Category: IN FOCUS
Tough love
Six-part drama Father’s Day is breaking new ground in Bulgaria. Producer Martichka Bozhilova and director Pavel Vesnakov tell DQ how they brought this story of a child caught between separating parents to the screen.
Gloves off
Australian miniseries On the Ropes packs a punch with its story of a female boxing trainer striving for equality and a chance to succeed in the sport she loves. DQ speaks to stars Nicole Chamoun and Keisha Castle-Hughes plus producer Courtney Wise about the SBS show.
Blick’s Earth rises
Michaela Coel stars in Black Earth Rising, Hugo Blick’s long-awaited follow-up to his award-winning drama The Honourable Woman. The actor and Blick discuss this international thriller with a unique mother-daughter relationship at its heart.
Vanity project
William Makepeace Thackeray’s classic novel Vanity Fair has been adapted for UK broadcaster ITV and streamer Amazon. DQ speaks to the writer and some of the key creative talent behind the camera to find out how this strikingly contemporary series was made.
Mercurio magic
Line of Duty showrunner Jed Mercurio and actor Adrian Dunbar discuss making the hit BBC crime drama, which is set to return to screens for a fifth season in 2019.
Lust for life
Toni Collette and Steven Mackintosh tackle complicated matters of the heart in Wanderlust, a bold and stylistically fresh drama for BBC1 and Netflix. The stars, writer Nick Payne and director Luke Snellin reveal why this series stands apart from anything else on TV.
Digital magic
James David Hattin, founder, creative director and senior visual effects supervisor of LA-based VFX Legion, discusses the company’s TV work and reveals his pride over the hundreds of visual effects that go unnoticed by viewers of ABC drama Scandal.
Adios, Seńor Ávila
Director Fernando Rovzar and HBO Latin America’s Roberto Ríos tell DQ why Sr Ávila, which concludes with its forthcoming fourth season, should be remembered for a leading character comparable to Tony Soprano and the way it has changed Mexican drama.
Full Circle
Four years after it last aired, UK code-breaking drama The Bletchley Circle has been resurrected and transferred to the US. DQ hears from showrunner Michael MacLennan and production designer Joanna Dunn about The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco.
War on the waves
Thought working with children and animals was hard? Try a U-Boat. DQ lifts the hatch on forthcoming war drama Das Boot to find out how the series was built, more than 30 years after the iconic film that inspired it.
A nation divided
A parallel-future Israel is split between religious and secular societies in Autonomies. DQ meets co-creator Ori Elon, producer Efrat Dror and broadcaster HOT’s head of production Guy Levy to hear why the dystopian drama has echoes of contemporary society.
Head case
French crime drama Kepler(s) tackles mental health and the Calais migrant crisis in the story of a police officer secretly struggling with multiple personality disorder who is sent to investigate the murder of a student in the port town. DQ meets the writers and producers.
Missing treasure
The trend for television dramas about missing children continues with The Disappearance, a French Canadian drama about a family’s grief when a young boy vanishes. DQ chats with writer Geneviève Simard and the production team behind the six-part limited series.
Love is Blind
Finnish comedy-drama Blind Donna sees its titular character embark on a search for love, and nothing – not even her blindness – will stop her. Its producer and screenwriters tell DQ about the “risky business” of marrying comedy and disability.
Into The Pit
The writer and the executive producer behind Turkish crime drama Çukur (The Pit) tell DQ about the series, which mixes themes of love, family and community in the story of a man who returns to his old neighbourhood to become head of a criminal clan.
Boom town
Norwegian period drama Lykkeland (State of Happiness) dramatises the true story of the country’s oil boom in 1969. Writer Mette B Bølstad and executive producer Synnøve Hørsdal tell DQ about the origins of the series and how they avoided it becoming a history lesson.
Making Melrose
Screenwriter David Nicholls, director Edward Berger and executive producer Michael Jackson tell DQ about adapting Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels into a five-part limited series for Sky Atlantic and Showtime.
Liberté Égalité Nudité
Characters lose their privacy – and their clothes – in French drama Nu (Nude), set in a near-future where a new law dictates that everyone must be naked. DQ chats to the show’s cast and creative team about its premise and the real-world issues at its heart.
Palace life
As Versailles concludes after three seasons, executive producer Claude Chelli and costume designer Madeline Fontaine discuss the making of the lavish French historical drama.
Beyond borders
Israeli television rose to global prominence on the back of scripted series such as Hatufim (Prisoners of War) and Be Tipul (In Treatment). DQ explores what comes next from a country where big budgets are rare but no expense is spared on storytelling.