The Director’s Chair

Mint condition

Scrapper director Charlotte Regan brings her unique visual flair to Mint, a BBC series that drops a love story in the middle of a crime drama. In the middle of post-production, she tells DQ about writing and directing her first original TV project, and why she isn’t afraid to think big.

 

IN FOCUS

Crossing the line

Channel 4 drama Trespasses tells a forbidden love story set against the backdrop of the Troubles in 1970s Northern Ireland. Star Tom Cullen and producer Amanda Posey discuss making the series, why Cullen was the perfect casting choice and how the actor perfected his Belfast accent.

 

DQ100

DQ100 2025/26 – Part four

In the final part of the DQ100 2025/26, we pick 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.

 

Awards

Adolescence honoured with 2025 DQ Craft Award

Adolescence, Netflix’s one-take-per-episode limited series, is the recipient of the 2025 Drama Quarterly Craft Award.

In production

Without a trace

The makers of Japan-Singapore drama Lost & Found discuss the unique collaboration behind this adventure series, appealing to Gen Z and how it is rooted in the real-world phenomenon of people who choose to disappear.

 

The Writers Room

Spy another day

Newsreader and screenwriter Tom Bradby lifts the lid on Secret Service, ITV’s upcoming espionage thriller that stars Gemma Arterton as an MI6 officer attempting to maintain her family life while uncovering a Russian operative at the heart of the British government.

 

IN FOCUS

Giving it their Best shot

A Finnish crime drama investigates the mystery behind a teenage girl’s disappearance, set against the backdrop of a Helsinki suburb in the late 1980s. Director Saara Saarela and executive producer Minna Haapkylä introduce All the Best Girls.

 

Ones to Watch

Series to Watch: December 2025

DQ checks out the upcoming schedules to pick 10 new series to watch this December, from a Doctor Who spin-off and a Spanish crime thriller to a darkly comedic Australian series and two new period dramas charting the life of iconic composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

 

IN FOCUS

No time to lie

Actor Shaun Evans and executive producer Tom Leggett discuss how their off-screen partnership paved the way for ITV drama Betrayal, which blends espionage intrigue and domestic drama to tell the story of a spy facing up to a midlife crisis.

 

IN FOCUS

The road to freedom

Prisoner 951 star Narges Rashidi, writer Stephen Butchard and director Philippa Lowthorpe reveal how they dramatised the years-long story of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s detention in Iran and her husband Richard Ratcliffe’s fight for justice in the UK.

 

In production

Mission to Mars

Japanese sci-fi drama Queen of Mars looks to the future with a story set between Mars and Earth. Executive producer Satoru Watanabe and chief director Takegorō Nishimura tell DQ about making this ambitious yet timeless project.

 

IN FOCUS

Breaking the ice

Six-part drama Hildur brings Satu Rämö’s surfing and knitting detective to the small screen. Writers Matti Laine and Margrét Örnólfsdóttir, director Tinna Hrafnsdóttir and executive producer Eero Hietala unpack how they made this ‘Nordic blue’ crime series.

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