Drama Quarterly - Fall 2022

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THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR: Female directors

A host of leading female directors tell DQ about their latest projects and how their role is changing in a TV landscape where the pressure for series to stand out is greater than ever.

ON LOCATION: The Pact

We head to Wales to watch filming of the anthology’s second season, in which new secrets are unearthed as a mysterious stranger visits a family claiming to be a previously unknown sibling, with seismic consequences.

STAR POWER: Rakie Ayola

The Welsh actor discusses taking the lead in season two of The Pact, becoming an executive producer and showcasing Welsh talent.

IN PRODUCTION: The Diplomat Writer Ben Richards and executive producer Simon Heath recall their decade-long journey to make this Barcelona-set series, which follows the work of a consul called upon to help British nationals in trouble in Catalonia.

ON LOCATION: La Ruta (The Route)

DQ visits Valencia to get the lowdown on this Spanish drama, which portrays the personal journey of five friends in the middle of a cultural movement around techno music in the 1980s.

IN FOCUS: Marie Antoinette Star Emilia Schüle and producers Claude Chelli and Stéphanie Chartreux discuss making a series that promises to show a new side of the young Austrian princess who would become Queen of France.

IN PRODUCTION: Rosvopankki (The Invincibles) Moskito Television’s Mari Kinnunen and writerdirector Matti Kinnunen preview this Finnish financial thriller about the country’s banking crisis in the early 1990s.

DQ100: Part Three 2022/23

pick out a range of shows

actors,

as well as

trends and trailblazers

A new direction

A host of leading female directors tell DQ about their latest projects and how their role behind the camera is changing in a television landscape where the pressure for series to stand out is greater than ever.

Corrie Chen on the New Gold Mountain set

hile film directors are used to seeing their name on billboards and posters trailing their latest work, the same cannot be said for those working in TV. But although the small screen is often described as a writer’s medium, the explosion of content over the past decade has meant directors are now more important than ever to the creative process.

They are joining projects earlier in development to help shape the look and style of a show from the script stage in the hope that it will stand out from the ever-increasing competition. And they’re also more likely to direct every episode of a miniseries, meaning they will have a significant voice across the entire production. But how else is the role of the director changing and evolving in TV?

“It’s a great time to be working in television, and the explosion of content with the streamers means there’s so much material,” says Jill Robertson. “It encourages more risk taking and more development, and certainly it’s nice to see so much different material and to work on stuff you really connect with.”

Robertson was recently the lead-off director on Acorn TV and Channel 5 detective drama Dalgleish , which is produced by New Pictures and sold worldwide by All3Media International. Adapted from PD James’ murder novels Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries, it stars Bertie Carvel as the titular enigmatic detective and poet who attempts to solve unusual murders in 1970s England. Her other credits include Pennyworth , Red Election , The Feed and Harlots , while her next project, airing in early 2023, is Barcelonaset drama The Diplomat (see page 26).

Asked whether her role behind the camera is changing, Robertson says it varies from one job to another. “But there have been a couple of projects where I’ve been brought on earlier or been approached without all the financing in place, which is a change,” she notes. “Once you get into it, it works similarly to how it did before. There’s just so much more of it. There’s a shortage of crew and those things come into it more. It was heading that way before the pandemic, but then suddenly everything picked up afterwards. There’s so much being shot, so people can pick and choose a bit more.”

Robertson also acknowledges how many more female directors are working in the business compared with five years ago: “It’s been an enormous change, which is really heartening.” And while she can’t say barriers to female directors have been removed entirely, Robertson believes opportunities are opening up for women beyond the types of projects

to which she was restricted at the start of her career, when she worked on kids- and teenfocused shows such as Grange Hill , Hollyoaks and The Story of Tracy Beaker .

“I did children’s TV and that was great, but I know some female directors really got stuck there and they couldn’t get things like action shows,” she says. “But there are many more of those open to female directors now than there were, the darker and what were traditionally seen as more male dramas. There’s not that kind of stigma that was there when I started.”

Working in such a crowded drama marketplace mean directors like Robertson are under pressure to ensure their shows make an explosive start that will grab viewers from the first minute. “I definitely feel that,” she says. “David Lean [the director of Lawrence of Arabia ] always said you’ve got to grab them at the beginning, so I’m a big believer in impactful openings and trying to give the audience something without being selfconscious, making sure it connects and trying to find something fresh and interesting in the storytelling, particularly in the detective genre, because there are a lot of detective shows.”

However, Robertson notes that directors must be sure to find that eye-catching opening within the script and not just create something that won’t connect with the story – or the audience. “You want people to be compelled and hooked,” she says. “That’s all to do with casting and performance as well. Then in editing, it’s about making sure the pace is there, that you’re not following clichéd cuts or routes or doing it for the sake of it. That’s the art of it.”

In her own words, MGM Studios “hunted down” Dennie Gordon to helm its globe-trotting environmental thriller Last Light after seeing her work on HBO’s martial arts crime drama Warrior. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Alex Scarrow, Last Light follows a family separated around the globe as they

There are many more action shows open to female directors now, the darker and what were traditionally seen as more male dramas. There’s not that kind of stigma that was there when I started

Jill Robertson

“

Francesca Comencini in discussion with members of the Django cast

W >Nicole Kassell refers to the source material while filming Watchmen

try to survive the fallout from an oil crisis. That the series had the “whole bouillabaisse” of family drama mixed with eco-terrorism – with filming set to take place in Prague, Paris and Abu Dhabi – was enough to draw Gordon in.

“I’m a big action director and I saw this wonderful opportunity, just as this family is pulled apart, for some very exciting action, which we were able to do,” she says. “MGM supported me 100% and said, ‘Let’s make this as entertaining as it can be, despite its subject matter. Let’s make it relatable.’ We put together this dream cast and they were all so devoted and worked so hard during the height of Covid. There were days when we just thought, ‘Oh my God, can we possibly carry on?’ and we did. We just hiked up our socks.”

Action isn’t a prerequisite for Gordon taking on a job, however. Having trained at the heels of David E Kelley ( Ally McBeal ) and Aaron Sorkin ( Sports Night ), she says “story comes first,” having learned to follow great material. Her credits include the US version of The Office , legal drama Goliath and thriller Jack Ryan , showing a breadth of material beyond any action pigeonhole.

In the case of Last Light – produced in partnership with Peacock, Nordic streamer Viaplay, Australia’s Stan and MBC in the Middle East and distributed by MGM International –bringing cinematographer Patrick Murguia on board was a key early decision. He and Gordon worked together to imagine what the world might look like if the lights started to go out, as happens in the series.

“For me, it’s always important to get my visual team together, my cinematographer and my production designer, and then we start to navigate our way through it,” Gordon says.

“I like to create an image system or a mood board. I work with a graphic artist I love in LA, and before we even got the green light, we were pulling together images. That was very important because when I land wherever I’m going to be shooting next, I love to arrive and say, ‘Let’s start the conversation with this. Let’s look at these images. This is what we’re thinking.’ That’s one of the most fun parts of the job.”

Australian director Corrie Chen is also feeling a change in the industry down under in the way directors are treated as creative

partners, although she adds that it depends on how other people like to work. “I’m sure there are writers out there who might not enjoy a director coming in so early. But setting the tone of how a collaboration happens on a series becomes pretty clear early on and I can only hope that, moving forward, writers and producers can see the benefits that it could bring to a series,” she says.

From a beginning in short films, Chen filmed episodes of Sisters , Five Bedrooms , SeaChange and Wentworth before taking full control on Chinese-Australian period drama

all four episodes of Bad Behaviour , from Matchbox Pictures and NBCUniversal Global Distribution for streamer Stan. With themes of friendship, ritualistic rites, sexuality and power struggles, the story centres on a group of students at an exclusive girls’ boarding school as they embark on a yearlong wilderness camp.

“When I’m watching as a fan of other shows, a series stands out when there’s a clarity of the emotional experience, which often has nothing to do with the plot. Actually, it’s that journey you want the audience to have. To me, that’s directing,” Chen says. “It’s both a forensic and an organic investigation into emotion, which is exhausting and wonderful. On a television schedule, often that is not something you want to be discovering on set or in rehearsal. That’s the work of a director. The more time I have, the better it is for the show.”

Also tackling a small-screen western is Francesca Comencini, lead director on Sky and Canal+ drama Django. With a cast that includes Matthias Schoenaerts, Nicholas Pinnock, Noomi Rapace and Lisa Vicari, it is loosely based on Sergio Corbucci’s film of the same name and sees the eponymous Django on an eightyear search for his daughter, only to discover her grown up and about to marry in outcast city New Babylon. Atlantique Productions and Cattleya produce the 10-part English-language series, with StudioCanal distributing.

New Gold Mountain . A historical murder mystery set during the gold rush of the 1850s, the story introduced European, Chinese and Indigenous Australian characters who live together in a frontier town as they seek to strike it rich by finding gold – until the murder of a woman sparks the hunt for a killer.

With New Gold Mountain , produced by Goalpost Pictures for SBS and distributed by All3Media International, Chen was high on the idea of making a period drama in Australia and the ambition shown by the creative team to dramatise this previously unexplored period of history. And now she is filming

“The role of series directors is changing thanks to greater collaboration among the myriad other people involved in the creation of a series,” says Comencini, who partnered with creators Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli on Django . “I enjoy such collaboration. I love to participate in projects with a very high level of demand on everyone’s part, which pushes us to do more and better, but it is important to acknowledge the roles of each individual and to respect them.”

Amid intense competition among series, “there is no doubt that defining a powerful visual signature is very important,” the director adds. “But I don’t think anyone has a failsafe recipe for a successful product. We are always striving, in a way fortuitously, groping in the dark. We can only trust the honesty of our hearts and our emotions. I believe the most important feature of a hit series is its singularity, its personality, its uniqueness.”

“

”

There’s tremendous pressure, but that’s always been there, whether you’re making a feature or a pilot. You dream big, you want the best for the project, you want it to be a hit. But we all know we really have zero control over the reception.

Nicole Kassell

Dennie Gordon’s Last Light

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From Grantchester and The Mallorca Files to Vera and Outlander , Christiana Ebohon-Green has had a busy couple of years behind the camera. She has also directed three episodes of the second season of BBC drama The Pact (see page 16), and says the level of creative freedom on set meant she didn’t have to stick rigidly to the script.

With a new story set over six episodes, The Pact S2 follows social worker Christine (Rakie Ayola) and her family as their loyalties are tested when they’re confronted by a mysterious stranger. Little Door Productions produces, with Lionsgate distributing.

“I’m interpreting the words somebody’s written in a room but, on the day, the location might be slightly different or the weather or something else has changed, so you’re adapting to bring it to life and make it work in this space and time,” Ebohon-Green says. “There is that feeling that it filters through me and it’s an interpretation of what’s been written.

