Interview with Neil Cross

What was the inspiration behind Hard Sun?
I’ve loved David Bowie’s Five Years since I was a kid. Yeah, it’s a song about the end of the world. But it’s also about the value of the everyday, of the things we often forget to notice. Including each other. In making you recognise that, it leaves you feeling strangely uplifted and optimistic.

Can you tell us more about the concept behind the show?
Imagine the world you see when you look out of your window… except that it’s been given a death sentence. There is no hero to come and save us. That’s the world of Hard Sun. What’s it like trying to enforce the law in a city that, day by day, slips closer to certain destruction? How do you get up in the morning? And what about predators? What about the murderers, the rapists, the religious nuts, the cult leaders? Who among them would fear a prison sentence in a world like this? What’s the point of justice in the face of Armageddon?

What is the central relationship between Hicks and Renko like?
It’s not a buddy movie and it’s not a ‘will they/won’t they?’ drama. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to have two characters who are mortal enemies, who have a profound reason to distrust each other… but who are thrown together by this terrifying secret. Renko and Hicks are forced to collaborate in order to survive, but there is a constant dance of trust and mistrust between them.

What has Jim brought to the role of Hicks?
You create a character then go looking for an actor. If you’re lucky, you find the right actor; one who inhabits the character so completely it becomes impossible to think it might have been any other way. And we got lucky. As Hicks, Jim is somehow as open-hearted and generous as he is secretive and corrupt. And when Hicks is confronted by the approaching loss of everyone he loves, Jim evokes that crisis with heartbreaking complexity.

Why is Agyness so right for the role of Renko?
Agyness is an incredibly intense and gravitational screen presence. She has an alchemical ability when utterly still to evoke profound depth of emotion and thought, inner strength and anxiety. And she’s disturbingly good at beating people up.

How do you think Hard Sun’s apocalyptic themes will affect its audience?
There’s strange comfort to be found in stories about the end of the world, but I think the wellspring of this pleasure can be found in the idea of transformation rather than annihilation: transformation of the world we know, naturally; but more importantly, of ourselves.

We like to imagine that, in such drastic circumstances, our workaday selves - weighed down as they usually are by nagging, humdrum anxieties - would be tempered, hardened, stripped back to their absolute essentials. To what really matters.

And nothing matters more than the people we love, the time we get to spend with them, and what we’d do for them, even in the face of the end.

So you think the show is ultimately optimistic?
Every story offers us a mirror. Renko and Hicks, compromised and morally ambiguous as they may be, are willing to be tested to destruction in the name of people they love. I think most of us would like to think we’d do the same. And I think that’s a pretty optimistic idea.

What was your reaction when you first read the script for Hard Sun?
It slightly annoyed me [laughs]. I’d been very busy, and I was ready to take a break and do some music. Then I read this and went my, oh my God, it’s really good! By page five, I was saying to myself, oh no, I’m going to have to do it. Dammit!

What stood out for you about Neil Cross’s writing?
It has one of the most interesting, unique, brilliant introductions to a character I’ve ever read. Hicks, the character I play, goes from A to Z in five seconds. You start thinking he is one thing, and then immediately you’re led in the totally different direction. I was instantly drawn in by the possibility of what this could be and where this could go.

What does the unique setting provide?
It reminds us that we are all here together and that we could all go out together. It asks what an impending apocalypse would do to society. We all may face that one day. We are not going to be here forever. The story has overwhelming moments where the characters ask, what’s going to happen next? And then they get sucked into everyday life and relationship issues and the challenges of how to be a good friend. Every character is disturbed in this piece. Neil’s writing is just thrilling.

Do you enjoy variety of tones in Hard Sun?
Absolutely. It’s so rewarding. Hard Sun has moments of family drama, of cop show, and of sci-fi. It is brutal and tender, heartfelt and aggressive. It’s the most wonderfully varied show to work on.

Can you outline Hicks character for us?
The only way to describe him is how he would describe himself. He accepts that occasionally he’ll do bad things for the benefit of the greater good. But all the same he believes 100 percent that he is a good guy who is pursuing the greater good. He’s a natural with people and would consider himself an excellent family man with strong values. He’s an amazing dad and husband and leader and team player.

How would you characterise his relationship with Renko?
They deeply distrust each other from the very beginning. But they’re thrown together by this idea of Hard Sun, which binds them together completely. Each ends up being the only one the other one has, but at the same time, they screw each other over. It’s a spaghetti junction of human complications!

What was your response when you heard you would be working opposite Agyness?
The minute her name was brought up, I was very excited. I knew what a great actress she is. I love it when people think out of the box. Renko is a killer part. She’s such a strong, ass-kicking, brilliant, complicated human being. It’s a golden role for any actress, and Agyness plays it superbly.

How have you found it working with her?
Agyness has been brilliant. She brings it. We have both been pulled apart and put back together while making this drama. But Agyness in particular has been dragged through the mill. However, she’s made of strong stuff, and she’s been amazing.

You had to do a lot of your own stunts in Hard Sun, did it go smoothly?
No! I took a hit from Agyness when she was wearing a knuckleduster. She smacked me in the nose. There was a lot of blood, but I think she was more upset than I was!

In Hard Sun, how does society react as the apocalypse draws closer?
Hicks says: “All the madness is going to come out of the woodwork,” and he’s right. It immediately divides people. The drama asks whether in this situation society would behave in a sane or a really dangerous way. That confusion unites Hicks and Renko. They have a common understanding that it is bigger than anything else.

What do you hope that viewers will take away from Hard Sun?
I think they’ll find it compulsive. It’s a bombardment of ideas, and audiences will be gripped by it. From the moment it starts, it doesn’t let you go!

Related Programme Information

• Episode one
• Episode two