episodic series, called Faraway

THE ULTIMATE DIRECTOR’S CUT

Downs, that launched on Hulu in the US, Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ worldwide in late November. The story follows an English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman), who travels halfway around the world to confront her wayward husband and sell an unusual asset: the titular million-acre cattle ranch. Following the death of Sarah’s husband, ruthless cattle baron King Carney (Bryan Brown) plots to take her land, and she reluctantly teams up with a rough-hewn cattle drover (Hugh Jackman) to protect it. Luhrmann’s move isn’t unprecedented, but he’s certainly the biggest name to bring a ﬁlm to TV in this way. If it succeeds, expect more Hollywood directors to follow his lead.

DQ100: TRENDS & TRAILBLAZERS

BAZ ASHMAWY

SCRIPTED TO UNSCRIPTED

WHILE ASHMAWY IS BEST KNOWN AS A TV AND RADIO PRESENTER

– he has fronted quizshow The Fanatics and travel series 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy – he’s now moving back to his acting roots after writing and starring in his ﬁrst series, Faithless. The series, produced for Ireland’s Virgin Media TV, draws on his own experiences in a single-parent family to tell the story of Sam (Ashmawy), a father who is left to raise his three daughters on his own after a tragic accident. The Irish-Egyptian star was also inspired by his family background to tell a story set in modern-day Ireland where cultures mingle together.

THE SCRIPTED BOOM OF THE PAST DECADE HAS LED TO AN UNTOLD NUMBER OF STORIES BEING BROUGHT TO THE SCREEN – and now they’re being adapted into reality, adventure and challenge series. The global success of Netﬂix’s Squid Game resulted in a green light for not only a second season but also a spin-oﬀ, Squid Game: The Challenge (pictured) in which real members of the public get to don the iconic green tracksuits made famous by the Korean show and play the same

DQ100 . 2023/24

games for the chance to win US$4.56m – the largest cash prize in reality television history. Thankfully, this version won’t be a matter of life or death for the contestants who fall by the wayside. Meanwhile, 007: Road to a Million is a Prime Video adventure series that sends nine pairs of everyday people on a global adventure through a series of James Bond-inspired challenges in an attempt to win a life-changing sum of money. What could be next?

MEET THE NEW8 AS ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY TAPERS THE AMBITIONS OF BROADCASTERS AND STREAMING PLATFORMS ALIKE, one group of European networks have struck up a deal they hope will see them weather the ﬁnancial storms ahead while ensuring their viewers continue to be oﬀered a smorgasbord of high-end drama. Coproduction has been commonplace among Scandinavian networks for many years, but public broadcasters DR (Denmark), NRK (Norway), RUV (Iceland), SVT (Sweden) and YLE

(Finland) have now expanded their union to partner with NPO (The Netherlands), VRT (Belgium) and ZDF (Germany) to create a group now known as the New8. The partnership will see them each invest in eight new dramas every year, with no stories or genres oﬀ limits but with a remit to appeal to younger audiences in particular. Viewers will no doubt tune in to see what emerges from this partnership, while the rest of Europe will be watching to see if the new model is a recipe for creative success.

DQ100: TRENDS & TRAILBLAZERS

STREAMERS GETTING SOAPY WHEN AUSTRALIAN SOAP NEIGHBOURS ENDED IN JULY 2022, an allstar cast reunited to say goodbye to the residents of Ramsay Street after almost 9,000 episodes since 1985. Four months later, however, Amazon Freevee announced it was stepping in to restart the daily drama, and the show duly returned in September this year. But more than another tile on a seemingly endless carousel of content, is Neighbours – or soaps in general – what streaming platforms have been missing? Traditional broadcast networks have been built on viewers coming back every day to check in with the latest adventures of their favourite characters. Maybe streamers need to ﬁnd their own soaps as a way to hook in viewers and keep those subscriptions coming. Neighbours’ performance on Freevee could provide the answer.

ELLA LILY HYLAND

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IN HER FIRST LEAD ROLE, HYLAND SMASHED IT OUT OF THE COURT WITH HER EMOTIONALLY DEMANDING PERFORMANCE AS FORMER TENNIS PRODIGY JUSTINE PEARCE IN PRIME VIDEO SERIES FIFTEEN-LOVE. When Justine accuses her former coach (Aidan Turner) of sexual assault, it opens up a story of love, betrayal and power as writer Hania Elkington’s story shines a spotlight on the world of elite tennis. Hyland will next be seen in Disney+ period drama A Thousand Blows and Netﬂix’s Black Doves.

