Category: IN FOCUS
Lockdown Games
Irina Sosnovaya, creative producer of Russian subscription-based video service Start, discusses lockdown drama Games People Play, which follows a host of relationships through the coronavirus pandemic.
Ruffling feathers
Juno Temple and Yumna Marwan cross paths as two women whose lives become dangerously entangled in Little Birds, a Sky Atlantic drama set in the vibrant and intoxicating surroundings of 1950s Tangier.
Virtuous drama
Stephen Graham, Helen Behan and Shane Meadows discuss making Channel 4 drama The Virtues, difficult characters and the importance of telling working-class stories.
Meeting Mrs America
Actors Uzo Aduba and Margo Martindale join showrunner Dahvi Waller and co-executive producer Micah Schraft to discuss period drama Mrs America, which shines a light on the women’s political movement in the 1970s.
At the Top
Actor Jasmine Jobson and the creative team behind British drama Top Boy discuss reviving the Channel 4 series for a third season on Netflix and bringing authenticity to the fictional Summerhouse Estate.
Worlds in motion
Cold Feet star Hermione Norris tells DQ why she travelled around the world to join the cast of Australian drama Between Two Worlds, a complex melodrama that creator Bevan Lee describes as his best work yet.
Lifting Cursed
Production designer Catrin Meredydd and make-up and prosthetics lead Erika Ökvist take DQ into the world of Cursed, Netflix’s historical fantasy drama that reimagines the legend of King Arthur.
Sets education
Bafta-nominated designers Samantha Harley and Miri Katz tell DQ how they created a unique and vibrant look for the world of Netflix teen comedy-drama Sex Education.
Leaders of The Pack
Showrunner Lucía Puenzo and Fremantle executive producer Christian Vesper tell DQ about making Chilean drama La Jauría (The Pack), one of Amazon Prime Video’s first Latin American original series.
Han on heart
Writer David Farr and executive producer Tom Coan tell DQ how Amazon action thriller Hanna will take viewers on a greater emotional journey in season two.
Heading East
Producer Kevin Loader and production designer Simon Bowles reveal how the empty sets of British soap EastEnders gave them the opportunity to film Alan Bennett’s acclaimed Talking Heads monologue series during the coronavirus lockdown.
Tackling terror
Co-creators Dani de la Torre and Alberto Marini explain how Spanish drama La Unidad (The Unit) blends hard-hitting action with complicated stories of police officers fighting against international terrorism.
Dramatic truth
Two years after a deadly poisoning involving a nerve agent in the UK, the cast and creative team behind BBC miniseries The Salisbury Poisonings reveal how they dramatised this real-life national emergency.
True romance
The search for marital bliss leads two couples along a deadly path to criminality in French-Canadian drama C’est comme ça que je t’aime (Happily Married). DQ hears about the show from stars François Létourneau and Marilyn Castonguay and director Jean-François Rivard.
Head scratcher
Director Jorge Dorado, executive producer Ran Tellem and the cast of The Head open up about filming the Spanish-made thriller, which is set at a remote scientific laboratory in Antarctica.
Make or break-up
Writer Clara Mendes and director Amalie Næsby Fick tell DQ how Danish shortform drama Sex charts a young woman’s journey through a complicated web of sexuality, gender and relationships.
Political ambitions
In Icelandic drama The Minister, an unconventional politician with a hidden health condition rises to become prime minister. Star Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, writer Jónas Margeir Ingólfsson and director Nanna Kristin Magnúsdóttir tell DQ about making the series.
The new Normal
Normal People executive producer Emma Norton and producer Catherine Magee tell DQ why the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel strikes a chord with viewers and reveal the challenges of casting the drama and creating its intimate moments.
Word to the wise
Peter Bowker, creator and writer of The A Word, and director Fergus O’Brien discuss making the third season of the BBC family drama and their joy at pushing sidelined characters and stories of disability into the limelight.
Summer lovin’
Easy A writer Bert V Royal and The Sinner producer Michelle Purple tell DQ about teaming up on US cablenet Freeform’s high school drama Last Summer, from producer Entertainment One.