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ONE FROM THE HEART My Fragile Heart, a Tiger Aspect production for ITV
My Fragile Heart, a prime- time ITV two-parter for the autumn, is a sus- pense tale revolving around a child murder from the past and a more recent killing that carries with it terrible echoes of that previous crime. With that kind of sce- nario, it sounds as if it could all have been a bit grim for everyone making it. But not a bit of it. “I think it was the happiest shoot that everyone could remember working on,” explains DP Nigel Walters BSC.
A long time collaborator with director Gavin Miller, Walters chose a combination of Fuji stocks to give this “slightly odd tale a slightly different look. I suppose I was experimenting really, and that’s no bad thing.” This Tiger Aspect production pushes back the boundaries in more ways than one. It is the first drama commission the company has received from ITV and also offers a timely reminder to those who associate the company pri- marily with comedy work such as The Vicar of Dibley and Mr Bean.
“This is a complex and challeng- ing thriller,” says producer Rebecca De Souza, “but the writing has great
humour and warmth to it. It’s a real page turner which I hope will illumi- nate and entertain at the same time.”
Written by Abbi Morgan, it tells the story of a community in the Potteries riven by a murder 20 years ago. A group of teenage friends are shattered by the killing of one of their number, and inevitably grow up haunt- ed by the experience. Twenty years on they still bear the scars when one of their number, Trina (played by former Coronation Street star Sarah Lancashire) returns home to pick up the pieces of her old life.
But the man convicted two decades before (played by Lorcan Cranitch) has been released back into the community after serving only ten years, and when another murder occurs suspicion inevitably turns upon him once more. A fine cast also includes John McArdle, Robert Glenister, Eva Pope and Nicholas Gleaves.
Nigel Walters, whose past credits include the first series of Queer As Folk, Silent Witness, several series of Kavanagh, The Knock, Spender and Mother Love amongst many others, was the man charged with lighting this dark and atmospheric tale.
“The one major challenge we faced on this film was lighting an old loo factory,” he explains. “Everybody there was extremely helpful but they had hundreds, maybe thousands of fluorescent lights. We couldn’t change those, it just would have been a night- mare. I had a Spanish gaffer who was very keen on correct colour tempera- ture, so we managed to get that bal- anced for the fluorescents. And in the end I was very pleased with the result.
“With all the technological developments any imperfections in colour can be altered anyway. What happened in the factory, having balanced the fluores- cents to what seemed to be a very good and natural flesh tone, there were some areas which came out a funny laven- der colour. That was to do with the fact that I couldn’t filter all the windows through which dif- ferent levels of colour tempera- ture could come in.”
Temperatures rise on screen too, in a drama that is likely to continue Tiger Aspect’s recent fine run of form, with much acclaimed productions like Births, Marriages and Deaths, Playing The Field and Kid In The Corner, as well as the
forthcoming movie release Billy Elliot following its cinema hit, Kevin & Perry Go Large. ■ ANWAR BRETT
My Fragile Heart (lit by Nigel Walters BSC) and Kevin & Perry Go Large were both originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Photos from top; Lorcan Cranitch and Sarah Lancashire: scene from My Fragile Heart; Abbi Morgan (left) and Beccy De Souza Sarah Lancashire with Linda Rook; Linda Rook, Sarah Lancashire and Eva Pope; inset bottom: cinematographer Nigel Walters BSC
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tv production