Interview with Rebecca Front
Rollem Productions’ brand new BBC One drama Love, Lies & Records, from the pen of BAFTA award-winning writer Kay Mellor, will air this autumn.
Published: 24 October 2017
There’s nothing implausible about it, really. Everything in it is so beautifully plotted and beautifully woven together.
Kay has said that register offices are “the sharp end and hub of life” giving her wonderful opportunity to explore a breadth of storylines...
Everybody hits a registry office at some point in their life, or at least, you know, a member of your family at some point in your life will have to go and register a birth or a marriage or a death, so all human life is here, and what could possibly be a better forum for drama than that?
What’s lovely about this series is that it is rooted in the real world and these are people that you would meet every day. Kay, first of all, is a legend, really - she’s been writing for a long time, she’s been at the top of her game for a very long time and she writes series that have a very broad, popular appeal. She writes these very complicated, interwoven stories and all of them have surprising twists and turns, but at the same time they’re very rooted in reality and all her characters are recognisable. You’ll have met them, you’ll have worked with them.
Tell us about Judy and where we find her at the beginning of the series?
Somebody is going to be made Senior Registrar and all the indications point to it being Judy so this is kind of a really exciting moment.
Episode one for Judy is a sort of ‘any moment now’, and then Matthew, the supervisor, comes in and it’s just obvious that’s what’s going to happen.
Judy creates all sorts of problems for herself and more for the people around her, because her standards are so rigorous and so high that almost everybody falls short of those and when they do, Judy kind of wreaks vengeance on them. She’s kind of an avenging angel in a weird way, which is great, that’s really good fun to play.
What sort of research did you do in preparation for the role of Judy?
A little group of us had the chance to go and stand around in the back office of a registry office and meet some of the registrars and listen to them talking and get a real sense of what their jobs involve.
Why do you think viewers should watch Love, Lies & Records?
There’s nothing implausible about it, really. Everything in it is so beautifully plotted and beautifully woven together.
