Drama Quarterly - 100 2021/22

D100Q

Drama Quarterly’s guide to the biggest series and the actors, directors and writers making them

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HOTEL PORTOFINO A visually stunning, fresh period drama starring Natascha McElhone (RONIN, CALIFORNICATION, DESIGNATED SURVIVOR), Mark Umbers (KING ARTHUR, HOME FIRES) and Anna Chancellor (FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, THE HOUR).

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DQ100 2021/22

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ACTORS Our pick of 20 actors worth tuning in for includes Anne Boleyn star Jodie Turner-Smith, Professor T’s Ben Miller and movie star Natalie Portman.

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DIRECTORS Find out the names helming some of the most anticipated new projects, from Nicole Kassell (The Baby) to Hugh Laurie (Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?) and Clio Barnard (The Essex Serpent).

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WRITERS DQ presents mix of new and established names behind some of the hottest series coming to TV, including Marsha Greene (The Porter), Quoc Dang Tran (Drops of God) and Laura Neal (Killing Eve).

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TRENDS AND TRAILBLAZERS The people, places and things that have provided the biggest talking points in television drama in the past year, from virtual production to Covid-19 supervisors.

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SERIES Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon and Netflix’s Neil Gaiman adaptation The Sandman are among our selection of 20 upcoming series worth staying in for.

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THE DQ100 INDEX The full list of series, writers, directors and trends and trailblazers featured in this issue.

13 Connor Swindells (right, in Sex Education) makes our list of actors

23 Eden director ctor Mirrah Foulkes ulkes

33 Writer Steve Zaillian

41 The Outlaws creator and star Stephen Merchant (far right)

49 DQ’s 20 series to look out for includes House of the Dragon

WELCOME TO THE DQ100 Drama Quarterly editor Michael Pickard introduces this special issue.

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DQ100: Q Introduction

Netflix’s global megahit Squid Game

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Joe Cole in forthcoming spy drama The Ipcress File

Welcome to DQ editor Michael Pickard introduces a special issue focusing on 100 of the people, shows and trends shaping the TV drama industry amid the pandemic and beyond.

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appy Valley, The Affair, True Detective, The Leftovers, Fargo, Gomorrah, The Legacy, The Honourable Woman… 2014 was quite a year for television drama. Less than 12 months after the launch of Netflix’s first original series, House of Cards, heralded the start of the streaming boom, it proved to be a year that has gone some way to defining the golden age of drama we have been living in ever since.

It was also the year that C21Media, the home of the international entertainment community, launched Drama Quarterly, a magazine and website charged with curating coverage of the boldest, most explosive and most exciting scripted series coming to TV at a time when there were more

projects in development and production than ever before.

It’s not just the quality of shows that has increased over the past eight years, but also the sheer volume of series coming to screens – whether on television, laptops or mobile phones – thanks in no small part to Netflix and its global SVoD rivals such as Prime Video and recent arrival Disney+.

More than 500 series were made in the US alone in 2019, a peak in numbers that had been climbing ever higher since 2010, when there were just over 200 shows in production.

Only the Covid-19 pandemic last year seemingly put the brakes on those numbers in 2020, but with the industry back up and running, who knows when ‘Peak TV’ may end.

DQ sought – and still aims today – to help its readers find those shows that stand out from the crowd, the popular hits

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Nida Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts

Forthcoming western drama Django

the DQ100 or the hidden gems that are worth spending up to 10 hours of their valuable time watching. And in the case of some longrunning US dramas, that can be even longer.

The arrival of DQ also coincided with another facet of the changing television business, namely the increasing popularity of non-English-language drama, not just in the UK and the US but around the world, as programme makers found their shows being consumed by increasingly diverse geographical audiences.

Of course, the love of Nordic noir began much earlier with the arrival of Wallander and continued with The Killing, The Bridge and Trapped. But the interest in non-Englishlanguage series has continued apace, fuelled by borderless streaming platforms that have nabbed rights to content from Germany, France and Spain; Brazil, Mexico and Argentina; Russia, Turkey and the Middle East; and Japan and South Korea – the latter being home to the undisputed breakout hit of 2021, Squid Game.

But Drama Quarterly isn’t just about which shows are being made. It’s also about how they are made. Uniquely,

DQ aims to go deeper into the production process to explore the craft of making TV drama. That means speaking to actors, writers and directors not only about storylines and characters, but also how they do their jobs, from auditioning for roles to setting up writers rooms, storyboarding, stunts and their experiences on set. In addition, DQ seeks to highlight numerous other aspects of production, from costume, production and make-up design to casting, location scouting, visual effects and music, to find out how those in the business do what they do, both in front and behind the camera.

At no time has the challenge of making TV drama been more difficult than in the past two years, with the pandemic not only forcing many productions to close down but also giving crews additional health and safety practices to contend with upon returning to set.

During this time, DQ has extended its work to recommend the hottest new shows airing around the world, as well as highlighting some of the actors, writers and directors with new projects to watch out for. Now, for the first time, >

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Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings will reportedly be the most expensive TV show ever made

< that information has been compiled to make the DQ100 From top: Director Lars von Trier, writer Deborah Davis and producer Nicola Shindler

– our rundown of the most exciting, intriguing and highly anticipated projects airing this year, next year and beyond, and some of the key players worth watching out for – both newcomers in their field and some more established names.

Actors featured in the list include Uzo Aduba, the Orange is the New Black star who this year took the lead in In Treatment, which marked the return of HBO’s acclaimed adaptation of Israeli series BeTipul. Swedish star Helena Af Sandeberg appeared as a divorced mother who unexpectedly discovers the proceeds of a botched robbery in Deg (Dough), while Jodie Turner-Smith took the title role in Anne Boleyn, a miniseries that blended royal drama with psychological thriller.

British actor Connor Swindells had a bumper year starring in both the third season of Sex Education and submarineset thriller Vigil, which became the most watched new drama in the UK since 2018.

Anticipation is now high for his next project, SAS: Rogue Heroes, Peaky Blinders scribe Steven Knight’s dramatisation of how the special forces unit was formed in the midst of the Second World War. Other actors listed include Pedro Pascal, the star of Disney+ series The Mandalorian, who heads the cast of video game adaptation The Last of Us, and Peaky Blinder Joe Cole, who is stepping into the role of spy Harry Palmer for a series based on Len Deighton’s 1960s-set novel The Ipcress File.

Among the directors to appear in the DQ100 is Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, who is returning to TV for the final season of his seminal horror series Riget (The Kingdom). Actor and comedian Kathy Burke is behind Holding, a series based on Graham Norton’s novel of the same name about a police officer called upon to solve his first serious crime, while we also highlight Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning director who shepherded Prime Video’s adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-

winning novel The Underground Railroad to the screen this year.

The Handmaid Tale’s Reed Morano is working on another Prime Video series, the eagerly anticipated The Power, while Clio Barnard has teamed up with actors Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston on Apple TV+’s The Essex Serpent and Tomas Alfredson has reunited with Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy writer Peter Straughan for espionage thriller Europa.

Straughan also features on our list of writers to watch, alongside recognisable names such as Neil Gaiman – who has a slew of upcoming projects, among them Netflix fantasy series The Sandman – The Favourite screenwriter Deborah Davis, who is penning Marie Antoinette, and Leonardo Fasoli, who has written on Italian dramas such as Gomorrah, ZeroZeroZero and upcoming western series Django.

Other writers on the list include Candice Carty-Williams, who has two projects in the works, including an adaptation of her own award-winning novel Queenie; Trigger Point scribe Daniel Brierley, the latest writer championed by Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio; and a trio of Sex Education writers who have graduated to lead their own series: Laura Neal (Killing Eve), Siân Robins-Grace (The Baby) and Alice Seabright (Chloe).

Among the trends and trailblazers highlighted in the DQ100 is the continuing rise of adult animation, how globetrotting period drama Around the World in 80 Days is feeding into the demand for family-friendly content, how advances in virtual production are set to change the way TV drama is made and why WandaVision altered expectations of what a superhero series could be as the Marvel Cinematic Universe landed on the small screen with a bang this year.

Executive producer Nicola Shindler (It’s A Sin, Ridley Road), writer Jimmy McGovern (Time), writer/director Nida Manzoor (We Are Lady Parts) and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli (Blanca) are also recognised for their work on some of the best series to air this year.

Looking ahead to 2022 and beyond, there are certainly plenty of eye-catching series on their way to TV. Our picks include Conversations with Friends, an adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel of the same name from the team behind the acclaimed Normal People; Swedish series Limbo, which features a trio of star actors in Rakel Wärmländer, Louise Peterhoff and Sofia Helin; a prequel to hit Australian crime drama Mystery Road; and Trom, the first series ever made in the Faroe Islands, which promises to continue the traditions of the best Nordic noirs. There’s also the long-awaited premiere of The Lord of the Rings, Prime Video’s take on JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novels that is set to become the most expensive TV show ever made.

With more television to watch than ever before, the DQ100 seeks to highlight some of the best new shows to tune in for and the people involved in bringing them to the screen. These are our ones to watch.

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UZO ADUBA THE MRS AMERICA A AND ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK K STAR PROVE PROVED TO BE APPOINTMENT VIEWING IN THIS YEAR’S HBO REBOOT OF IN TREATMENT, which returned ffor a fourth season with Aduba as the therapist at the centre of the story, Dr Brooke Taylor. Described as observant and empathetic, ob Taylor meets patients in her LA Tay office to help them navigate a o variety of concerns set against va the th backdrop of the global pandemic and recent major pan social socia and cultural shifts – all while sshe deals with complications in her personal life. Based on the p series BeTipul, In Treatment Israeli se first aired on HBO between 2008 and 2010, starring Gabriel Byrne. starr

HELENA AF SANDEBERG SWEDISH ACTOR SANDEBERG RECENTLY APPEARED IN CRIME DRAMA ALEX AND PLAYED A ROLE IN NETFLIX SERIES QUICKSAND.

This year, she starred in Deg (Dough), an eight-part SVT series in which she plays Malou, a divorced mother on the verge of a personal and financial breakdown who starts to lead a double life after stumbling upon €5m from a botched robbery.

