I, Chris Lang
Unforgotten creator Chris Lang’s new show, I, Jack Wright, focuses on the shockwaves sent through a family by its deceased patriarch’s will. The writer lays and exec producer out his wishes for the series and explains why he wanted to tell this story.
From creator and writer Chris Lang – best known as the man behind Unforgotten – I, Jack Wright is a succession story with a difference.
The UKTV drama, which debuted on U&Alibi and streamer U last week, follows the fallout of a wealthy patriarch’s untimely death, apparently by suicide. While Jack Wright (Trevor Eve)’s passing naturally comes as a shock to his friends and family, it’s the content of his last will and testament that truly leaves them stunned.
The drama kicks into gear as the main characters assemble at the family’s country estate for the will reading, some of whom are expecting life-changing bequeathals. Those in attendance include the sons from Jack’s first marriage, Gray (John Simm) and John (Daniel Rigby), plus their mother Rose (Gemma Jones); his widow Sally (Nikki Amuka-Bird), with whom Jack had two more children; and his granddaughter Emily (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis).
It soon becomes clear that nobody around the table is to get what they expected – for better or (mostly) worse – and things soon turn ugly between the interested parties. And while those involved struggle to make sense of Jack’s motivations, the officer investigating his death, DCI Hector Morgan (Harry Lloyd), begins to suspect foul play.
But what sets this story apart is that each episode is bookended with elements borrowed from the true crime genre, with the central characters participating in a ‘documentary’ reflecting on the case some time later. Some of their circumstances have clearly changed dramatically in the interim – previously clean-cut businessman John is dishevelled and ruined, while Sally speaks to the film crew from prison – giving viewers a tantalising taste of the plot’s trajectory.
Running to six episodes, the drama was filmed in the UK and produced by Federation Stories, the UK arm of French production company Federation Studios, with Tom Vaughan directing.
Polly Williams, Arielle Gottlieb, Tom Vaughan and Helen Perry executive produce alongside Lang, who is also the creator, writer and exec producer of ITV drama Unforgotten. Six seasons of the critically acclaimed cold-case series have aired so far, with a seventh recently confirmed to be on the way.
Here, Lang explains why this was a story he wanted to tell and the message he hopes it gets across – plus his thoughts on his own will.
How did you come up with the idea for I, Jack Wright?
It came from talking to mates over a few years and them all telling me their generally appalling will stories. It didn’t necessarily have to be a large amount of money that was being disputed – the unifying factor was how appallingly families can behave.
I remember thinking it was an interesting area for a drama, because everyone can relate to it. Everyone obviously has had people close to them die, and pretty much everyone has experienced a will. And more often than you would imagine, a will can be very toxic.
The most interesting thing for me was always that all of the questions you might ask when a will doesn’t go in your favour, you want to ask the person who has died and can’t give you any answers. So that was a really interesting element for me.
Can you explain your creative decision to include the true crime-style interviews?
We watch so many true crime shows on TV, and the line between a true crime documentary and a true crime drama is increasingly blurred. I’ve done both, and I thought it would be really interesting to give it that extra dynamic that makes the audience think, ‘Hang on a minute, is this a real story?’
It just bookends it beautifully. It gives you a totally different perspective on what has happened as well. It allows you to go forward and say, ‘This is where they all are now. How the hell did they get there? How did she end up in prison? How did he end up in a homeless shelter?’ All of those questions.
It also offered me the opportunity to write a little kind of coda or homily at the end of each episode from Nikki [Amuka-Bird]’s character – just to tease into the next episode and throw those little crumbs in that make an audience want to come back.
What was your vision for that pivotal will-reading scene?
It’s a naturally dramatic scene where you’ve got pretty much all of your key characters in one room, and all of them are being delivered a piece of information, pretty much within the space of a minute or two, that’s going to change their lives forever.
That’s what a will obviously has the capacity to do; to change your life, arguably for the better, but perhaps also not, because the money has many connotations, it represents many things. People think it represents love, it represents a preferment, it represents all sorts of things but, again, the one person who can give you the answers on what it represents is not there. And often a letter of wishes won’t provide that clarity.
Tom Vaughan directed it absolutely beautifully. I think the guys were in that room for about three days. So the coverage was immense, which gave us the opportunity to have that lovely rhythm of going to people’s faces for reactions constantly, and just building up the tension.
How did you balance the comedy and drama in the series?
It’s always a difficult line to steer, and it’s an iterative process. You write it believing that this funny line can sit next to this muscular and serious scene, and then it’s filmed, you sit in the edit and sometimes that does work and sometimes it doesn’t.
You must never be reluctant to change it and shift the balance and nuance. So it’s a really tricky line to steer and you’ve just got to keep checking all the way along that they sit next to each other comfortably. And I think it works.
As Jack, Trevor Eve isn’t on screen for long but is a formidable presence. Why was he right for the role?
There are not many actors who can come in and do one scene and make it land completely. You need someone who, when people see the opening scene, [will make viewers think] ‘Well, they’re not going to kill Trevor Eve.’ But we did.
It needed a very big screen presence because the show constantly references him. And to a degree, the show is about him, even though he’s not there for a lot of it. The show is about him vicariously because every single character is informed by his patriarchy, and we learn who he is through all of the other characters.
So it was really important that we had someone who had that presence and that immediate engagement with the audience. He had to be incredibly familiar, but he had to have the right qualities for the character.
How does the show explore the idea of responsibility for your own happiness outside of someone bequeathing however much money to you?
This series is about that more than anything else – that money is not what ultimately can fulfil you. It’s about the journey they all go on to learn that. Some learn it fast, some don’t learn it and some learn it slowly.
Of course, money isn’t the route to simple happiness. It can ease life a little sometimes, but one of the key lessons is don’t look for it as a representation of love, because it’s often doled out for really, really complex reasons.
There were so many friends who told me their will stories where a parent had left one sibling a much larger amount of money than the other, and it wasn’t to do with love or how much they did or didn’t love one of them. It was just that they felt one needed it more, because they they’d had a more troubled life or they were just in financial difficulty.
And yet the child – again unable to ask the parent, ‘What did you mean by that?’ – read it as an expression of love. ‘You must have loved her more than me because you gave her a million and you gave me 100,000.’ So all of the characters will go on that journey, and some more successfully than others, of course.
Have you written your own will – and when your children watch this, will they be worried?
I have written my own will, and literally I was out with one of my sons a couple of nights ago, and he inadvertently, I think, let slip that he and his brother were talking about what they were going to get from me. So, you know, it’s foremost in their minds!
What do you hope the audience takes away from the show?
Intrigue. I want them to want to know what happens to every single character from episode to episode. Whenever I write a show with a large cast, I always want every single character to have a really meaningful story from episode one to episode six. That’s what I hope they take away from this – that you can invest in every single person and it will pay off over six episodes.
And is there any possibility of a second season?
There is definitely the potential for another season. And then another. And not just from this story, but there’s the potential for another family – ‘I, Sue Smith’ or whatever. It’s a universal story that has endless possibility.
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