'BEING HUMAN' SHOWRUNNER TOBY WHITHOUSE TURNS TO HIS ANIMAL SIDE
'BEING HUMAN' SHOWRUNNER TOBY WHITHOUSE TURNS TO HIS ANIMAL SIDE
Talks vampires, werewolves, ghosts, the Landis influence and second season
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN, Contributing Writer
Published 8/28/2009
Toby Whithouse had already had a nicely varied career as an actor and created the British series NO ANGELS, as well as writing for the new version of DOCTOR WHO and TORCHWOOD, when he was brought on as the show-runner for what was, at first, a BBC series about a sex addict, someone with rage problems and an agoraphobe. Then Whithouse got the idea to turn the roommates into, respectively, a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost, and BEING HUMAN as we know it was born. At a BBC America party during the Television Critics Association press tour, he talks about where the series came from and where it's going.
iF MAGAZINE: How long was BEING HUMAN in development?
TOBY WHITHOUSE: A long time. It was about two years, including getting the pilot made.
iF: How long did it take from the time you were brought on to the time it became supernatural?
WHITHOUSE: I guess about a year of fairly constant work. Within that time, I was going off and writing on other shows.
iF: There are some strong resemblances, in a good way, in BEING HUMAN’s handling of both the werewolf’s origins and his transformations to the John Landis 1981 film AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON …
WHITHOUSE: [AMERICAN WEREWOLF] was a massively important film for me. I remember at the time that came out, everyone was buzzing about it. It was a great film. The choice of animatronics [for the BEING HUMAN werewolf transformation was a budgetary decision. The fact that ultimately we’ve ended up with something that is so referential pleases me no end, because that was a massively important show to me. And it was very much a kind of character film as well. It was all about friendship.
iF: BEING HUMAN has that sort of element with George and Mitchell.
WHITHOUSE: Absolutely.
iF: The rules seem to differ from vampire universe to vampire universe as to what vampires can and cannot do and whether or not they’ll get sick if they don’t drink human blood. Does BEING HUMAN get into that?
WHITHOUSE: To a degree. The vampires in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN are different to the vampires in TWLIGHT are different to the vampires in TRUE BLOOD and so on. Consequently, there’s no set rules, which means that we can cherry-pick the bits of the mythology that we want. Our bottom line has always been, ‘What gives us the best story?’ So the vampires in the BEING HUMAN world have certain rules about them and they get explained sort of by piecemeal. I guess the way we’re playing it in BEING HUMAN is that they’re immortal, and consequently, the addiction to blood is almost like a mental and emotional addiction, much like, say, an addiction to heroin. You don’t need heroin to survive, to live, it’s a drug that you’ve become addicted to. And kicking that drug is unbelievably hard. [Once you’re clean], you then live in a constant state of tension, as Mitchell does, because for the majority of Series One, he’s on the wagon.
iF: What’s been the biggest challenge? I mean, has there been one bit of mythology that’s, ‘Good God, how do we get around that one?’
WHITHOUSE: Annie’s mythology is the one that throws up the most problems story-wise. That’s the one where we could go any direction, because the rules about ghosts are even more vague than the rules about vampires. That’s the one we could have gone anywhere, and I think those stories have always been hardest to nail down. Her journey on the first series is finding the circumstances of her death. Her journey in the second series is about deciding whether or not does she even still want to be here.
iF: Sort of friendship versus freedom?
WHITHOUSE: Yeah.
iF: Annie’s a ghost, but she can physically touch George and Mitchell …
WHITHOUSE: Yes. There’s a line in the pilot where it’s explained. George says, ‘Why can we see her and other people can’t?’ and Mitchell says, ‘It’s because we’re supernatural.’ It’s like she comes from a different part of the same country.
iF: So theoretically, one or the other, or both, could be romantically involved with her?
WHITHOUSE: [laughs] I couldn’t possibly speculate.
iF: Both Lenora Crichlow, who plays Annie, and Russell Tovey, who plays George, were on DOCTOR WHO. Is that how you became aware of them?
WHITHOUSE: No. Both of those [DOCTOR WHO episodes the actors appeared in] were [showrunner] Russell [Davies]’ episodes. Lenora we knew from a show called SUGAR RUSH and Russell we knew from various things, HISTORY BOYS and so on.
iF: Is there a difference in the American perception and the British perception of BEING HUMAN?
WHITHOUSE: I think the Americans love the Britishness of it and the British love the high concept of it.
iF: What’s the difference between being in the writers’ room on somebody else’s show and being the showrunner?
WHITHOUSE: [laughs] The power. If I could laugh diabolically, I would. The thing is that I have to come up with everything, and so I come up with arcs for the whole series and so on. It’s a load of pressure, but I love it. And the thing is, I’m sure Russell [Davies] will tell you, once you’ve done it, it’s very difficult to go back. Having said that, I have gone back - I am writing an episode of somebody else’s show..
iF: Do you see yourself writing BEING HUMAN as long as it goes?