“It might not be exactly what the writer had in their head, but I’m making sure I capture the essence of that and making it truthful. Where there is that marriage of a good script and the freedom to interpret it, that’s when you get great TV, because nobody wants to just sit in front of their TV and hear the words verbatim. You need that visual variety of shots and emotion and everything else to engage an audience.”

it truthful. Where s o sit and emotion and audience.” ner Nicole Kassell her next orking

Meanwhile, Emmy winner Nicole Kassell says that when it comes to choosing her next project, “I definitely love working in different playgrounds.” Highlighting the variety among her recent credits, she adds: “If I direct Woodsman and then The Killing , I’m also excited to direct something like Watchmen . I do not want to be put in a box in terms of what I can do visually or tonally.”

or the subject matter,” Kassell continues. “When you look at my credits, you’re seeing a period of growth for sure. I’m always looking for complicated, adult subject matter. And as I’ve moved into the realm of really being able to choose the projects I join as a pilot director, that’s much more like approaching something like a feature film.”

For Gordon, directing all five episodes of Last Light was “such a heavy responsibility, but also an incredibly exciting opportunity for a visual director like me,” she says. “It’s exciting and terrifying all at once. If it turns out good, great; if you blew it for any reason, you’ll take it hard. I was exhausted when we wrapped, but I loved every minute of it.”

Now at a stage in her career where she can pick and choose her projects, “this is a thrilling time to be a director,” Gordon adds. “There’s just great work coming out of every country. I’m having a hard time keeping up.

Kassell’s most recent project, Sky and HBO’s The Baby , was another step outside the box. The series blends dark comedy and horror in an examination of motherhood from the perspective of a woman who doesn’t want to be a mother but finds herself inexplicably in possession of a baby.

“I’m always looking for the opportunity to learn, whether it’s something new in the craft

s: “If I direct The , I’m also ng like Claws or o a lly and er step outside the horror herhood ho doesn’t want to elf for the hether craft

Leading off a series, as she did on The , is “definitely my happy place,” Kassell says. It means she can be part of the DNA of a series, hiring the crew and being involved in the production from the outset. “That’s what I love about the whole medium from early pre-production through to the final postproduction.”

Baby , is Kassell the DNA of a crew and invo lved in the

I love about the whole medium from early post way back in 2004, how has camera and then became says. “Maybe back is a scenario in terms of what role directors full miniseries, or feature directors whether feature it to be a hit. But we all know we

Having broken out with Kevin Bacon-led The Woodsman way back in 2004, how has Kassell’s role behind the camera evolved? “It’s constantly changing. It started out one thing and then became another,” she says. “Maybe the pendulum’s swinging back again. It really is a case-by-case scenario in terms of what role each person will play. And you have to navigate that project by project. But as you see directors doing full miniseries, or feature directors moving into pilot directing, the expectations shift. There’s tremendous pressure, but that’s always been there, whether you’re making a feature or a pilot. You dream big, you want the best for the project, you want it to be a hit. But we all know we really have zero control over the reception. Enjoying the process is always most important.”

“For directors like myself, you just have to be really careful and say, ‘Man, if I’m going to devote the next year of my life to this, does it have legs and is it a team that we know can take it across the finish line? Also, the older I get, the more it’s like, what is the experience going to be? Is this something we can all really have a great time doing while we do it? What’s the quality of life going to be for my cast and crew? Ten days in the desert in Abu Dhabi, we can do that, but 50 days in the desert, that’s another story.” DQ

Bad Behaviour

Bertie Carvel in Dalgleish

DQ heads to Wales to watch second season of The Pact, in which new secrets are unearthed as a mysterious stranger visits a family claiming to be a previously unknown sibling, with seismic consequences.

to filming n of the he e Pac a t, in wh w ich ne n w d as a a mysteriouus ly cla l iming to be e a wi w th sei e smmic ic

Act ion Action Pact

Filmed in Wales, the show took in real locations including a quarry

Outside an imposing grey-brick detached house in the idyllic Welsh countryside, the scene is one of tranquillity and calmness. Only the floodlights directed at the large windows betray the fact that a BBC drama series is being filmed here.

uts the tra at t ser

Inside, it’s something of a different story. In between takes, members ood in and out of the numerous rooms and corridors of the house in Llantwit Major, a stone’s throw from the country’s south coast, while Bafta-winning actor Rakie Ayola (Anthony) is running her lines and preparing for the next scene.

Inside, it’s some of the crew fl the house in Llant Bafta preparin

It’s here that a large portion of footage from season two of The lmed. Season one of the anthology series concerned a group of factory workers who agree not to reveal their involvement in a suspicious death. Ayola played the police detective brought in to

It’s here that a Pact is being filmt de solve the case.

She is now the only member of the cast to return for S2, which once again tells a story about secrets and their consequences – and this time she plays the lead. This new story centres around Ayola’s character, Christine Rees, and her adult children – Megan (Mali Ann Rees), Will (Lloyd Everitt) and Jamie (Aaron Anthony) – whose lives are changed forever when they are contacted by a young man claiming to be a previously unknown Rees sibling.

She is now the play character, Christin w un d siblings ultimatel loner from Lon brother Liam. dysfunction de

As the family debate whether to engage with this outsider, the siblings ultimately decide to meet Connor (Jordan Wilks), a strange loner from London who is the spitting image of their long-dead brother Liam. As Christine realises her hold over her precious but dysfunctional family is under threat, she seeks to keep Connor at bay, denying his claims. It’s clear to Connor that Christine is keeping a dark secret, and he’s determined to uncover the truth. But is Connor telling the truth? And if not, why is he

truth. Bu lying?

When DQ arrives on set, Ayola is in the middle of filming an incredibly emotional scene. Christine is given some bad news and slaps herself across the face before breaking down in tears. The shocking moment will be repeated numerous times before director Christiana Ebohon-Green has all the coverage she needs and moves on.

“I had deep respect for the emotional depth she was willing to dive into and churn up for us, and I made sure there was space for her to do that,” Ebohon-Green says of the star. “It was a relationship of >

When D e tears. The s before director resp do that,” Ebohon-

Jordan Wilks plays Connor

Mali Ann Rees as Megan alongside Wilks as Connor

trust. Because she had space, when I then asked for it to be different, she responded to that as well. It felt like a really good collaboration. I was in awe of what she was able to do on this show.”

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Every room in the house has been redecorated for the shoot, which took four weeks to complete before the crew moved in. Each of the bedrooms was tailored to a character, while numerous paintings and artworks were specially commissioned for the series. Mantlepieces, tables and sideboards are topped with children’s paintings and photos of the fictional family.

The series comes from Little Door Productions, which was co-founded by Elwen Rowlands and Hayley Manning in 2019 with a view to developing scripted series for UK and international audiences. Though The Pact had always been designed as an anthology series, Rowlands admits there were second thoughts on the back of the well-received first season and its “brilliant” cast, which included Laura Fraser, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Eiry Thomas and Heledd Gwynn.

“But we talked it through and Pete [McTighe, writer] was always very clear that the most interesting part of those characters’ stories had been told in season one, so it was the right decision,” she says. “The intention was to explore a family dynamic this time around. Thematically, we are exploring truth again – our relationship with truth and the absence of truth sometimes. But season two leans into the gothic a bit more, as you’ll see from the house. There’s slightly darker storytelling and darker hues in the design, and a bit more shadow and silhouette in the shooting style.”

Rowlands had been talking to Ayola about a different show when it came to casting The Pact S2, and the actor “felt like the obvious fit for Christine,” she continues. “Luckily she loved the role and accepted.”

Looking back on what worked in the first run, the producer says it was important this new story also revolved around a central mystery. While S1 asked ‘How did Jack Evans die?’ now it’s ‘Who is Connor Bates?’

“Pete’s scripts are brilliant and they always hang around that central mystery. He teases and takes you off in different directions, but the core question is always really important,” she says. “The other thing from a production point of view it’s about having a team of people who can work magic on a relatively tight budget and schedule, and the importance of locations and a brilliant cast.”

Playing Christine’s only daughter, Rees says her character Megan’s relationship with her mother is particularly complicated and evolves across the show’s six episodes. “It begins with her loving her mother, but she is also controlled by her mother. Her awareness of that changes throughout,” she says. “Megan is definitely a strong member of the family. She’s the only one who really stands up to her older brother, Will. She doesn’t shy away from having her say when it comes to family matters. She knows how to stand up for herself and what she thinks. She does stand up to Christine as well.”

When Connor first appears, Megan is sceptical to begin with but is quickly won over by his charm, despite the fractures in the family that his arrival causes. “There are major differences in who believes in Connor and who doesn’t. However, they’ve all got to hold a secret together, and later on we find there are lies within it, so they’re not even being honest with each other, which is interesting and adds to the drama,” Rees says.

The actor was a fan of The Pact S1 before she was invited to audition for the follow-up, and found she could relate to Megan, who she says has a similar “chaotic energy.” Now starring in the show, she found the experience “quite draining” but took every opportunity to lighten the mood between takes. “We’ve managed to pull each other through and everyone’s been really supportive of each other if anyone’s been having a hard day,” she says. Similarly, Wilks says the show’s “heavy” themes have brought the cast together. “It feels like everybody knows what journey their character is going on and how to get there, and you know you’ll be able to play safely with other people who are willing to play safely. It’s been really cool to let the starting gun go and watch people do what they do.”

Everitt adds: “In the first week we were doing graveyard scenes, finishing at 4am. Naturally, that’s a tough one, but we’re doing a job we love and that’s always the thing we remember.”

He describes his character Will, the older sibling of the family, as the man of the house, but someone who is simultaneously an outsider who doesn’t feel a connection to his siblings. “He appears on the outside to be doing well, and he is, but he’s also going through some inner turmoil and he’s got some wounds from his past that he doesn’t know how to deal with,” explains the actor, who spoke to psychologists to get a better understanding of Will.

“He’s a bit of an old-school patriarchy model of masculinity, where what it means to be a man is to be a protector. But we’re also talking about a man who lives with deep vulnerabilities. You wouldn’t have given me this role four years ago; I would never have been able to do it justice because I didn’t understand my own vulnerabilities, so part of it is just living life to play this role.”

As Connor, the catalyst driving the story, Wilks plays a character who isn’t part of the Rees family but believes he is. “He’s on a mission to prove he’s part of this family and that they’ve been living a lie,” the actor notes. His relationship with Christine then becomes a game of cat and mouse as

“

” It’s going to look amazing. From coast to quarry, to houses on hills and woodland, we’ve been to it all.

Hannah James-Johnson Locations manager

he continually tries to confront her. “It’s a constant back and forth between them where one of them has to move. It’s an immovable object meeting an unstoppable force. That’s their relationship, and it’s a constant butting of heads.”

To become more acquainted with each other, the actors playing the Rees family spent two days of rehearsals together before filming began. “That was cool to meet the other actors and understand who we are and talk through the script before any filming started,” Wilks says. “Just being able to go through it and chat was very helpful because I was very nervous before we came into this.”

Helping to settle their nerves was Ebohon-Green, who helmed the second block of filming. The director, whose credits include Outlander, Call the Midwife and upcoming BBC drama Champion, was immediately drawn to the script after identifying with Christine and the diverse family at the centre of the story. “I’ve done some work in the community and I have some social worker friends, so I had a good understanding of her life and the family, and also what it was like for some of those children experiencing loss,” she says. “I related to that and it was part of the attraction to doing it.”

