Interview with Dominic Leclerc
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
It's about human frailty, the space in between - what makes us human, how we make mistakes, how we try to navigate our way through life.
What drew you to this project?
When I got sent these scripts I thought it was some of the best writing since Band Of Gold. I thought that there was a real darkness and a raw kind of heartbeat under the drama. At the same time, joy and warmth and humour, which obviously Kay brings in abundance, but it also had something very strong and powerful to say as to how we live and love now.
I thought it was very much about now and then and about past and present rubbing up against one another and in the Brexit/Trump era, I thought that it had quite a lot of resonance and spoke to me on a bigger state-of-the-nation level, but also it didn’t feel polemic. It felt as though all of that came through character, which I think is part of Kay’s brilliance.
Love, Lies & Records feels quite different to Kay’s other recent work. Why is that do you think?
Ashley Jensen is never off-screen. There’s very rarely any moment when we’re not with her or exploring the drama through her eyes. So it’s a slightly different form that Kay’s doing, it’s a different show. Yes, there’s a wonderful ensemble supporting that, but actually the writing style is very much through Kate’s eyes.
Tell us about the characters…
Halfway through episode one we discover our lead character Kate - who takes us through the series - has done something in her past which you might think is quite bad. She made a wrong choice and actually it’s about how we, as viewers, renegotiate our relationship with her. Rebecca Front plays a character you might say is the baddie, but she’s actually not. She goes on a huge, complex, emotional journey, as we start to unpeel the layers of her character, we discover all the emotional complications that underpin her.
So that’s what I loved about the show in terms of directing it. It wasn’t two-dimensional characters, goodies, baddies. It was about human frailty, the space in between - what makes us human, how we make mistakes, how we try to navigate our way through life. It made it quite a rich emotional experience for me as a director and for the cast playing the roles.
Why should people watch Love, Lies & Records?
I think people should watch the show because the range of characters is so fantastic. There are no traditional goodies or baddies. There’s kind of a wonderful space in between, which I think is about human frailty.