Clueless about how to launder the money, she buys a failing bakery and unwittingly hires the robber’s wife, who has no idea her boss has the money that put her husband behind bars.

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DQ100: Actors

CARSTEN BJØRNLUND

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JOE COLE GANGS OF LONDON AND PEAKY BLINDERS ACTOR COLE IS STEPPING INTO THE ICONIC ROLE OF HARRY PALMER FOR THE IPCRESS FILE, a 1960s-set espionage thriller based on the Len Deighton novel that first introduced the British spy. As the Cold War rages between East and West, British army sergeant Palmer is on the make in Berlin until the law catches up with him and he is sentenced to eight years in a military jail. But his impressive network and

THE DANISH ACTOR WILL BE NO STRANGER TO FANS OF NORDIC SERIES, with Forbrydelsen (The Killing), Liberty, Rita and Avingerne (The Legacy) among his numerous credits. His most recent role was in Hvide Sande (White Sands), in which Bjørnlund played a Danish-German cop from Hamburg who travels to the eponymous tourist paradise on the Jutlandic west coast to help solve the brutal murder of a young German surfer. To solve the case, he and Danish police officer Helene (Marie Bach Hansen) must pose as a happily married couple and get under the skin of the close-knit community.

THE AUSTRALIAN ACTOR, WHO HAS STARRED IN TV SERIES SUCH AS DAMAGES AND MRS AMERICA AS WELL AS MANY HIT FILMS, recently fronted Apple TV+’s dark comedy Physical. A throwback to the 1980s, it stars Byrne as Sheila Rubin, a quietly tortured, seemingly dutiful housewife supporting her smart but controversial husband’s political ambitions. But behind closed doors, she battles a complex set of demons relating to her self-image.

That is until she finds a new release – aerobics – and starts a journey to become a lifestyle guru. Season two is on its way.

efficiency have not gone unnoticed, and he receives a proposal from British intelligence: avoid jail and become a spy. His first case is The Ipcress File, where his links to the man suspected of kidnapping a missing British nuclear scientist result in him being conscripted for a dangerous undercover mission that takes him from The Beatles’ London to the Berlin Wall; and from the back alleys of Beirut to the white-hot sand of a nuclear atoll in the Pacific.

ROSE BYRNE

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KERRY GODLIMAN WHILE GODLIMAN HAS BECOME NOTED FOR HER PARTNERSHIP WITH FELLOW COMEDIAN RICKY PARTN GERVAIS GERVA ON HIS SERIES DEREK AND AFTERLIFE, she has h an extensive CV that runs from Adult Material and Save Me to Our Girl and Adul Jack Dee series Bad Move. This year, she headlined Whitstable Pearl, an adaptation of hea Julie Juli Wassmer’s novels about Pearl Nolan, who wh divides her time between serving up tasty tas seafood delicacies in her restaurant and dealing with the crimes, debauchery and murder that the tide regularly brings to the titular English seaside town. t

CHIWETEL THE OSCAR-NOMINATED ACTOR HAS HAD SEVERAL NOTABLE FILM ROLES, with

credits including 12 Years a Slave, Kinky Boots, Dirty Pretty Things, The Martian, Doctor Strange and Children of Men, while also appearing in TV series such as Dancing on the Edge, The Shadow Line and Trust. For his latest small-screen role, Ejiofor stars in Showtime drama The Man Who Fell to Earth, based on the Walter Tevis novel of the same name and the 1976 film adaptation starring David Bowie. The story follows a new alien character who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future.

AFTER SIX SEASONS IN THE AWARDSLADEN CANADIAN COMEDY SCHITT’S CREEK, Hampshire is turning her hand to something completely different: a thriller set on an isolated oil rig. In Prime Video’s The Rig, she plays Rose Mason, a scientist and oil company rep who joins the crew of the Kinloch Bravo, located off the coast of Scotland in the North Sea. When the crew are due to return to the mainland, a mysterious and all-enveloping fog rolls through, the rig is hit by massive tremors and all communication with the outside world is cut off. As the crew attempt to uncover what forces are at work, a major accident leads them to question who they can trust.

EMILY HAMPSHIRE

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ADAM LUNDGREN

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ON THE BACK OF ROLES IN BLÅ ÖGON (BLUE EYES), STHLM REKVIEM (STOCKHOLM REQUIEM) AND VÅR DID ÄR NU (THE RESTAURANT), Swedish actor Lundgren plays the title role in Viaplay series Max Anger – With One Eye Open. Based on the book trilogy created by Martin Österdahl, the eight-part thriller follows former police officer Anger as he goes in search of his Russian colleague and lover after she disappears, leading to the discovery of a conspiracy that could change the world.

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THUSO MBEDU THE TV NEWCOMER LEADS THE CAST OF STANDOUT PRIME VIDEO SERIES THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, director Barry

Jenkins’ adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel

by Colson Whitehead. Mbedu plays Cora Randall, with the story following her desperate bid for freedom from slavery after escaping a Georgia

plantation for the rumoured Underground Railroad, which she discovers is not a metaphor but a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Through her journey, Cora contends with the legacy of the mother who left her behind and her own struggles to realise a life she never thought possible.

WHEN LONG-RUNNING SITCOM HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER FINALLY ANSWERED THE STORY BEHIND ITS TITLE, it was Milioti who was revealed to be playing ‘Mother.’ The actor also appeared in The Sopranos, Fargo and The Mindy Projectt before she took the lead role in acclaimed Black Mirrorr episode USS Callister. From one sci-fi dystopia to another, Milioti now leads the cast of HBO Max’s Made for Love, a darkly absurd comedy comed series based on Alissa Nutting’s novel in which the actor plays Hazel Green, a woman on the run after 10 years in a y suffocating marriage to a controlling tech billionaire.

It’s b only once she escapes that she discovers her husband has implanted a monitoring chip in her head that h allows him to track her, watch her and a know her emotional data. As she tries to gain her independence, Hazel takes refuge with re her father Herbert (Ray Romano) and R his synthetic partner Diane. A second season of o the show has been greenlit. gr

CRISTIN MILIOTI

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BEN MILLER AS WELL AS BEING A COMEDIAN, MILLER HAS STARRED IN NUMEROUS DRAMAS THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER. He notably played the first British detective posted to the Caribbean island of Saint Marie in BBC series Death in Paradise, and has also had roles in Moving Wallpaper, Primeval and, more recently, Bridgerton. Miller this year starred as Professor Jasper Tempest in Professor T, an ITV remake of the hit Belgian series of the same name. In the show, which is set against the backdrop of Cambridge University, Tempest is an eccentric but brilliant criminology professor who suffers with OCD, has a tortured past and becomes an advisor to the police, with viewers privy to the daydreams and fantasies that help him solve crimes.

The professor will return for a second season.

SIENNA SELMA AND LES MISÉRABLES STAR OYELOWO WILL STAR OPPOSITE GUGU MBATHA-RAW IN A BBC AND HBO MAX ADAPTATION OF JP DELANEY’S PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER THE GIRL BEFORE. When Jane (Mbatha-Raw) gets the chance to move into a beautiful, ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect (Oyelowo), she finds she must abide by his exacting list of rules.

She later discovers unnerving similarities to a previous occupant and starts to wonder whether she will face the same fate.

DAVID OYELOWO

LAST SEEN ON TELEVISION ON IN 2019 FOX NEWS DRAMA THE LOUDEST DEST VOICE,

Miller heads an ensemble mble cast in Anatomy of a Scandal, al, Netflix’s adaptation of Sarah Vaughan’s bestselling thriller. Described scribed ass an insightful and suspenseful penseful series about sexual consent onsent and privilege set in London, ondon, the show stars Miller as Sophie, the wife of Westminster politician James (Rupert Friend) who is accused of raping his aide, Olivia. While Sophie is convinced he is innocent, prosecutor Kate (Michelle Dockery) is equally assured of his guilt.

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PEDRO PASCAL

NATALIE PORTMAN

FOR THE MOST PART, PASCAL HAS BEEN UNRECOGNISABLE IN HIS LEADING ROLE ON DISNEY+’S STAR WARS SERIES THE MANDALORIAN, owing to the fact he is usually wearing a face-covering helmet. In his next role, the former Game of Thrones and Narcos star will headline The Last of Us, HBO’s adaptation of the hit video game set 20 years after modern civilisation has been destroyed. Joel (Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. But what starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey as they traverse across the US and depend on each other for survival.

OSCAR-WINNING FILM STAR PORTMAN HAS BEEN IN THE SCREEN BUSINESS FOR ALMOST 30 YEARS, having made her feature debut opposite Jean Reno in 1994’s Léon. She has since gone on to star in the three Star Wars prequels and a pair of Thor movies, as well as playing Jackie Kennedy in Jackie and a ballet dancer in Black Swan – a performance that earned her the Academy Award for best actress in 2011. Portman is now set to make her highly anticipated TV debut opposite fellow Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o in Apple TV+’s Lady in the Lake, an adaptation of Laura Lippman’s novel set in 1960s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie (Portman) to reinvent herself as an investigative journalist, putting her on a collision course with Cleo (Nyong’o), a woman juggling motherhood, multiple jobs and a commitment to advancing the city’s black progressive agenda.

CONNOR SWINDELLS RECOGNISABLE TO FANS OF NETFLIX’S SEX EDUCATION AS HEADMASTER’S SON AND BULLY ADAM GROFF, Swindells will be put through his paces as the star of SAS: Rogue Heroes, the upcoming series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, set in Cairo in 1941. Swindells plays David Stirling, an eccentric young officer who is hospitalised after a

training exercise went wrong. Convinced traditional commando units don’t work, he creates a radical plan to recruit the toughest, boldest and brightest soldiers for a small undercover unit that will create mayhem behind enemy lines. This year, Swindells also starred among the crew on board the BBC’s hit submarineset thriller Vigil.

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KASIA SMUTNIAK

INE MARIE WILMANN

POLISH-BORN ITALIAN ACTOR SMUTNIAK TAKES THE LEAD ROLE IN SKY ORIGINAL SERIES DOMINA. She plays Livia Drusilla, who viewers will see journey from a naïve young girl whose world crumbles in the wake of Julius Caesar’s assassination, to Rome’s most powerful and influential empress, driven by a deep desire to avenge her father and secure power for her sons. But she will soon discover that seizing power is not enough: you must be able to keep it when everyone else wants it. Smutniak’s previous credits include another Sky drama, Devils, and 2016 feature Perfect Strangers.