Taking her visual approach from the scripts and locations, Ebohon-Green says her biggest task was to humanise the characters and make sure they would be relatable to the audience. “We don’t often see complex stories about diverse characters, so it was important to me that everyone could step into each one of those characters’ shoes and feel what the world was like from their point of view,” she says. “That was the big draw, as well as pushing the visual style, with big wide shots, letting the camera develop and not cutting in too often.”

The director initially thought the family home would be built in a studio and was then concerned there wouldn’t be enough room to film inside a real location. But when it came to shooting in the house, “there was so much space and choice that I rarely felt compromised in any way,” she says. “The long hallway upstairs, the fantastic stairway and being able to look down and see the front door and the rooms off it – it felt like a bit of a maze and it seemed to work well for what was going on for those characters and the fact they’re all a bit lost but bound together in this space and trying to make the best of it.”

In fact, the toughest part of making the series was the “brutal” schedule, which featured many different locations. “Every day we were all over the place, moving and still trying to shoot at a very high standard in not much time. The biggest challenge was getting it all in,” she adds.

While the first season was largely set around woods and lakes, S2 promises a more coastal setting to differentiate the two stories. “Our production office is based in Barry [on the south coast of Wales] so we’ve explored in each direction out of Barry town centre and found some amazing locations and variety,” says Rowlands. “There’s the house here, we’ve used Penarth Pier, which is a real hero location for the show, the

esplanade there, and we’ve got some spectacular cliffs and beaches, showcasing what’s on offer. It’s relatively low budget for a BBC One 9pm show, so that production value you get from locations is hugely important.”

The Rees house proved to be tricky to find, with a brief for a gothic-looking house big enough for a crew to film in for four weeks of the 16-week schedule. “Story-wise, it’s a home that has been inherited from paternal grandparents, and Christine’s husband left when the kids were younger so she hasn’t had the funds to spend a lot of money on it,” Rowlands says. “We also wanted something that didn’t feel modern or have a new kitchen in the past 10 years. It was quite a tricky brief, but the house we found is amazing and our production designer Keith Dunne has done a brilliant job transforming it.”

Locations manager Hannah James-Johnson joined the project midway through the shoot in April and oversaw the search for locations including sand dunes, terraced houses, a police station and a quarry. When it came to finding the family house, “the script initially states it’s a remote house on a cliff near the sea. There were talks of a studio build, but one of our scouts saw this and immediately loved it,” James-Johnson says. “Then when I joined, we had to work out the logistics of it, so we accommodated the family [who live in the house] in an Airbnb locally. The owners have had lots of walk-arounds and come back every weekend to stay the night or just have a look around, and they’re considering changing the layout of the house because of what we’ve done.”

Those works have included painting the whole house, putting down a false floor and removing the owners’ furniture. There are also new light fixtures. “It’s been a huge job for the art department and a lot of co-operation between us both,” says James-Johnson, who notes that the ‘Doctor Who effect’ and numerous film studios opening their doors in the region mean it’s now difficult to find unfilmed properties in South Wales.

“It’s going to look amazing. From coast to quarry, to houses on hills and woodland, we’ve been to it all,” she adds. “It’s going to have a very coastal vibe to it because we’ve been to a lot of beaches, and Penarth plays such a big part with the café and the sea in the background the entire time, so it’s going to be really nice.”

The Pact S2 isn’t just highlighting the diversity of Welsh locations, however, but also the array of diverse talent in front and behind the screen. “There’s a whole heap of talent there, but we’re not necessarily associated with black talent,” Everitt says. “When I went to places like Manchester or London, people would be like, ‘I didn’t even know there were black people in Wales.’ That was a genuine thing.”

Rees adds: “I hope Welsh families can see themselves in this family in some way. We’re quite a problematic family, so maybe it’s not the best case, but just to see Welsh actors of colour in such a big show on such a big platform will hopefully inspire some people to get into acting and show what we’ve got.”

Lloyd Everitt plays Will, the eldest sibling

Rees with Aaron Anthony, who plays Jamie

Rakie Ayola discusses taking the lead in season two of The Pact, becoming an executive producer and showcasing Welsh talent.

ROLE

first, Rak s

seaso her seaso investigat

Arst, Rakie Ayola was confused as to why she had been sent scripts for season two of The Pact when her season one character, police investigator DS Holland, wasn’t in it.

says will do whatever she needs to protect her family. The events of the story then push her into some extreme situations, as old pacts are revealed and new ones are forged.

reaction is one of hysterical laughter, like she’s lost her mind, so I ignore them,” the actor explains.

She had been speaking to writer Pete McTighe about a different project, but that was put on pause when S2 was commissioned. Then in autumn 2021, he asked her to first two scripts.

“I did, and I thought it was great, and he said, ‘What do you think about being in it?’ I said, ‘I didn’t see Detective Holland?’ Maybe at the time he had an idea like American Horror Story, where lots of the cast would come back, so I thought, ‘Well, OK, if everyone’s up for that.”

It wasn’t until January this year, when Ayola’s agent told her she had been offered the part of Christine –and the chance to be an executive producer on the series – that she learned she would be the only member of the original cast to return.

She had Pete Mc b in autumn read the “I did, a and he s about bein Detective h Horror Sto would co ‘Well, OK, It wasn Ayo been offe c learned s member o “I was a she’s so “But I did s season, whether I as some detective to be a dif three. Wh following?

“It’s really dark, it’s gripping and it’s weird at times. We’ve gone proper Twin Peaks in this show,” she says. “It was a joy, but when we started filming, we didn’t have the shooting scripts for episodes four, five and six, so Christine was unfolding in front of me as we were filming episodes one, two and three. That keeps you on your toes as an actor and it’s actually really exciting.”

“

“What I wasn’t quite ready for were the times where Christine gets really emotional, which weren’t written in the script but just happened. Hair and make-up would say, ‘Will there be tears today?’ and I’d say no, and then there would be tears and they’d need to make my face up again. When I left for work that morning, I had no idea I’d be crying by the end of that day. That’s the job at its best.”

Ayola’s role was further expanded by her involvement behind

“The next time I exec produce a big project, I want to be involved a level further back, in the hiring of the HODs. I’d like to be there from the very beginning to ensure all our creative sensibilities [are the same]. But it was a revelation. I’m a natural executive producer, but before I’d have just been called an annoying actor. I’ve never had permission to say what I was saying before.”

Thanks to its array of stunning backdrops, Ayola likens The Pact to a travelogue across the Vale of Glamorgan. She also highlights the diversity of the central Rees family and the show’s depiction of Wales as a multicultural country.

The next time I exec produce a big project, I want to be involved a level further back, in the hiring of the HODs. I’d like to be there from the very beginning to ensure all our creative sensibilities are the same.

Matt the detect excited b farmer or We’ll see

“I was absolutely up for it because Christine’s such a terrific part and she’s so complicated,” she says. “But I did say to Pete on the last day of shooting, ‘You’ve started something now. If you get a third season, you’ll have to decide whether I just appear in each season as somebody different or if the detective from season two goes on to be a different character in season three. What is the formula you’re following?’ I don’t think he’s decided yet. Matthew Gravelle, who plays the detective in season two, is quite excited by the idea he could be a farmer or something in season three. We’ll see how that goes.”

Having watched Ayola slap herself on set and repeat the same emotionally charged scene again and again, it’s interesting to hear the actor reveal later that those actions were all her own ideas. In fact, if she reads script directions for her character that say ‘she is devastated’ or ‘she cries,’ Ayola says she’s likely to ignore them altogether.

the camera. “I’m sure I got on everyone’s nerves though because my nose was in all the pies all the time,” she jokes, noting how aware she became of how the set was run.

“I know so many mixed-race Welsh speakers, usually in their teens and 20s, so there’s a generation like Mali [Ann Rees, who plays Christine’s daughter Megan] where you cannot take that language away from them,” she says. “We’re saying here’s a black and mixed-race family from Wales, you don’t have to have a connection with Wales, you don’t have to be interested in Wales, but if you like to see a modern family and a single parent doing the best for their children, if you want to see a family that works together, here they are.”

At the heart of the story is her character Christine, who Ayola

“I will decide if she cries and I will work out how devastated she is. I’ll take the words you’ve given me and I might decide instead that her

“As an exec producer, I could say things I probably could also have said as an actor, but nobody told me not to say them. Nobody told me it wasn’t my business,” she says. “It was quite a useful position because I am quite nosey. We had a lot of trainees on the set so I would go up to them and say, ‘Have we taught you anything today?’

At the character REVERSAL

Ayola also notes the significance of the fact she and fellow cast members Elizabeth Berrington and Lisa Palfrey are all women in their 50s playing prominent roles in a TV drama. “We’re right up front and centre in this show – thank you Pete McTighe – so we’re representing those women too,” she adds. “We’re a flagship for midlife menopausal women carrying a TV show. We’re waving a lot of flags and we’re waving them loud and proud.”

DQ

HOPE AGAIN. LIVE AGAIN. LOVE AGAIN.

Distributed byCreated and Produced by

FROM CONCEPTION THROUGH TO BIRTH

Maternal: created, produced and distributed by

Writer Ben Richards and executive producer Simon Heath recall their decade-long journey to make The Diplomat, a series set in Barcelona that follows the work of a consul called upon to help British nationals in trouble in Catalonia.

Being

More than 10 years ago, writer Ben Richards and executive producer Simon Heath were developing a series revolving around a consulate on the fictional island of Assalia, following its staff as they dealt with the trials and tribulations of British nationals who had suffered tragedy or fallen foul of local laws.

The idea had emerged from conversations between the pair after they first worked together on Channel 4 comedy-drama No Angels and then on BBC Two series Party Animals , which starred Matt Smith and Andrea Riseborough as parliamentary workers at the heart of the UK government and subsequently became a cult classic.

When Party Animals failed to land a recommission, they began throwing around ideas with a similar setup – young people in an institutional setting – and found some parallels with a story set among the staff of a consulate in an international location. “Then we thought it would be a good excuse to go and shoot somewhere,” Heath tells DQ at the offices of World Productions, where he is CEO and creative director.

Their concept, set on an island pitched as a blend of Cyprus and Ibiza and housing a British army base, was kicked around at the BBC but failed to take off until about four years ago, when they found a home for the series at UKTV-owned Alibi, which at that time was just beginning its originals push. UKTV loved the pitch, but made one suggestion: move the location from an island to a city. Then it was just a question choosing the right city.

“Once we started looking at the real-life consulate in Barcelona, we realised there was a raft of different stories you wouldn’t have been able to tell in the original format. And Barcelona is a great city – the more you look at it, the more you go, ‘It’s fantastic,’” Heath says.

Now set to air on Alibi in 2023, The Diplomat stars Sophie Rundle ( Peaky Blinders , Gentleman Jack ) as Laura Simmonds, who together with

her Barcelona Consul colleague and friend Alba Ortiz (Serena Manteghi of fight to protect British nationals who find themselves in trouble in the Catalan city.

