Angel Coulby & Anthony Head | 'Dancing on the Edge' - only out in 2013? [article]
C21 Media: Mixing old and new [UK screenwriters Stephen Poliakoff and Andrew Daviesabout their respective upcoming period dramas, no mention of Angel or Tony]
But the article reveals: Poliakoff, whose previous TV credits include The Lost Prince and Shooting The Past, developed the series for two years and production wrapped in March. It is due to air in 2013.
I'd hoped for 'later this year'. :(
[click to read]Mixing old and new
UK screenwriters Stephen Poliakoff and Andrew Davies tell Michael Pickard about their respective upcoming period dramas, which each have distinctly modern stories at their heart.
“It’s by far the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” says Stephen Poliakoff, the award-winning screenwriter and director behind forthcoming drama Dancing on the Edge.
The five-part series, produced by Ruby Film and Television for UK pubcaster BBC2, charts the rise of a black jazz band through high society in 1930s London before its members become entangled in a suspected murder.
It is one of two new period dramas being brought to the international market by ITV Studios Global Entertainment - the other is Mr Selfridge - that contain modern themes despite their settings.
“I got incredibly interested in how black jazz music and British high society mingled together in the early thirties, just before the rise of Hitler and before the world hurtled towards the worst catastrophe of the 20th century,” says Poliakoff. “All those things came together and I thought it had enormous resonance for us right now, because it followed the biggest financial crisis the 20th century had ever seen. So I got really interested in creating a fiction around that moment in time.”
Poliakoff, whose previous TV credits include The Lost Prince and Shooting The Past, developed the series for two years and production wrapped in March. It is due to air in 2013.
“It’s the most unbelievably interesting time and it involves the whole gamut of society, from unemployed black musicians suddenly becoming successful to royalty,” says Poliakoff. “The conjunction of those worlds coming together is an incredibly enticing prospect.
“I don’t think anyone has done a show about black jazz musicians mixing with British high society, which is based on true stories. This is a completely undramatised period and it’s quite poignant to be doing it in Europe as opposed to the US, because we know it was about to be engulfed by the catastrophic events of the Second World War.”
ITV Studios’ production Mr Selfridge is also based on a true story, that of Harry Selfridge who came to London with his wife and children and established the eponymous store in 1909. Writer Andrew Davies has taken his inspiration for the series, which will air on ITV1 in 2013, from Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge, a book by Lindy Woodhead.
Davies, whose credits include adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, says he was drawn in by a story that at its centre is a workplace drama. “I love Mad Men and The Sopranos, if you can call that a work-place drama, and I like the way they combine how somebody earns their living and the struggle for power with a family drama,” says Davies. “I thought there was the opportunity to do that here.”
The 10-hour first season of the show, which is being developed as a four-season series, focuses on not only Selfridge but also the characters who work and shop in the department store. “We’re trying to give it as much of a modern feel as we can,” says Davies. “It’s not sedate, it’s fast moving. It has shocks and surprises without being ridiculous.
“It’s a mixture of a character study of Harry and the story of a marriage. And the shop is like a great ocean liner with lots of people working in it, from whom we select the principle characters.”
Following the success of Downton Abbey, which also airs on ITV1 and will return this autumn for a third season, Davies claims that period dramas will always find an audience despite the peaks and troughs of their appeal to TV commissioners. “They’ve got to be good enough but there are always people who are drawn to watching them. And every so often, like now, that audience swells up and everybody’s interested,” he says.
Dancing on the Edge has an £8m (US$12.9m) budget and Poliakoff says he intends to copy the production values of series from US premium cable. “What we’ve attempted to do is make a show to rival those big HBO shows but not on the sort of money they’ve got. Hopefully we pulled it off but it did require a crazy amount of work,” he says.
“I try to reach their standards of production without quite having their resources. Hopefully, it’s as splendid a show as theirs are.”
While Dancing on the Edge and Mr Selfridge both look back in time, the stories they tell have thoroughly modern themes that will resonate with a 21st Century audience.
But the article reveals: Poliakoff, whose previous TV credits include The Lost Prince and Shooting The Past, developed the series for two years and production wrapped in March. It is due to air in 2013.
I'd hoped for 'later this year'. :(
[click to read]Mixing old and new
UK screenwriters Stephen Poliakoff and Andrew Davies tell Michael Pickard about their respective upcoming period dramas, which each have distinctly modern stories at their heart.
“It’s by far the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” says Stephen Poliakoff, the award-winning screenwriter and director behind forthcoming drama Dancing on the Edge.
The five-part series, produced by Ruby Film and Television for UK pubcaster BBC2, charts the rise of a black jazz band through high society in 1930s London before its members become entangled in a suspected murder.
It is one of two new period dramas being brought to the international market by ITV Studios Global Entertainment - the other is Mr Selfridge - that contain modern themes despite their settings.
“I got incredibly interested in how black jazz music and British high society mingled together in the early thirties, just before the rise of Hitler and before the world hurtled towards the worst catastrophe of the 20th century,” says Poliakoff. “All those things came together and I thought it had enormous resonance for us right now, because it followed the biggest financial crisis the 20th century had ever seen. So I got really interested in creating a fiction around that moment in time.”
Poliakoff, whose previous TV credits include The Lost Prince and Shooting The Past, developed the series for two years and production wrapped in March. It is due to air in 2013.
“It’s the most unbelievably interesting time and it involves the whole gamut of society, from unemployed black musicians suddenly becoming successful to royalty,” says Poliakoff. “The conjunction of those worlds coming together is an incredibly enticing prospect.
“I don’t think anyone has done a show about black jazz musicians mixing with British high society, which is based on true stories. This is a completely undramatised period and it’s quite poignant to be doing it in Europe as opposed to the US, because we know it was about to be engulfed by the catastrophic events of the Second World War.”
ITV Studios’ production Mr Selfridge is also based on a true story, that of Harry Selfridge who came to London with his wife and children and established the eponymous store in 1909. Writer Andrew Davies has taken his inspiration for the series, which will air on ITV1 in 2013, from Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge, a book by Lindy Woodhead.
Davies, whose credits include adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, says he was drawn in by a story that at its centre is a workplace drama. “I love Mad Men and The Sopranos, if you can call that a work-place drama, and I like the way they combine how somebody earns their living and the struggle for power with a family drama,” says Davies. “I thought there was the opportunity to do that here.”
The 10-hour first season of the show, which is being developed as a four-season series, focuses on not only Selfridge but also the characters who work and shop in the department store. “We’re trying to give it as much of a modern feel as we can,” says Davies. “It’s not sedate, it’s fast moving. It has shocks and surprises without being ridiculous.
“It’s a mixture of a character study of Harry and the story of a marriage. And the shop is like a great ocean liner with lots of people working in it, from whom we select the principle characters.”
Following the success of Downton Abbey, which also airs on ITV1 and will return this autumn for a third season, Davies claims that period dramas will always find an audience despite the peaks and troughs of their appeal to TV commissioners. “They’ve got to be good enough but there are always people who are drawn to watching them. And every so often, like now, that audience swells up and everybody’s interested,” he says.
Dancing on the Edge has an £8m (US$12.9m) budget and Poliakoff says he intends to copy the production values of series from US premium cable. “What we’ve attempted to do is make a show to rival those big HBO shows but not on the sort of money they’ve got. Hopefully we pulled it off but it did require a crazy amount of work,” he says.
“I try to reach their standards of production without quite having their resources. Hopefully, it’s as splendid a show as theirs are.”
While Dancing on the Edge and Mr Selfridge both look back in time, the stories they tell have thoroughly modern themes that will resonate with a 21st Century audience.