WHITHOUSE: Yeah, I’m more than happy to. I absolutely love writing it. I’ve got the best cast on television, it’s a show I love doing. I’ll keep writing it as long as they’ll keep listening.
source
Talks vampires, werewolves, ghosts, the Landis influence and second season
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN, Contributing Writer
Published 8/28/2009
Toby Whithouse had already had a nicely varied career as an actor and created the British series NO ANGELS, as well as writing for the new version of DOCTOR WHO and TORCHWOOD, when he was brought on as the show-runner for what was, at first, a BBC series about a sex addict, someone with rage problems and an agoraphobe. Then Whithouse got the idea to turn the roommates into, respectively, a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost, and BEING HUMAN as we know it was born. At a BBC America party during the Television Critics Association press tour, he talks about where the series came from and where it's going.
iF MAGAZINE: How long was BEING HUMAN in development?
TOBY WHITHOUSE: A long time. It was about two years, including getting the pilot made.
iF: How long did it take from the time you were brought on to the time it became supernatural?
WHITHOUSE: I guess about a year of fairly constant work. Within that time, I was going off and writing on other shows.
iF: There are some strong resemblances, in a good way, in BEING HUMAN’s handling of both the werewolf’s origins and his transformations to the John Landis 1981 film AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON …
WHITHOUSE: [AMERICAN WEREWOLF] was a massively important film for me. I remember at the time that came out, everyone was buzzing about it. It was a great film. The choice of animatronics [for the BEING HUMAN werewolf transformation was a budgetary decision. The fact that ultimately we’ve ended up with something that is so referential pleases me no end, because that was a massively important show to me. And it was very much a kind of character film as well. It was all about friendship.
iF: BEING HUMAN has that sort of element with George and Mitchell.
WHITHOUSE: Absolutely.
iF: The rules seem to differ from vampire universe to vampire universe as to what vampires can and cannot do and whether or not they’ll get sick if they don’t drink human blood. Does BEING HUMAN get into that?
WHITHOUSE: To a degree. The vampires in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN are different to the vampires in TWLIGHT are different to the vampires in TRUE BLOOD and so on. Consequently, there’s no set rules, which means that we can cherry-pick the bits of the mythology that we want. Our bottom line has always been, ‘What gives us the best story?’ So the vampires in the BEING HUMAN world have certain rules about them and they get explained sort of by piecemeal. I guess the way we’re playing it in BEING HUMAN is that they’re immortal, and consequently, the addiction to blood is almost like a mental and emotional addiction, much like, say, an addiction to heroin. You don’t need heroin to survive, to live, it’s a drug that you’ve become addicted to. And kicking that drug is unbelievably hard. [Once you’re clean], you then live in a constant state of tension, as Mitchell does, because for the majority of Series One, he’s on the wagon.
iF: What’s been the biggest challenge? I mean, has there been one bit of mythology that’s, ‘Good God, how do we get around that one?’
WHITHOUSE: Annie’s mythology is the one that throws up the most problems story-wise. That’s the one where we could go any direction, because the rules about ghosts are even more vague than the rules about vampires. That’s the one we could have gone anywhere, and I think those stories have always been hardest to nail down. Her journey on the first series is finding the circumstances of her death. Her journey in the second series is about deciding whether or not does she even still want to be here.
iF: Sort of friendship versus freedom?
WHITHOUSE: Yeah.
iF: Annie’s a ghost, but she can physically touch George and Mitchell …
WHITHOUSE: Yes. There’s a line in the pilot where it’s explained. George says, ‘Why can we see her and other people can’t?’ and Mitchell says, ‘It’s because we’re supernatural.’ It’s like she comes from a different part of the same country.
iF: So theoretically, one or the other, or both, could be romantically involved with her?
WHITHOUSE: [laughs] I couldn’t possibly speculate.
iF: Both Lenora Crichlow, who plays Annie, and Russell Tovey, who plays George, were on DOCTOR WHO. Is that how you became aware of them?
WHITHOUSE: No. Both of those [DOCTOR WHO episodes the actors appeared in] were [showrunner] Russell [Davies]’ episodes. Lenora we knew from a show called SUGAR RUSH and Russell we knew from various things, HISTORY BOYS and so on.
iF: Is there a difference in the American perception and the British perception of BEING HUMAN?
WHITHOUSE: I think the Americans love the Britishness of it and the British love the high concept of it.
iF: What’s the difference between being in the writers’ room on somebody else’s show and being the showrunner?
WHITHOUSE: [laughs] The power. If I could laugh diabolically, I would. The thing is that I have to come up with everything, and so I come up with arcs for the whole series and so on. It’s a load of pressure, but I love it. And the thing is, I’m sure Russell [Davies] will tell you, once you’ve done it, it’s very difficult to go back. Having said that, I have gone back - I am writing an episode of somebody else’s show..
iF: Do you see yourself writing BEING HUMAN as long as it goes?
WHITHOUSE: Yeah, I’m more than happy to. I absolutely love writing it. I’ve got the best cast on television, it’s a show I love doing. I’ll keep writing it as long as they’ll keep listening.
source