FRESH FROM SERIES SUCH AS FINANCIAL DRAMA EXIT AND YOUTH COMEDY DRAMA ZOMBIELARS, Wilmann goes undercover in Norwegian drama Furia. She plays Ragna, a cop who infiltrates a nationalistic subculture following a shocking killing in an idyllic Norwegian town. Her journey into a horrifying underworld of hatred leads to a terrorist plot that reaches from Norway’s mountains to the heart of Europe.

JODIE TURNER-SMITH ON THE BACK OF ROLES IN THE LAST SHIP, NIGHTFLYERS, JETT AND 2019 FEATURE FILM QUEEN & SLIM, which also starred Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya, Turner-Smith this year stepped into the world of Henry VIII, playing the title role in Channel 5’s three-

part psychological thriller Anne Boleyn.

The drama explores the final months in the life of Henry’s second wife as she struggles to secure a future for her daughter and to challenge the powerful patriarchy closing in around her.

DQ

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CHILE-BORN AMENÁBAR MOVED INTO TELEVISION FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH LA FORTUNA, a series commissioned by Spain’s Movistar+ with a cast that boasts Álvaro Mel, Ana Polvorosa, Stanley Tucci, Clarke Peters and T’Nia Miller. The story introduces Álex Ventura (Mel), a young and inexperienced diplomat who unintentionally becomes the leader of a mission that will put all his convictions to the test: to recover the sunken treasure stolen by Frank Wild (Tucci), an adventurer who travels the world plundering items of common heritage from the depths of the sea. Amenábar took home the 2004 Academy Award for best foreign-language film for his Spanish film The Sea Inside, and has also directed films such as The Others and Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes).

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ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR 100 Directors

TOMAS ALFREDSON AFTER THEIR AWARD-WINNING COLLABORATION ON 2011 FILM TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, Swedish

director Alfredson and screenwriter Peter Straughan reunite for espionage thriller Europa, an adaptation of Dave Hutchinson’s Fractured Europe Sequence novels. The eight-part series will be set in a world devastated by a flu pandemic and crippled by economic collapse, which sees the continent split into numerous tiny nations and shifting alliances.

Alfredson’s previous work includes The Snowman and Let the Right One In.

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Banks-Davies (left) with Billie Piper on the I Hate Suzie set

CLIO BARNARD

GEORGI BANKSDAVIES

AFTER WINNING THE EMERGING TALENT: FICTION AWARD AT THIS YEAR’S BAFTAS FOR HER DEBUT TELEVISION SERIES I HATE SUZIE, BanksDavies has announced her next project. We Go Around in the Night and are Consumed

by Fire is a limited series written by Claire McQuillan and based on the novel by Jules Grant. The revenge thriller introduces Donna, a lesbian gangster, street poet and boss of the all-female Bronte Close Gang:

THE DOCUMENTARY AND FEATURE FILM DIRECTOR (THE ARBOR, THE SELFISH GIANT) STEPS INTO TELEVISION FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH APPLE TV+’S ADAPTATION OF THE ESSEX SERPENT, based on the novel by Sarah Perry.

With a cast led by Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston, it follows newly widowed Cora (Danes) who, having been released from an abusive marriage, relocates from Victorian London to the small village of Aldwinter in Essex, intrigued by a local superstition that a mythical creature known as the Essex Serpent has returned to the area. Hiddleston plays Will Ransome, the trusted leader of the small rural community. The series is expected to air next year.

an unapologetic criminal group whose illicit profits are made by selling drugs from perfume atomisers in club toilets.

Alongside single parent Carla – her best friend, trusted second-in-command and subject of her unrequited love – Donna carves out an empire on the toughest streets of Manchester. But when Carla is lethally gunned down, everything changes and Donna sets out to exact retribution.

BARRON’S DIRECTING CAREER STARTED IN MUSIC VIDEOS, working with the likes of Adam & the Ants, Fleetwood Mac and Simple Minds. He helmed videos for The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me, Madonna’s Burning Up, Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean and A-ha’s Take on Me. When he moved into feature films, Barron worked on comedies such as Coneheads and Mike Bassett: England Manager. His TV work includes two-part Sky adaptation Treasure Island and ITV drama The Durrells, but his latest small-screen project sees him embark on a global adventure with Around the World in 80 Days. David Tennant stars as Phileas Fogg who, after losing a bet, sets off with his valet, Passepartout, and journalist Abigail Fix on a journey to circle the world in just 80 days.

EMILY HAMPSHIRE STEVE BARRON >

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FORMER CHILD STAR DOLAN HAS BEEN MAKING FEATURE FILMS SINCE HIS 2009 DIRECTORIAL DEBUT I KILLED MY MOTHER, which achieved international acclaim. A film festival favourite ever since, he has written, directed and starred in most of his projects, which include Tom at the Farm and Heartbeats. The Québécois filmmaker is now working on his first television series, The Night Logan Woke Up, a five-part thriller he writes, produces, directs and stars in. Set in the early 1990s, the show follows Mimi and her brother Julian who are best friends with Logan.Together, they form an inseparable trio, but their friendship is broken by a terrible incident and they’re forced to take separate roads.

Thirty years later, Mimi has become a thanatologist (a student of death, dying and grief) and travels home to take care of her mother’s corpse, as requested by the latter in her will.

After she reunites with her estranged family, secrets and spite buried deep in the past soon resurface, leading to the pursuit of reconciliation.

XAVIER DOLAN

GERMAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AND DIRECTOR OR BREISEWITZ HAS WORKED ON AN ENVIABLE LIST OF US DRAMAS IN RECENT YEARS, most notably directing episodes of In Treatment, Stranger Things, ngs, The Deuce, Westworld, Jessica Jones and Orange is the New Black. She is now the lead director of The Wheel of Time, Amazon Studios’ fantasy series based on Robert Jordan’s novels. Set in n a world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed wed to access it, the story follows Moiraine, a member of the increasingly easingly powerful all-female organisation called the Aes Sedai. When en she arrives in the town of Two Rivers, she embarks on a dangerous, us, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn – who will either save or destroy humanity.

Briesewitz also directed the pilot of CSI: I: Vegas, the sequel to the original crime procedural that made its return to CBS this autumn after a six-year absence.

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KATHY BURKE BRITISH COMEDIAN BURKE IS BEST KNOWN FOR HER ONSCREEN FILMS AND TV ROLES IN ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS, Gimme

Gimme Gimme, Nil By Mouth and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and for starring alongside Harry Enfield in his self-titled sketch shows. Burke has also directed episodes of comedy series Horne & Corden, and celebrates her 40th anniversary in the industry this year by

helming ITV’s four-part series Holding. Based on chatshow host Graham Norton’s novel of the same name, the story introduces Sergeant PJ Collins, a gentle giant who hides from people and fills his days with comfort food and half-hearted police work. When the body of a local legend is discovered, PJ is called up to solve a serious crime for the first time in his career.

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DQ100: Q Directors

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Edel with Der Palast star Svenja Jung

THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, GERMAN DIRECTOR EDEL HAS CROSSED THE NOW-FADED BARRIER SEPARATING TELEVISION AND FILM, with feature credits including The Baader Meinhof Complex, Christiane F and Last Exit to Brooklyn standing next to his work on series such as Houdini, Oz, Homicide: Life on the Streets and Twin Peaks. His next project, German-language series Der Palast (The Palace), is a musical and suspenseful family saga set against the backdrop of

Berlin’s Freidrichstadt-Palast, the largest show stage in the world. The six-part series opens in November 1988 as dancer Chris is preparing for the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). When she meets Marlene, the identical twin she never knew she had living in the West, they decide to swap places and dive into each other’s lives – a decision that pushes them to their emotional limits on an adventure of a lifetime.

ULI EDEL

MIRRAH AMIN DORA FOULKES INTERNATIONAL EMMY WINNER DORA (SHANKABOOT, GHADI) HELMED HELL’S GATE, a series dubbed the first Arab sci-fi drama, which launched this summer on Arabic streamer Shahid VIP. The show is set in Beirut in 2052. Lebanon is run by a group of private investors and businesses – known as the Union State – and they’re not using the country for good. On the other side is Tawara, a revolutionary group aiming to defeat the bad guys.

AUSTRALIAN FOULKES IS MOST RECOGNISABLE FOR ON-SCREEN ROLES IN SERIES SUCH AS MR INBETWEEN, HARROW AND TOP OF THE LAKE.

More recently, she has stepped behind the camera and is among the directors of Stan original series Eden. The mystery thriller is set in an idyllic coastal town where the disappearance of a young woman triggers a devastating chain of events that lays bare the hidden dark heart of the community.

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BARRY JENKINS

ALMA HAR’EL

OSCAR WINNER JENKINS HAS MADE HIS NAME WITH FEATURE FILMS INCLUDING MOONLIGHT AND IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK. But after directing episodes of The Knick and Dear White People, he shepherded Amazon Studios’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Underground Railroad from page to screen, directing all 10 episodes of the historical drama set in the antebellum South. The series introduces Cora Randall (Thuso Mbedu), who escapes a Georgia plantation for the rumoured Underground Railroad and discovers a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. But as she begins her desperate bid for freedom, she is pursued by Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton), a bounty hunter who is fixated on bringing her back to the plantation.

LADY IN THE LAKE, AN UPCOMING LIMITED SERIES COMMISSIONED BY APPLE TV+, marks the first television project for director Alma Har’el, who also cocreated and co-writes the series, based on Laura Lippman’s novel of the same name. In 1960s Baltimore, an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman) to reinvent herself as an investigative journalist, setting her on a collision

course with Cleo Sherwood (Lupita Nyong’o), a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, numerous jobs and a passionate commitment to advancing the city’s black progressive agenda. Har’el worked as a music video director before moving into documentaries, with films such as Bombay Beach, LoveTrue and her feature ature film debut Honey Boy.

