Dancing On The Edge

High-society scandal, murder mystery, Freemasons, Nazis and Russian émigré nudity (Janet Montgomery) – with only two hours left, Dancing on the Edge is certainly hotting up after a languorous three and a half mule-drawn hours... As the tensions mount, the characters have likewise revealed new or previously half suggested facets to their character. And we begin to see the group dynamic in a different and unsettling light. Sarah's response to Louis' account of his escape from Donaldson's house of horrors was especially disturbing and revealing, automatically she had all the answers ready for him, the lawyer was held up, the door was locked to prevent the children from disturbing him, the police arrived by coincidence. There is no indication that Donaldson explained any of this to her or that she was part of an overt conspiracy but her desire to maintain the illusion of the happy band of friends, and the niceties of high society (all of it lovingly preserved via her suffocatingly kitsch photographs) trump any love for or loyalty to Louis. It is similar to the rejection of Anne Keyes by her family in Glorious 39 yet handled in an infinitely subtler way. We recall Sarah's casual 'people are strange' defence of Masterson's abuse of his girlfriend in the first episode. Perhaps as the daughter of a wealthy Russian- a 'White émigré'?- her attachment to Anglo-American civilization with its aristocratic veneer and bourgeois capitalist underpinnings is too consuming to admit to flaws- shades of Ayn Rand!

Donaldson's grating avuncular hauteur has also given way to a far more sinister yet fascinating aspect to him, he is the great Establishment fixer, the Mycroft Holmes of social relations, able to play Master of Ceremonies and act at ease with everyone but when push comes to shove his master's servant to the end, he can invite you to the inner circle- even make you feel he is an outsider like you to allay anxieties but refuse to play the game and he will destroy you. And Julian is revealing himself as a splendidly English psychopath, a Bertie Wooster of sadistic menace- actually the light jazz in Dancing on the Edge is similar to that featured in the Fry & Laurie take on Jeeves and Wooster- this is the dark side of Brinkley Court and the Drones Club. While Pamela combines the psychotic dedication of Florence Craye ('Lady Caligula') with the eye rolling skittishness of Madeline Bassett, she and Julian are like Cocteau's Enfants Terribles, living in a fantasy world laced with dangerous and incestuous undercurrents. They are trying to escape from the clutches of their ghastly mater (rather than mother) but sliding further into their baroque make believe world at the same time. Of course, sibling incest as a comment on the decadence of rampant capitalism is a Poliakoff trope we have seen before (in Close My Eyes).


Masterton, the grand Gothic villain, is pure wealth, a De Sadean capitalist who turns everything into a form of consumption, jazz, musical journalism, railway journeys, even his propensity for violence- 'Dear me sir you've smashed up our hotel suite'. 'Let me buy it from you and we'll say no more about it', he smiles while mugging at the camera with his tycoon cigar. The thought of him using such innocents as Stanley and Eric (who is adorable, he is to musical technology what Dan Snow is to historical battlefields) as his pawns of cultural domination is frightening and hopefully they can break free in what has become a dramatisation of the creation an establishment - the establishment of an establishment (through the expanded media empire) is brilliant. See these players slot into their roles with such ease and excitement. Real power and real riches await. The grandness of the rooms represent the inner grandiosity that these hitherto seemingly good guys have always secretly craved. Rooms are expressions of inner grandness and motivation. Of course it's exaggerated, in order to make the point. A magazine is established, a new establishment is created. The incentive for everyone is just increased comfort and status - like any monkey kingdom.

There's something mournfully valedictory about Dancing on the Edge, on a number of different levels. It appears Poliakoff is aware this is likely his last hurrah as a big budget BBC filmmaker, and his sadness that the proud auteurist tradition which was the hallmark of British television for so long is set to be cast overboard in favour of so much slipshod, manically edited fodder for the short of attention, has bled its way into the drama. There was so much barely sublimated emotional distress threaded through tonight's episode, from Louis' near breakdown, to the creeping menace of the Masons and the deeply disturbing psychosexual traumas that bind Julian and Pamela. Poliakoff refuses to succumb to middlebrow mediocrity: he holds a mirror to our darkest fears with a ferocity and clarity of intent the modishly nihilistic serials of his successors wouldn't dare emulate.

Above all, Masterson's role is now clear; he represents the coming conquest of British and European culture by the products of American capitalism. His takeover of Music Express is supposed to be "quite boring", many revolutions start not with a bang, but with a whispered agreement and the careful exchange of freshly inked business contracts. Rosie, Poliakoff's canary in the mine, is the only one to foresee the suffocating banalisation that awaits Stanley, Eric et al. Alas, they have all been bought off; from the Establishment doyenne Lady Cremone to the rootless cosmopolitan, Sarah; Louis, the most socially vulnerable member of their circle, is thrown to the wolves in order to maintain social order. It is why the Band having to play or sing a song while trying to eat has been a constant theme. The black band members know their place is not equal amongst these "friends". They constantly have to pay their way and sing for their supper. You don't have to be Walter Benjamin to catch the subtextual inferences here.

Television Series: Dancing on the Edge (S01E04)
Release Date: February 2013
Actress: Janet Montgomery
Video Clip Credit: Drazerfta



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Raising The Curtain On The BBC

The BBC's incoming director general wants to use dramas such as Wolf Hall and The White Queen to make the corporation an international cultural beacon for the UK. Lord Hall, the outgoing chief executive of the Royal Opera House, takes up his new role on 2 April. The BBC's controller of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson, who has met Hall twice since the latter's appointment in November, said he talked about the BBC's "cultural legacy and impact". Stephenson added that they had also talked about "What does that mean and what does it mean as an international broadcaster in the modern age, but crucially without losing our values. It's exporting what we are, the Danny Boyle philosophy of Britain exporting what we are to the world and the world will come, rather than pretending, dressing up in the clothes of Hollywood."

He added: "The two conversations I have had with Lord Hall have emphasised the point that we are a cultural organisation, we are there to aim higher, which doesn't mean being niche. It just means being incredibly ambitious for our audience." Janet McTeer will star in BBC1's 10-part adaptation of Philippa Gregory's The White Queen, while Elisabeth Moss will appear in Jane Campion's six-part BBC2 drama, Top of the Lake. Hilary Mantel's Booker prize-winning Wolf Hall is being adapted for BBC2.


Stephenson said it would be Hall's job to unveil his vision for the BBC when he arrives in April. "He has run the Royal Opera House in the most inspiring way – he has made it higher quality than ever, more accessible than ever, varied and interesting with a mixture of traditional and modern. I think all of those elements will be what we aim for," he added. "The other thing we have talked about is its role as an international cultural organisation. In some ways the word international for television drama is a dirty word – it suggests co-productions where the budget comes first. But one of the things we talked about is when you have Elisabeth Moss in a drama or you work with Jane Campion or Idris Elba comes back from America to make a drama [BBC1's Luther] it makes us feel more confident and excited that the BBC is offering something different and special."

Hall's ambition to reinforce the BBC's international role and reputation echoes the sentiments of The Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci's Bafta lecture last year, albeit in rather different language. Iannucci said TV executives had to be "more aggressive in promoting what makes British TV so good. Be ambitious, arrogant even, in how we sell it to the world. The BBC brand is up there with Apple and Google, I want it to go abroad and prostitute itself to blue buggery in how it sells and makes money from its content." Stephenson added: "I think we are sometimes a bit shy. I think we should be out there. The truth is when we go to America they talk about how great they are, but they talk about how great the drama is coming from the UK. Generally that means – not on all occasions – generally that means from the BBC and the world is jealous of what the BBC has. We can hold our heads up high and be even more ambitious."

Stephenson, who unveiled a new BBC drama slate on Monday night featuring a new Saturday teatime fantasy, Atlantis, and adaptation of PD James's Death Comes to Pemberley and a 3D anniversary special of Doctor Who, said he would not be leaving the BBC to fill the vacant drama chief slot at ITV. "I am not going to ITV, I am very happy here," said Stephenson, who has been touted as a future channel controller, possibly of BBC1, if incumbent Danny Cohen gets the vacant BBC director of vision job. "I have no idea what I will do next. I have been doing this job for four years but it is only three years of drama on screen. It takes a long time to make drama. I love it, I have got no plans."

Set against the iconic backdrop of the War of the Roses, The White Queen is a major new ten-hour adaptation of Philippa Gregory‘s vivid bestselling historical novel series The Cousin’s War, as is very much the shining jewel in BBC One's crown. It is the thrilling story of the women caught up in the ongoing conflict for the throne – they are some of the most ruthless players in history and will stop at nothing to support their own causes and those of the ones they love. The White Queen is described as a "stunningly rich tale of love and loss, seduction and deception, betrayal and murder, vibrantly woven through the stories of three different yet equally driven women, in their quest for power as they manipulate behind the scenes of history – Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville."

The year is 1464 and England has been at war for nine years battling over who is the rightful King of England – it is a war between two sides of the same family, The House of York and The House of Lancaster. The House of York’s young and devilishly handsome Edward IV (Max Irons - Red Riding Hood) is crowned King of England with the help of the master manipulator Lord Warwick "The Kingmaker" (James Frain - True Blood, The Tudors). But when Edward falls in love and secretly marries a beautiful young widow, the commoner Elizabeth Woodville, introducing the actress Rebecca Ferguson, Warwick’s plan for control over the English throne comes crashing down around him. Frustrated by the new Queen’s influence he will stop at nothing to maintain his grip on the King.

The most beautiful woman in the land, Elizabeth Woodville marries for the love of her King, with the help of her mother Jacquetta (Academy & Tony award nominee Janet McTeer) a self proclaimed sorceress. Elizabeth’s most fierce adversary is the staunchly loyal Lancastrian Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale – The Crimson Petal & The White) – a damaged and highly religious woman who would willingly lay down her life to see her young son Henry Tudor take the throne. And then there is Anne Neville (introducing Faye Marsay), Lord Warwick The Kingmaker’s daughter - a pawn in her father’s battle for control; who finds her strength and ambition when she takes control of her destiny and marries the King’s younger brother Richard Duke of Gloucester (Aneurin Bernard - Ironclad, Spring Awakening).