REAL-TIME DRAMA

IT WAS A NARRATIVE DEVICE MADE FAMOUS BY US DRAMA 24, with the show’s ticking clock keeping viewers on the edge of their seats as Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) raced against time to stop a string of deadly terrorist attacks. Now a number of dramas are being set in real time to amp up the intrigue and tension. Apple TV+’s Hijack (pictured) is set on a plane that is hijacked as it travels from the Middle East to the UK, and upcoming BBC series Nightsleeper sees an unknown enemy take control of a sleeper train travelling from Glasgow to London. Breathtaking, an ITV medical series, also introduces real-time elements in a story that follows a hospital consultant working on the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic. Other series to use real time include James Nesbitt’s Suspect and Dutch drama Storm Lara, about a radio host dealing with a mystery caller.

DQ100: Trends & Trailblazers

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ONE OF THE MORE CONTENTIOUS INDUSTRY TRENDS OF THE PAST 12 MONTHS HAS BEEN THE DECISION OF SOME STREAMERS TO REMOVE THEIR OWN SERIES FROM THEIR PLATFORMS – a phenomenon regularly linked to new strategic approaches to content curation but, more often than not, simply a cost-cutting exercise. Disney is a notable culprit, taking dozens of series including Willow (pictured), Y: The Last Man, Dollface and Pistol down from

DISAPPEARING CONTENT

Disney+. Warner Bros Discovery, parent company of streamer Max, began this trend last year, and Showtime and AMC in the US are also said to be scaling back. Though it may help balance the corporate books, the downside for viewers is clear: some of their favourite series won’t be available to watch unless they are picked up by other services or make an appearance on one of the numerous FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) channels popping up across the internet. One thing’s for sure, if viewers want to ensure they always have access to their favourite shows, the DVD market can look forward to a resurrection.

Kirsten Sheridan

TIMOTHY SPALL

WHEN THE BRITISH TELEVISION PRIZES ARE HANDED OUT NEXT YEAR, don’t be surprised to see Timothy Spall’s name among the runners and riders. The actor – known for such ﬁlms as Mr Turner and Secrets & Lies – is widely recognised to have turned in a careerbest performance in true crime drama The Sixth Commandment, Commandment which debuted on BBC One earlier this year. He played Peter Farquhar, a much-loved teacher who is befriended by Ben Field, who would eventually be convicted of Peter’s murder. Episode one of the four-parter is painted as a gentle portrait of Peter’s life and his loneliness, and Spall gives an acting masterclass.

LOCKERBIE DRAMAS NOT ONE BUT TWO NEW FACTUAL DRAMAS FROM THE UK ARE SET TO EXPLORE THE LOCKERBIE BOMBING. On December 21, 1988, flight Pan Am 103 was travelling from Heathrow to JFK when a bomb exploded in its hold over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people, including 43 British citizens and 190 Americans. It was the worst ever terror attack on British soil and the first major one on US citizens. The BBC and Netflix have partnered on Lockerbie, a six-part series based on the events surrounding the incident and the Scottish-US investigation that sought to bring the perpetrators to justice. Meanwhile, Sky and Peacock are behind a five-part series, also called Lockerbie, that is inspired by the fight for justice by Dr Jim Swire and his wife Jane, who lost their daughter Flora in the attack. Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) and Kirsten Sheridan (In America) are the writers.

MUSICAL SERIES FOLLOWING THE PATH TRODDEN BY SHOWS SUCH AS GLEE AND SMASH, musical dramas are currently hitting television’s high notes. Comedy Schmigadoon aired its second season this year, telling the story of a backpacking couple who wind up in a town where life is one big musical, while Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies takes place four years before the events of the iconic movie, as four fed-up outcasts dare to have fun on their own terms and spark moral panic in the process. Daisy Jones & The Six (pictured) adapted Taylor Reid Jenkins’ novel of the same name to great success, charting the rise and fall of the ﬁctional title band. Meanwhile, Mood has proven to be a standout British entry in the genre, scooping awards for its creator, writer and star Nicôle Lecky in the original music and miniseries categories at this year’s Baftas.