ANTOINE FUQUA THE DIRECTOR OF FEATURE FILMS SUCH AS TRAINING DAY, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN AND THE EQUALIZER FRANCHISE, as well as music videos for Toni Braxton, Prince, Stevie Wonder and Coolio, the American filmmaker is attached to direct and executive produce Showtime’s forthcoming drama Zulu: King of the Zulu Nation.

Rooted in real events, the series tells the story of Zulu Empire chief Shaka and his unlikely rise to power, uniting multiple tribes across southern Africa in the early 19th century.

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DQ100: Actors

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HUGH LAURIE

NICOLE KASSELL

THE STAR OF THE NIGHT MANAGER AND ROADKILL (PICTURED IN ARMANDO IANNUCCI’S AVENUE 5) HAS PREVIOUSLY DIRECTED EPISODES OF FORTYSOMETHING AND HOUSE, in which he also starred, but now takes on three-part Agatha Christie adaptation Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?. The BritBox North America series follows the local vicar’s son, Bobby Jones (Will Poulter), and his whip-smart friend, socialite Lady Frances ‘Frankie’ Derwent (Lucy Boynton), on a crime-solving adventure after they discover the crumpled body of a dying man who, with his last breath, gasps the cryptic question of the title.

A PROLIFIC TV DIRECTOR, KASSELL’S RECENT CREDITS INCLUDE TITLES SUCH AS THE FOLLOWING, Vinyl, The Leftovers, The Americans, Westworld and Watchmen.

She is lead director on The Baby, Sky’s darkly comic drama about Natasha (Michelle De Swarte), the friend who has never made long-term plans. When she is unexpectedly landed with a baby, her life of doing what she wants when she wants dramatically implodes. Controlling, manipulative and with violent powers, the baby twists Natasha’s life into a horror show. Then, as she discovers the true extent of its deadly nature, Natasha makes increasingly desperate attempts to get rid of the baby. But while she doesn’t want a baby, the baby wants her.

SARMAD MASUD MASUD’S BREAKOUT FEATURE FILM MY PURE LAND – WHICH HE WROTE AND DIRECTED – tells the story of three women in Pakistan who defend their home against a group of armed men. Released in 2017, the Urdulanguage feminist western was selected as the UK entry for the Academy Awards’ best foreign-language film category the following year. Masud then went on to direct television series such as Ackley Bridge and Bulletproof before taking on all four episodes of upcoming BBC and Netflix miniseries You Don’t Know Me. Based on Imran Mahmood’s novel, it tells the story of a young man who, with overwhelming evidence against him, stands accused of murder. At his trial, Hero (Samuel Adewunmi) tells an extraordinary story about Kyra (Sophie Wilde), the woman he loves, who got into terrible trouble, and how he risked everything to save her.

Kassell on location for Watchmen with actor Louis Gossett Jr

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LARS VON TRIER FOR OVER 50 YEARS, DANISH FILM DIRECTOR VON TRIER HAS BUILT AN AWARDWINNING CAREER ON THE BACK OF FILMS SUCH AS MELANCHOLIA, The House That Jack Built, Dancer in the Dark, Nymphomaniac and Antichrist.

Now, Von Trier is returning to his seminal horror miniseries Riget (The Kingdom) for a third and final season 20 years after it last aired. The new run of episodes will continue the strange story of the neurosurgical ward at Copenhagen’s Rigshospitalet, where an ensemble of characters are confronted by mysterious events and the lines between good and evil are blurred more than ever. The Kingdom Exodus, as the third season will be called, is set to air next year on Scandinavian streamer Viaplay and Danish broadcaster DR.

Von Trier stands behind The Kingdom Exodus star Ghita Nørby

Troughton with The Living & the Dead star Colin Morgan (left) and writer Ashley Pharoah

ALICE TROUGHTON TROUGHTON WAS BEHIND BAGHDAD CENTRAL, WHICH THIS YEAR RECEIVED A CLUTCH OF BAFTA NOMINATIONS, and has also directed Tin Star, A Discovery of Witches, Lost in Space and The Living & the Dead. She is now working as lead director on The Midwich Cuckoos, a Sky adaptation of John Wyndham’s science-fiction novel of the same name, with a cast headed by Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley. The story sees a corner of affluent commuter town Midwich plunged into panic when people suddenly pass out for no apparent reason. When the mysterious blackout ends, those affected return to apparent normality – except that every woman of child-bearing age inside the zone has inexplicably fallen pregnant.

REED MORANO

HAVING WORKED AS A CINEMATOGRAPHER FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS, Morano made her

name as a director on shows such as Halt & Catch Fire and Billions before directing the first three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, winning an Emmy for her work on the pilot

episode. For her latest project, Morano directs all 10 episodes of The Power, Amazon Studios’ thriller based on Naomi Alderman’s book of the same name. In the story, teenage girls suddenly develop the power to electrocute people at will, changing the world forever.

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O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis © Luisa Ferreira

A Espia VENTO © Patricia NORTE_Recados Andrade Ukbar do Filmes Mundo © Hugo Delgado

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THE SCREENWRITER BEHIND DANISH HISTORICAL DRAMA FEATURE EN KONGELIG AFFÆRE (A ROYAL AFFAIR) AND MÄN SOM HATAR KVINNOR, the 2009 Swedish film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Copenhagen-born Arcel is adapting another book for his latest project, this time for TV. The Monster of Florence is based on Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi’s true crime book of the same name, which investigates a murderer who killed 14 people in Florence – making it one of the worst serial murder cases in European history.

MICHAL AVIRAM

NIKOLAJ ARCEL

100 Writers

ISRAELI AUTHOR AND SCREENWRITER AVIRAM HAS WORKED ON EVERY SEASON OF HIT ACTION-DRAMA FAUDA, as well as romantic comedy

The Baker & The Beauty. She also created Project Orpheus, about five medical students who discover their professor has a secret agenda. Her latest show is multinational political thriller Munich Match, an upcoming Sky drama set 50 years after the Munich massacre, the terrorist attack on the Israeli Olympic team in 1972. On the anniversary of the attack, Munich is hosting a friendly football match between an Israeli and a German football club, but with tensions running high and political stakes higher as the world watches on, it seems history may repeat itself. Aviram created the series and is the co-writer alongside Martin Behnke.

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GENEVIEVE BARR

DANIEL BRIERLEY BEST KNOWN FOR ON-SCREEN APPEARANCES IN THE SILENCE, THE FADES, PRESS AND THE ACCIDENT (pictured), actorturned-writer Barr penned an episode of CripTales, BBC4’s anthology of six monologues written, directed and performed by people with disabilities.

Barr, who is deaf, has since partnered with Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials) on Then Barbara Met Alan. The featurelength BBC and Netflix drama is about Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth, two disabled cabaret performers who fell in love, had a baby and would become the driving force behind DAN (the Direct Action Network), whose protests pushed the campaign for disabled rights into the spotlight.

In 2020, Barr won the Red Planet Prize, a bi-annual award that offers a script commission to the winner via prodco Red Planet Pictures.

Now in development at ITV, Barr’s winning entry was Curio, which examines disability, social care, responsible journalism and issues of consent. In the four-part legal drama, the family of a disabled man accuse his girlfriend of rape, before a newspaper investigation uncovers a spate of abuse cases surrounding the contentious issue of facilitated communication.

THE SCREENWRITER OF SEVERAL SHORT FILMS, Daniel Brierley is the latest new TV

writer to be mentored by Line of Duty and Bodyguard creator Jed Mercurio and his HTM Television prodco. Their collaboration has led to Trigger Point (pictured), an ITV thriller that explores the world of counter-

terrorism policing and the Metropolitan Police Bomb Disposal Squad in London.

Vicky McClure (Line of Duty) stars as an experienced bomb-disposal operative who is at the forefront of an urgent investigation to find out who is behind a terrorist campaign across the capital.

CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS AWARD-WINNING NOVELIST CARTY-WILLIAMS’ FIRST TELEVISION PROJECT IS BBC SERIES CHAMPION, the story of what happens when

fame and family collide, set against the backdrop of black British music. Bosco Champion is the family golden boy and a UK rap sensation until he is jailed. After his release from prison, he’s ready to pick up where he left off. However, when his sister Vita’s own musical talent is discovered by Bosco’s rival Belly, Vita steps out of her brother’s shadow, setting the siblings against each other in their quest to top the charts – and their family.

Meanwhile, Carty-Williams is also adapting her acclaimed novel Queenie for Channel 4. It follows Queenie Jenkins, a 25-year-old British Jamaican journalist – “a sometimes catastrophist, an occasional mess but, more often than not, an undervalued success” – who, after breaking up with her boyfriend, finds herself lost and searching for comfort in all the wrong places. Surrounded by her ‘Corgis,’ her brilliant but not always sympathetic girlfriends, she veers from one regrettable decision to the next in a story of a young black woman’s value and the unrelenting trials and tribulations of life.

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BASH DORAN BRITISH-BORN PLAYWRIGHT DORAN HAS BUILT UP AN ADMIRABLE LIST OF CREDITS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC, from Boardwalk

Empire, Smash and Masters of Sex to The Looming Tower and Traitors. Now back in the UK, she is adapting Kate Atkinson’s novel Life After Life for the BBC. The series focuses on Ursula Todd, who is born to Sylvie and Hugh one night in 1910 but dies before she draws her first breath. On that same night, Ursula is reborn and survives – and time and time again, living and dying in different circumstances, she is reborn into a new, alternative life once more as she navigates two world wars, an encounter with Hitler and major life events.

But why does she need to stay alive?

DEBORAH DAVIS

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DAVIS IS THE BAFTA-WINNING AND OSCAR- AND GOLDEN GLOBE-NOMINATED SCREENWRITER BEHIND THE FAVOURITE,

the 2018 feature starring Olivia Colman as Queen Anne. Her other credits include contemporary and historical dramas for BBC Radio 4. Her next screen project takes her back to royalty for Marie Antoinette, an eight-part series for French broadcaster Canal+ that charts the title character’s rise from a stubborn young princess to fashion icon who recreated life in the Palace of Versailles in her image: free, independent and feminist ahead of her time.