The White Queen is made by Company Pictures (The Village, The Devil’s Whore, Einstein and Eddington, Elizabeth l, Anna Karenina, Shameless) and adapted by acclaimed writer Emma Frost (Consuming Passions, Shameless). The series is produced by Gina Cronk (New Tricks, The Palace) and directed by James Kent (Inside Men, Marchlands). Filmed on location in Bruges, it will broadcast on BBC One this year. Stephenson, says: "One of the most ambitious series the BBC has made, this 10-part series is an epic drama that makes real history as gripping as the best fiction, featuring a cast of extraordinary new talent and some of our finest actors."

Equally ambitious is The Village, an epic drama series for BBC One starring Maxine Peake and John Simm, charting the life and turbulent times of one English village across the whole of the 20th century. The Village is written by Bafta-winning writer Peter Moffat. The camera never leaves the village. Births, deaths, love and betrayal, great political events, upheavals in national identity, ways of working, rules kept and rebellions made, sex, religion, class, the shaping of modern memory – all refracted through the lives of the villagers and the village. One man, Bert Middleton lives across the entire hundred years and his life story from boyhood to extreme old age provides the narrative backbone. His last great act of remembering is our way in to an examination of our recent past.

The series begins in 1914. Young Bert Middleton (introducing Bill Jones) is growing up in extreme poverty on a family farm in Derbyshire. His parents John (John Simm – State of Play, The Devil’s Whore) and Grace (Maxine Peake – Silk, Criminal Justice, Shameless) struggle to provide for Bert and his adored older brother Joe (Nico Mirallegro – My Fat Mad Teenage Diary, Upstairs Downstairs). John is proud, unyielding and haunted by his past. Grace devotes her life to protecting her sons from the violence of his despair. Is her sacrifice sustainable? Is John capable of redemption? Will Bert’s funny, gentle ways and rich imagination survive? Joe supplements the family income by working at the Big House, where he comes into contact with the troubled and deeply unstable Caro (Emily Beecham – The Runaway).

The first episode opens with the arrival of the first bus ever to stop in the village. Everyone gathers to see it and off the bus steps the beautiful, headstrong Martha Lane (Charlie Murphy - Misfits, Love Hate). Bert Middleton’s world will never be the same again. Jim Cartwright (writer of Road and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice) plays Peter Baslow, the Landlord of the village pub. Other cast includes: Anthony Flanagan (Being Human), Annabelle Apsion (Shameless), Joe Armstrong (Robin Hood), Matt Stokoe (Misfits), Augustus Prew (The Borgias) and Stephen Walters (The 51st State). John Simm says: "I’m delighted to be working with such a great director (Antonia Bird) and brilliant writer in Peter - I've long been a fan of both, alongside such a great cast". Maxine Peake added: "Beautiful writing - a period piece when we're not focusing on the decision makers but the working people, it is so great to see the other side - changes within a chain of social and political life, in minutiae. My character, Grace channels all her energy into her family with a focus on ambition and the idea of freedom for her sons. Women moving into the workplace as the men went to fight and finding independence."

Talking of epic family sagas, Peaky Blinders, BBC Two’s new gangster drama, has already started shooting in Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. The cast includes Cillian Murphy (Inception), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Helen McCrory (Harry Potter), Annabelle Wallis (The Tudors), Iddo Goldberg (Secret Diary Of A Call Girl) and Charlie Creed-Miles (Wild Bill). Series creator Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises) commented: "The story I want to tell is based on family legend and historical fact. It is a fiction woven into a factual landscape which is breathtakingly dramatic and cinematic, but which for very English reasons has been consigned to historical text books." Stephenson, added: "Building on BBC Two's reputation for world-class drama, Peaky Blinders is a phenomenally authored drama series shedding light on a piece of hidden British history. Authentic, bloody and utterly compelling, Peaky Blinders welcomes Steven Knight and Otto Bathurst to BBC Two and adds another boldly crafted drama to our roster of upcoming shows."

The official synopsis reads: "The story begins in 1919 in the lawless slum neighbourhoods of post war Birmingham. Returning soldiers, newly-minted revolutionaries and criminal gangs all fight for survival in an industrial landscape gripped by economic upheaval. Guns smuggled home from the trenches find their way onto the streets and become lethal currency. Communists don't just dream of revolution - they are planning for it and the Government is expecting it. As Churchill mobilizes his Special Branch forces, illegal bookmakers make fortunes in speak-easy betting shops and traumatised infantrymen drink away their shell-shock in riotous ale houses. There is still a gentler city at the fringes, where gypsies and canal boatmen deal horses and tell fortunes but sitting at the top of this industrial jungle are the extended Shelby family, whose many brothers and sisters, cousins and uncles, make up the fiercest gang of all, the 'Peaky Blinders'. Named for their practise of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, the Peaky Blinders make their money from off track betting, protection and robbery.

"Their boss Tommy Shelby (Murphy) is the most ruthless brother of them all, but his leadership is about to be put to the test. A ruthless new Police Chief C.I. Campbell (Neill) arrives in town from Belfast to clean up the city and, perhaps more lethally, a beautiful woman Grace Burgess (Wallis) arrives in the neighbourhood with a mysterious past and a dangerous secret. McCrory plays Aunt Polly Gray, the Shelby family matriarch. Peaky Blinders is a dazzling picture of England which will blow away preconceptions even though the characters and events are taken directly from the pages of our secret history. They will now burst into life in a vibrant evocation of a hedonistic age where the clothes will be razor sharp, the music fast and the dancing outrageous. The real Peaky Blinders were a scandal and this fiction will be the same. The Shelbys will be a family not to be taken lightly."

Elsewhere, Hilary Mantel's Booker prize-winning Wolf Hall and its follow-up Bring Up The Bodies are to be brought to television in a six-hour adaptation for BBC2. The TV version of the acclaimed 2009 novel and its sequel, expected to be broadcast in late 2013, is to be adapted by Peter Straughan, who wrote the screenplay for the recent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie. Wolf Hall is a fictional biography set in the first half of the 16th century, charting the rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII. Cromwell was involved in arranging Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and his marriage to Anne Boleyn, and the English church's break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries. He later fell out with Henry and was executed. The second novel, Bring Up the Bodies, focuses on Anne Boleyn, whilst the third book, The Mirror & the Light, will see Cromwell's story through until his execution in 1540 and could be filmed as a stand alone series at a later date.

The TV adaptation is being developed by Company Pictures, the UK independent producer behind Shameless, Skins and The Shadow Line, and Playground Entertainment, the US company set up by former HBO Films president Colin Callender. Stressing the channel's commitment to drama in the face of cuts that from the new year will ravage the daytime schedule, BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow – who named Wolf Hall as among her favourite books of recent years – said the novels were "right in the cross hairs" of what BBC2 viewers will enjoy. "I think there is a cumulative, mounting hunger for the [dramas] that we do," said Hadlow. "That doesn't mean that all of them will be massive audience drivers but I think what drama injects into the channel is of such value … something so powerful that you'd want to protect that at all costs."

Talking of cherished things, Doctor Who will celebrate its half centenary with a special birthday edition on 23 November, exactly 50 years after its first ever adventure, An Unearthly Child, starring William Hartnell in the title role. Viewers will be able to see the 3D version on the BBC HD channel. Stephenson said the anniversary of the time-travelling show would be a national event and compared it to the Queen's diamond jubilee and the Olympics. Doctor Who's executive producer and lead writer, Steven Moffat, said: "It's about time. Technology has finally caught up with Doctor Who and your television is now bigger on the inside. A whole new dimension of adventure for the Doctor to explore."

Stephenson revealed further details of the 50th-anniversary show when explianing: "It's a nationwide celebration of both Doctor Who and the BBC because I think they are so synonymous. We will be doing a big Doctor Who special in 3D which is very exciting and feels very innovative. We will be doing it on cinema screens as well. We are working out the logistics of that at the moment because we need to make sure the main BBC1 experience remains absolute value for money for the audience." There has been no shortage of speculation about the content of the 50th-birthday show, and whether it will see a reunion of previous doctors. Tom Baker memorably declined to appear in the 20th-anniversary special, the Five Doctors, and three of the 11 actors to have played the role are now dead.

Moffat is still working on the script for the show which will be filmed, like most of the series, in south Wales, and will follow an eight-part run of Doctor Who. Stephenson said: "There will be lots of aliens and daleks and things like that – or maybe there won't. There are many different things to take into account and we will also have a Christmas special after that and it all connects. Or maybe it doesn't. There's lots to work out. It's that thing of, how do you make individual programmes more than the sum of their parts? The Doctor Who 50th is a bit like when we did EastEnders' 25th; it is more than just a programme, we have all had a relationship to it. Ninety per cent of the British public know about Doctor Who and have a personal connection to it. Most people have their own Doctor Who. It's drawing on that nostalgia to say something bigger about the BBC and its values."

The BBC will also mark the event with a BBC2 drama about the beginnings of the show, An Adventure in Space and Time, scripted by Mark Gattis and featuring David Bradley as the late Hartnell. The corporation is no stranger to the big screen through its film-making arm, BBC Films, but it is unusual if not unprecedented for TV shows to be given a cinema release – natural history epic The Blue Planet among them. It is not the first BBC drama to be filmed in 3D – that honour goes to its Christmas adaptation of David Walliams' children's book, Mr Stink – but it will be the biggest, said Stephenson.