DOCUDRAMAS

I AM

SINCE THE LAUNCH OF CHANNEL 4’S FEMALE-LED DRAMA ANTHOLOGY SERIES I AM IN 2019, writer and director Dominic Savage has worked with a host of leading actors to bring to the screen a collection of intense, challenging and thought-provoking stories tackling issues at the heart of modern life. His collaborators so far have included Vicky McClure, Suranne Jones, Gemma Chan, Samantha Morton, Letitia Wright and Lesley Manville, while the feature length I Am Ruth (pictured) – created with and starring Oscar winner Kate Winslet – won this year’s Bafta Television Awards for single drama and leading actor.

ONCE THE HOME OF STAGEY DRAMATIC RECONSTRUCTIONS THAT FILLED SEGMENTS BETWEEN ‘TALKING HEAD’ HISTORICAL EXPERTS, docudramas have evolved in recent years. This is best exemplified by producer Nutopia’s approach to its recent Netflix series African Queens, which in two seasons has dramatised the stories of Njinga and Cleopatra (pictured). The historians and voiceovers – here from executive producer Jada Pinkett Smith – remain, but Nutopia has honed a “creative mash-up” that flips the script on docudramas by bringing together factual producers and academics with top writing talent to create dramas that use historians to add context or move the story forward. With interest in fact-based scripted series at an all-time high, this approach to history docs looks set to be the future.

DQ100: Trends & Trailblazers

DQ100 . 2023/24

RACQUET SPORTS

ANYONE FOR TENNIS? Off the back of Netflix’s move into the sport with Break Point via its sports documentary strategy, two scripted efforts featuring balls and racquets were soon served up. Prime Video’s Fifteen-Love comes from writer Hania Elkington (The Innocents) and follows a dynamic tennis prodigy (Ella Lily Hyland) who once had an intense rapport with her maverick coach (Aidan Turner). But five years after a devastating injury ended her career, she makes

TAYLOR SHERIDAN

SHERIDAN IS BRINGING HIS HUGELY POPULAR WESTERN SERIES YELLOWSTONE (PICTURED) TO AN END AFTER THE COMPLETION OF ITS FIFTH SEASON, but the writer isn’t likely to be short of work, with a huge slate of productions already either on air, in production or in the works. He was behind 1883, a prequel to Yellowstone, while additional prequels include 1923 and 1944. Then there are fellow spin-oﬀs Lawmen: Bass Reeves, 6666 and an untitled sequel due to follow on from the events in Yellowstone. Other series as part of his growing slate on Paramount+ include Mayor of Kingstown, Texas boomtown story Land Man, Special Ops: Lioness and Sylvester Stallone-led Tulsa King – and that’s not to mention his ﬁlm work. Needless to say, Sheridan is one of Hollywood’s busiest talents.

an explosive allegation against her former mentor. Meanwhile, Spanish-language series Las Pelotaris 1926 (pictured) is inspired by the story of the ﬁrst professional female athletes, looking at the challenges they had to face in a world dominated by men at the beginning of the last century. Coming in 2024 is Apples Never Fall, Peacock’s series based on Lianne Moriarty (Big Little Lies)’s novel of the same name that tells a story of family secrets against the backdrop of competitive tennis.

Moran (centre) with members of the Extraordinary cast

EMMA MORAN BRITISH TELEVISION IS HOME TO AN EXCITING GROUP OF UNIQUE VOICES, from Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) and Laurie Nunn (Sex Education) to Joe Barton (The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself), Abby Ajayi (Riches), Lucy Prebble (I Hate Suzie) and Ryan J Brown (Wreck). Now, Emma Moran can be added to that list. The Northern Irish writer is currently working on the second season of Disney+ comedy Extraordinary, after the ﬁrst season this year introduced her distinctive sense of humour and a new take on the superhero in this series about a woman trying to ﬁnd her own superpower in a world where everybody has one.