LEONARDO FASOLI WITH A CAREER SPANNING THREE DECADES, FASOLI IS AN AWARDWINNING FILM AND TV WRITER WITH CREDITS INCLUDING GOMORRAH,

Maltese – Il Romanzo Del Commissario, Io Ti Cercherò (Tall Order), L’ultimo Padrino, Paolo Borsellino and ZeroZeroZero. Now, together with his long-time writing partner Maddalena Ravagli, he has created and written Django (pictured), a Canal+ and Sky drama loosely based on the classic Sergio Corbucci film of the same name. Set in the Wild West of the 1860s and 1870s, it introduces Sarah and John, who have founded New Babylon, a city

populated by outcasts.

Haunted by the murder of his family eight years earlier, Django is looking for his daughter and is shocked to find her in New Babylon, about to marry John. Though Sarah wants him to leave, Django is adamant he will not lose his daughter twice.

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NEIL GAIMAN FOR FANS OF FANTASY, HORROR AND SCIENCE-FICTION NOVELS, COMIC BOOKS, RADIO PLAYS AND FILMS, the author of American Gods, The Sandman and Coraline needs no introduction. But in terms of his screen work, Gaiman is particularly busy at the moment. He is co-showrunning Anansi Boys, a Prime Video series based on his book about Charlie Nancy, a young man who learns that his estranged father was Anansi: trickster god of stories, and that he has a brother, Spider, who enters Charlie’s life determined to make it more interesting but a lot more dangerous.

Gaiman is also co-writer and executive producer of The Sandman, Netflix’s take on his famed graphic novel series about the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic – and human – mistakes he’s made during his existence. Then there’s the second season of the BBC and Amazon’s Good Omens, based on the book he wrote with the late Sir Terry Pratchett and which he oversees with Anansi Boys co-showrunner and director Douglas Mackinnon.

CLARE MCQUILLAN

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MCQUILLAN’S CAREER HAS INCLUDED WORKING FOR THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE AND ALONGSIDE OSCAR- AND BAFTAWINNING DIRECTOR STEVE MCQUEEN, spending time in the

writers room for his HBO series Codes of Conduct.

She later wrote for YouTube series Impulse, about a girl with teleportation powers, and now McQuillan is developing with Hillbilly Films & Television an adaptation of Jules Grant’s novel We Go Around in the Night & Are Consumed By Fire, which is described as a startling original, queer love story and revenge thriller.

Inhabiting the dark underbelly of Manchester, Donna is a lesbian gangster, street poet and boss of the all-female Bronte Close Gang, a criminal group that sells drugs in club toilets. Donna and single parent Carla carve out an empire on the toughest streets of Manchester. But when Carla is gunned down, everything changes – and Donna sets out for revenge.

MARSHA GREENE GREENE HAS CREDITS ON SOME OF THE BIGGEST CANADIAN SERIES OF RECENT YEARS, most notably Private Eyes, Mary Kills People, Coroner and Departure. She is now the co-creator and coshowrunner of The Porter, an original series from Canada’s CBC and BET+ that centres on the black community in St Antoine, Montreal – the ‘Harlem of the North’ – in the early 1920s. The story is told from the perspective of two

black train porters taking very different paths to liberation.

One pushes to create the first black union in existence, while the other chases power on the wrong side of the law.

But both have the same goal: to free themselves and their families from oppression.

Greene created the series with Arnold Pinnock, Bruce Ramsay, Annemarie Morais and Aubrey Nealon, and is the coshowrunner alongside Morais.

DQ100: Q Writers

SIÂN ROBINSGRACE AS HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT AT ELEVEN FILM, ROBINSGRACE DEVELOPED SERIES INCLUDING THE ENFIELD HAUNTING AND SEX EDUCATION, and is a co-executive

producer on Netflix series Kaos, created by Charlie Covell (The End of the F***ing World). She is now showrunning her own series, horror-comedy The Baby, which has been commissioned by Sky and HBO. Deconstructing the ‘joy of motherhood’ and the anxiety of whether to have children, the series introduces 38-year-old Natasha, who is unexpectedly landed with a baby whose controlling, manipulative and violent powers twist her previously uncomplicated life into a horror show.

LAURA NEAL

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AS WELL AS THE STANDOUT PERFORMANCES BY ITS TWO LEADING ACTORS, SANDRA OH AND JODIE COMER, Killing Eve (pictured) has become known for changing its lead writer each season. The show was created by Phoebe WallerBridge (Fleabag), before Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) took over in season two. The following year, Suzanne Heathcote (See) took the reins of the BBC America series. For the fourth run,

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Neal has taken charge of the show, which is based on Luke Jennings’ Villanelle novellas. The playwright already has extensive TV credits, working on Secret Diary of a Call Girl, My Mad Fat Diary and Tatau, before most recently joining Sex Education and Turn Up Charlie. But with season four already confirmed to be Killing Eve’s last, Neal has the (un)enviable task of bringing the show, which will return in 2022, to its conclusion.

ANJLI MOHINDRA FOR BRITISH VIEWERS WHO WERE HOOKED ON RECENT BBC SUBMARINE THRILLER VIGIL (pictured), Mohindra is recognisable as medical officer Tiffany Docherty, while she has previously acted in Wild Bill, Bancroft, Bodyguard and Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Mohindra has also recently finished filming on forthcoming Sky science-fiction thriller Extinction, which is produced by Urban Myth Films. Mohindra and the prodco are now set to reunite after the fledging writer secured the rights to journalist and BBC presenter Anita Anand’s biography of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, called Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary.

Mohindra will write the series, which will tell the story of Princess Sophia, the goddaughter of Queen Victoria who defied the British government over Indian independence.

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DQ100: Writers

ALICE SEABRIGHT

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LONE SCHERFIG AS A WRITER AND DIRECTOR, SEABRIGHT HAS CREDITS FROM NETFLIX COMEDY SEX EDUCATION TO HER NAME, as well as numerous short films. From there, she has stepped straight into the spotlight as the showrunner of her own BBC psychological thriller, Chloe.

The series, which will also air worldwide on Amazon’s Prime Video, follows Becky, a temp worker who still lives with her mum and compares her own life with the seemingly pictureperfect lives on Instagram, and one person in particular: Chloe.

After Chloe suddenly dies, Becky’s desire to find out what happened leads her to assume a new identity and engineer a ‘chance’ meeting with Chloe’s best friend Livia to infiltrate her group of close-knit friends.

When Becky’s imagined reality becomes more addictive than her real life, she starts to lose herself in her own game.

DANISH FILM DIRECTOR SCHERFIG WAS NOMINATED FOR A BAFTA FOR HER 2009 FILM AN EDUCATION AND ALSO COUNTS ONE DAY AND ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS AMONG HER CREDITS. In addition, she has helmed features The Kindness of Strangers and Just Like Home, both of which she also wrote. Scherfig now returns to TV as the showrunner of Danish series The Shift, an emotional hospital

drama set in a contemporary maternity ward. The eight-parter follows the highs and lows of the hospital staff, including Ella (played by The Killing’s Sofie Gråbøl, pictured above, right, with Scherfig), the department head, who secretly wishes for her own children but has a hard time forming new relationships. Scherfig created the series and is the head writer.

BAFTA WINNER AND OSCAR NOMINEE STRAUGHAN, THE SCREENWRITER BEHIND COLD WAR THRILLER TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, has reunited with the 2011 film’s director Tomas Alfredson for Europa, an eight-part espionage drama based on the Fractured Europe Sequence novels by Dave Hutchinson. The first book, called Europe in Autumn, is set in a time when the continent has been devastated by a flu pandemic and economic collapse, leading it to split into numerous tiny nations, with a fragile web of shifting alliances.

PETER STRAUGHAN

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Zaillian (second from right) with the stars of The Night Of

STEVEN ZAILLIAN

IN 1999, MATT DAMON PLAYED THE TITLE CHARACTER IN THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, a film based on the first in a series of novels about Tom Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.

Highsmith’s source material is now the subject of a TV adaptation written by Zaillian and commissioned by US premium cablenet Showtime. In Ripley, as the show is called, Andrew Scott (Fleabag) plays the lead character, a grafter scraping by in 1960s New York until he is hired by a

wealthy businessman to travel to Italy to try to convince his vagabond son to return home. But his decision to accept the job puts Tom on the path to a complex life of deceit. Zaillian’s recent credits include Martin Scorsese feature The Irishman and HBO’s The Night Of, while he also wrote the screenplays for the 2011 Englishlanguage version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Moneyball, Gangs of New York and Schindler’s List.

QUOC DANG TRAN HARRIET WARNER DESCRIBED AS A BOLD REIMAGINING OF THE ICONIC CHARACTERS FROM PIERRE CHODERLOS DE LACLOS’ CLASSIC 18TH CENTURY NOVEL, upcoming Starz series Dangerous Liaisons comes from creator and writer Warner. In her early career, Warner worked on shows such as Footballer’s Wives, The Fugitives and Waterloo Road, before penning episodes of Mistresses, Sinbad and Call the Midwife. In February this year came the launch of her Prime Video thriller Tell Me Your Secrets (pictured), a

series that follows a trio of characters with mysterious and troubling pasts who are pushed to the edge as the truth starts to emerge. Dangerous Liaisons, meanwhile, tells the story of how the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont meet as passionate young lovers in Paris on the eve of revolution. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, they rise from the slums of Paris and scale the heights of the French aristocracy, seducing and manipulating both the nobility and each other to survive.

WITH CREDITS STRETCHING BACK MORE THAN A DECADE, TRAN FIRST WROTE ON SERIES SUCH AS MARIANNE (NETFLIX), Call My Agent (France Télévisions) and The Bureau (Canal+) before creating his own shows – Intrusion (Arte) and Nox (Canal+) among them. He is now behind Disney+’s first French-language original series, Parallèles. The show tells the story of four teenage friends on the FrenchSwiss border whose lives are turned upside down by a mysterious event involving the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s biggest particle collider, which sends them into parallel dimensions.

Tran has also written Drops of God, a series commissioned by Hulu Japan and based on a manga series set in the world of gastronomy and fine wines.

When a famous oenologist dies in Tokyo, his Paris-based daughter discovers she has been left an extraordinary wine collection. But to claim her inheritance, she must compete with a brilliant young oenologist who may have more than a ‘spiritual’ connection to her father.