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While there are new stories in each episode of the six-part show, a season-long serialised storyline follows an investigation into the unexplained death of a young British barman working on a yacht in the marina. The Spanish police believe his death was a tragic accident, but Laura backs the boy’s grieving father, Colin (Danny Sapani), who is convinced something more sinister took place. As new evidence emerges and a murder inquiry is opened, Laura and Alba fi the barman’s death, organised crime and the British security services.

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Throughout development, Laura has always been at the heart of young female consul who works with a small team dealing with casework while butting heads with her superior. Richards and Heath met with real-life retired consuls during the show’s development, and even became friends with the current consul in Barcelona, who came to visit the set.

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“Each episode has a standalone case they have to deal with, something that’s happened to a British national in Barcelona, but there’s this strong thread going through it, which is the story of what happened to this boy who died at a party on a yacht,” Heath says. “By the end of the first episode, you know there’s something amiss. You don’t get the full picture until the last couple of episodes, when it all comes together. But it’s been quite nice to revisit that story-ofthe-week format alongside the more typical serialised format.”

ther. But it’s been visit format.”

The Diplomat stars Sophie Rundle and Danny Sapani (main image) alongside Serena Manteghi and Steven Cree (below)

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Richards started his writing career on BBC spy drama Spooks , whose story structure is similar to the one employed by The Diplomat “But even though those were BBC hours [with no time deducted by ad breaks], it was quite hard to keep the serial story going,” he says. “ The Diplomat is a massive challenge because there are only 44 minutes of actual TV time [on commercial network Alibi]. To do a ‘story of the week’ that works and keep a serial story going is a real balancing act.

“I do quite like that challenge and like the time restraint – you really have to be economical and inventive in finding ways to make a story feel like it has enough weight to stand alone. In episode one, the standalone case is about the father, and that generates the serial story.”

There’s also the promise of plenty of comedic touches too, with Heath revealing that episode one also sees some local thieves fall foul of a Welsh hen party. “What we were trying to do in episode one was to show two sides of this immensely difficult job. Laura meeting a grieving father is the hard and heavy side of the job, while on the other side you’ve got this much more light and comedic story about what happens when the muggers who’ve been terrorising Barcelona meet a bunch of hens from Merthyr Tydfil.”

Other episodes feature trouble between an English couple when one is assaulted and the other goes missing, while Esther Hall and Lindsey Coulson play two women on a birthday trip when one becomes a blackmail victim.

With a multinational cast that includes Laia Costa ( Soulmates , Devils ) as Mariana and

A lamentable trend in British drama is that writers get precious about having to be the auteur and having to do it all. It wasn’t like that when I started. I love working with another writer in a team.

Ben Richards Writer

Isak Férriz ( Libertad ) as Inspector Castels, the series also features scenes entirely in Spanish – a thought that might not have been as palatable back when The Diplomat was first being developed. “We didn’t want a situation where we had two Spanish characters in a scene talking in English,” Heath says. “That is just awful. You’d be laughed off the screen. We’ve been lucky with some very good Spanish casting. Laia is a bit of a star and Isak is brilliant. Then we were always like, ‘Who’s going to play Laura?’”

As it happened, the actor playing Laura in the series is the very person Richards and Heath first imagined in the role all those years ago. Heath had worked with Rundle on The Bletchley Circle in 2012, but felt she would have been too young for the part at that time. However, when the project was finally ready to start casting, Rundle was an international star, and the question wasn’t whether she was old enough but if she was available.

“She wasn’t for our original filming dates in April 2020,” Heath says. “But by the time Covid had cleared enough for us to think about going over to Barcelona – an added difficulty on top of filming with Covid in the UK and visa problems once Brexit kicked in – we could only confidently say we would start filming in April this year, by which time Sophie was available and loved the part and being the lead in a show.”

Richards adds: “What’s great about Sophie is she has enormous comedic talent as an actor, which is not the thing you think instinctively about her. But she’s a brilliant comic actor and has a repertoire of reactions. It’s amazing how much in Britain we sometimes neglect visual comedy. Just in terms of acting, reaction shots to somebody saying something stupid or controversial are worth their weight in gold.”

The writer was also drawn to Rundle’s ability to bring out the extraordinary characteristics of a character who is, by design, quite ordinary. “Laura was obviously very bright, did well in university and got fast-tracked by the Civil Service – she makes a joke about that – but

“

”

Rundle as consul Laura alongside Isak Férriz, who plays Inspector Castels

there’s nothing particularly standout about her background,” Richards says. “Sophie was really able to convey that. She’s absolutely how I imagined Laura to be: composed and dignified. It always sounds pejorative, but my point is it shouldn’t be pejorative to have hardworking parents and go to a school where she worked hard, did well, got into university and got into the Foreign Office. That’s her distinctiveness – she’s really good at her job and that’s what marks her out. Sophie was really able to bring that quality to it.”

Casting Alba was an entirely different prospect owing to the character’s specific description – a woman who was born to Spanish parents but had spent enough time growing up in London to have developed a London accent.

It was then a “relief” to discover Manteghi. “It’s lovely on screen – she sounds like a typical West London girl and then she glides straight into Spanish in certain scenes and does it effortlessly. They’re a good double act,” Heath says.

Made by the company best known for Line of Duty and Bodyguard , The Diplomat is the first World Productions series to be shot entirely outside the UK. Heath jokes that it was easier to film in Barcelona than in some British locations, though certain settings were difficult to find. A high-end restaurant was created out of a disused venue by the marina, while the production team’s search for a real building to act as the consulate resulted in them taking over the whole floor of a semi-deserted apartment block that offered panoramic views of the city.

Scenes set in less well-known areas of Barcelona are complemented by more recognisable landmarks, such as Antoni Gaudi’s iconic church La Sagrada Familia. FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium also appears in the background of several scenes.

With filming taking place between April and July this year, the schedule was front-loaded with night shoots to avoid the light Spanish summer evenings, while the action was kept firmly on the ground in an attempt to grasp the city’s unique atmosphere at street level. Jill Robertson ( Dalgleish , Harlots , Pennyworth ) and Jennie Paddon ( Sanditon ) are the directors.

“I tend to think that the big drone shots, which a lot of people would favour, are actually probably wrong for the show,” Richards says. “They’re just a bit generic. When you get down onto the street in Barcelona, you feel the sense of its individuality much more, whether you’re in the old city or in El Born. You feel like you couldn’t be anywhere else.”

Richards, whose other credits include last year’s Showtrial plus The Tunnel and Cobra, normally writes series alone. This time, however, he partnered with Lauren Klee (Tina & Bobby), who wrote the middle two episodes. “A lamentable trend in British drama is that writers

get precious about having to be the auteur and having to do it all. It wasn’t like that when I started,” he says. “I love working with another writer in a team. It’s really enjoyable. Obviously it’s not so great if you don’t like the other writer, but Lauren was really good. We’ve all had fun and we’ve had some trips out to Barcelona.”

The writers aimed to make the show distinctive by ensuring the weekly stories and Laura’s consular work constantly crashed into the serialised arc. “The fundamental premise of the show is that one of the stories of the week brings her into conflict with the consul general, played brilliantly by Steven Cree. That’s a really important element,” Richards says.

Heath adds: “Steven’s character stands in for the establishment, the institution of the Foreign Office and the playbook. But Sophie’s much more about the human angle and how to make things better for people, rather than just saying ‘computer says no’ or ‘sorry, that’s outside our jurisdiction.’ She goes the extra mile.”

Richards says he tried hard to avoid clichéd depictions of the local Spanish police force, ensuring Castels is a good officer and does his job properly, while he also wanted to avoid stereotypical stories of Brits abroad. “Our depiction of Brits abroad is fairly affectionate, even when there is, as Laura calls one of them, ‘a complete wanker.’ It’s a kind of affectionate realism,” he notes.

Thoughts are already turning to where a second season might take Laura – but the show seems likely to return to Barcelona if it does win a recommission. “There are a lot more stories to tell and Sophie loved filming out there,” Heath says. “It’s a show where you might do two or three seasons in one city and then she gets a posting somewhere else.”

As for The Diplomat’s global appeal – BBC Studios is handling worldwide distribution – the vast melting pot of cultures within Barcelona means it carries some of the city’s international sensibilities. “The nature of the story is one that would be very recognisable for lots of international viewers,” Heath says. “Within the stories, we’ve got German, Dutch and Spanish people, reflecting the international quality of the city. One thing we said we would do in season two is have Laura interact with the consulate of another nation, because that happens quite a lot. We could have fun with that.”

“What makes it original is we didn’t make Laura a diplomat who does a bit of detective work in her spare time – I would find that so cringey,” Richards says. “There’s a bit of that, but we never forget her mission is to use her diplomatic skills to change the outcome of a case, because her fundamental job is to protect distressed British nationals, and that’s what she does. They may be British, but they could be anyone abroad.”

Don’t I know you from somewhere? Rundle’s other roles

Peaky Blinders

For six seasons, Rundle starred as Ada Shelby in Steven Knight’s smash-hit drama about the exploits of the titular criminal gang. Set between the end of the First World War and the 1930s, the BBC series debuted in 2013.

Gentleman Jack Rundle plays Ann Walker, the love interest of Suranne Jones’ Anne Lister in Sally Wainwright’s acclaimed period drama about Lister, a landowner, industrialist, traveller and diarist described as the first modern lesbian in the early 1900s.

Jamestown

Set in the early 17th century, Jamestown starred Rundle, Naomi Battrick and Niamh Walsh as three courageous women who leave their dark pasts behind in England and set sail across the ocean for a new life in America and the colony of Jamestown, where drama awaits – as do the men they are dutybound to marry.

DQ visits Valencia to get the lowdown on Spanish drama series La Ruta (The Route), which portrays the personal journey of five friends in the middle of a cultural movement around techno music in the 1980s.

By Irerene ne Jimménénez ez

Hitting Hitting

the the dance dance tour tour

ust a few miles away from the city of Valencia on Spain’s east coast, between rice fields and the beach, seven nightclubs changed the cultural landscape in the 1980s and the first half of the 90s. The so-called Destroy Route, also known as the Bacalao Route, will always be remembered for many young people embarking on three days of non-stop wild raves, drugs included. But beyond that, there was a cultural movement around techno music that AtresPlayer Premium original drama series La Ruta (The Route) has sought to reflect as realistically as possible.

The Route is the second commission for Caballo Films – the production company founded in 2010 by Spanish writers, directors and producers Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Eduardo Villanueva, Borja Soler and Alberto del Campo – following its acclaimed series Antidisturbios (Riot Police). For 18 weeks, from January to May this year, the drama was shot in several locations of the Comunidad Valenciana region, specifically in villages including Riba-Roja, Sagunto, Sueca, Benidorm and La Albufera, plus Valencia city.

The creative team did a huge amount of research ahead of filming, led by series creators Soler and Roberto Martín Maiztegui. The former, born in Valencia in 1983, decided to write a story about the Destroy Route after reading En Éxtasis (In Ecstasy), a book by journalist and professor Joan M Oleaque, who has been involved in the show as a production consultant.