New Saturday teatime drama Atlantis will air in the Autumn slot previously occupied by another BBC1 drama, Merlin, which was axed last year. Filming in Morocco and Wales throughout April, the Greek myth family adventure show is written by Howard Overman, who created E4's Misfits, and is shaping up to be a depository of Greek legend patted into shape for family viewing. So that’ll be less focus on the baby-eating and swan-rape then, and more wholesome derring-do, we'd have imagined. The thirteen episodes will follow our hero Jason (though whether this is pre or mid-Argo, or indeed, if he’s even the same fleece-seeking sailor is yet to be confirmed) as he reaches the titular lost city, a "strange, compelling realm" peopled by "snake-haired goddesses and palaces so vast it was said they were built by giants". Naturally, his arrival in Atlantis kick-starts "an amazing adventure, bringing into life the vast store of Greek myths and legends re-imagined for a new generation" in the action-packed series.

The arrival of Atlantis will go some way to mollifying those who feared the demise of populist cult television on the BBC following the untimely axing of both Merlin and Being Human after respective five season runs. The latter was by far the rawest wound and creatively a baffling decision given Toby Whithouse's paranormal drama went to great lengths to reinvent itself last year; with the Hal / Tom / Alex dynamic feeling like a very different series to the one that premiered in 2009. One can only imagine then that the decision has been taken on a purely business level; Whithouse likely has a desire to move on to new projects - he's penned new Cold War spy thriller The Game for BBC One - and Being Human's current ratings, while solid, are not stellar. Elsewhere, while The Fades faded away, BBC Three isn't giving up on the sci-fi / fantasy / horror genre either - new zombie drama In The Flesh started shooting last October and will hit our screens later this year.

Whithouse's The Game is a Cold War spy thriller set in the secretive world of 1970s espionage. It will tell the story of the invisible war fought by MI5 as they battle to protect the nation from the threats of the era. When a KGB defector reveals the existence of a devastating Soviet plot, the charismatic but paranoid head of MI5 assembles a secret team to investigate. Each of the six hour-long episodes will see the team uncover a new traitor to investigate, another piece of the jigsaw and another mission into the unknown. With Cold War tensions at a terrifying peak, how far are they prepared to go to keep ahead of the great game?

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a 6 episode fantasy drama set during the Napoleonic Wars in an England where magic once existed and is about to return in the guise of Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange. Centring on the relationship between these two men, the story investigates the nature of "Englishness" and the boundaries between reason and unreason, Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Dane, and Northern and Southern English cultural tropes/stereotypes. As well as telling the story of their rivalry, it also details an amazing alternate history where the North of England was the dominion of a magical overlord known as the Raven King, and pulls in many notable historical characters along the way. Based on the sweeping bestselling novel by Susanna Clarke and adapted by Peter Harness (Wallander), it is being produced by Cuba (the production division of leading literary and talent agency Curtis Brown) in association with Feel Film and Farmoor.

The 7.39 is a two-part romantic drama from One Day writer David Nicholls. It follows Sally and Carl, who begin talking after fighting for a seat on their morning commute and suddenly their daily train journey becomes a lot more interesting. Relatively happy in their home lives, they are, however, drawn to each other, and as their friendship grows to flirtation they refuse to admit – to each other or themselves – that a line might be crossed. The consequences of discovery will be life-changing, catastrophic perhaps, and yet they can’t help falling in love. The serial is being produced by NBCUniversal’s Carnival Films (the production company behind ITV1′s Downton Abbey) with Sally Woodward Gentle and Polly Hill serving as executive producers.

Other new BBC1 dramas will include Breakdown, a thriller written by Jack Williams and Harry Williams, about a man whose son is snatched while on holiday in France. Tony’s exhaustive search fractures his marriage and destroys his life. Exploring the emotional cost of hope and finding when to let go, this relationship thriller shows the impact of a child’s abduction. The gripping and high-octane Interceptor is from Tony Saint, and tells the story of a top secret law enforcement team whose unswerving mission is to hunt down Britain's most dangerous and ruthless criminals. "We’ve got some brilliant pieces to come out on BBC1," enthuses Stephenson, including "these two eight-part series from writers with their first ever series commission."

BBC1 will also screen Death Comes To Pemberley, a three-part adaptation of PD James's homage to Jane Austen in the 200th anniversary year of Pride and Prejudice, written by Juliette Towhidi (Calendar Girls). Set six years after Pride & Prejudice ends, the show centres around a murder mystery plot involving Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy by the time the characters already have two children. Elizabeth's sister Lydia bursts into their marital home with news that her husband, the devious George Wickham, has been killed. Ben Stephenson, said: "There are certain characters from a book who go way, way beyond the page. Mr Darcy is absolutely one of them. He is the iconic romantic lead - brooding and intense. The very name 'Darcy' has come to mean something beyond Pride and Prejudice alone. We’re currently starting to think about who plays Mr Darcy, and I've had lots of suggestions." Actresses being considered to play the role of Elizabeth include Felicity Jones, from the BBC drama The Diary of Anne Frank, and - controversially - Claire Danes, of U.S. show Homeland. Producer of Death Comes to Pemberley, David Thompson said: "Yes, she's American, but of course she can do British. She is married to a Brit, Hugh Dancy, Imagine the two of them together in the new TV series as husband and wife."

Filming for the three-part drama is set to start in the summer. The project is being made by Origin Pictures, as is a three-part adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn written by Emma Frost, who recently worked on The White Queen. The rum tale of romance, ripping bodices and roguery is set in 1820 and follows the fortunes of newly orphaned Mary Yellan, who arrives by carriage at Jamaica Inn, just west of Launceston, hoping to find solace with her Aunt Patience. But she soon discovers that behind its benign exterior, the hostelry is merely a front for a gang of cut-throats led by landlord Joss Merlyn and his thieving younger brother, Jem. From there, du Maurier's gothic tale of love and loss unfolds. "It is a book that I have loved for years and not been able to get the rights to," says the controller of drama commissioning. Origin Pictures, whose hits to date include Hidden and The Awakening, said the three-parter is likely to be screened around Christmas.

Due about the same time is Remember Me, a strange and frightening tale by Gwyneth Hughes (Five Days, The Girl). It is a three-part serial made by Mammoth Screen and described by Stephenson as "a fantastic ghost story," that concerns a frail old Yorkshireman who becomes the sole witness to a violent death while moving into residential care. His teenage care assistant tries to unravel the riddle of his strange and secretive life, and is drawn into an eerie and dangerous world of lost love and betrayal.

It joins several dramas already commissioned by the Beeb from last year; including Dorking-filmed Mayday, a sophisticated five-part thriller from writers Ben Court and Caroline Ip (Whitechapel). When a young girl goes missing on her way to the Mayday parade, the small community in which she lives looks to one another for answers. But beneath the picture-postcard idyll lies a sinister other world and the dark woods teem with myth. As the community reels from Hattie’s disappearance, the drama follows the mass hysteria and ensuing search from the point of view of the central characters, each of whom fears that someone they know is responsible. As they keep silent, their suspicions intensify over the course of the five episodes. Sophie Okonedo plays Fiona, a young mum determined to protect her family, who spies on a neighbour. She’s married to Alan, played by Peter McDonald. Peter Firth plays Malcolm, a community leader married to Gail, played by Lesley Manville. Aidan Gillen plays Everett, a single father to the sensitive Linus (Max Fowler) who has fallen in love with Hattie’s twin sister Caitlin (Leila Mimmack) - who can feel it in her bones that her sister is dead. Jane Featherstone, Chief Executive, Kudos Film and Television describes Mayday: "A highly authored serial which has attracted a brilliant cast and takes an original look at a familiar story. There are no police incident rooms, autopsies or crime scene investigations, instead this is about a town facing the reality that the killer is among them, one of them."

As previously reported, Eve Myles (Torchwood, Baker Boys) will play the title role in Frankie, a new six-part series created and written by Lucy Gannon (The Best Of Men, Soldier Soldier) and produced by BBC Drama Production for a Spring transmission. Frankie is a modern and redemptive take on the life and work of a dedicated district nurse whose patients matter more to her than her personal life. A heroine for the modern age, Frankie Maddox looks life and death in the eye; her mission is to make a difference. She cares about her patients and their families but never turns into a busybody, knowing that, at the end, what everyone wants is a calm friend who is on the side of the patient not the institution.

Filmed and set in Bristol, the series follows Frankie and her team as they visit their patients at home, and takes a look at ordinary lives which are often in huge domestic crises. The nurses like their work, it may infuriate, frustrate and even bore them at times, but they turn up day in and day out and wouldn’t choose to do anything else. It is pitched as a "heart-warming, funny and aspirational series aiming to build up a portrayal of the challenging, complex and ultimately life affirming world of district nursing." Myles says: "This is an incredible leading part for a female. It’s tremendous pressure but also tremendously exciting. I can’t wait to step into Frankie’s shoes and get on set. I’m desperate to start. Frankie is an infectious character, she’s electric, quirky, wonderful at her job and adapts to every situation. She’s a vibrant woman trying to live life in the fast lane and juggle a job. Lucy Gannon is an incredible writer and writes relationships so beautifully." In firm agreement, Stephenson added: "Following the stunning performance of Lucy Gannon's BBC Two film The Best Of Men, Frankie is Lucy's new series for BBC One with all of the wit, heart and warmth that you expect from her truthful, life-like writing."

Lacey Turner (EastEnders, Bedlam, Switch) will star as Molly Dawes in Tony Grounds’ (Births Marriages & Deaths, Bodily Harm, Canterbury Tales) new 90 minute single drama Our Girl, directed by David Drury (The Take, Prime Suspect 3, The Paradise). It will be produced for the channel by BBC Drama Production. Our Girl is the story of Molly Dawes, the eldest of five kids with little future, a difficult father and a mother who always wanted more for her. Born and raised in the London Borough of Newham, it tells her story from nobody to a soldier in the Royal Army Medical Corps, to her final arrival in Afghanistan. Turner says: "I am so excited to be a part of Our Girl. It is a beautifully written drama of one girl's journey through life. Molly is such an interesting character who shows such strength and determination. She's a girl who you cannot help but love."

