Category: IN FOCUS
King of clubs
Last King of the Cross stars Lincoln Younes and Tess Haubrich, writer/director Kieran Darcy-Smith and executive producer Mark Fennessy take DQ back to 1990s Sydney, which serves as the backdrop for this Australian crime drama about the rise of a now-infamous nightclub mogul.
Window of opportunity
As the World Cup gets underway, a Sky Italia drama focuses on a murkier side of the beautiful game in a story about football agents during one high-stakes summer transfer window. DQ speaks to the cast and creative team behind Il Grande Gioco (The Great Game).
Living dangerously
Writer Harriet Warner, executive producer Colin Callender and the cast of Dangerous Liaisons talk up Starz and Lionsgate+’s small-screen prequel to the classic French novel and discuss telling this iconic love story from a female perspective.
Heads will roll
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.
Breaking the rules
Producer Ayumi Sano and actor Tōko Miura discuss the social issues at the heart of Japanese drama Elpis and reveal how the series is breaking television conventions.
Night mares
The true story of an abuse scandal at a Swedish equestrian centre is dramatised in a new eight-part drama. Writer Ulf Kvensler and director Molly Hartleb take DQ inside the making of Nattryttarna (Riding in Darkness).
Devilish drama
Pop duo Let’s Eat Grandma turned composers to create the haunting soundtrack to Netflix fantasy drama The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself. They join writer Joe Barton to tell DQ about their collaboration for the show.
Heroic effort
Peaky Blinders meets Band of Brothers in SAS Rogue Heroes, a rocking retelling of how the specialist British Army unit was forged during the Second World War. Director Tom Shankland, producer Stephen Smallwood and executive producer Karen Wilson reveal how they made it.
Peripheral vision
Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy dive back into a futuristic, science-fiction setting for Prime Video’s The Peripheral. DQ speaks to Joy, director Vincenzo Natali and the cast about bringing William Gibson’s novel to television.
Who’s next
As Sex Education’s Ncuti Gatwa waits in the wings to take on the lead role, Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker and showrunner Chris Chibnall reflect on their time on the iconic series and discuss making this weekend’s 90-minute special.
Heading Nord
Three teenagers investigating their friend’s disappearance clash with local police and unearth secrets of their small town in Danish drama Nordland 99. Director Kasper Møller Rask and producers Iben Søtang and Anni Faurbye Fernandez talk budgets, locations and shooting in cars.
Vintage television
Writer Quoc Dang Tran and director Oded Ruskin raise a glass with DQ to toast completing the ‘impossible task’ of adapting 44-volume manga series Drops of God as an eight-part TV series, which follows two people competing to inherit the world’s finest wine collection.
Escaping into Shantaram
Star Charlie Hunnam and showrunner Steve Lightfoot tell DQ about adapting the sprawling, epic and elusive Australian novel Shantaram, about a man who breaks out of jail and finds himself in the criminal underbelly of 1980s Bombay, for Apple TV+.
Emotional baggage
Lost Luggage screenwriter Tiny Bertels and director Nathalie Basteyns reflect on making the Belgian drama, which is set in the aftermath of the real-life Brussels Airport terrorist attack as one woman takes on the task of returning abandoned luggage.
Scarlet fever
Production designer Yoxa Goran Joksimović and set decorator Lana Skundric reveal the challenges of moving production of Miss Scarlet & the Duke from Ireland to Serbia for the period drama’s second and third seasons.
Havana good time
Cuba Libre star Beatriz Godinho and writer-director Henrique Oliveira introduce DQ to the larger-than-life true story at the centre of this Portuguese drama about one woman’s infatuation with Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.
Caught in the Crossfire
Crossfire star Keeley Hawes and writer Louise Doughty tell DQ about asking viewers what they would do if gunmen attacked their holiday resort, unlikeable lead characters and why they hope the stars of Gogglebox will be watching.
Baby blues
Star Pia Tjelta and the creative team behind Norwegian drama Made in Oslo discuss the conception and delivery of this fertility clinic-set series, which explores how far one woman is willing to go to become a mother.
No time to lose
Dutch drama Het Gouden Uur (The Golden Hour) explores what happens when a deadly terrorist attack targets a busy city and how one police officer becomes caught up in the aftermath. DQ finds out more.
Hearts and minds
The team behind Netflix sensation Heartstopper reveal how the small-screen adaptation of Alice Oseman’s graphic novel earned the seal of approval from the source material’s legion of devotees.