Category: IN FOCUS
Teacher vs student
A teacher and a pupil push each other to breaking point as tempers flare in Israeli drama Sh’at Efes (The Lesson). Writer Deakla Keydar, director Eitan Zur and actors Maya Landsmann and Doron Ben-David take DQ to school.
Highs & glows
Star Nina Ellen Ødegaard and director Atle Knudsen tell DQ about making Norwegian drama Etterglød (Afterglow), a series of love and life told through the story of a woman facing a devastating illness.
Road to nowhere
Spanish drama Cómo mandarlo todo a la mierda (How to Screw it All Up) follows a group of friends searching for freedom on a spontaneous road trip. Creators Jaime Olías and Pablo Sanhermelando talk risk-taking and speaking to Gen Z with the HBO Max series.
Body politics
Santa Evita star Natalia Oreiro and writers Marcela Guerty and Pamela Rementería look back on making this period drama charting the mysterious and incredible events surrounding Eva Perón’s body after her death.
Fertile ground
In Danish series Skruk (Baby Fever), a fertility doctor who wants a baby of her own takes dramatic steps to become pregnant. Creators Amalie Næsby Fick and Nikolaj Feifer tell DQ about their partnership, creating a flawed leading character and how their own experiences influenced the story.
Come die with me
Star Maria Doyle Kennedy and producer Thierry Cassuto reveal how they cooked up South African drama Recipes for Love & Murder, an adaptation of Sally Andrew’s novel about a recipe writer-turned-amateur sleuth.
A thing of Beauty
Blending telenovela melodrama with topical issues facing South Africa, Savage Beauty is a story of revenge set against the backdrop of the beauty industry. DQ hears from creator Lebogang Mogashoa and executive producer Harriet Gavshon about how they made this Netflix original series.
Mind your language
Star Alexandra Roach and executive producers Donna Wiffen, Jo Roderick and Nora Ostler Spiteri shine a light on making Welsh drama Y Golau (The Light in the Hall) and the demands of filming a series back to back in two languages.
Faroese fare
As Faroese drama Trom makes its UK debut, the cast and production team behind the series discuss filming challenges, language complications and why Nordic noir is still in demand.
A new domain of conflict
The Undeclared War stars Hannah Khalique-Brown as a gifted coder at the forefront of a government effort to ward off a series of cyber-attacks on the UK. DQ speaks to the actor and writer-director Peter Kosminsky about this topical and timely drama.
In the fog of war
Director Antoine Fuqua, star Taylor Kitsch and showrunner David DiGilio break down the making of Prime Video series The Terminal List, which blends action thriller and psychological drama to mind-bending effect after a Navy SEALs operation goes tragically wrong.
Journey to the Moon
Moon Years dramatises Aviv Geffen’s journey from complicated teenager to the biggest rock star in Israel. He and producer Hadas Mozes Lichtenstein reveal how they turned his life into a musical biopic.
Fairy tale of Milan
In Blocco 181, war is raging between Italian and Latin American gangs on a Milan housing estate as an unlikely romance blossoms. The cast and directing team tell DQ about making this hyper-real fairy tale that aims to prove love will find a way.
Community service
Writer James Graham and stars including David Morrissey, Joanne Froggatt and Bally Gill preview BBC state-of-the-nation drama Sherwood, in which decades-old prejudices resurface when a murder shocks a tight-knit town.
Heirs and graces
Becoming Elizabeth star Alicia von Rittberg and creator Anya Reiss take DQ back to 16th century England to discuss this new take on the formative years of a young girl who would become Queen Elizabeth I.
Wake-up call
Writers Florence Longpré, Guillaume Lambert and director Guillaume Lonergan discuss their collaboration on Quebecois comedy-drama Audrey est revenue (Audrey’s Back), in which a teenage girl wakes up from a 16-year coma.
Daydream believer
Star Connie Nielsen and writer Dunja Gry Jensen reveal why they were drawn to dramatise the life of Out of Africa author Karen Blixen for Danish drama The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen.
The kids aren’t alright
Keeley Hawes takes the lead in The Midwich Cuckoos, a modern adaptation of John Wyndham’s classic sci-fi novel. Writer David Farr and director Alice Troughton tell DQ about their shared love of the book and how they updated it for the screen.
Dry wit
One woman’s journey to sobriety unearths hidden secrets for her family in Irish series The Dry. Star Roisin Gallagher, writer Nancy Harris and director Paddy Breathnach discuss tackling issues of addiction and finding the show’s balance between comedy and drama.
Rebuilding Borgen
Borgen creator Adam Price and stars Birgitte Hjort Sørensen and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard get political again as the Danish drama returns. DQ hears all about about filming in Greenland and the trouble with elevators.