Leaving school with no qualifications, Molly has a part-time job in a local nail bar. Drunk and despondent on the evening of her 18th birthday, she throws up in the doorway of an Army Recruitment Office. She doesn’t know it then, but it’s an action that will change her life forever… Writer and Creator Tony Grounds comments: "This is a film about a female combatant, but she is also a daughter and a sister. Every soldier is a citizen first and we explore their choices that lead them to an Army Training Camp and how the ensuing months will change their lives forever." Controller of Drama Production and Executive Producer John Yorke adds: "I am delighted that Lacey Turner is returning to BBC One to play Molly Dawes, a character who is as colourful, unique and powerful as Stacey Slater was when she first arrived on the channel eight years ago. Tony's script poignantly explores Molly's journey into adulthood and the extraordinary sacrifices made by Molly and those recruited alongside her."

Over on BBC2 Gillian Anderson takes the lead as DSI Gibson in The Fall, a "gripping psychological thriller that forensically examines the lives of two hunters". One is a serial killer who stalks his victims at random in and around Belfast and the other is a talented female Detective Superintendent on secondment from the MET who is brought in to catch him. Produced by Artists Studio and written by Allan Cubitt (The Runaway, Murphy’s Law, Prime Suspect), the five episodes will follow the police investigation uncovering the intricate story of the lives entangled by a series of murders – both the killer's and the victims’ families. Cubitt says: "When I think of the really great television drama from my formative years I think first and foremost of their writers. I applaud wholeheartedly Artists Studio’s attempt – with the support of the BBC – to put the writer back at the heart – and head – of British TV drama."

On the same channel, David Hare returns with the second and third parts of his MI5 spy drama trilogy which began with Page Eight in 2011. After the death of the Head of the organization, Johnny Worricker, an intelligence officer, is aware of a plot to hand control of the organization directly over to the Prime Minister, Alec Beasley. The Emmy-winning film was seen on BBC Two and PBS, and starred Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes, Judy Davis and Michael Gambon. The two new instalments, Turks and Caicos and Salting the Battlefield, will both star the returning Nighy.

In part two Worricker has walked out of his job at M15, going to the airport apparently to choose his destination at random. But his presence on the obscure islands of Turks and Caicos brings him a new problem: he is being forced by the CIA to deal with a group of ambiguous Americans who are on the islands for high-level conference on the world financial crisis. At the same time, an old girl-friend, Alison Tyrrell, is being asked to betray her boss in London in order to establish an illicit connection between the prime minister and dark goings-on in the war on terror. The final part sees Worricker and Tyrrell on the run across Europe, with M15 hard on their heels. But life in exile is proving much harder than either of them expected. Worricker knows that his only chance of resolving both his personal and his professional lives is if he returns home to confront the powerful prime minister, Beasley. In a duel of wits between the two men, there will be only one winner. 

BBC4, which has had its drama budget axed as part of BBC cost-cutting, will go out with a bang with Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter to star in Burton and Taylor, a 90-minute drama about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's 1983 revival of Noel Coward's stage play Private Lives. Penned by William Ivory, it is described as a drama about one of the most fascinating, glamorous and tempestuous relationships. "Slightly sad news, BBC4 will be ending its drama," admits Stephenson. "But we’ve had re-investment on BBC1 and on BBC2, so I thought we can more than make up for it with the ambition there. But we wanted to end it in spectacular fashion. BBC4 has been the home for the new generation of biopic. I felt it was absolutely right to end with that. So we are doing – and it is so exciting – a story that maybe you don’t know, which is after they were divorced…they toured New York in a production of Private Lives. Any of you will know it’s about a couple who are divorced. We’re very excited that we’ve got Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West to play Burton And Taylor. Both of them have been on BBC4 before, so it feels like a wonderful end to the BBC4 drama story."

The new raft of commissions comes on the back of an announcement released in November concerning five other drama projects. Scott and Bailey creator Sally Wainwright is penning a new six-part series for BBC1 called Happy Valley which follows police officer Catherine Crowther as the sergeant on duty when flustered, nervous-looking accountant Colin Weatherill comes into her West Yorkshire police station to report a crime. He's reticent about the details and Colin loses his nerve. The crime he was trying to report was Colin's own brain-child, a plot to kidnap his boss's daughter and keep enough of the ransom to put his kids through private school. And now local drug king-pin David Cowgill has put the plan into action, and Colin's fantasy has become a grim and dangerous reality. The botched kidnapping of eccentric, angry Ann Gallagher and its fallout unfolds... Catherine is used to picking up the pieces of everyone else's lives but the hunt for Ann Gallagher will get right under her skin. Catherine becomes convinced that only by finding Ann alive and bringing her captors to justice can she avenge the death of her daughter." Made by Red Production Company, with Nicola Shindler as executive producer.

Meanwhile, the green-light has been given to new police drama series By Any Means. Produced by Red Planet Pictures – the independent production company behind BBC One’s Death In Paradise - the hour long drama series has been given a six episode order and follows a covert police department that, when the legal system fails, go to any lengths to bring the criminal elite to justice. Created by a writing team comprised of Hustle's Tony Jordan, Richard Zajdlic, James Payne, Jeff Povey and Richard Lazarus, By Any Means has been described as a "gritty police drama" which follows police officer Jack Quinn who runs a clandestine police department. Quinn’s shadowy and brilliant team will go about their business, exploiting weaknesses, weaving a web of cunning and deception that leads the unwary target into the arms of justice. Tony Jordan, Belinda Campbell and Poly Holl will executive produce. Casting for the series is currently underway, with production due to commence in 2013. Speaking of By Any Means, Executive Producer Belinda Campbell said: "By Any Means is a gripping crime drama wonderfully crafted by our talented writing team. With the action taking place on cusp of the law, it provides the perfect premise for dramatic scenes, surprise twists and turns in the plot, as well as brilliantly complex and rich characters."

Other commissions already confirmed for BBC1 include What Remains, a four-part serial by Inside Men writer Tony Basgallop and directed by Coky Giedroyc (The Hour, The Spies of Warsaw). It follows the story of Melissa Young, whose remains are discovered in the loft of a flat by its new inhabitants, Michael (Russell Tovey) and his heavily pregnant partner, Vidya. She has not been seen for over two years, hasn't been registered as missing and no one appears to have noticed she has gone... In his last week before retirement, Detective Inspecter Len Harper (David Threlfall) is called in to investigate a murder which, on the surface, appears to have no leads. But Harper refuses to allow Melissa's death to remain unsolved and sets out to investigate her neighbours, uncovering dark secrets that link each of them to the victim. Whether she was bullied, harrassed, in love with, or simply ignored, Melissa had a connection to her fellow inhabitants and was killed by someone close to home, but who was it? And is the killer still at large?

Following the announcement of the commission, writer Tony Gasgallop said: "The key to writing and casting What Remains has been in ensuring that we had the right chemistry between the characters. At its core this is an ensemble piece about the spaces we share, the compromises we make, and the unwritten rules of communal living. It's a whodunit, so we need to empathize with these characters whilst at the same time presenting them as suspects in a murder. No mean feat. Fortunately we've landed a cast with the quality and experience to pull the audience in any direction we choose to take them." What Remains is currently filming in London and will air on BBC1 later this year.

Elsewhere, filming began last month on The Escape Artist, a new legal thriller for BBC One. Created and written by David Wolstencroft (Spooks, Shooting Dogs), The Escape Artist stars David Tennant (Doctor Who, True Love), Toby Kebbell (RocknRolla, Black Mirror), Sophie Okonedo (The Slap, Criminal Justice), and Ashley Jensen (Extras, Ugly Betty). Tennant plays Will Burton, a talented junior barrister who specialises in spiriting people out of tight legal corners, hence his nickname of 'The Escape Artist'. Will is in high demand as he has never lost a case. But when his talents acquit the prime suspect in a horrific murder trial, that brilliance comes back to bite him with unexpected and chilling results. "The law often seems like an intellectual exercise", says Wolstencroft, "But scratch under the surface, and it’s all blood and guts. I wanted to write a thriller set in the legal world that’s as much about those primal feelings as it is about the twists and turns of the case. David Tennant is one of the most accomplished and iconic actors of his generation. I cannot wait to see him in Will's shoes."

Producer, Hilary Bevan Jones, says: "The outstanding cast we have assembled is a testament to David's breathtaking and original script. Directed by Brian Welsh and produced by Paul Frift, I believe The Escape Artist will be one of the most anticipated TV drama events of 2013." Executive producer for the BBC, Matthew Read, added: "After the incredible response we got for William Boyd’s Restless, it’s fantastic to be working with Hilary Bevan Jones and Endor again on an original drama that brings together the very best of British talent."

David Tennent will be also been seen in The Politician's Husband. He will star opposite Emily Watson in Paula Milne's three-part serial about marriage, power and politics. A bookend to the multi award winning The Politician's Wife, The Politician's Husband will be produced for BBC Two by Daybreak Pictures and directed by Simon Cellan Jones (Our Friends in the North, The Borgias, Boardwalk Empire). A highly authored, gripping drama that follows the shifting balance of power in a political marriage and the ensuing consequences when a wife becomes more successful than her husband. Writer and creator Milne (White Heat, Small Island, The Virgin Queen, The Fragile Heart) says: "It is said that all power corrupts but the power balance within a marriage can be unspoken and subtle whereas the power games in politics are more overt and manipulatory. The drama explores the personal realm of a political marriage played against the ruthless hubris of Westminster politics - and what can happen when those two realms collide."