DQ100: Trends & Trailblazers

DQ100 . 2023/24

AS RUSSIA’S WAR ON UKRAINE CONTINUES, news reports and documentaries regularly record the plight of local people, whether they have tried to maintain their lives in the towns and cities of Ukraine against the backdrop of bombings or fled to neighbouring countries – or further afield. This fall, a six-part anthology series backed by broadcasters in Sweden, Norway and Finland dramatised the true stories of those who stayed in Kyiv. Produced by Ukraine’s Film.UA and distributed by Germany’s Red Arrow Studios International, Those Who Stayed (pictured) brings together established and emerging talent from across the country, with each episode written and directed by a different creator. Another such series is In Her Car, which comes from Starlight Television, Gaumont and Beta Film and follows a therapist who supports people who have been greatly affected by the conflict.

THE LAST OF US VIDEO GAME ADAPTATIONS HAVE HAD A ROCKY HISTORY ON THE BIG AND SMALL SCREENS, whether it’s Halo, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil or Super Mario Bros. HBO drama The Last of Us could lay claim to being the best yet, taking the hugely successful post-apocalyptic premise and successfully transferring it to television with a blend of action, nail-biting tension and deeply emotional scenes that put character front and centre. Set in 2023, 20 years into a pandemic that transforms people into hosts for fungal parasites and leads to the collapse of society, it follows hardened survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal), who is tasked with escorting teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the US.

UKRAINE

ECO THRILLERS AS THE WORLD SWEATS ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, BOTH NOW AND IN THE FUTURE, drama is dipping its toes into

stories in which the environment turns against us. Renewed for a second season, Prime Video’s The Rig follows the crew of an oil rig as they fight for survival after a strange fog cuts off all communication with the shore and leaves them stranded in the fierce waves of the North Sea. International drama The Swarm (pictured) is based on Frank Schätzing’s novel

that depicts how humanity is forced to battle an unknown enemy – a collective consciousness that originates in the depths of the ocean – when it strikes back against man’s ruthless treatment of the world’s underwater habitats. Mystery series Schnee (Snow), meanwhile, imagines what happens when nature attempts to heal the wounds of the past, as the secrets of a small mountain village are revealed when a melting glacier unveils a corpse. DQ

Your unfair advantage Factual CONTENT STRATEGIES

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END CREDITS: Scene Stealers

DQ100 . 2023/24 L-R: Taj Atwal, Leah Brotherhead and Sinead Matthews star in Hullraisers

As the Channel 4 series returns for its second season, Fable Pictures creative director Hannah Farrell outlines how Hullraisers balances the portrayal of real-life problems facing its three central protagonists with moments of outlandish, heightened comedy.

SCENE STEALERS

Hullraisers S

eason one of Hullraisers follows the lives of trio Toni, Paula and Rana as they juggle life, love and kids in a north-eastern corner of God’s own country, Yorkshire. Struggling actor Toni (Leah Brotherhead) is in denial about how much fun a mum in her 30s can have and is determined to live life like her 20s never ended, which is hard to do when you’ve got a seven-year-old daughter and a (very patient) long-term partner. Rana (Taj Atwal) has the life Toni would die for – she’s a determinedly single super-cop with a revolving door of Hull’s hotties and every week she has a new man, though they don’t come without drama. Toni’s sister Paula (Sinead Matthews), on the other hand, is content where she is: namely, happily married in Hull; more specifically, on the sofa eating squirty cream. Hullraisers is the first comedy we’ve produced at Fable, but like our previous works – films Stan & Ollie, Wild Rose and Rocks and miniseries Anne Boleyn – it has all of the values that we as a company hold and thread through everything we put on screen. The ethos at Fable centrally focuses on mainly (but not always!)

female, distinctive stories told through a new perspective. Our projects always have some form of aspirational quality, and hopefully a little something that adds to a conversation or issue. We do this through characters that feel relatable and storytelling that feels soulful. We’re so very lucky to work with some of the best British talent on and off screen. Hullraisers is the perfect example of that. As a team of working-class female producers, we wanted to make a show that created characters we recognised, putting female voices at the forefront. Hullraisers is a joyful, anarchic and heartwarming show but it always keeps its feet firmly on the ground. No matter how outlandishly Toni, Paula and Rana behave, every situation and conversation needs to feel as if it could happen in real life. Every aspect of how we develop and shoot the show has a rigour of testing its authenticity, ensuring every scene feels grounded no matter how ridiculous the characters may be or how heightened the comedic moment. This speaks right to the heart of everything we make and develop at Fable – the relatability and