“I thought I knew the movement, but reading this book made me realise how different things were compared with what the media published in the 90s,” says Soler. “It wasn’t all about and around the drugs. Not at all. Many trends relating to music, fashion and graphic design were born there. Techno music and house music may be remembered the most, but The Stone Roses performed a concert along the Destroy Route in 1989.

The sporty, flashy clothes are iconic but, before that, boys wore frock coats and pointed shoes. Before the European trend of clubbing there was the Destroy Route.”

The premise sounds perfect for a local story with international ambitions. In fact, tagline “30 kilometres. 12 years. 7 clubs. 5 friends. Let no one stop dancing” could be the summary of

The team behind The Route describe it as a ‘unique’ series capturing a time in Spain not seen on screen before

T d ca

the eight-part show. Told backwards, the story portrays the personal journey of a group of friends from Valencia, starting from their farewell in 1993 and going back to the day they entered the club Barraca for the first time in 1981, when both they and the party scene still had their innocence. The journey changes their lives forever, especially for one member of the group, who discovers he has a special gift as a DJ.

“We will see a story about friendship, as well as one between brothers, and we will see how these five characters, with very different roots and ambitions, build their own identity in the

eense

In order to represent the story as realistically as possible, the production was granted rights to real brands relating to nightclubs including ACTV, NOD, Spook, Espiral, Chocolate, Barraca and Puzzle, some of which are still open today. “We shot in one of them and recreated the rest in other clubs that are abandoned, or in big spaces,” says Nacho Lavilla, who executive produces for Caballo Films alongside Eduardo Villanueva, while Montse García exec produces for Atresmedia.

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middle of a cultural event that happened in the countryside and not in the city,” says Soler. “The Route has got a nostalgic component; you could say it’s a generational series. Despite that, I’m sure the story will reach everyone, no matter their age, because, in the end, we’re telling a coming-of-age story about leaving puberty and entering adulthood.”

After the show was greenlit by Atresmedia, the writers room – comprising Soler, Maiztegui, Clara Botas and Silvia Herreros de Tejada – started working on the script in the middle of the pandemic. The directors were on board from the start. Belén Funes, a filmmaker who debuted in 2019 with a feature film, oversees episodes four and five; Carlos Marqués-Marcet, who has worked mainly on feature films, directs episodes six and seven; and co-creator Soler helms the first three episodes and the finale.

The five main characters are played by a group of young Spanish actors – Àlex Monner, Claudia Salas, Ricardo Gómez, Elisabet Casanovas and Guillem Barbosa – none of whom existed in the time period depicted in The Route. “We face this project with respect and a little bit of pressure because we know it was a very special time for many people,” says Salas.

“Being away from home and shooting this series for more than four months has made us connect on a personal level,” adds Casanovas.

The make-up, hairstyling and fashion of the period also inspired the actors, while the fact that each episode corresponds to two years in real time meant the art department was constantly working on new looks and sets. “I have never been so busy on a shoot. We have plenty of sessions in the fitting room, dancing lessons, a coach to learn the Valencian accent…,” says Gómez. Notably, the series, which is shot in Spanish, includes some dialogue in the specific language of the region, presenting a challenge for a cast of actors who mostly come from Catalonia, further in the north of Spain.

“The story and the characters are ctional, but we compiled dozens of anecdotes and details from people who were there. I mean, we built a sign using neon lights, no LEDs; we replicated a DJ’s cabin that looked like a jail; we used a black light that was characteristic of the clubs. We also made replica MDMA pills with smiley faces like the ones that were distributed among the youngsters back then.” On top of all that, the production includes three original songs for each episode, which “was key to elevate the realism,” Lavilla adds.

Watching the series, viewers will witness the never-ending parties that took place in the parking lots of the clubs, including one particularly improbable occasion when an elephant showed up. “It actually happened. We didn’t tell the extras that the animal was coming, so the surprised faces are authentic,” says Lavilla. Paellas were also cooked on club rooftops at noon.

Despite the rare cold and rainy winter in Valencia, “we shot some scenes with 250 extras,” says Lavilla, who reveals that the sixth episode is his favourite. “Most of the action happens in the toilets of a club. Director Carlos Marqués-Marcet is known for long takes and he doesn’t rehearse, so he lets the actors go into the situation during the day, little by little.”

The Route has been shot with a Sony Venice camera, “because it is great for night scenes and doesn’t require much artificial light.” For episodes set in the 90s, a Angenieux Optimo Prime lens was chosen, being changed to a Leica R lens to portray the 80s. “The camera goes from quiet and steady close-ups to wider handheld shots,” Lavilla notes.

Conceived as a single-season series, The Route will premiere in late 2022 on Atresplayer Premium in Spain. The first footage of the show was unveiled during the Spanish showcase at the Series Mania Forum in Lille in March, while Atresmedia International Sales is handling worldwide rights. “This is a very special project that will exceed any expectations,” says José Antonio Antón, deputy director of content at Atresmedia.

Montse García, head of drama for Atresmedia, concurs, describing The Route as a “unique series.”

“As soon as I read the script, I could feel it was full of emotion,” she adds. “This time in Spain has never been portrayed on screen, and now is the perfect moment to do it.”

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It wasn’t all about and around the drugs. Not at all. Many trends relating to music, fashion and

The production was granted rights to use the branding of many clubs along the Destroy Route m r e s s r d e h s m d t e l d

It wasn’t all about and relating graphic design were born on the Destroy Route .

HEADS

Marie Antoinette star Emilia Schüle and producers Claude Chelli and Stéphanie Chartreux take DQ inside the making of this eight-part historical drama, which promises to show a new side of the young Austrian princess who would become Queen of France.

WILL ROLL

Across French history, there can be few figures as iconic – or divisive – as Marie Antoinette, the Austrian princess who would become Queen and wife of King Louis XVI.

Barely 14 years old when she left Austria to marry the then-Dauphin of France, she found it difficult to adjust to the customs of monarchy when Louis ascended the throne in 1774. Yet she enjoyed unprecedented influence in the court of Versailles and became something of a fashion icon.

Marie Antoinette’s attempts to become involved in politics were met with scorn, however, as were reports of her lavish spending, and when the French Revolution broke out in 1789, her public image was in the gutter. Imprisoned in 1792, she and Louis were both executed the following year.

Countless books have charted her life in France, while her story has also been retold numerous times on screen, most a Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst. Now, a new eight-part series, also Marie Antoinette, promises to show a different side of the young queen, from a stubborn princess navigating the rules of the French court while under pressure to continue the Bourbon line of succession, to recreating Versailles in her image: free, independent and

ahead of its time. Marie Antoinette must battle her enemies in court and quash rumours that threaten to undermine her, all while maintaining her courage and dignity.

Created and written by Deborah Davis ( The Favourite ), the English-language series stars Emilia Schüle in the title role. Distributed by Banijay Rights, it is produced by Capa Drama, Banijay Studios France and Les Gens.

The origins of Marie Antoinette can be found in another historical drama, Versailles , on which producers Capa and Banijay collaborated for three seasons. Following that show’s international success, the two companies sought to reunite on a new story revolving around the iconic palace. Very quickly, along with French broadcaster Canal+, they decided Marie Antoinette was the obvious choice.

Bafta-winning writer Davis soon agreed to join the project as the creator and executive producer, and a research trip to the Palace of Versailles was arranged. “We were fortunate enough to have access to Marie Antoinette’s private apartments, which are not visible to the general public. This visit particularly inspired us and allowed Deborah to find the singular vision she wanted to bring for the show,” says Banijay producer Stéphanie Chartreux.

th divisive – as Marie Ant an Franc the customs of monarch u of Versailles and became Marie Antoinette’s at were met with scorn, ho and Louis were both exe Countless books have reto notably in Sofia Cop Dun called Antoin queen the rules of the F continue the Bo Versailles in >

< Capa’s Claude Chelli believes the producers’ collaboration with Davis was serendipitous, as their search for a writer coincided with the release of her acclaimed film The Favourite – a dark comedy starring Olivia Colman as England’s Queen Anne. “We all thought it would be great to have Deborah as the creator of the show. We contacted her and she told us that Marie Antoinette was her favourite historical figure. The rest is history.”

Once Canal+ also bought into Davis’s vision for the show, she produced eight episode outlines before she was joined by fellow writers Louise Ironside, Chloë Moss and Avril E Russell, who wrote two episodes each and constantly exchanged ideas and drafts with Davis. “It was very important for us to have female screenwriters for the story we wanted to tell,” says Chartreux.

Chelli picks up: “We wanted to portray Marie Antoinette as never before. Audiences are familiar with the Sofia Coppola film where the character was extremely vain and spoilt. Our version of the story, and Deborah Davis’s vision, is much more intimate. This Marie Antoinette is proactive and a feminist. Deborah was able to bring her unique talent of injecting vibrant modernity into the period genre.”

As for Davis’s own vision for the show, the writer says: “I want the audience to discover a 21st century girl entering a perverse and incestuous 18th century world, but instead of being cowed and forced to conform, she will turn Versailles upside down.”

When it comes to setting the scene of the period, Davis has been clear that she is a screenwriter, not a historian. “She always said that the historical period in which our story takes place was primarily a support for the story and that she’s bringing her own interpretation,”

Chartreux notes. “Therefore, when we embraced this period setting, we were always careful to focus on Deborah’s specific vision.

“Deborah found the structure very quickly. She immediately thought the first season should be divided into two parts – first Marie Antoinette as Dauphine and then Marie Antoinette as Queen of France. The timeframe spans 10 years from 1770 when she arrived at Versailles to 1780 when she emerged as the triumphant Queen. This decade was perfect, as we could show how Marie Antoinette attempted to gain her independence and freedom.”

To find the show’s lead, casting directors scoured France and the UK, before widening their search across Europe. With the story spanning a decade in one season, their brief was to identify an actor who could be credible as both a teenager and a young woman – and they found her in Germany.

Schüle has plenty of experience working in period dramas, having starred in German medical series Charité and the Ku’damm trilogy, which follows three sisters growing up in Berlin in the 1950s and 60s. But making Marie Antoinette was “the most wonderful, adventurous and challenging time of my life,” she says. “It was very dreamlike – I was living in Paris, I was filming in chateaus. My first filming day was in Versailles and I was suffering in corsets. I was part of an amazing cast and I got to play this fantastic and brilliant character that we are going to show in such a different light.

“People see Marie Antoinette as a spender and as a luxury addict, but she’s so much more than that. We’re going to show her as a very modern and emancipated woman who always fought to protect her privacy and her freedom. She was fighting for equality, her individuality, for her personal freedom. I’m happy we’re going to correct the light on her a little bit.”

Schüle replied to a casting call for the role and recorded a self-taped audition, with a second audition then taking place over Zoom. After a four-week wait, she was told she had won the part. The prospect of playing Marie Antoinette in a series created by Davis was one she was never going to turn down. “You just say yes – but I read the first episode before I did the self-tape and it’s just so brilliant,” Schüle says. “Deborah made a decision to distance the narrative from what we already know about Marie Antoinette, and instead we are going to follow her very subjective experience of what it’s like for a 14-year-old girl to leave her mum, her home and her country. The first episode just reads like a nightmare, and I thought it was brilliant.”