Senior Cabinet Minister, Aiden Hoynes (Tennant), is happily married to Freya (Watson), a junior minister. When we meet Aiden he is a rising star in Westminster. He went into Parliament driven by idealism, but after his son Noah was diagnosed with Aspergers he allowed himself to be sucked into the power games of Westminster, which provided him with a place to hide. Stephenson adds: "Paula Milne returns to BBC Two with a fine piece of drama that manages to combine the political and domestic worlds so elegantly. It demonstrates the channel's continued commitment to original British drama." Freya Gardner (Watson), although equally able, has put the brakes on her own political career in order to provide stability for the family. But even as a Junior Minister, most recognize she is a political star in the making. David Aukin, Executive Producer and Creative Executive for Daybreak Pictures, adds: "We're delighted to be working again with Paula Milne who has delivered not only a cracking political thriller, but a forensic dissection of a modern marriage."

Bruce Babbish, played by Ed Stoppard (Upstairs Downstairs, Any Human Heart), is one of Aiden's closet friends. Bruce chose a political career, not out of ideology but because it suited his Machiavellian nature and lust for power and its trappings. For him the fun lies in the chase, in second guessing his opponents. Bruce is ambitious and even Aiden isn't immune from his friend's ruthless streak. The stellar cast also includes: Jack Shepherd (The Nativity, WyCliffe) as Aiden's Father Joe; Roger Allam (The Queen, The Thick of It) as Chief Whip Marcus Fitzwallace and Oscar Kennedy (Toast, Great Expectations, Hunted) as the Hoynes' son Noah. The drama has been shot on location in London.

Finally, The Great Train Robbery is a two-part serial that tells the story of the most infamous heist in British history. It will be broadcast to mark the 50th anniversary of the famous event and is being made by World Productions. Writer Chris Chibnall (Torchwood) and director James Strong (Doctor Who) will reunite on the project, having previously collaborated on BBC Two's acclaimed drama United. The first of the two 90-minute films, 'The Robbers’ Tale', tells the story of the gang whose audacious crime secured unheard of wealth and the wrath of the Establishment. The second film, 'The Coppers’ Tale', tells the story of Tommy Butler and the crack team of detectives he assembled in his relentless quest to bring the robbers to justice.

Speaking at the King’s Fund in Cavendish Square last night, Stephenson said: "I think that 2012 was the most successful year for BBC Drama this century. A bold statement. It is one that I believe – I would say that but I think I’ve got evidence. The passing of some wonderful series in 2011 and 2012 marked the end of an era. Danny (Danny Cohen, BBC1 Controller) and I needed to find the next generation of returning series. And whilst this hunt still continues, I’m really, really pleased that 2012 saw the arrival of six new series, all of which will be returning in 2013. And I hope for many, many, many years to come. From Call The Midwife to Last Tango In Halifax, these series prove that if you create a show with intelligence, love and authorship the audience will follow. It’s also good to note that four of those six series were created by female writers with only one of them a crime show. So I’m determined that the next few years follow suit. But we’re also going to introduce a rich new line of shows on to BBC1 with rich, real filmic scale, including epic dramas we’ve already announced, including the 10-part The White Queen, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel and The Village, which I think take our ambition up to a new level."

Stephenson believes 2011 saw the beginning of BBC2’s drama really coming back to life. "I hope that 2012 proved why it really mattered," he said. "Janice (Hadlow, BBC2 Controller) and I were thrilled that Line of Duty, Parade’s End and The Hollow Crown, amongst many others, proved how much audiences had missed BBC Drama. And with Jane Campion, Wolf Hall and again many others still to come I hope this will be just the beginning. Last week it was very, very nice to see a first. Every single drama nomination at the BPG and the South Bank Awards were won by a BBC drama. I’d always rather have audiences over awards but nevertheless that was quite a nice moment and it means that I don’t have to worry quite so much about what wins. Drama and the BBC really are inseparable. It’s written through the BBC like a stick of rock. No other broadcaster in this world, I absolutely believe, has drama so firmly embedded deeply in its DNA. Knock down any BBC building and I can prove to you that at the heart of it is a writer sat in the ruins typing away."

Probably on shows like Call the Midwife, Death In Paradise, Ripper Street, The Syndicate, Prisoners’ Wives, Case Histories, George Gently and Luther; all have all been recommissioned for new episodes. "Of course we're bringing back – this was a hard decision for me – Call The Midwife. It’s had rotten ratings but we thought we’d give them another go. So we’re doing another eight-part series of that and a marvellous Christmas special," joked Stephenson about the wildly popular Sunday night juggernaut. "We’re also bringing back Death In Paradise again. A very, very easy decision considering it’s been getting eight million and I think is the highest midweek series on any channel for quite a long time. Adding that to the return of Ripper Street and that is every single show, every series we’ve launched so far this year coming back."

With ratings for the last series averaging 8.3 million and filming about to begin on series 10 with a two-part episode in Gibraltar, BBC One’s hit drama New Tricks also returns with the addition of Nicholas Lyndhurst as a new recruit to Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman’s (Amanda Redman) team of retired ex-coppers reinvestigating the Met’s unsolved crimes. Lyndhurst’s career has spanned nearly 40 years in some of the Britain’s best-loved television shows, from Only Fools And Horses and Butterflies to David Copperfield, After You’ve Gone, Goodnight Sweetheart and Rock & Chips. "I am thrilled to have been asked to join New Tricks," he said. "I have always admired the clever mixture of charm, wit, and intelligence the show brings to its audience, and feel very flattered to be part of the BBC’s top drama series." Richard Burrell, Executive Producer, Wall to Wall, added: "We are very excited to have Nicholas joining the cast of New Tricks. I think that the audience are going to have great fun watching him as a new member of the anarchic UCOS team ensuring that solving cases for the Met is never dull. We can't wait to start working with him."

Similarly well advanced is the major Anglo-Irish co-production, Quirke. Based on the books by Benjamin Black (pseudonym of award-winning Irish writer John Banville), Quirke is a new series for BBC One adapted by screenwriters Andrew Davies and Conor McPherson and starring Gabriel Byrne in the title role. Quirke (we never get to know his Christian name) is the chief pathologist in the Dublin city morgue – a charismatic loner whose job takes him into unexpected places as he uncovers the secrets of sudden death in 1950s Dublin. It’s a rich and smouldering world along whose smoky streets and damp alleys Quirke goes from bars that glimmer with peat fires and whiskey to elegant Dublin houses brimming with sexual tension. It’s a time full of mystery, secrets and intrigue. Each episode will see him investigate the death of one of the unfortunate souls who end up on his mortuary slab. But as Quirke turns accidental detective he discovers his investigations are often more closely linked to his own life than he could ever have imagined. Little by little he is forced to confront the sins of his past as he peels back the layers of his own tangled family history.

The three feature-length episodes each take their stories from different books in the series, 'Christine Falls' and 'The Silver Swan' by Andrew Davies and 'Elegy for April' by Conor McPherson. Banville says: "I am very excited by the prospect of seeing my character Quirke incarnated by Gabriel Byrne, a perfect choice for the part. I know both Quirke and Benjamin Black will be wonderfully served by Andrew Davies and Conor McPherson, two masters of their craft." John McColgan, Founding Director, Tyrone Productions, adds: "As a friend and colleague of Gabriel Byrne over the years I am thrilled to see him bringing the brilliant, mercurial character of Quirke as created by John Banville to screens worldwide. BBC Drama has brought an incredible pool of writing talent to this project and I’m looking forward to seeing their scripts going into production." Additional casting announced includes: Judge Garret Griffin played by Michael Gambon, Malachy Griffin played by Nick Dunning, Sarah played by Geraldine Somerville, Rose played by Sara Stewart, Inspector Hackett, played by Stanley Townsend, Sinclair played by Brian Gleeson and Phoebe played by Aisling Franciosi.

Luther will be co-produced with BBC America, and will once again see Elba appear alongside Warren Brown (Justin Ripley), Dermot Crowley (Schenk), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Erin Gray) and Michael Smiley (Benny Silver). Series creator Neil Cross has also expressed his desire to produce both a Luther movie and a spinoff show featuring the character of Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) once the next series has aired. "I’m very excited Luther is about to come back," added Stephenson. "I’ve just seen episode one. I’ve literally never been so scared in my life. I actually screamed in the office. Idris is amazing. It is beyond frightening. And I’m also very pleased to announce that the very scary Ruth Wilson – she’s not scary in real life, she’s lovely in real life… but the character she played, Alice Morgan, will be back at some stage. She wears black gloves and she does very evil things."

Announcing the commissions, Stephenson said he wanted television drama to have the same affect on viewers as theatre does on its audiences. "When you go to the Royal Opera House or the National Theatre there is a buzz in the theatre before the curtain goes up. That buzz comes not just from what you are about to see but because the space, the history, the values of the place, add up to something extraordinary. It’s that electric crackle of excitement that I want to create. I want to make BBC drama a cultural institution – a touchstone for quality and modernity with all the excitement and glamour of a curtain going up," he said.
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The Hour Has Passed

I do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

The Hour has been axed by BBC2 and will not return for a planned third series, it's been confirmed. The period drama, which was set in the late 1950s and concerned the genesis of a fictional current affairs programme on BBC Television, was created by Abi Morgan and starred The Wire's Dominic West, Skyfall's Ben Whishaw and The Crimson Petal and the White's Romola Garai. It had been the original intention of the production company behind the programme, Kudos, to produce at least three series. Jane Featherstone, chief executive of Kudos Film and Television, said she was "sad and disappointed" by the decision. Speaking in November, Morgan admitted that she would relish the chance to continue the story. "I love those characters and I'm really excited to create more characters, so fundamentally I'd love to see it develop and grow." Garai - who played Bel Rowley - also declared that she would be interested in starring in more episodes. "I don't think the format of this show lends itself to running for 10 or 15 years, but hopefully we'll do some more," said the actress.

In its two years on air, The Hour received four Golden Globes nominations, having been shown on BBC America, and three Bafta nominations. In 2011 it was named as one of the 20 best shows of the year by Radio Times critics and launched with 2.89 million viewers. Yet in comparison with another of the BBC's period dramas, Call The Midwife (which, unsurprisingly, will be receiving a third series), series two, which aired in November and December 2012, saw the show struggle to attract large numbers of viewers, with fewer than 1.5m tuning in.