END CREDITS: Scene Stealers

DQ100 . 2023/24

mindfulness to be authentic to the world and its characters. Our writers Caroline Moran and Anne-Marie O’Connor are vital to this on Hullraisers. They bring a magical quality to the scripts, balancing the comedy and the truthfulness of these women’s stories. They’re also not afraid to tackle some serious issues along the way, which again I think grounds the show. Ian Fitzgibbon, our director, is also a key part of how this all comes together – his genius with tone and the working environment he creates is the beating heart of Hullraisers. We work hard to achieve this, but we have a lot of fun along the way. Part of making a funny show that also feels real is addressing difficult topics that affect many of our viewers. For example, in this second season, we touch on miscarriage,

“

We’re really conscious of how the show tackles issues without ever being flippant or, conversely, shifting the tone of an episode too drastically into drama. Hannah Farrell

”

menopause and the cost-of-living crisis. We’re really conscious of how the show tackles these issues without ever being flippant or, conversely, shifting the tone of an episode too drastically into drama. This is testament to the writing, direction and acting that goes into each one. Our characters feel like real people who, because of their particular personalities, find themselves in heightened situations. So when we do address a topic, the truth of our characters means we take the audience along with us. We want viewers to laugh at Hullraisers, but also look at these characters and say, ‘I recognise that in my own world.’ Picking one scene that encompasses this is impossible, but one moment that comes to mind is a scene from episode three, where our characters are discussing the housing crisis and devise a plan to put people off buying their rented home. It’s an incredibly heightened moment – we delve into a ‘play within a play,’ but it showcases each of the brilliant cast of the central family, doing what they do best, making us howl with laughter while also showing us the truth of their world. We have Toni worrying about her partner flirting with the ‘friendly’ neighbour, we have Rana introducing a new partner at work who could be trouble and Paula distracted by the ‘sex off’ she’s initiated with husband Dane after he refuses to get a vasectomy. As this first scene kicks off the ongoing drama and high stakes of Toni losing her house, Hullraisers is produced and written by working-class women

and how it’s affecting her young daughter, it also launches three devastatingly funny storylines that form the backbone of this episode. Toni goes on a journey to bring back her old ‘flirt master’ techniques to disastrous consequences, Paula and Dane’s sex-off escalates to him performing Magic Mike style in the local DIY store, and Rana’s proved right when she teaches her new partner a thing or two about the ‘true face of Hull.’ This opening scene is just magical in capturing the tone of our show. We can talk about real issues and paint a real world around our characters, but we can also go to outrageous and edgy places and still bring all the heart that this show is built on. It’s the wonderful performances of our cast that make the show relatable, and the opening of episode three showcases these brilliant actors perfectly. It also highlights the intergenerational quality of the show – it brings in Toni’s daughter Grace, and Nima, the grandmother, who acts as a wise oracle figure knowing exactly how their various predicaments will play out, but enjoying all their mistakes along the way. All these women are the backbone of the show and, alongside the wider family, they provide a view of what living in Britain looks like today. To be putting this show on people’s TV screens, produced and written by workingclass women, with a cast of funny feisty females in a real working-class space, is exactly why Fable exists. And to bring a little joy into people’s living rooms. DQ

END CREDITS: Five Minutes With...

DQ100 . 2023/24

FMIINUTEES Michael Connelly WITH...

Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch in Bosch: Legacy

The author and screenwriter looks back on bringing the world of his ﬁctional LA homicide detective-turned-private investigator Harry Bosch to television and explains why AI presents an existential threat to writers.

With seven seasons of Bosch on Prime Video and now two seasons of sequel Bosch: Legacy on Amazon Freevee, did you ever imagine the show would have the life it has now? I didn’t imagine it back then, and it’s hard to imagine now. It’s had a tremendous run, and you have to have an amazing amount of good luck, but also an amazing number of good people and supporters to have something like a TV show run that long. I’ve always been amazed there was a desire for Harry Bosch books, but I write those books by myself, essentially. Of course, I have publishers and everything, but for a TV show to go this kind of distance, you are talking about dozens and dozens of people doing their best work and it all coming together like a symphony. That’s what has happened with Bosch and it’s pretty rare. There have been 24 Bosch novels. How many have been drawn upon for the show so far and how do you divide your time between writing those and adapting them for scripts? I don’t know how many we’ve used. It was an unusual deal with Amazon at the beginning. It wasn’t like they optioned one book. They wanted all of Harry Bosch so that allowed me to say, ‘Hey, take what you need. I’m going to keep writing about Harry Bosch, and I don’t think you’ll ever catch up to me.’ So we have taken very liberally from the books – sometimes the entire plot, sometimes a moment or sometimes a relationship. We sit in a writing room and there are six or seven writers if you include me, and that’s where I’m most involved, before we really start writing episodes. We’re working on S3 [of Bosch: Legacy] now. The writers are very much steeped in my work; they’re reading the books as they come and