In the show’s debut season – planned to be the first of many – viewers will see Marie arrive in France and follow her journey through marriage and her struggle to conceive an heir. “That was quite difficult because her husband didn’t speak to her, didn’t look at her and it took them seven years to consummate their

Louis Cunningham plays the young King Louis

Gaia Weiss and James Purefoy also feature in the cast

Marie

marriage,” says Schüle. “This season is just going to show how difficult life was for her and how she had to bear that humiliation in Versailles and all the courts in Europe. The first season will show her slowly evolving relationship with her husband and also focus on how hostile her environment was and how she was constantly being observed and judged. There were always forces working against her.”

Schüle watched documentaries and read books about Marie Antoinette as part of her preparation for the role, but knew that she had to let go of her own preconceived ideas about the historical figure and those she had read ahead of filming. “There are so many perspectives of her and in the series we are opening up a new take on her. I knew I had to focus on my intuition and what Deborah has written and create my own Marie Antoinette,” she says.

When she landed the part, Schüle’s experience on period dramas meant her thoughts immediately turned to the corsets she would have to wear. “I was like, ‘Oh gosh, this is going

It’s going to be an entirely new take on Marie Antoinette and it’s going to be very surprising, interesting and moving. We will really see her as a human being fighting for her dignity.

Emilia Schüle

to be really tough,’ because I remembered from Charité that I hated corsets. But I was excited, obviously. I get to play Marie and I was looking forward to the dresses and the hair. It was all very surreal. I was impatient when we started filming because her hair was very small. As we were progressing through filming, I was looking forward to the hair getting higher and higher.”

Schüle says her Marie Antoinette is “very emotional,” with Chartreaux adding: “The main idea of the show is to be in Marie Antoinette’s head and to experience what she’s feeling. Emilia immediately understood this dimension. She has managed to convey all the emotions the character feels. It was a pure joy to work with Emilia. She was very rigorous and deeply committed to the part.”

The show’s visual style then mirrored Davis’s vision to tell the story from Marie’s perspective. “With this, we had to shy away from the classical way of filming historical dramas, which is to use

long traveling shots and crane moves,” Chelli says. “We therefore decided to shoot mostly handheld to be close to the character.”

Filming for the series took place in real historical locations including the Palace of Versailles itself and its famous Hall of Mirrors, plus Vaux-le-Vicomte, Lésigny and Voisins. All the private apartments featured in the series were built at studios in Bry-sur-Marne, on the outskirts of Paris.

“It was beautiful to film in all these real chateaus,” says Schüle, who would spend twoand-a-half hours each day in hair, make-up and wardrobe prep across the six-month shoot. “It was definitely a very special French experience for me, living in Paris and hanging out in the suburbs in these beautiful places. It was funny because I really got used to it. In the first few months, we would get so excited that it was ‘Versailles day,’ but at some point it became just another day.”

Though she is now learning French, Schüle says she felt anxious about the language barrier when she first flew to Paris for her costume fittings, as her hair and make-up artists didn’t speak English. “They were talking French and I was just sitting there, feeling really scared and wondering what filming would be like over such a long time,” she recalls. “I didn’t speak any French – that’s why I’m learning it now – and on set, sometimes instead of saying ‘action’ in English, they would say it in French, so at first I didn’t even realise we were filming. That was a bit challenging but I loved it. Now I understand so much more about what’s going on.”

The actor also had to practice her English. “Before the show, I had been speaking American English all my life, so I had to re-learn it,” she says. “That was another challenge.”

Chelli mostly n real ace of irrors, ns. All series on the e d twoup ot. “It rience in the st few it was me Schüle arrier tume idn’t h and cared ike ’t g f it we but ore nglish. erican t,” France

When the show debuts on Canal+ in France – it has also been bought by BBC Two in the UK and BBC First in Australia – Schüle says it won’t depict the Marie Antoinette many viewers will be expecting. “It will show an entirely new view of her and we will experience Versailles for the first time as a very dark, manipulative and even misogynistic place,” says the actor, who is now moving to London to attend film school. “We will see this world through Marie Antoinette’s 21st century eyes. We will experience her as a very modern woman. It’s going to be an entirely new take on her and it’s going to be very surprising, interesting and moving. We will really see her as a human being fighting for her dignity. She’s looking for a role in life, and this has come up short in past portrayals.”

Chelli adds: “Deborah Davis is an historian herself and has read more than 150 books on the period, and this version of Marie Antoinette reflects her vision. This, coupled with the grand scale of the locations and costumes, will bring audiences a Marie Antoinette they’ve never seen before.”

“

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Emilia Schüle as Marie Antoinette

Moskito Television’s Mari Kinnunen and writer-director Matti Kinnunen preview upcoming Finnish financial thriller Rosvopankki (The Invincibles), which blends fact and fiction in a story about the country’s banking crisis in the early 1990s.

When writing a fictional drama, the real world can catch up with you fast. Just ask Mari Kinnunen, head of drama at Finland’s Moskito Television and producer of financial thriller Rosvopankki (The Invincibles). When she began developing the eightpart series with writer-director Matti Kinnunen (Cargo), an economic crisis was just a figment of her imagination.

“Now everybody’s talking about high interest rates, inflation and the next recession,” she tells DQ. “We feel now it’s very topical. We were not aiming to do that. The main motivation behind it was the fact the financial collapse we had in the early 1990s in Finland has not been tackled before, in literature, film or TV – and there are a lot of people still suffering from it. Now it feels like it was a good decision to do it.”

Due to be released on local streamer Elisa Viihde Viaplay in autumn 2023,

the series introduces idealistic young economist Salla Nurminen (played by Amanda Pilke) who gets a job at the Finnish Bank Inspectorate and decides to take on the country’s central savings bank, Skopbank, which she believes to be greedy. But Salla soon realises her assumptions are wrong, and as she gets to know Skopbank’s charismatic CEO Christopher Wegelius (Pekka Strang), she identifies with the small bank’s foolhardy fight against its big and unscrupulous commercial rivals.

Inspired by real events, The Invincibles focuses on themes of justice, human dignity and the might of money and power, asking what happens when greed gets out of control. Mari (who is not related to Matti) says: “When we think of that at a conceptual level, it’s an alternative interpretation of history, so we took the creative liberty to mix fictional things with real-life events. We’re looking forward to seeing how the audience

reacts to that. We have characters [based on people] who are still alive who were really influential decision makers at that time, but we decided to make the protagonists mostly fictional.”

still alive

“One of our banker characters is a real person,” Matti says of Wegelius. “He’s still alive, we met him and he knows about his part in the story. But our main character, Salla, is fictional. So we go into real events with the fictional character.”

e decided s racters ys of e met in racter, nto real acter.”

om around dn’t be m.” low em act

Mari was determined from the off that, despite revolving around banking, the show wouldn’t be “something boring and dull, like male bankers in their suits sitting in a negotiation room.”

That led to Matti’s decision to create Salla, who viewers follow through the story, giving them a sense of the personal impact of the banking crisis when it affects Salla’s family.

>

Pekka Strang and Amanda Pilke lead the cast of The Invincibles

Writer and director Matti Kinnuen

A lot of people were struck by the collapse, but you cannot find a novel or a film about it. You need a certain distance from it. Now it’s been 30 years, you can dig into it.

Mari Kinnunen Moskito Television

”

< “It gives a personal element where you can really identify with her. She’s making decisions that will also affect her own relatives,” Matti says. “When we start the story, our protagonist says, ‘This is not going to end well.’ We keep our promises.”

Mari adds: “It’s like a rollercoaster. It’s so unpredictable.”

Matti and Mari devised The Invincibles with Mikko Reitala, who wrote it alongside Matti. They used Wegelius’s diaries as a starting point for the story, among the other research they conducted for the true elements.

As a former student of economics, Matti’s interest in the subject was

also vital during development. “It’s quite complicated, even if you just think of the plot and what happened, and what were the reasons and motivations behind the political decisions,” Mari says. “Matti did a tremendous job in the research.”

Matti picks up: “I don’t know if ‘fun’ is the right word [for the research], but I studied economics, and though I never worked in banking, I have many friends who in those years worked 24/7. There was also a lot of material from everybody’s personal background –relatives, friends, the cast. There was always somebody coming in saying, ‘I have a story to tell you.’”

“It affected so many people,” Mari adds. “There are people who have guaranteed loans in their own family and they are still paying the last instalments of those loans someone else took out. We had someone like that in the cast. They felt this was a project with purpose and meaning, and it was very close to many of us.”

The scriptwriting was key to making the series as exciting as Mari hoped. “No one wants to listen to economic or political jargon about what led to the events that happened. But Matti did very well,” she says. “He could make it personal, he could make it human. We didn’t want a documentary-style project. That would have been so boring. But how do you find the balance? It was a very conscious decision when we started to say, ‘Let’s not do that. Let’s not go to the men in suits and the decision making.’ We do have some of that, we need that, but less so to build the story.”

Elisa Viihde recognised the importance of a story about Finland’s financial crisis, which Mari says is now far enough in the past to be viewed through a dramatic lens.

Initially, her pitch was a family story set against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Skopbank and Wegelius. Then Matti came on board and created the family at the centre of the story, led by Salla.

“Elisa financed us early because they knew this was very important and a story that must be told,” Mari says. “A lot of people were struck by that financial collapse, but you cannot find a novel or a film about it. You need a certain distance [from it]. Now it’s been 30 years, you can dig into it. It’s a bit like a war or a natural disaster.”

After co-writing the series, which is distributed by Fremantle, Matti knew he would also be taking on sole directing duties – though he says moving from writing to directing is simply “like changing your jacket.”

When it came to laying down the show’s visual style, he didn’t want to adopt any of the obvious aesthetics associated with the 1990s. “The audience should feel like this is something that is going on right now,” he says. “It doesn’t take place somewhere in the 80s or 90s; it’s a modern story. I wanted the audience to feel like it’s timeless.”

Filming took place largely in Tallinn, Estonia, with just a handful of days spent on location in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. The factual and fictional elements were given separate visual styles, with scenes related to real events shot with a Steadicam while fictional characters were captured with handheld cameras.

The shoot was “really fun – it was one of the best experiences in my whole career,” says Matti, who praises the show’s Estonian crew.

However, speaking to DQ at French television festival Série Series, he admits the success of The Invincibles rests on whether he and his team have succeeded in creating interesting characters that viewers will care about and want to watch. Front and centre is Salla, in a story that forces her to make compromises in a world where decisions are never black and white.

“She’s very idealistic and she really wants to make the right decisions, and then she has to save her soul at some point in the story,” Matti says. “The main theme of the whole show is idealism, and whether you can have it and keep it. It’s a battle between this idealism and greed and money.”

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Strang plays real-life banker Christopher Wegelius, while Pilke is fictional Bank Inspectorate worker Salla

In the third part of the DQ100 2022/23, DQ picks out a range of shows to tune in for and the actors, directors and writers making them, as well as some of the trends and trailblazers worth catching up with.