In the spirit of felling tall oaks to let little acorns flourish, the news comes in the wake of the BBC drama department previewing a raft of new projects, including a Liz Taylor/Richard Burton biopic that's intended as BBC Four's drama swan song (the channel will be all factual, all the time in future), starring Dominic West as the Burton to Helena Bonham-Carter's Taylor. There is also the six-part adaptation of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, the recently announced fantasy series Atlantis, and BBC Three zombie comedy series In The Flesh. A BBC spokesperson said: "We loved the show but have to make hard choices to bring new shows through."
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Dancing On The Edge S01E01

Joanna Vanderham, the doe-eyed ingénue of Stephen Poliakoff’s Dancing on the Edge, has risen rapidly through the ranks. Still only 22, she was plucked from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in her second year to be the heroine of Sky1’s 2011 drama The Runaway, which bagged her an International Emmy nomination. Vanderham then carried the bulk of the plot – not to mention yards of taffeta petticoats – on her slim frame as the star of The Paradise, which will return for a second series later this year. She now has a Hollywood film under her belt, the yet-to-be-released What Maisie Knew, alongside Julianne Moore, and now a pivotal role in writer/director Stephen Poliakoff’s long-awaited period drama, which began last night.

What makes Vanderham so bankable, notes the Telegraph's Vicki Power, is a subtlety in her acting that belies her years. This was particularly evident during a scene in The Runaway in which the camera focused only on Vanderham’s face as her character was raped – and fear, pain, anguish and disillusion all crossed it in moments. She has an expressive mouth and, tall and beautiful, has the flexibility to play both ingénue and minx, period and modern.

There’s also a certain flintiness to Vanderham, something which manifested itself when she refused to do a nude scene for Dancing on the Edge. Poliakoff’s five-part thriller about the mixed fortunes of a fictional black jazz band in Thirties London, which stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthew Goode, sees Vanderham’s society girl Pamela Luscombe strike up a relationship with Goode’s Stanley Mitchell, a music journalist. Vanderham balked when the first episode’s script called for Pamela to enjoy a naked clinch with Goode. "I had to put my foot down and say, 'I refuse to be nude,'" says Vanderham. "It was difficult for me, because it’s Stephen Poliakoff and that’s how he’d written it and I love that character.


"But those images [of nudity] don’t go away. It was maybe my third large job and I thought, 'I’m not ready for that.'" Ultimately, Vanderham managed to convince Poliakoff that baring all might be counterproductive to how the character plays out. The drama as a whole is intriguing and gripping, and Vanderham gives a startling, standout performance as the mysterious Pamela, by turns manipulative and vulnerable, while her eyes – huge dark pools – give away nothing of her motivations.


Television Series: Dancing on the Edge (S01E01)
Release Date: February 2013
Actress: Jenna-Louise Coleman & Joanna Vanderham
Video Clip Credit: MVP



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http://uploaded.net/file/vzjyv0ct
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Dancing On The Edge Of The Moon

It’s a scene redolent of a kind of glamour that belongs firmly in the past: a vast, high ballroom, fully 100ft long, with ornate plasterwork, massive Corinthian pillars and rows of lovely Art Deco light fittings. You’d feel the need to dress up to the nines merely to justify your presence in such a room, and everyone has done just that – the men in black tie, the women in drop-dead couture creations that cling to their bodies. Seats and tables are concentrated at the back of the room, leaving floor space for dancing; at the other end is a stage with a striking Deco-styled backdrop in muted colours. An 11-piece band of black jazz musicians, fronted by two female singers, belts out a driving, infectious swing tune called Dead of Night Express. It looks and sounds like a glimpse of the 1930s – which is exactly the point, writes the Telegraph's David Gritten.

This is a key moment in Dancing on the Edge, a wildly ambitious six-hour BBC drama set in 1930s Britain. Written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, it surveys the nation through two years (1931-33) of this eventful decade through an unusual prism – the experiences of a fictional jazz band, led by the pianist Louis Lester (Chiwetel Ejiofor). They become fashionable enough to play chic hotels and clubs for a high-society crowd, but because of their race must enter and exit venues by the back door. "That really happened in London back then," Poliakoff says, reeling off the names of famed black musicians such as Leslie 'Hutch’ Hutchinson, Ken 'Snakehips’ Johnson and Leslie Thompson. "When I was researching [the TV drama] The Lost Prince 10 years ago, I learnt that Prince George, the future Duke of Kent, grew up to be this playboy prince, and knocked around London with his brother the Prince of Wales, who became Edward VIII. They visited jazz clubs, got close to some jazz musicians. I found that fascinating. The idea of looking at the 1930s not through the eyes of the princes but those of the black jazz band just stayed with me until I had to attempt it."


Yet while music plays a major role in Dancing on the Edge, it is only one part of a larger story. Like many of Poliakoff’s dramas, it pulls together several themes, many of them relevant to Britain today: economic depression, immigration and a public obsession with celebrity ("even bigger than it is now," he laughs). The story encompasses the early days of magazines, radio and photojournalism, and the attitudes and social conditions that eventually led to the appeasement of Adolf Hitler. "[The early 1930s are] a great period for Stephen to have chosen," Ejiofor says. "It’s not completely dominated by being post-war or pre-war. It’s interesting in its own way. It feels very modern. It definitely resembles our own times."

John Goodman plays Masterson, a fabulously wealthy American in London with shrewd ideas for business ventures, while Jacqueline Bisset is Lady Cremone, a jazz-loving aristocrat presiding over a stately home, who still grieves the loss of two sons in the Great War. Matthew Goode represents a new spirit of the times as Stanley, a cheerful cockney music journalist with an eye for the main chance; on a hunch that Louis Lester’s band could be a success, he writes a rave review about them for the fledgling Music Express (loosely based on the early Melody Maker) without having heard them play, then sets out to drop their name in influential places.

Those are the stars – and Anthony Head, Caroline Quentin, Mel Smith and Jane Asher have smaller roles – but also in the cast are several young British actors who look to be on the verge of big things. They include the beautiful Janet Montgomery as Sarah, a talented young photographer who embarks on a torrid affair with Lester. Joanna Vanderham (from the television series The Paradise) plays a young aristo named Pamela; Tom Hughes (Silk) is her neurotic, troubled brother Julian. Then there’s the band’s two singers – Angel Coulby (Guinevere in television’s Merlin) and Wunmi Mosaku – who are both a revelation. "We were looking for singers who could act, but we ended up with actresses who could sing," says Paul Englishby, who arranged the music. "Not even Angel’s agent knew she could sing."

The idea for Dancing on the Edge goes back to the winter of 2007, when Poliakoff first mentioned it to the BBC. "At that point, the financial crash hadn’t happened," he says. "But then it kept on getting more and more pertinent. Now routinely every financial programme on TV has an archive reference from the 1930s. More importantly, this was a time when not everybody was racist or anti-semitic. We’ve got used to the idea that there was so much anti-semitism in the 30s, especially among the ruling elite, that it was routine. Yet this was a pocket of time when things could have gone another way. It was possible for people to be optimistic. There had been a financial crash, but there was a feeling that the catastrophe of complete financial meltdown had been averted. Most people didn’t want to go through a world war again. Instead, there was an embracing of everything new; people were obsessed with new music. There was a sense of wanting to leave that oppressive Edwardian world behind."

Shimmying in a sparkly black and silver dress, Angel Coulby brings Dead of Night Express to a halt. For a second there is silence in the ballroom. And then, from the front row of tables, one man begins clapping. Significantly, that man is the Prince of Wales (Sam Troughton), who, with his brother George (John Hopkins) and their entourage, has dropped by the fictional Imperial Hotel, a once grand establishment in genteel decline, to see the Louis Lester band on only their second public gig. The royal siblings are having a night on the town, and are as likely to leave quickly as stay. But the Prince applauds, and the rest of the audience feels free to join in. Ejiofor, suave and elegant in a tuxedo, rises from his piano and strides confidently to the microphone. "We’ve left the station now, haven’t we?" he tells the audience in a cultured voice. "We’ve left it right behind. But now we’ve got to get to dancing – because that’s why we’re here." And he introduces another swing number, Dancing on the Moon – one of several original songs written for the series by the composer Adrian Johnston, a long-time collaborator of Poliakoff’s. The soundtrack has been confirmed for release on 28 January on Decca records.

As it begins, Pamela (Vanderham), seated beside the Prince, catches his eye and raises an eyebrow. He whisks her to the empty dance floor – once again, the cue for the rest of the room to follow suit. The Louis Lester band are on their way. On the sidelines Goode, as Stanley, carefully watches the royal brothers’ unwitting endorsement of the band – a big break for them he has indirectly engineered. Poliakoff, 60, a slightly dishevelled man with the air of a distracted academic, sits at a monitor, viewing proceedings. He taps one foot gently but insistently. He seems on edge; between takes he prowls the ballroom, holding a drinking straw in one hand, compulsively twiddling it. "It’s a genetic thing," he tells Gritten later. "My family has an overactive gene. We all twiddle with something."

The scene is completed in a few takes. Cast, crew and extras relax, and the fantasy of being in a grand 1930s London hotel ballroom on a mild evening recedes. In truth, it is freezing cold; the female cast and members dive for fleeces and winter coats to cover their skimpy dresses. Within 60 seconds, the set looks like a commercial for The North Face. And we’re not even in London, but Birmingham, in the old Grand Hotel, a Grade II listed Victorian building opposite the cathedral, now undergoing renovation. It closed in 2002 and is encased in scaffolding before it reopens next year. But its glorious Grosvenor Room remains intact, an ideal double for the Imperial’s ballroom. The production designer Grant Montgomery excitedly points out its details. "It feels like a treasure we stumbled on," he says. "It’s absolutely perfect for this scene. And can you imagine how much it would cost to create all this from scratch?"

