Category: TV
Drama; 麻豆社
THREE
Date: 04.05.2004
Printable version
Filming started this week on Blue Blood, a pacy, dark
and innovative new drama from Red Production Company for 麻豆社 THREE.
Blue Blood is the latest in a long line of critically acclaimed dramas
from the Red stable, including The Second Coming, Clocking Off and Queer
as Folk.
At times disturbing and at others blackly humorous, Blue Blood is written
by Bill Gallagher (Clocking Off and Out of the Blue) and has bold storytelling
at its heart.
Using flashbacks and fast forwards, interlinking time and obscuring
the line between reality and fantasy, it is driven by a daring and inventive
visual style.
The murder of a 12-year-old girl leaves her local community shell-shocked
and intent on revenge. As the public clamour for justice, the distinction
between right and wrong becomes all too easily blurred.
Those involved in the murder investigation take ever more dangerous
steps in their efforts to bring it to a conclusion, until two of them
take things a step too far.
This is the hot-house environment where we meet Blue Blood's central
family. Brothers Chrissie and Ray, played by William Ash
(Burn It) and Nicholas Gleaves (Playing the Field),
are CID officers on the team investigating the murder of 'Little Angela'.
Their sister Beth (Zoe Henry, Emmerdale) is the single-minded
lawyer representing the prime suspect, whilst their father Lenny (David
Warner, Titanic) is a retired police officer who berates the
political correctness of their modern methods.
He is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, which adds extra pressure
to the hectic lives of his family, and is struggling to come to terms
with the fact that he can no longer be the strong and authoritative
head of the family.
The rest of the investigating team comprises the reckless Joe (Ian
Puleston-Davies, Between the Lines), an 'old school' CID officer
and committed family man whose loving family are the only restraint
on his barely contained temper.
He bullies the younger, impressionable Chrissie and runs into conflict
with Ray, who prefers to run things by the book.
Insightful loner Robert (Reece Dinsdale, Thief Takers)
is mocked as 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' by the others but he often comes closer
than anyone to discovering the truth.
Completing the team, the sexy, determined Lucy (Laura Fraser,
He Knew He Was Right) wants to prove herself and play by the rules,
but is on the brink of a dangerous relationship with a police informant.
Gareth Neame, Head of Drama Commissioning at the 麻豆社, comments: "Blue
Blood - like Bodies and Brief Lives, which will appear in May and Autumn
2004 respectively - is perfect for a 麻豆社 THREE audience.
"Like a house of mirrors, each of these dramas takes a familiar
subject matter and inverts and distorts it resulting in a fresh, quirky
and innovative approach."
Blue Blood producer, Ann Harrison Baxter, continues: "Blue Blood uses
the volatile and dangerous world of the CID as a backdrop to show how
a group of very real characters are affected practically, mentally and
emotionally by what they have to face on a daily basis.
"It's also about the resilience and humour of family and friends
as they too deal with the psychological fall out."
Blue Blood is a Red Production Company production for the 麻豆社, written
by Bill Gallagher (Clocking Off, Out of the Blue), directed by Marc
Munden (Vanity Fair, Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale) and produced
by Ann Harrison Baxter (The Second Coming, The Cops).
The executive producers are Nicola Shindler for Red and Gareth Neame
for the 麻豆社.
