Hitting the Road
As Paramount+ brings to the screen an adaptation of Beth O’Leary romcom novel The Road Trip, the cast and crew tell DQ about the numerous changes they’ve made to the source material, filming on a virtual production stage, and why the main star of the show isn’t one of the human characters. Question: How can you fit five adults and an entire camera crew into a Mini Cooper? Answer: Er, you can’t. That explains a key change from the source material in Paramount+’s new six-part drama The Road Trip, an adaptation of Beth O’Leary’s novel. In the book, the “star” vehicle, where much of the action takes place, is a Mini Cooper. But for the purposes of this comedy drama, the producers made the wise and pragmatic decision to switch to a far roomier camper van. The shift makes perfect sense. In a Mini, there is no space to swing a cat, let alone a boom mic. So, on a quiet street in Clifton, Bristol, one grey day, the five main characters are piling into a camper for the eponymous trip to a friend’s wedding in the rather sunnier climes of Spain. But there’s a snag – of course there is, it’s a drama. The claustrophobia within the van raises the already heightened tension between the two protagonists, exes Addie (Emma Appleton) and Dylan (Laurie Davidson), who haven’t seen each other since a disastrous breakup two years earlier. The presence in the van of three other tricky customers – Dylan’s … Continue reading Hitting the Road