Unlike many multi-part television dramas, such as Downton Abbey, Poliakoff has directed every episode, a factor that helped to keep costs down. "It’s scheduled like a film," he says. "For instance, we’ve shot everything in the ballroom in one go, even though it was spread over five episodes. So we didn’t have to go back each time and re-dress the set. If you’ve got different directors you can’t do that." Poliakoff, his producer Nicky Kentish Barnes and locations manager Harriet Lawrence were also canny in deciding where to shoot: the Council House, Birmingham’s municipal headquarters, only 200 yards away from the Grand Hotel, was used for the Imperial’s imposing lobby. "You find ways of stitching together a world," Poliakoff says. And several other backdrops were shot in the West Midlands: Ragley Hall in Warwickshire became Lady Cremone’s pile, the working-class village nearby was shot at the Black Country Living Museum near Dudley, and the Severn Valley Railway’s heritage line was just the ticket for scenes involving trains.

Still, although Dancing on the Edge looks ravishing, it wasn’t achieved by throwing lots of money at it. The costume designer Lindsay Pugh admits the clothes worn by the vast majority of the cast were "found or sourced, fitted and made to work" rather than designed. "We found some lovely 1930s pieces in little shops in strange places," she says. One exception was John Goodman, partly as a nod to his star status and because his character, Masterson, needed to look utterly elegant. "John first flew in from America on a Friday evening, we did a costume fitting, and he did his first scene at 8am Sunday morning," Pugh reports. "That was stressful – as much for the tailor as for me."

Chiwetel Ejiofor’s career as a leading man stretches back more than a decade, but he regards Dancing on the Edge as the most ambitious story he has been involved in, and Louis Lester among the richest characters he has played. "As soon as I read the scripts, I was completely hooked," he recalls. "I was aware from the beginning that Stephen was on to something pretty special. It was such a unique story. I didn’t know much about 30s jazz bands in the UK, but it all felt very contemporary to me. And the music is so exhilarating." Lester has a back story, having served in the Merchant Navy after the First World War. Ejiofor did research on the Merchant Navy, and concluded it was a hard, disciplined life. "What with that experience and being a band leader, Louis developed a strong sense of himself," he says.

Ejiofor has played a pianist on screen before, in Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda. "I played a little when I was a kid, then stopped," he says, laughing. "But I’m comfortable around a piano. I know my way around it a little bit." Still, the best part for him was working with Poliakoff. "I was familiar with his work, but I was struck how charming he is," he says. "I hadn’t expected him to be quite so funny. I found him very easy." Ejiofor was surprised by Poliakoff’s insistence that the cast should rehearse for three weeks, rather than the usual few days. "I didn’t know if we’d feel over-rehearsed, but Stephen was right. It was vital for us all to get into that world."

Poliakoff returns the compliment. "Chiwetel’s a wonderful colleague. He’s very bright, and one of the few actors I’ve ever worked with who’s not just interested in his own character. I really felt here was someone who cared as much about the whole piece as I did. It was like having another producer there." Maybe he was also glad for the moral support; Dancing on the Edge is as risky a venture as its title implies. Nicky Kentish Barnes recalls, "When Stephen first went to the BBC, he warned them, 'This won’t be what I usually write. It’s a much bigger story.'" Poliakoff concurs. "This is quite a leap for me. These aren’t just characters from an upper-middle-class background like myself. There’s a whole array of them, in a different world from anything I’ve ever done. I’m proud of what we have achieved." He laughs quietly and nervously. "Now I just hope people like it."

US cable network Starz certainly believe they will. The broadcaster, which split from parent Liberty Media last week to launch an IPO, is expected to close a deal imminently for the Ruby Films-produced series. US firm Endgame Entertainment part-financed the 1930s-era series in the hope of achieving a US sale, thought to the first time that model has been applied to a UK series. Separately, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, which holds international rights outside of the UK and US, has closed a number of deals for the six-part drama, which is Poliakoff’s first full length TV series. International broadcasters including Australia’s UKTV, Israel’s Hot and Finland’s YLE have all already acquired the show.


In a further break with convention, the lead characters will also feature in a bonus episode of two-hander interviews that will air after the series ends. The episode, dubbed 'Seventh Hour', will centre on a series of interviews between Stanley, the editor of Music Express magazine, and members of the Louis Lester Band. Goode and Ejiofor reprised their roles for the one-hour episode; the interviews are set at the same time as the main action but occur off-screen as wider events unfold. Developed by Poliakoff early into production, Seventh Hour was designed to add more depth to key relationships in the series without sacrificing the pace of the multi-layered narrative, which features a large cast of characters.

During the episode, band leader Louis reflects on what it is like to be a black musician in 1930s London, his father’s role in World War 1, the band’s exotic attraction to the aristocracy and a sinister encounter with a female fan, while band members Carla (Mosaku) and Jessie (Coulby) open up about their upbringings and feelings about being famous. The interviews are intercut with footage of the band playing, with Stanley giving his own views in voiceover. "The idea is that these are the interviews that you never saw because of the circumstances of the plot," says a spokesman for producer Ruby Film & Television. "It’s an opportunity for Stephen to open up the environment of the 1930s and to make it more personalised than the rattling plot can allow."


Dancing on the Edge (BBC2) starts on February 4
Seventh Hour is expected to air at 9pm on BBC2 in early March after the main five-part series ends.
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Romola Garai: On a Roll

From an unflinching portrayal of the life of a Victorian prostitute in The Crimson Petal to a comically dreadful wife in the film adaptation of One Day, Romola Garai is set for stardom. But while she is uninhibited in her work, don't try asking about her private life warns Alice Fisher in today's Observer.

Ker-flunk, ker-flunk. Romola Garai thumps across the wooden floor of the photography studio with the grace of a flat-footed Cyberman. She seems unable to control her shoes – a pair of Christian Louboutin platform heels. She looks so elegantly beautiful from the ankle up that her clod-hopping progress is particularly amusing. In the end the photographer comments.

"Yeah," says Garai and stares dispassionately at her feet. "I can't really do shoes."

Garai, it transpires, has very firm ideas about what she does and doesn't do; the way life should be lived, what's important and what she can really do without, thank you very much. This attitude would be admirable in any 28-year-old, but it is particularly interesting in an actor – a profession synonymous with insecurity.

"Acting is a strange job because your control is very limited," says Garai, cheerfully. "Unless you're at peace with that you're going to be unhappy. I think it's harder for men to accept they're just a tool, they're not the generator of art. I don't struggle with it. I feel happy and lucky. In fact I honestly can't think of actresses who are my direct peers whose careers I want. This year I've got amazing roles in things I really believe in. I mean, what more could you want?"


Though Garai is perhaps best known for her roles in period dramas such as Atonement, I Capture the Castle and the 2009 TV series of Jane Austen's Emma, her upcoming projects are juicy and diverse. First up is the four-part BBC adaptation of the much-loved Michel Faber book The Crimson Petal and The White. Garai plays Sugar, a Victorian prostitute who becomes a wealthy man's mistress and is eventually introduced into his suburban household.

"I read a lot, but I don't think I've ever read a character so absolutely conjured as Sugar," says Garai. "I wanted to portray her to the best of my ability and very respectfully. She is so complex, full of paradox. She is also very damaged."

The Crimson Petal director Marc Munden – whose work includes The Devil's Whore and The Mark of Cain – says that Sugar's opaqueness would have made it difficult for audiences to engage with her if weren't for Garai's skill as an actress. "Romola has such intelligence and lively thought going on behind her eyes that she keeps us compelled and seduced, despite Sugar giving little away. She is a great technical actress who also understood instinctively Sugar's guile, her status, her damage."

Playwright Lucinda Coxon adapted the book for the small screen, which pleased Garai. "There's a lot of sex and nudity involved so it was important for me to know that the person making the piece was going to talk about prostitution in a serious and responsible way, because that doesn't often happen."

This aspect was also important to Munden. "The Crimson Petal is also about the mechanics of prostitution," he says. "The base things Sugar puts her body through – the douching, the use of abortifacients, her painful skin condition. Romola was determined that we were unflinching in our depiction of that."

Garai's other big role this year is also in a BBC drama, The Hour, and it is also realised by a woman – Abi Morgan, who created Sex Traffic and adapted Brick Lane for the big screen. The Hour is set against the backdrop of the 1956 Suez Crisis and follows the launch of a current-affairs TV programme. Though Garai was intrigued by the period, and by parallels with the current political situations in both Iraq and Egypt, she was drawn to her role as a TV producer because it was the chance to show another side of the era. "I have mixed feelings about the 50s nostalgia at the moment, especially in terms of women and fashion. I think Mad Men is an amazing show, but there's another side to it. Postwar Europe was morally stagnant and there was a lot of neo-conservatism. There was an underside to that period, especially in terms of gender politics, which I think was much more interesting."

As you may have noticed, Garai does not make light of things. Ask her an anodyne question about any role she's played and chances are you'll find yourself nodding along to her thoughts on sex equality and sociology. She admits that she finds it impossible not to think about the impact of her work and the repercussions of her choices.

"I can only do something that my sister or my daughter, if I have one, could watch and feel positive about. That rules a lot out. I think one of the reasons I've done so much period work is because I feel so depressed by how society chooses to represent women in contemporary work. I mean, I'm sure I have a total persecution complex and I do it more than I have to, but I definitely think about it."

Not that Garai is po-faced: she laughs at herself when she mentions her persecution complex and it's best to imagine that everything she says comes with a big, good-natured beam. She really wanted to make her other upcoming role a complete "comedy bitch", despite her thoughts on the typical representation of women on screen. The bitch in question is Sylvie, a character in One Day which is one of the most anticipated films of 2011. Adapted from David Nicholl's bestselling book, the film follows the romance between Dexter and Em on the same day each year for two decades. Sylvie is Dexter's wife. "I thought there'd be a lot of fun in making her a total bitch, but [director] Lone Scherfig doesn't work in those sorts of stereotypes. The character was quite a departure for me and it was great to do comedy, I've never done anything like it before. If the filming experience is anything to go by, that film will have a lovely warmth."

