Director's notes from episode 5

This last scene of episode five was talked about for months before we shot it and l am sure before I arrived in beautiful Ireland, it had been discussed for hours by Barry Devlin (writer) and Stephen Wright (my extraordinary executive producer). How would it conclude between Dreyfus and Rose, would they kiss, would he drive away, what would she do? And Michael… what would happen to him?

The build up to this scene was an extraordinary feat for Hattie, as all the scenes in the house had been shot almost two months beforehand. The one thing Hattie and I had decided was, that when she did leave the house that night, she wouldn't be wearing shoes. She had arrived home wet and upset, she couldn't face Michael, he wanted to give her a ring as a token of his love for her, and then the children arrive back. Harrington is then knocking on the door and Rose, overcome with emotion, rushes out of the house and runs into the night - shoeless! We decided that if she was sensible enough to put her shoes on - she wouldn't have gone.

My brilliant costume department came up with a sole that Hattie could glue to her feet - as she was going to have to run down muddy lanes to pursue her American airman.

So there we all were, in the dead of night chasing behind Hattie on a golf buggy with a camera on the front and Aaron (Dreyfus) driving towards us through the rain - headlights on full - in his jeep that was made for five foot eight Americans, rather than my leading man who is six foot three! There was a tree where Hattie was going to stop, and a mark for where Aaron was to pull up, and they do! The golf buggy stops, the steady camera operator gets off the buggy and walks towards them, the boom swinger is there as well and they deliver their dialogue and kiss - a long kiss - what happens then? It's the end. Or is it?