Interview with John Alexander
Interview with John Alexander, director of BBC Two drama One Child.
Published: 8 February 2016
This is a fictionalised story so there is an element of 'what if?', but I think that’s where drama becomes a theatre for ideas and discussion.
What made you say yes to the role?
I’ve always been a fan of Guy Hibbert’s writing. He always finds subjects that have a strong contemporary resonance and when I was offered a script of Guy’s to read that was set in China, I knew it would be an interesting piece. China is a country that we have such a close relationship with but one that we don’t really know that much about. I thought it would be an interesting world to explore and I thought Guy had done a fantastic job of pulling together a story that not only gave us an insight into a judicial system and a society, but also a great emotional story about a young woman finding her own identity, discovering her mother and having to make tough choices between an adopted family and a birth mother. I thought that was a powerful mix and as a father of three girls myself, I found it very moving when I read it. I didn’t take much convincing.
What does Katie bring to the role?
Katie was already attached to the role and I met her very shortly after I joined. Katie is an experienced actor but she hadn’t done a piece quite as substantial as this where, as the lead actor, she’s in practically every scene and really carries the emotional journey of this over three hours. The first thing I was interested to see was how she was going to process that and if it concerned her. When I met her, I was really surprised about how laid back she was about it and I thought either she hasn’t quite grasped how draining it will be, and how much work will be involved, or she’s just a very cool lady. It turns out she’s just very cool. She took it in her stride and was absolutely brilliant.
Given there are so many emotional storylines, how did you find the filming process and working with Katie?
As a director, I like to think of myself as a collaborative director which means having a close relationship with the cast so we had lots of discussions about things that weren’t in the script, discussing between us who we thought the character of Mei was and what kind of emotional dilemmas she would have and we also watched documentaries about some Chinese girls who were adopted in America, as well as speaking to our young girl, Blossom. We explored that subject together and then of course when Mardy joined us, that was a very tight relationship getting to know them as mother and daughter. Katie had lots to bring herself because of her own experience with her family from Hong Kong and brought a real understanding of someone caught between two cultures.
Where did you start with looking at where to film One Child, given filming in China itself wasn’t an option?
Myself, the production designer, Will Hughes-Jones, and the producer, Grainne Marmion, took a short visit to Guangzhou just as tourists to look at the city, soak up the atmosphere and look at the environment that we were trying to create. On our way, we looked at Taipei in Taiwan to see how that was as an alternative to China but when we got there it just didn’t have the right feel. It didn’t feel as modern, it didn’t have the scale – Chinese cities are vast and the amount of building that’s been going on in the last 10 years at least is extraordinary. It’s really on the cutting edge of modern architecture so we wanted to make sure that our world felt very 21st century. So Hong Kong became the obvious place to go.
How was the filming in Hong Kong?
Hong Kong was fantastic. We worked with local crews over there who were very excited to be involved in the piece. A lot of their work is to facilitate big American productions who come in with their entire teams to make commercials for a few days, whereas English television is somewhere in between. We arrived with a few people but looking really to work with local talent and for them to be part of the production process. The art department were very much involved in creating all of our exterior worlds, so I think they found it challenging and refreshing to be working in that kind of way.
Was there anything you learnt during the production about China which surprised you?
What was interesting was to see how the script resonated with the people who read it. The issues of corruption are very serious and the people we met really felt that Guy’s script was an accurate reflection of the issues. The government is trying to deal with the situation and it felt very pertinent. I felt these issues were very alive.
Why do you think it’s important that TV continues to tackle these kinds of issues in dramas?
This is a fictionalised story so there is an element of 'what if?', but I think that’s where drama becomes a theatre for ideas and discussion. This could happen: these characters are researched and you’re allowed to explore and raise the awareness of the potential for a situation. It’s important for drama to look at this. It’s great to have the success of the huge hitters like Doctor Who and great emotional pieces like Doctor Foster but it’s also important to have an outlook into a broader world. It’s a very valuable part of the BBC slate.
How do you hope the audience will react to One Child?
On one hand, I think it’s to have sympathy and empathy for characters like Mei who have been displaced and dispersed, and what it has meant for them to try to reconnect with their families. But in the bigger picture, and it’s what interested me, it’s understanding China as an emerging country that we’re becoming more and more connected to. It’s good to keep the debate going about what that means especially, as Guy has focused on, with their human rights record. But primarily, it’s to have sympathy and empathy for a character like Mei who’s been affected by the One Child policy which is of course changing, but has still affected so many people.