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DQ100: DQ10 Q Trends & Trailblazers

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ADULT ANIMATED ANIM SERIES HAVE BEEN ON THE RISE FOR SEVERAL YEARS, but in 2021, perhaps fuelled by the pandemic, commissioners have been ordering pandem in this genre than ever. HBO Max has more series s commissioned Poor Devil, its first animated series comm from Spain, which tells the story of an ordinary boy who also happens to be the Antichrist.

Meanwhile, Russian streamer KinoPoisk has Mea ordered the first ever Russian adult cartoon, ord CyberSlav, which depicts a futuristic Russia Cyb featuring gigantic robots and cyber implants. feat Together with shows such as What If…?

To (pictured), Marvel Studios’ first animated series, (pic which whic imagines alternative timelines for some of its most recognisable characters, animation is prov proving to be a big draw. And without the need for live-action shoots, it’s a pandemic-proof genre liveto which many are turning as the industry continues to m recover from delays ca caused by the numerous lockdowns over the past two years.

ADULT ANIMATION

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Trends & Trailblazers

AGATHA CHRISTIE’S HJERSON WHILE THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE CONTINUES TO DOMINATE THE BOX OFFICE, could this Swedish series herald the start of the Agatha Christie Universe? Agatha Christie’s Hjerson put a unique meta twist on the work of the oft-adapted author by focusing on the titular Sven Hjerson, a Swedish detective who

is the work of Christie’s fictional writer Ariadne Oliver – think Hjerson is to Oliver as Poirot or Marple is to Christie. In the series, down-onhis-luck Hjerson (Johan Rheborg) is given a new lease of life when he meets a reality TV producer (Hanna Alström) who wants to make a new series – with him as the lead.

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AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

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On the set of Spanish series La Fortuna

COVID-19 SUPERVISORS TWO YEARS AGO, THE WORLD WAS YET TO CONFRONT THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, which meant there was no such position on a television set as a Covid supervisor. Fast-forward a few months and with productions paused during those initial lockdowns, the industry came together with guilds and unions to find a way to continue to work safely,

Photo by Jakub Janecki

AS BROADCASTERS AROUND THE WORLD SCRAMBLED TO FILL THEIR SCHEDULES IN THE WAKE OF THE LOCKDOWNS THAT DELAYED OR PAUSED PRODUCTION OF NEW SERIES, family-friendly content was most in-demand as families found themselves spending more time watching television together. Around the World in 80 Days is perfectly primed to take advantage of this new trend, with David Tennant (Doctor Who) starring in a new adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1872 story. He plays Phileas Fogg, who accepts a crazy bet to traverse the globe in 80 days. Exotic locations and new adventures in each episode mean this show could be one to tempt families to stick together even as lockdowns lift.

and now every series employs people specifically to reduce the risk of the coronavirus spreading, which could lead to filming being paused for days or even weeks, with major financial implications.

They weren’t part of the past, but these now-essential supervisors will be an important part of every production for the foreseeable future.

WORLD-RENOWNED ITALIAN OPERA TENOR BOCELLI WAS THE ARTISTIC ADVISOR ON BLANCA, a new series for local broadcaster Rai 1 that is billed as the first ever to use holophony, a special recording technique that replicates for audiences the way sound is perceived naturally. Its aim is to put viewers in the shoes of the show’s title character, a young woman who became blind as a child and later joins the police force.

Her speciality is decodage, an analytical listening technique she applies to numerous investigations, such as interceptions and interrogations. Bocelli, who is visually impaired, offered advice to the show’s screenwriters to help create the world of a blind person and also worked with the show’s lead actor, Maria Chiara Giannetta.

ANDREA BOCELLI

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NIDA MANZOOR WITH THE STORY OF A MUSLIM FEMALE PUNK BAND AND ORIGINAL SONGS SUCH AS KILL MY SISTER AND BASHIR WITH THE GOOD BEARD, music comedy We Are Lady Parts proved to be one of the surprise packages of the year.

Featuring a string of engaging characters, relatable situations and plenty of laughs, the show also stood out for its discussion about women and identity, which Manzoor modelled on her own experiences to prove that religion – in this case Islam – shouldn’t be the single defining characteristic of any person.

TRACEY DEER

HELP WHILE THE TELEVISION COMMUNITY REACTED TO THE INITIAL CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWNS WITH SERIES AND FILMS RELATING THE KINDS OF EXPERIENCES PEOPLE THE WORLD OVER WERE LIVING THROUGH, it remains to be seen how TV will address the pandemic in the years to come. Earlier this year, Channel 4 single drama Help

became the first major project to chronicle the effects of Covid-19 and how it specifically related to the staff and residents of a care home. Written by Jack Thorne (National Treasure) the show starred Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham in a delicately handled, hard-hitting story about the pandemic. It won’t be the last.

AS A WRITER AND DIRECTOR, DEER’S CREDITS INCLUDE FEATURE FILM BEANS AND SERIES MOHAWK GIRLS AND ANNE WITH AN E. She is also director on her latest project, Three Pines Pines,, a Canadian series commissioned

by Prime Video and starring Alfred Molina as a Quebecois police inspector investigating a spate of murders in the titular idyllic village.

In addition, as the importance of telling stories with an authentic voice is increasingly recognised, Deer is working as an Indigenous consultant on the series, having been born and raised in the Mohawk community of Kahnawake. Her upbringing has led her to work as an activist and speaker with the goal of ensuring stories are representative of the society we live in, leading to feature documentary Mohawk Girls and the award-winning comedic series of the same name about four women who are trying to stay true to their Mohawk roots while navigating sex, work and love in the 21st century.

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DQ100: Q Trends & Trailblazers

DQ Q10 100 0 . 20 2021 2 /2 /22

Sean Bean in McGovern’s prison miniseries Time

JIMMY MCGOVERN FROM HBO’S GROUNDBREAKING OZ TO AUSTRALIA’S WENTWORTH, COMEDY DRAMA ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK AND SPANISH THRILLER VIS A VIS (LOCKED UP), prisons continue to be a fascinating arena for drama, and so it proved to be the case again with McGovern’s Time, one of the year’s standout series. The award-winning British writer is no stranger to intimate character dramas grounded in real life, and in Time he paired Sean Bean’s con with a conscience with Stephen Graham’s principled prison officer to tell a story brimming with nervous tension as the stakes for both characters are heightened by a conflict with one of the prison’s most dangerous inmates.

STEPHEN MERCHANT

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AS ACTORS BECOME INCREASINGLY INVOLVED BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE SHOWS IN WHICH Merchant cemented his THEY STAR, M as one of the leading status a multi-hypenates when he multi-hy wrote, directed and starred in BBC One’s comedic crime thriller thrille The Outlaws. Set and filmed lm in the star’s native Bristol, the show blends Bris The Office co-creator’s brand bra of humour with the story of seven criminals who carrying out community are c service together when they drawn into the world of are draw organised crime after one of organise number gets into trouble. their num year also saw Australian This yea Kitty Flanagan write, comic K direct a and star in comedy Fisk, in which she played a solicitor helping grieving relatives at a wills and an probate office, while Hugh Laurie writes, directs and L stars in a forthcoming Agatha Christie Christ adaptation Why Didn’t They Ask A Evans?.

ITA O’BRIEN IN THE WAKE OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE REVELATIONS ABOUT HOLLYWOOD PRODUCER HARVEY WEINSTEIN AND THE #METOO AND TIME’S UP CAMPAIGNS, the increased awareness of inappropriate and illegal behaviour on film and TV sets has led to more productions using intimacy coordinators.

These performance and movement coaches specifically work with actors and directors to bring choreography to sex scenes and, most importantly, ensure everyone is happy and comfortable with what they are being asked to do on camera.

The role has gained greater visibility in recent years, but it was pushed further into the spotlight this year when Michaela Coel, the awardwinning creator and star of I May Destroy You, specifically thanked intimacy coordinator O’Brien for making it possible to shoot the series during a speech at this year’s Bafta Television Awards.

O’Brien has long been a leader in this field, having worked on Sex Education and Normal People among other series, and now trains others in this increasingly vital role.

DQ100: DQ1 Q Trends & Trailblazers

DQ100 . 2021/22

OLAFUR DARRI ÓLAFSSON FOR ALMOST 25 YEARS, ICELANDER ÓLAFSSON HAS CHAMPIONED FILM AND TELEVISION IN HIS HOME COUNTRY. And in the wake of the huge interest in Nordic noir series, his profile has skyrocketed around the world. He stars as police officer Andri Ólafsson in crime drama Trapped, which is returning for a third season, while this year he toured Iceland as ‘himself’ in the extremely playful yet poignant Journey, in which his character goes on a road trip with his best friend that leads them both to confront their emotions, pride and friendship. Earlier in 2021, Ólafsson was named Actor of the Year at Iceland’s Edda Awards for his performance as a politician with bipolar disorder in drama The Minister (pictured), while he will soon be seen on screen around the world in The Tourist, an Australia-set thriller from the writers behind The Missing and Liar.

NICOLA SHINDLER

SEX EDUCATION

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IN THE US, WRITERS ROOMS HAVE BEEN FANTASTIC TRAINING GROUNDS FOR WRITERS. FANTA Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire), Teren Matthew Weiner (Mad Men), and Mitchell Matt Burgess and Robin Green (both Blue Burg Bloods) all worked on The Sopranos.

Blo Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad), Howard Vin Gordon (Homeland) and Frank Spotnitz Go (The Man in the High Castle) wrote (Th episodes of The X-Files. Marti Noxon ep worked on Angel, Buffy the Vampire wor Slayer, Prison Break and Grey’s Anatomy Slaye creating shows such as UnReal and Sharp before cre The same effect is now appearing Objects. T outside tthe US, with Sex Education, the Netflix comedy that returned for a third season this leading the charge. Created by Laurie year, lea Nunn, the show’s writing team has included Bisha K Ali (Ms Marvel), Laura Neal (Killing Eve Freddy Syborn (Bounty Hunters, Ragdoll) S4), Fre Alice Seabright (Chloe). As writers rooms and Alic become more common, expect to see more becom writers emerging with their own shows.