100 100 FANTASY EPICS

THERE’S NO QUESTION 2022 HAS BEEN THE YEAR OF EPIC FANTASY DRAMAS, most commonly adapted from bestselling novels that take viewers into imagined worlds far from our own. The undoubted highlight has been the longawaited release of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Prime Video’s series based on JRR Tolkien’s beloved novels and set thousands of years before his most recognisable works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The show’s release followed on the heels of House of the Dragon, HBO’s prequelsequel to its mega-hit drama Game of Thrones and again based on material from George RR Martin. Not to miss out, Netflix entered the fray with The Sandman, a series based on Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel series. Together with Prime Video’s previous entry into the genre, The Wheel of Time, numerous Netflix efforts like Shadow & Bone and The Witcher, and the impending return of BBC and HBO drama His Dark Materials, there’s certainly no shortage of opportunities for fantasy fans to leave the real world behind.

BLACK SNOW

VIKINGS STAR TRAVIS FIMMEL TAKES THIS LEAD IN THIS AUSTRALIAN DRAMA COMMISSIONED BY LOCAL STREAMER STAN. The six-part mystery drama takes place in two timelines. In 1995, the murder of 17-year-old Isabel Baker leaves her small North Queensland town shocked, with the case going unsolved. Meanwhile, In 2020, the opening of a time capsule unearths a secret that puts cold-case detective James Cormack (Fimmel) on the trail of the killer.

ABI MORGAN

MORGAN IS A BAFTA- AND EMMY-WINNING SCREENWRITER KNOWN FOR THE SPLIT, SUFFRAGETTE AND THE IRON LADY – but her latest project will be her most personal yet. She is set to adapt her own memoir, This is Not a Pity Memoir, after The Split producer Sister picked up rights to the book. Described as poignant and heart-breaking but unsentimental, the memoir follows how Morgan’s family life changed tragically after she returned home one morning to find her partner of 20 years had collapsed on the bathroom floor – and nothing would be the same again.

ALEXANDRA RAPAPORT

FOR MORE THAN 25 YEARS, RAPAPORT HAS BEEN A HOUSEHOLD NAME IN SWEDEN thanks to prolific screen career that includes leading roles in series such as Springfloden (Spring Tide), The Sandhamn Murders, Heder (Honour) and Gåsmamman, in which she plays a mother living a carefree life until she is drawn into Stockholm’s criminal underworld to save her family. She will now take the lead in Viaplay original drama Veronika, a series pitched as a psychological drama with a supernatural twist. Rapaport plays the title character, an introverted police officer and mother-of-two with a complex past and a drug addiction. When she sees a dead boy in a hospital parking lot, further visions convince her she can see the victims of unsolved crimes and that her past is the key to catching a killer still on the loose.

ACTORS

DIRECTORS

WRITERS

SERIES

TRENDS & TRAILBLAZERS

JANNIK JOHANSEN

DANISH FILMMAKER JOHANSEN HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN MAKING SOME OF DENMARK’S BIGGEST TELEVISION EXPORTS OF RECENT YEARS, from episodes of political drama Borgen and comedy drama Rita to crime series Bedrag (Follow the Money) and period show Sygeplejeskolen (New Nurses). He is now shooting Oxen, an adaptation of the book series of the same name by Jens Henrik Hensen. It tells the story of war veteran Niels Oxen (Jacob Lohmann), a former special forces soldier who must conquer his inner demons when he is framed for a series of gruesome murders.

JOB DESCRIPTION Costume designer

Anaïs Romand, costume designer on French period drama Paris Police 1900 and now its sequel Paris Police 1905, reveals the secrets of her job, from creating a character’s sense of style to the importance of good material.

With a career spanning almost 30 years, costume designer Anaïs Romand has won multiple César Awards –the French film industry’s highest honour – for her work on movies including La danseuse, Saint Laurent and L’Apollonide

Prolific in the film business, Romand has recently moved into TV, first with four-part time-twisting miniseries Il était une seconde fois (Twice Upon a Time) and then with crime drama Paris Police 1900. The latter, a period noir series for Canal+, follows a young detective striving to solve the riddle behind a headless torso found in a suitcase floating down the Seine.

Here, Romand tells DQ about creating the costumes for the show and her work on its upcoming sequel, Paris Police 1905, in which an unidentified body leads to an investigation that throws up a whirlwind of vice, corruption and blackmail that will unearth people’s darkest secrets. The series is produced by Tetra Media Fiction and AFPI and distributed internationally by StudioCanal.

How would you describe the types of projects you like to work on?

There must be a good script with interesting characters and a frame that I can visualise after discussions with the filmmaker. That can be any kind of project.

How do you approach each new job?

I carefully read the script over and over, and if the intentions of the filmmaker are clear and inspiring and images come rather easily, I can visualise the inhabitants of the story. Then I unfold the life of each character and imagine what kinds of clothes they have in their wardrobe, what their tastes are, their habits and their social background. When I’m familiar with them, I try to fit them into the story and decide what’s appropriate for the situations they’ll go through.

What interested you about working on Paris Police 1900?

Fabien Nury, the writer, and Julien Despaux, the director, were not afraid to really deal with

the turn of the century, with its cruelty and splendour, the glorious appearance and the miserable hidden vices – far from the false and idyllic image of the Belle Epoque.

How would you describe the fashion of the period?

The way someone dresses in 1900, as for all past periods, represents accurately who they are and what role they have in society, so each social class has its fashion. Of course, we know much more about the fashion of upper-class people through paintings, photography and the splendid haute couture clothes that are now in museums, but the working class followed the fashion too, depending on their occupation.

Roughly, a corset, petticoat and long dress buttoned up to the neck formed the clothing for women, and all the quality details of the fabrics, the laces, the ornaments and the accessories made it possible to characterise at first glance whether the woman was a worker, a prostitute or a member of the bourgeoisie. It was the same for men in terms of the quality of the tailoring, the fabrics and the accessories marking them out.

How did you decide how to dress the key characters?

By following the script and the situations. For example, Meg, the main female character, played by Evelyn Brochu, is an ambiguous, manipulative and endearing person. I had to find shapes and colours that could make her sexy or innocent, depending on the scene. She is a character full of contradictions, so she had a wide wardrobe to respond to a great variety of scenes.

You’re now working on Paris Police 1905. How did fashion change in the intervening years?

It didn’t change much. There are some small details, but the main line is the same. The big difference this season is that it’s all set in winter. There are winter coats, furs and new hats – all the main characters have different outfits. Adolphe, Meg’s husband, has changed a lot, so he has new clothing, and Meg is like a princess looked down upon in her house.

Tell us about the team you work with.

There are two main teams. The first is the one making the costumes, with tailors and seamstresses, made up of people including Anne Versel and François Siméon. I have enjoyed working with them for years and they have a perfect understanding of how to find the lines for the characters I design, and beautiful taste for well-made details.

Then there’s my wonderful team on set, which is perfectly organised thanks to Anne-Cécile Le Quéré, my assistant. It’s a team that loves creating characters, fitting each extra with so much care, which contributes to the beauty of the series. There is life in each shot because we

when the actors and I work together to visually build something they can live in and believe in for their character. Costume fittings are important for actors. You have to make your body understand how you move with a cane or a hat, how to hold your gloves, how to be at ease with a corset or how to walk naturally with a long skirt. And of course, there are constant discussions with the producers about cost. You always have to find the best solution for quality and quantity.

What is your process, from initial sketches to being on set?

Finding the right materials and colours is essential. After sketches, it’s the most important part. When I have settled on the range of colours, the types of characters and their social backgrounds, and established the needs in terms of extras, I go to a large fabric store where I can find all the materials I’ll need to make the costumes. When I start making the costumes, I don’t have the full scripts, just the main lines, so sometimes there is very little time to make the right costume required for a precise scene – so I need to have everything at my disposal.

How do you find your costumes and how many do you make from scratch?

take the time during fittings to give meaning to the costumes in accordance with the personality of each character. We were wonderfully supported in this by the make-up from Laure Talazac and her team. The hairstyles were also so important in 1900, created by Sandrine Masson and her team. What a pleasure to work with them all.

How do you also work with the producers and actors before and during production?

Before shooting, I share sketches, documentation, colours and samples, but the most important part is always the fitting. That’s

Around 40 costumes were created for the main characters for the 1905 season. There were also 80 new costumes for bourgeois women in winter, while I could reuse about 300 that had been made new for the crowds for 1900, because the fashion didn’t change that much. For men, policemen and working-class people, about 100 costumes were hired, with many furs and coats for the extras, while around 80 new hats were made.

What challenges have you faced while working on the series?

Making things look lively, not static like a pretty display of period costumes, is always the main challenge with a period piece. In a way, you have to forget the costume and just see the character. The other challenges are the usual ones: time and money.

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The most important part is always the fitting. That’s when the actors and I work together to visually build something they can live in and believe in for their character.

Anaïs Romand

With all of the action taking place during winter in Paris Police 1905, Romand had to create a wide range of new costumes for the show’s characters

SIX OF THE BEST

Nordic Drama Queens

The three TV executives behind Stockholm- and Copenhagen-based prodco Nordic Drama Queens – Josefine Tengblad, Sandra Harms and Line Winther Skyum Funch – reveal the shows that keep them watching.

Breaking Bad

I will never forget how it felt to see the first four minutes of this series: the introduction with trousers flying in the air, the mobile home crashing through the desert and the desperate look in the eyes of Walter White, played by the outstanding Bryan Cranston. I was hooked immediately. I loved watching all five seasons and how the story evolves, digs deeper and deeper into the characters and keeps on hitting the audience with surprises. I saw it again recently and it still has the same impact on me.

As a matter of fact, I think I liked it even more watching it again after all these years.

Transparent

(JT)

This show is important, heartbreaking, extremely funny and emotionally very powerful. It made me both laugh and cry several times through all five seasons. The storytelling is brave, showing us a world that was untold before the series came out. It was so clear from the start that the creator, Jill Soloway, wanted to say something real, from her own life. The tone and dialogue are brilliant, strengthened by the music, cinematography and excellent acting. I also love that the series gets better each season. In the final season, the musical was a bit crazy but also great. Transparent teaches us that we are all different, that different is good and that nobody is perfect.

Sex & the City

(JT)

“Then I had a thought; maybe I didn’t break Big, maybe the problem was he couldn’t break me. Maybe some women aren’t meant to be tamed. Maybe they need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with.” This is the last line in the final episode of season two, my favourite episode, and it sums up the series pretty well. Sex & the City

was groundbreaking when it came out, analysing and joking about women, sex and Manhattan in a way we hadn’t seen before. The series is, in a unique way, both shallow and pretentious, and I believe Samantha – amazingly played by Kim Cattrall – opened a door to a new kind of modern independent female character that takes herself and her orgasm seriously. (SH)

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Narcos really broke ground for non-Englishlanguage series and proved that incredible stories transcend borders and languages.