“

For a show to go this kind of distance, you are talking about dozens and dozens of people doing their best work and it all coming together like a symphony. Michael Connelly

”

if there’s something that hits them in the right way then it’s like, ‘Have at it.’ But we’re now at this point where we often scratch our heads and say, ‘Didn’t we already use that?’ What was the impact of the strike on the writers, and do you have thoughts on whether AI is positive or negative? The impact of the strike was very difficult. I know lots of writers beyond my show. We have writing rooms going for possible other shows and I know everybody, so it’s very difficult. But it was a righteous thing because streaming, especially in my country, has really taken over the entertainment industry. The shows are shorter, so it’s much harder for writers to make a good living. I really felt that the key things they were looking for in a strike were needed to keep this industry going. AI is an existential threat to writers of books as well as TV, so I was also behind the goals of the Writers Guild of America to get some controls on that. I was a member of a group of writers who sued the makers of ChatGPT because, in my own example, they took my books, fed them into the AI model and you could go there and say, ‘Write me a new story about Harry Bosch’ – and that to me is a crime. It’s always about the three Cs: consent, control and compensation. I got none of that, and that to me is not fair. I’m OK because I’ve been very fortunate in my career, so it’s not like I need the money. But there are many writers who would like to have that opportunity. It’s a threat to writers, so I was definitely down with what the guild were attempting to get in their strikes, and they did get some controls on it. Prime Video has ordered a second Bosch spinoff. What does the Harry Bosch Universe say about the direction of travel for television? As long as it’s the Harry Bosch Universe and not something else, I’m pretty happy with it. It’s one of those things where I have to shake my head because that’s what I’ve been doing in my books all along. I’ve always had cross-currents of books, characters cross paths and so on. I write like I like to read, and when I come across other writers who do that, I love that as a reader, and that’s what I practice as an author. When that is moving into streaming and to the evolution of these stories on screen, it’s pretty fantastic. Hopefully we’ll see other aspects of my work start being made and linked to the centre of the wheel, which I guess is always going to be Harry Bosch. DQ

END CREDITS: Six of the Best

DQ100 . 2023/24

The former head of drama at French-German network Arte, who is now a producer at Asacha Media-backed Mintee Studio, picks half-a-dozen shows that represent the best of global drama.

Ethos

“

Ethos is an example of the way dramas can go beyond mere entertainment to dig into complex human and social topics. Olivier Wotling Guilt

Slow Horses

”

SIX OF THE BEST

Olivier Wotling The Actor Winner of the Series Mania Grand Prix this year, this show was a revelation, following two unemployed actors who offer their services to play parts in real-life situations. Let’s start by saying the show is Iranian, has an incredible 26-part, 52-minute-long format, and takes its mesmerising strength from almost exactly the opposite rules of storytelling that you are used to seeing in most Western series. Fascination and growing tension in each scene come from an incredibly slow pace, very long scenes, unpredictable twists and reactions. You are never sure where the characters are heading or what is on their mind, and yet you are never lost. It is warm, witty and a very clever, indirect and, no doubt, very brave critique of the Iranian situation. Guilt This series has a very typically British (Scottish) flavour for a French viewer. The writing shows a perfect balance between a very pleasant and gripping crime story and an ironic and witty spirit, so you are not sure whether to watch the whole show because you want to know the end of the crime story or just because you love the irony of this human comedy, where all the characters appear to be the opposite of what they first seemed, where each one is both absolutely irritating and very engaging. Mytho I must first of all confess a bias in favour of this show since I commissioned it a few years ago. While I was complaining that French shows were never daring or bold