DISCUSSING THE MAKING OF BBC PERIOD DRAMA RIDLEY ROAD, writer Sarah Solemani credited exec producer Shindler as a showrunner who “was in the trenches” with her on the story of a woman who goes undercover to combat fascism in 1960s London. A champion of writers, Bafta winner Shindler has worked with some of the biggest names in British TV, from Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley) and Kay Mellor (The Syndicate) to Paul Abbott (Hit & Miss) and Russell T Davies, the Queer as Folk and Years & Years writer who is already collecting prizes for this year’s It’s A Sin, which Shindler also exec produced. Having left Red Production Company to start a new venture, Quay Street Productions, Shindler has many more stories to tell, not least through her ongoing partnership with Harlan Coben and Danny Brocklehurst that has yielded Netflix series Safe and Stay Close.

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SQUID GAME FEMALE-LED PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS PROVED TO BE A BIG TREND OF 2021, with shows such as Angela Black, Behind Her Eyes and Close to Me filling the schedules. One particularly notable entry was Too Close, a three-part miniseries that pitted Emily Watson’s forensic psychiatrist Emma Robertson against Connie Mortensen (Denise Gough), a wife and mother who is involved in a despicable crime. It is Emma’s job to determine whether Connie should spend her life behind bars or if she is capable of being rehabilitated and released. In a show based on a 2018 novel by Clara Salaman (writing as Natalie Daniels), it is the dazzling performances of Watson and Gough that lift the story from the page, featuring some electric head-to-head confrontations.

NETFLIX IS NO STRANGER TO COMPETITION DRAMAS (3%), PARTICULARLY THOSE PLAYED TO THE DEATH (ALICE IN BORDERLAND), but none has made an impact close to that achieved by Squid Game.

Approximately 142 million member households watched at least some of the South Korean thriller in the first four weeks of its release, making it Netflix’s biggest series ever. For those who haven’t watched it, Squid Game sees 456 desperate and debt-ridden contestants compete in deadly versions of children’s games for the chance to win 45.6 billion won (US$38.6m).

SISI TOO CLOSE

WAS 2021 THE YEAR PERIOD DRAMAS HAD A MODERN MAKEOVER? Bridgerton set the trend at the start of the year and will be back for a second season; the story of Henry VIII’s second wife was turned into psychological thriller Anne Boleyn; and Emile Zola’s classic novel Germinal, about coal miners in 1860s France, was given a new perspective by sharpening the focus on the story’s female characters. Germanlanguage drama Sisi, meanwhile, sought to retell what has been described as Europe’s greatest love story for new viewers, some 70 years after Romy Schneider portrayed the real-life figure of Elisabeth in 1955 film Sissi. It follows a 19th century duchess who falls in love with the emperor of Austria. In the new series, Sisi is a confident, sexual and independent woman who takes centre stage in a story that, coupled with the central romance, also confronts darker elements.

DQ100: Q Trends & Trailblazers

DQ100 . 2021/22

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LYDIA WEST WEST HAD PREVIOUSLY PARTNERED WITH AWARD-WINNING WRITER RUSSELL T DAVIES ON THE FUTURISTIC – AND PROPHETIC – YEARS & YEARS, but it was their collaboration on one of this year’s standout series, It’s A Sin, that would cement West’s rising star and see her win a Golden Nymph prize at the Monte Carlo Television Awards.

It’s A Sin charts the gay experience in the 1980s and the rise of the AIDS crisis during the decade, with West’s character – based on a real person – arguably the heart of the story. She plays Jill, an aspiring actor who begins to worry about the impact of the disease and becomes a carer for and supporter of her friends when they are diagnosed with AIDS, before going on to visit others being treated in hospital.

WANDAVISION

Lydia West and Olly Alexander in It’s A Sin

CHARACTERS FROM COMIC BOOK PUBLISHER MARVEL ARE NO STRANGERS TO TV, but this was the year that Marvel Studios’ shared universe landed on the small screen. While The Falcon & The Winter Soldier had the same sense of scale and action as the Captain America films and Loki matched the nuances of Tom Hiddleston’s charming, cunning character with a time-bending plot, it was WandaVision that changed expectations for what a Marvel Cinematic Universe series could be. Ultimately a story of grief and acceptance, it finds Wanda Maximoff, who has powers of telekinesis and telepathy, and android Vision living an idyllic suburban life while trying to conceal their true identities. But the show really stood out because each episode perfectly replicated the style, tone and humour of a different US sitcom from the 1950s to the present day.

VIRTUAL PRODUCTION VISUAL EFFECTS HAVE TAKEN CINEMATIC STRIDES IN RECENT YEARS AS TELEVISION HAS SOUGHT TO TRANSPORT VIEWERS TO INCREASINGLY VARIED AND FANTASTICAL WORLDS. Now, the use of virtual production is only going to push these limits further by unlocking the ability to create complex shots in-camera using virtual sets and locations with video game technology. This has already been seen on Disney+’s Star Wars series The Mandalorian, but perhaps

the best demonstration yet will come in the form of Netflix’s upcoming 1899 (pictured). Series creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar (Dark), their company Dark Ways and Studio Babelsberg have partnered to build a permanent virtual production stage at the Berlin studios that will be used to tell a story concerning the mysterious circumstances surrounding the voyage of an immigrant ship from Europe to New York.

DQ

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DQ100: Q Series

DQ100 . 20 DQ 2021 0 1/2 /22

100 Series

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CARMEN CURLERS FROM: Denmark ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: DR STARRING: Morten Hee Andersen, Maria Rossing, Lars Ranthe, Rosalinde Mynster, Mille Lehfeldt, Christian Tafdrup, Fanny Bornedal, Nicolai Jørensen and Signe Edgolm

FROM: UK ORIGINAL BROADCASTERS: BBC

Three (UK), Hulu (US) STARRING: Alison Oliver, Sasha Lane, Joe Alwyn and Jemima Kirke From the team behind BBC Three and Hulu’s smash-hit adaptation of Sally Rooney's Normal People comes this series based on the same author’s debut novel. The story follows college student Frances (Oliver, right) as she navigates a series of relationships, such as with ex-girlfriend and best friend Bobbi (Lane) and husband-andwife Nick (Alwyn) and Melissa (Kirke). When Nick and Frances begin an intense, secret affair, it pushes the bond between Frances and Bobbi to the limit.

CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS

THE DEVIL’S HOUR

Due to air in autumn 2022, the latest drama from Danish pubcaster DR is inspired by real-life events. It tells the story of how a small invention became a worldwide success and turned life in a 1960s provincial town on its head. At the centre of the story is entrepreneur Axel (Andersen), whose electric hair-curling device played a part in a cultural and economic revolution for women as they began going out to work.

FROM: UK ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Prime Video STARRING: Jessica Raine, Peter Capaldi, Nikesh Patel, Meera Syal, Alex Ferns, Phil Dunster, Barbara Marten, Thomas Dominique, Rhiannon Harper-Rafferty, John Alastair and Sandra Huggett The Devil’s Hour is the time between 3am and 4am specifically 3.33am – when unexplainable things can occur. In this six-part thriller, Lucy Chambers wakes every night at exactly 3.33am, her eight-year-old son is withdrawn and emotionless, her mother speaks to empty chairs and her house is haunted by echoes of a life that isn’t hers. When her name is connected to a string of brutal murders, she will finally find the answers she has been looking for.

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INSIDE MAN

DQ100 . 2021/22 2

FROM: Denmark ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Viaplay STARRING: Sara Klein, Peter Plauborg, Anton Hjejle, Bodil Jørgensen and Marijana Jankovic The Chestnut Man and Ride Upon the Storm producer SAM Productions is behind this series, which stars newcomer Klein in the role of Denmark’s unlikeliest detective. Based on novels by Anne-Sophie Lunding-Sørensen, this offbeat drama introduces Elvira (Klein), a receptionist in a brothel owned by her childhood friend – and policeman – Køster.

When a prostitute vanishes, Elvira starts her own investigation, which leads to dramatic consequences and unexpected emotions.

FROM: UK ORIGINAL BROADCASTERS: BBC, Netflix STARRING: David Tennant, Dolly Wells, Lydia West and Stanley Tucci

ELVIRA

From Dracula and Sherlock writer Steven Moffat comes this four-part miniseries that follows a prisoner on death row in the US, a vicar in a quiet English town and a maths teacher trapped in a cellar, who cross paths in an unexpected way.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

FROM: US U ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: HBO ORIGINA STARRING: Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Steve Toussaint, STARRIN Cooke and Rhys Ifans Olivia C anticipated spin-off from Game of Thrones The hugely hu promises to be one of the television events of 2022. promis Based on George RR Martin’s Fire & Blood, the series is set 200 years before the events of Thrones and tells story of the members of the dragon-riding House the st Targaryen. As Smith’s character Prince Daemon Targa Targaryen explains in the trailer, “Dreams didn’t make Targ kings, dragons did.” us k

DQ100: Series

THE LORD OF THE RINGS FROM: US/New Zealand ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Prime Video STARRING: Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman and Sara Zwangobani

Set to become the most expensive television series ever made, with a reported budget of US$465m, Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings brings JRR Tolkien’s Second Age of Middle-earth to screens for the first time.

Set thousands of years before the events of the author’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters – familiar and new – as they confront the reemergence of evil in the realm.

LIMBO

FROM: Sweden ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Viaplay STARRING: Sofia Helin, Rakel Wärmländer and Louise Peterhoff

Filmed on location in Stockholm, Limbo opens when a late-night phone call changes everything for Ebba (Wärmländer), My (Helin) and Gloria (Peterhoff). The news that their respective sons have been involved in a serious car crash puts their friendship and priorities to the ultimate test, and with Ebba’s son Jakob hovering between life and death, the three women find themselves in a devastatingly uncertain situation – in limbo.

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INVENTING ANNA

DQ100 . 2021/22

FROM: US ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Netflix STARRING: Anna Chlumsky, Julia Garner, Arian Moayed, Katie Lowes, Alexis Floyd, Anders Holm, Anna Deavere Smith, Jeff Perry, Terry Kinney and Laverne Cox Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes follows up her smash-hit Netflix series Bridgerton with her next show for the streamer, this time based on a New York Magazine article by Jessica Pressler. The plot centres on a journalist with a lot to prove as she investigates the case of Anna Delvey (Garner), the Instagram-legendary German heiress who stole the hearts of New York’s social scene – and stole their money as well. But as Anna and the reporter form a dark, funny, love-hate bond, Anna awaits trial while the reporter tries to answer the question: who is Anna Delvey?