When all three projects are finished, Garai is off on holiday and says that she's not sure what she's doing when she gets back. Nothing is confirmed. I wonder if it's hard to come home with nothing definite to return to and she looks baffled. "That has never occurred to me. Even if I'm not working, I've got to take my nephews to the park, play tennis. I'm a real culture vulture – I go to the theatre, exhibitions, sometimes when I'm working I feel exhausted keeping up with it all. My life is full of things without work."

Precisely what most of those things are we'll never know, as Garai has made it a policy not to talk about her private life. She was born in Hong Kong and lived there and in Singapore with her banker father and her mother – who was a journalist before Garai and her three siblings came along – until the age of eight, when her family moved to Wiltshire. Her name is simply the female version of Romulus rather than a reference to the George Eliot novel. Her siblings are Ralph, Rosie and Roxy. The surname Garai is Hungarian. Her great-grandfather was Bert Garai, who founded the Keystone Press Agency in 1924. Other than the potted family history there's little else.

"I'm not very strategic," she says. "I'm a motormouth, so if I talked about my private life you'd be here all afternoon and I'd still be talking. The only way to deal with it is not to say anything at all. There's a boundary that I've set and I don't break it."

She's happy to talk about the fact that she recently graduated from the Open University with a first in English Literature, though. She should be happy, it's no mean feat for someone with such an erratic work schedule. It took four years for her to complete.

"I wanted a degree. It's a terrible thing to admit, but sometimes I felt like just an actor. I'm a snob and I wanted a degree. I didn't want to feel like someone's slightly dumb girlfriend when I was at a dinner party with writers."

She says a natural lack of interest in the showbiz events and red carpets that come with her job has made it easy to maintain her privacy. She finds those parties complicated because people attend them for strategic reasons. "I have a fear of appearing frivolous which exerts a strong, controlling influence on me; but also, on a surface level, I just don't enjoy those parties. I was talking to an actor friend and he asked if I was going to one, he said it would be fun. I thought, if I look like total crap, will it matter? Can I get really drunk and dance like mad and talk to random strangers about bullshit and not worry about it the next day? The answer to all those questions is no; so, in my opinion, not so much fun."

Garai doesn't offer to paint the town with me when we finish talking, but she does give me a lift home, which is miles out of her way and very nice of her. Unsurprisingly, we don't talk about boys and shopping in the car. Instead we discuss the peculiar artifice of interviews. We get close to boys when we talk about journalists and actors who've hooked up, but that's it. Garai really would rather discuss ego and the importance of saying something significant. In a world far more interested in shopping than politics and in boys rather than gender politics, that can only be a very good thing.

The Crimson Petal and The White starts on BBC2 on 23 March
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Sugar and Spice

Debauchery and deception in Victorian London forms the background to a new mini-series based on the bestselling book The Crimson Petal and the White...

London, 1870s: I'm sitting in the Fireside Tavern with a bunch of Victorian prostitutes, writes Sally Williams. You can tell that they are prostitutes because they have got too much bosom bulging from too-tight bodices; too much hair spilling from pinned-up locks; and too much face powder on over-bright cheeks. It is a haze of taffeta and cleavage that has been recreated from snapshots of Victorian whores. Romola Garai is about to make her big entrance.

These prostitutes are extras from BBC Two's The Crimson Petal and the White, the forthcoming big-name four-hour mini-series featuring Garai, Gillian Anderson, Richard E Grant and Chris O'Dowd. Directed by Marc Munden, and adapted from Michel Faber's book of the same name, it charts the relationship between Sugar (Garai), a superior prostitute, and William Rackham (O'Dowd), a perfume magnate.

Faber's novel is a vivid Dickensian epic about lust, outsiders, class and power. It is also a brilliant work of historical accuracy. His world is furnished with extraordinary detail of the sweat, noise, filth and colour of Victorian London. He even exposed uncomfortable truths, such as the fact that the powder the prostitutes douched themselves with as a post-sex contraceptive was a horrific toxic mix. 'Michel Faber has produced the novel that Dickens might have written had he been allowed to speak freely,' one reviewer wrote.

In 2007, five years after Faber's book was published, David Thompson, the former head of BBC Films and the founder of Origin Pictures, an independent film and television production company, read a copy on holiday. He was gripped by the story of how Sugar, 19, escapes her brothel to become Rackham's mistress – and subsequently the governess for his daughter, Sophie. 'I was completely obsessed with it, completely fell in love with it,' he says. 'It shows you Victorian London in a way you have never seen before, but most of all it's a really ripping emotional yarn with incredible characters.'


Thompson approached Lucinda Coxon, a playwright and screenwriter best known for Happy Now?, which played at the National Theatre in 2008. They had worked together on The Heart of Me, a film adaptation of Rosamond Lehmann's novel. And Coxon knew all about Crimson Petal as she had been approached for the film adaptation.

'That didn't work out and when I reread Crimson Petal I was astonished by it. I had a much bigger emotional response. It's partly that one grows up a bit, but probably the main thing that had happened to me in the meantime was that my daughter had got much older. When I first read the book she was a baby, and suddenly the last third of the book, where Sugar is involved with Rackham's daughter, made so much more sense to me.'

The result is that Coxon has made parenting the prism. 'I think it's a story full of people looking for mothers,' she says. Sugar is damaged by her mother, and so is Rackham (his ran away); Sophie is neglected – we don't even discover Rackham has a child until about halfway through the novel; and Mrs Emmeline Fox, Dr Curlew's daughter, who volunteers for the Rescue Society, a charity that helps to reform prostitutes, becomes a sort of a mother to the fallen women.

But what about the sex? Crimson is a huge story; a great read. But it's so filthy. Faber never resorts to softcore euphemisms such as 'manhood' or 'member'. 'Sex is hardcore,' Faber commented in an interview. 'It should be hardcore. I can't see the point of having a pink-tinged, fluffy version of sex.'

Won't nice, wholesome BBC Two viewers be horrified? 'When I had that conversation early on with the BBC, they said, "Oh, don't worry about that," ' Coxon recalls. 'When you're looking at a book that big, and one so full of complications, the last thing you worry about is whether or not you can see an erect penis.' Ben Stephenson, the controller of BBC drama commissioning, emphasises the point. 'We want Crimson to be sexy and dark and driven by psychology. Period drama like you've never seen it before.'

Coxon is not as explicitly carnal as the novel, nor as vile (there is one very disturbing scene in the novel involving Rackham and 'twin' girls). But Sugar and Rackham do work through a varied menu, and the sex is mostly hoggish with lots of close-ups on Sugar's eyes. The point is to show that she is calculating how to get the most of her latest victim.

'I didn't want it to become prurient,' Coxon says. ' "Oh, the awful things these prostitutes suffer. Come and have a look at one of them now! Oh, it's disgusting!" ' Sugar, she says, is not as compliant as her clients would like to believe. 'There's an exciting tension between her brain and her abasement, and that's partly because she has engineered that. She is manipulating other people so they can force her into something that she has already anticipated.'

Back at the Fireside, which is in fact Wilton's, a Victorian music hall in east London ('We're not in Cranford land,' Grant Montgomery, the production designer, says. 'St Giles, the area where Sugar lived, was a kind of Devil's Acre – the police wouldn't go there unless they were armed'), there's a blast of cold air as the door swings open and Romola Garai walks in. She looks extraordinary. Her pale porcelain skin is set off by a slate-grey dress; her long, long limbs and high-crowned hat elongate her so her 5ft 9in looks about 6ft 3in. Her back is straight, her head held high and her lips are cracked with a special paste that she says is amazing because you can flake it off on camera to make it look like real eczema. The whole effect – the red hair, the height, the fair eyelashes, the flaking lips – is ethereal and other-worldly, and of course makes all the other prostitutes look like squat toads.

'I wanted her to stand out,' Jacqueline Fowler, the make-up designer, says. 'I didn't want anybody else to be red-headed. I broke a lot of rules in what you would do [with a leading lady]. All the little flaws that people have, I actually wanted to play on – like not tinting any eyelashes, and I didn't want to have any blusher or red lipstick.'

Garai's performance is electric. One minute she's flinty, cold-eyed and dangerous; the next she looks ravishing, cheeks flushed and red curls swirling around her face. You really believe she is capable of calculation. 'We did audition a lot of actresses, but she's got a very great mastery of the complexity of the part,' Thompson says. 'She brings a lot of nuance, a lot of subtlety, a great intelligence and she is also very beautiful. It's very hard to find one actor with a combination of all these things.'

When I meet Garai she explains that she has played lots of period heroines (As You Like It, Atonement, Emma) and is loving this because it is so different. 'Normally with costume dramas everyone is going, "Oooh, it looks so beautiful." And they get married in the end. This is not like that at all.'

Crimson requires her to go topless, have sex in compromising positions and squat over a bowl. Did she struggle with that? 'Well, on the one hand you have all this guff about it being a strong, amazing part, but if your tits are out for 25 minutes at the beginning, you think, how do you play it? But Lucinda's attitude to the sex is something I felt very comfortable with. She makes it very clear in her script that Sugar is not racked with ecstasy. It's a job and she's very good at it, but it's as a result of child abuse and let's not be coy about that.'

So what will Faber make of it? 'I don't think that anyone could reasonably claim that The Crimson Petal is one of those guided tours of a tourist 19th century, where you go to look at all the pretty costumes,' he observed of his novel soon after it was published. This four-part series may not make historical sense, but in its aim to shake the good manners of costume drama, it does Faber proud.

The Crimson Petal and the White starts on BBC Two on March 16
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