enough, this one dared to play with taboo – a wife and mother of three children pretends she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and enjoys the love from her family and the power this lie gives her over people – and with the viewers’ feelings of uncertainty between uneasiness and laughter. There is a very peculiar and enjoyable atmosphere of strangeness hanging over daily situations and a sharp but loving irony in terms of our common behaviours and hypocrisy. Bir Başkadir (Ethos) This eightpart show is a fascinating and thorough study of modern Turkish society, dramatically torn The Actor between people of different social, religious and cultural backgrounds. It portrays a rich variety of characters, from a modest cleaning lady from a conservative family on the outskirts of Istanbul, to the more westernised urban intellectuals or upper class. I must highlight the powerful filming of director Berkun Oya. It’s definitely an example of the way dramas can go beyond mere entertainment to dig into complex human and social topics by giving them space and time, just as classic novels used to do. Esterno Notte This amazing series, directed by Marco Bellocchio, dramatises the kidnapping and murder of Italian politician Aldo Moro by far-

left terrorists known as the Red Brigades in 1978. I like this kind of show – one that’s very challenging to write but brilliant, just like Chernobyl. Viewers may think they know the story, but actually they just know the tragic end. The show explores what led to this point, through mistakes, absurd decisions, cowardice, hypocrisy and compromising one’s principles. It features incredibly strong ﬁlming of a world on the verge of chaos and civil war, in a nightmarish atmosphere. But there’s no need to be interested in Italian politics: its strength stands in the human tragedy, a man of justice and good will who is abandoned, betrayed and sentenced to death by the weakness of other men, friends and allies. Slow Horses This show centres on ‘a bunch of losers,’ to quote Jackson Lamb (played by Gary Oldman in an absolutely fantastic performance), who you also love and support. There is a wonderful blend of espionage thriller and workplace comedy, of dark humour and humanistic warmth. It reminded me of The Wire, but also of Italian classic comedies – the darker and crueller it is, the more you love the hopeless characters. It is fun and entertaining, and you happen to be moved because it imperceptibly brings you to a beautiful truth: failed, ﬂawed people can together achieve something great and gain value and self-esteem. It is full of desperate stories that give faith and hope. A brilliant tour de force. DQ

Index DQ100 . 2023/24

100

Actors

Rose Ayling-Ellis • Delﬁna Chaves • Siobhán Cullen • Michela De Rossi Varun Dhawan • Siobhan Finneran • Kyla Harris • Charlotte Hope • Arthur Hughes Tewﬁk Jallab • Stephen Jones • Siena Kelly • Jing Lusi • Colin Morgan Wunmi Mosaku • Richard Rankin • Iwan Rheon • Dina Shihabi Nathan Stewart-Jarrett • Felicity Ward

Directors Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi • Rachel Carey • Joelle Mae David Sophie Deraspe • Joakim Eliasson • Meenu Gaur • Xavier Giannoli Ginesta Guindal • Kim Hong Sun • Glendyn Ivin • Goran Kapetanović Juho Kuosmanen • Dylan River • Azhur Saleem • Michael Sheen Rodrigo Sorogoyen • Minkie Spiro • Lulu Wang • Ben Wheatley • Alon Zingman

Writers Nicole Amarteiﬁo • Raanan Caspi • Camille de Castelnau • AA Dhand Jesper Harrie • Adi Hasak • Zara Hayes • Cat Jones • Kwame Kwei-Armah Georgia Lester • Mae Martin • Suzie Miller • Felicity Packard Prasanna Puwanarajah • Jakob Rørvik • Oskar Soderlund Douglas Stuart • Daniel Lawrence Taylor • Tig Terera • Camilla Whitehill

Series

All the Light We Cannot See • Billionaire Island • Blue Cage • The Famous Five Griselda • Hotel Cocaine • Inspector Singh • Isolated • Joan • Mr Loverman Nightsleeper • Out There • Pauline • The Red King • Rematch Scenes After Marriage • Second Death • Special Ops: Lioness The Turkish Detective • Winter Palace

Trends & Trailblazers Baz Ashmawy • Disappearing content • Docudramas • Eco thrillers Ella Lily Hyland • I Am • The Last of Us • Lockerbie dramas • Meet the New8 Emma Moran • Musical series • Racquet sports • Real-time drama Scripted to unscripted • Taylor Sheridan • Sort Of • Timothy Spall Streamers getting soapy • The ultimate director’s cut • Ukraine WHO’S WHO

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