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DQ100 . 2021/22

MYSTERY ROAD: ORIGINS FROM: Australia ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: ABC STARRING: Mark Coles Smith, Toby Leonard Moore, Daniel Henshall, Lisa Flanagan, Clarence Ryan, Steve Bisley, Caroline Brazier, Hayley McElhinney, Dubs Yunupingu, Kelton Pell, Leonie Whyman, Salme Geransar, Nina Young, Jayden Popik and Tuuli Narkle Across two films, Mystery Road and Goldstone, and two seasons of a TV show also called Mystery Road, actor Aaron Pedersen has brought to life Detective Jay Swan, whose story has unfolded against the backdrop of Western Australia. Now an origin series will explore how the boy became the man. In 1999, Constable Jay Swan (Smith) is a charismatic young officer at a new station. But while he’s in a new job, he’s not in a new town. It’s home to his estranged father, as well as the woman who will change his life.

THE NIGHT LOGAN WOKE UP FROM: Quebec ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Canal+ (France) STARRING: Julie Le Breton, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Éric Bruneau, Patrick Hivon, Julianne Côté and Xavier Dolan The Night Logan Woke Up is the first series from award-winning filmmaker Dolan, who writes, directs, produces and stars in this French-language thriller. Based on Michel Marc Bouchard’s psychological stage play, the story opens in the early 1990s when Mimi and her brother Julian form an inseparable trio with Logan, until a terrible incident one night splits the two families apart and sets the former friends on different paths. Thirty years later, Mimi returns home and is reunited with her estranged brothers, and long-buried secrets return to the surface.

PEACEMAKER FROM: US ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: HBO Max STARRING: John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, Chukwudi Iwuji and Robert Patrick

Inspired by James Gunn’s 2021 film The Suicide Squad, the series will explore the origins of Cena’s eponymous character, a compelling, vainglorious man who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill to get it.

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THE RIG FROM: UK ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Prime Video STARRING: Iain Glen, Emily Hampshire, Martin Compston, Rochenda Sandall, Owen Teale, Richard Pepple, Mark Bonnar, Calvin Demba, Emun Elliott, Abraham Popoola, Stuart McQuarrie and Molly Vevers Partly filmed on a real oil rig in Scotland, this thriller follows the crew of the Kinloch Bravo rig stationed off the Scottish coast in the dangerous waters of the North Sea. When the workers are due to be collected and returned to the mainland, a mysterious fog rolls through before the rig is hit by massive tremors and they find themselves cut off from all communication. As the crew endeavour to discover what’s driving this unknown force, a major accident makes them question who they can really trust.

THE ROPE

FROM: France ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Arte STARRING: Chrysta Théret, Jeanne Balibar, Suzanne Clément, Jean-Marc Barr, Richard Sammel and Jakob Cedergren

Deep in the Norwegian forest, staff at the Helligskogen scientific observatory are filled with excitement at the news they have been given the green light to finish their research. But something has disturbed the work: the discovery of a seemingly endless rope, which has appeared on the edge of the forest, apparently abandoned, prompting enough curiosity to cause six members of the team to follow it in an attempt to find the rope’s end… or its beginning.

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THE SANDMAN A SPY AMONG FRIENDS FROM: UK/US ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Netflix STARRING: Tom Sturridge, Gwendolyn Christie, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Asim Chaudhry, Charles Dance, Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mason Alexander Park, Donna Preston, Jenna Coleman, Niamh Walsh, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis, Kyo Ra, Razane Jammal, Sandra James-Young, Stephen Fry and Patton Oswalt Based on Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed graphic novel series, The Sandman is described as a rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are interwoven. The story follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the mistakes he's made across his vast existence.

FROM: UK ORIGINAL BROADCASTERS: Britbox UK and Spectrum Originals (US) STARRING: Damian Lewis, Guy Pearce, Anna Maxwell Martin, Stephen Kunken and Adrian Edmondson Based on the book written by Ben Macintyre, the six-part limited series set at the height of the Cold War tells the true story of Nicholas Elliott (Lewis) and Kim Philby (Pearce) – two spies and lifelong friends, one of whom was betraying the other all along.

SOULS

FROM: Germany ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Sky STARRING: Brigitte Hobmeier, Julia Koschitz, Lili Epply, Aaron Kissiov, Aleksandar Jovanovic, Godehard Giese, Derya Dilber, Laurence Rupp, Abak Sadaei-Rad and Selam Tadese This eight-part mystery thriller centres on three women – Allie, Hanna and Linn – whose lives are irreversibly changed when a serious car accident causes 14-yearold Jacob to believe he can remember his earlier life as a pilot of a lost passenger plane. But is Jacob lying, or can souls really travel between people?

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VIKINGS VALHALLA

THE TOURIST

FROM: US ORIGINAL BROADCASTER: Netflix STARRING: Leo Suter, Frida Gustavsson and Sam Corlett

A follow-up to long-running series Vikings, this series is set in the early 11th century. It chronicles the legendary adventures of some of the most famous Vikings who ever lived – from Leif Eriksson and Freydis Eriksdotter to Harald Hardrada and William the Conqueror – as they fight for survival in an ever-changing world.

FROM: UK/Australia ORIGINAL BROADCASTERS: BBC (UK), HBO Max (US), Stan (Australia), ZDF (Germany) STARRING: Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Alex Dimitriades From the writers of Liar and Angela Black comes this six-part character-driven thriller in which Dornan plays ‘The Man,’ a Brit who finds himself in a cat-and-mouse chase across the Australian outback and later wakes up in hospital, hurt but alive, with no idea of who he is.

With mysterious figures still chasing him, he begins his search for answers.

TROM FROM: Faroe Islands ORIGINAL BROADCASTERS: Viaplay (Nordics), ZDF (Germany), Arte (France) STARRING: Ulrich Thomsen, Maria Rich and Olaf Johannessen The first series ever filmed in the Faroe Islands, Trom is based on Jógvan Isaken’s crime novels about journalist Hannis

Martinsson. The story begins as Hannis (Thomsen) reluctantly returns home to investigate the case of a missing woman, who had earlier left him a message claiming to be his daughter and saying her life was in danger. When the woman’s body is discovered in the sea, Hannis and local police investigator Karla Mohr (Rich) set out to discover what happened.

DQ

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Index DQ100 2021/22

100 Actors Uzo Aduba • Helana Af Sandeberg • Carsten Bjørnlund • Rose Byrne • Joe Cole • Chiwetel Ejiofor • Kerry Godliman • Emily Hampshire • Adam Lundgren • Thuso Mbedu • Cristin Milioti • Ben Miller • Sienna Miller • David Oyelowo • Pedro Pascal • Natalie Portman • Kasia Smutniak • Connor Swindells • Jodie Turner-Smith • Ine Marie Wilmann

Directors Tomas Alfredson • Alejandro Amenábar • Georgi Banks-Davies • Clio Barnard • Steve Barron • Uta Briesewitz • Kathy Burke • Xavier Dolan • Amin Dora • Uli Edel • Mirrah Foulkes • Antoine Fuqua • Alma Har’el • Barry Jenkins • Nicole Kassell • Hugh Laurie • Sarmad Masud • Reed Morano • Alice Troughton • Lars Von Trier

Writers Nikolaj Arcel • Michal Aviram • Genevieve Barr • Daniel Brierley • Candice Carty-Williams • Deborah Davis • Bash Doran • Leonardo Fasoli • Neil Gaiman • Marsha Greene • Clare McQuillan • Anjli Mohindra • Laura Neal • Siân Robins-Grace • Alice Seabright • Lone Scherfig • Peter Straughan • Quoc Dang Tran • Harriet Warner • Steven Zaillian

Trends & Trailblazers Adult animation • Agatha Christie’s Hjerson • Around the World in 80 Days • Andrea Bocelli • Covid-19 supervisors • Tracey Deer • Help • Nida Manzoor • Jimmy McGovern • Stephen Merchant • Ita O’Brien • Olafur Darri Ólafsson • Sex Education • Nicola Shindler • Sisi • Squid Game • Too Close • Virtual production • WandaVision • Lydia West

Series Carmen Curlers • Conversations with Friends • The Devil’s Hour • Elvira • House of the Dragon • Inside Man • Inventing Anna • Limbo • The Lord of the Rings • Mystery Road: Origins • The Night Logan Woke Up • Peacemaker • The Rig • The Rope • The Sandman • Souls • A Spy Among Friends • The Tourist • Trom • Vikings Valhalla WHO’S WHO EDITORIAL Editorial director Ed Waller ed@c21media.net, Editor of C21Media.net Jonathan Webdale jonathan@c21media.net, DQ editor Michael Pickard michael@c21media.net, Chief sub editor Gary Smitherman gary@c21media.net, Senior sub editor John Winfield john@c21media.net, News editor Clive Whittingham clive@c21media.net, Senior reporters Nico Franks nico@ c21media.net, Karolina Kaminska karolina@c21media.net, Ruth Lawes ruth.lawes@c21media.net, Reporter Oli Hammett oli@ c21media.net, North America Jordan Pinto jordan@c21media.net, Research editor Gün Akyuz gun@c21media.net, Head of television Jason Olive jason@c21media.net, Video editor Sean Sweeney sean@c21media.net SALES Commercial director Odiri Iwuji odiri@c21media.net, Sales director Peter Treacher peter@c21media.net, Business development director Nick Waller nick@ c21media.net, Sales manager Hayley Salt hayley@c21media.net, Senior sales executive Richard Segal, Sales executive Malvina Marque melvina@c21media.net, Telesales executive Eva Fischer eva@c21media.net PRODUCTION Operations director Lucy Scott lucy@c21media.net, Production manager Eleanore Hayes eleanore@c21media.net, Team assistant Courtney Brewster courtney@c21media.net, Head of finance Susan Dean susan@c21media.net, Finance officer Shuhely Mirza shuhely@c21media. net, Editor-in-chief & managing director David Jenkinson david@c21media.net

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