Line Winther Skyum Funch

The Crown

This series is a dream combination of complex characters and UK history. Why is the whole world so fascinated by the British royal family? I think The Crown answers that question well – it is simply impossible to take your eyes off these people and the drama they create around them. This family’s story is a massive emotional drama with all the classic components like love, jealousy, power, politics, revenge and betrayal. But at the same time, The Crown tells the modern history of Europe in a very engaging way. (SH)

Ally McBeal

This was the first show I really binged back in the 90s. It even inspired me to become a lawyer. Later, I realised it was the TV show I loved, not the profession - hence I moved into series and film production. To me, the

d e Winther

pe on. I still think the series ing for countless series after Scrubs and The Office

eator a ent )

character Ally McBeal has a special spark of hope that I just couldn’t turn my back on. I still think the series was ahead of its time in many ways, managing a unique balance of wild and engaging storytelling that laid the ground for countless series after it, such as It blended quirk, heart and drama well, while also balancing reality and fiction. Creator David E Kelley is a unique talent and I always love his shows. (LF)

Narcos

Even though sympathetic characters, it pulled me in with its great, fast-paced storytelling and amazing visuals. The story of Pablo Escobar is long and often complicated, but portrays it in a simple and effective way that is still captivating enough for viewers not to get lost. Using the protagonist as the narrator gives this series a special feel. The bilingual dialogue adds a layer of authenticity and shows commitment to the original story. What I also love about Narcos best entertainment isn’t always in English.

ough Narcos lacks c pulled h Narcos s gonist ialogue y nal

ground for non-Englishlanguage series and proved incredible stories transcend borders and languages. (LF)

cos is it shows that the rtainment Narcos really broke dl(LF)

”

Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad

Netflix drama

The Crown

Josefine TengbladSandra Harms

Line Winther Skyum Funch

DQ

SCENE STEALERS

The Tourist

Writers and executive producers Harry & Jack Williams discuss the development and filming of a key action scene from episode three of Australian outback-set thriller The Tourist.

A PIVOTAL SCENE IN THE TOURIST COMES WHEN HOMICIDAL BAD GUY BILLY (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) finds The Man (Jamie Dornan), Helen (Danielle MacDonald) and Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin) at a remote B&B in the Australian outback, owned by an elderly deaf guy called Ralph (Danny Adcock).

When the series begins, Dornan’s character finds himself in the heart of the outback being pursued by a vast tank truck trying to drive him off the road. When The Man later wakes in hospital, he has no idea who he is, and sets off to find answers while mysterious figures from his past try to catch up with him.

The scene in question comes in episode three. Billy has been tailing The Man for the past two-and-a-half hours of screentime. He’s already tried to kill him by ploughing a truck into his car, so when we see him approach the house armed with a shotgun, we know he means business. The scene was designed to put our leads in serious jeopardy, so we needed to show that Billy is very happy to shoot people at pointblank range with no remorse. But hopefully

there is also enough of the dark humour we wanted at the heart of The Tourist .

The rough shape of the scene didn’t change too much through development. We like action scenes to feel as real as possible but we also look for ways to give them an unusual angle. Ralph has taken out his hearing aids, so being inside his head while the mayhem of the shooting is going on in the background gave the scene its backbone. The ringing silence of Ralph’s point of view juxtaposed with the deafening violence felt distinctive and dynamic to watch.

Ralph is an innocent bystander in The Tourist – produced by Two Brothers Pictures for the BBC, HBO Max and Stan and distributed by All3Media – and we wanted to show how merciless and dangerous Billy can be. When Ralph is shot and flies back into the wall with a hole in his chest, we see how The Man has brought death into the lives of the quiet couple who own the B&B. The brutality of the moment later has emotional repercussions for The Man.

As Billy exits the scene leaving a trail of death and destruction in his path, we have

The Man (Jamie Dornan) and Helen (Danielle MacDonald) look out the window as an oblivious Ralph (Danny Adcock) sits on the sofa

Harry (left) and Jack Williams

him walk past a sign that says ‘Life is made of choices. Wipe your feet or scrub the floor.’ We wanted a subtle nod to the theme of the show but also felt this sort of quirky sign was in keeping with outback setting. As Helen tends to the dying Ralph and The Man and Luci run for their lives, we’re quietly reminded that we’re all defined by our actions.

When it came to production, Burnt Lodge, the B&B owned by Sue (Genevieve Lemon) and Ralph, was made up of two locations. The exterior was shot at a dilapidated house in the outback, not far from the industrial town of Port Augusta. It has beautiful views, though was also one of our worst locations for flies. Fly nets were an absolute must. The interior of the house was unsafe to film in, and the scene demanded a fairly open-plan space that was going to receive a heck of a battering, so we realised early on that this interior would need to be built in a studio.

The room’s layout was very carefully designed by our brilliant production designer Scott Bird. The scene takes place both outside and inside, and there’s a lot of connection between the two. Creative solutions were used to achieve this connection; Scott designed and built a fake window that was brought to the

location so we could film through it and see the approach of the murderous Billy.

Inside the main room, there needed to be enough hiding places for the other characters as Billy prowls around the room, so Scott designed various nooks and crannies We also

needed to match the exterior of the property on location, with the same window positions and door. To disguise the fact that the interior was a set, Scott came up with the idea of creating a fake veranda that screened the view from the inside to the outback, so that when you look through the windows, it never feels like you’re looking out at a green screen in a studio.

We threw a lot of time, energy and resource at this sequence but the finished article was just as we imagined.

Chris storyboarded the sequence in minute detail, as there were a large number of setups to achieve. We colour-coded the storyboards depending on whether they were being filmed on location or in the studio. The exterior elements on location were then filmed first. Unfortunately, the unit was hit by sandstorms that interrupted filming, so it was challenging trying to squeeze everything into the schedule. Later we filmed the interior scenes at the studio. The shootout was filmed in chronological order where possible, not least because of the make-up requirements. For example, when Billy is stabbed by Luci, the actor had to wear a prosthetic on his shoulder that we wanted to use in as few shots as possible.

Filming Ralph being shot was a challenge. A stunt double was attached to a wire that pulled him back on a jerk rig so he hit a mat and crumpled down. This required visual effects to remove the mat, the wire rig and the padding and create a realistic hit to the wall. Chris realised the best way to achieve the shot was for the camera to be pointing at the actor front-on, so we did a face replacement that superimposed his face onto that of our stunt performer.

Alongside the set design, the scene was choreographed in a collaboration between director Chris Sweeney, director of photography Ben Wheeler, the stunt coordinator and the special effects supervisor. A lot of explosions needed to happen and we were interested in making these moments have meaning for the characters. We made the bullets hit items that told a story about Ralph and Sue’s life – so rather than a bullet just hitting a wall, it hit a picture of Sue and Ralph.

Having shot two days on location and two in studio with the main unit, a second-unit team picked up details that didn’t require the cast, such a shots of bullet hits on the walls and closeups of trinkets exploding. We threw a lot of time, energy and resource at this sequence but the finished article was just as we imagined.

A lot o f w ere intereste d in ma k ing t h ese moments h ave b u ll ets h it items t h at to ld a story a b out Ra l p h and h itting a wall, it hit a picture of Sue an d Ra l p h. DQ

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Harry & Jack Williams

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Billy

The Man takes cover from shotgun blasts

Quality beats quantity as budgets tighten

FOR THOSE GUESTS LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE BAGGED A SEAT AT THE WORLD PREMIERE OF PRIME VIDEO’S THELORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER, it would have taken roughly two-and-a-half minutes before it became clear this budget-busting series was money well spent.

The competition could do worse than take a look over the shoulder of Apple TV+. Here’s a streamer that has seemingly focused on a comparatively smaller number of productions yet undoubtedly has a higher hit rate than many of its rivals.

The series opens with a scene set among golden fields and bright yellow sunshine, where Morfydd Clark’s young Galadriel (played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy) ends up in a fight with a fellow Elven child after he sinks her paper swan. Just as the spectacular opening credits begin, the camera pans up to show the sun setting on Valinor, the beautifully realised Elven city nestled in a mountainous valley.

What follows is a succession of awe-inspiring landscapes, jaw-dropping aerial shots, stunning battle sequences and exquisite set design, not to mention the impressive work of the costume and make-up departments.

Of course, watching a series worthy of the cinema on the biggest screen in London’s Leicester Square only made the show look more impressive. It was easy to see why it could command such a hefty price tag – Amazon spent US$250m in 2017 just to get the TV rights to JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels, while season one racked up US$465m in production costs alone, easily making it the most expensive TV show ever made.

But are such large investments in a series – even Game of Thrones reportedly cost US$10m per episode in later seasons – quickly becoming a thing of the past? Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s delight at the Rings premiere was clear, but the bill readily paid by Prime Video stands in stark contrast to recent moves by rivals Netflix and WarnerMedia Discovery, the home of HBO Max, where significant belt-tightening is underway.

Netflix head of global television Bela Bajaria said earlier this summer that the streamer, whose biggest original hits include Stranger Things and Squid Game, was going “back to basics” after reporting its first subscriber losses in more than a decade this April. Though its planned US$17bn content spend is unlikely to be affected this year, jobs are undoubtedly on the line, with approximately 450 Netflix staff around the world already axed in response to slower revenue growth. Netflix is also planning to launch an ad-supported tier to subscribers.

Following the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, boss David Zaslav has been quick to wield the knife across Europe, shutting down original productions in many territories in a bid to slash Warner Bros Discovery’s outlay and find US$3bn in annual savings as it prepares to unite HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single streaming service in 2023.

The fallout from a merger is never pretty, particularly one between two global behemoths with previously competing platforms and a number of staff and departments doing the same jobs. And as well as job cuts, there have been numerous programming cuts – most notably the decision to scrap its Batgirl feature film that had already been shot at a cost of US$90m – as well as a return to a third-party licensing model designed to bring in greater revenue.

Perhaps most shocking is the decision to cut back on originals for HBO Max in Europe, while production has stopped altogether in Central Europe, the Netherlands, Turkey and in the Nordics, where comedy Lust boasted a roster of some of Sweden’s biggest acting talent. Other titles from Scandinavia include award-winning Danish drama Kamikaze and Norway’s Beforeigners

With a cost-of-living crisis affecting people around the world, streaming subscriptions are understandably the first to go as viewers instead focus on eating and heating their homes. That means less money in the coffers for streaming giants hoping to maintain both an expansive production slate and the enviable budgets beyond the reach of most traditional broadcasters.

When something’s got to give, the competition could do worse than take a look over the shoulder of Apple TV+. Here’s a streamer that has seemingly focused on a comparatively smaller number of productions yet undoubtedly has a higher hit rate than many of its rivals with shows such as Blackbird, Bad Sisters, Severance and Emmy favourite Ted Lasso

While The Rings of Power is an extreme example of a bigbudget series, changes behind the scenes at many streamers grappling with real-world financial problems mean the era of ‘peak TV’ may finally be coming to an end.

Michael Pickard Editor, Drama Quarterly

WHO’S WHO

Iwuji odiri@c21media.net,

PRODUCTION Operations director Lucy Scott lucy@c21media.net, Production manager Eleanore Hayes eleanore@c21media.net, Team assistant Courtney Brewster courtney@c21media.net, Head of finance Susan Dean susan@c21media.net, Finance manager Marina Sedra marina@c21media.net, Finance officer Shuhely Mirza shuhely@c21media.net, Editor-in-chief & managing director David Jenkinson david@c21media.net

DQ Magazine

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