MIPBlog spoke to Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Carribean) and Zoe Boyle (Downton Abbey) about Breathless, a series set in a 1961 teaching hospital. But it’s not a medical drama as such, as Davenport points out. Rather, « it allows you to explore themes like the role of women in society, and what was happening at that moment. The swinging sixties hadn’t really started… Britain was still a bombed-out shell, and society was still this rather glum, post-war place. »
« The time is perfect to explore a woman who is very in touch with her sexuality, but still has to keep a veneer of respectability, » said Boyle of her character… « and she’s not always great at it; she pushes her sexuality quite far, and she does it in order to get ahead. »
« It’s a good time to be working in television, » added Davenport: « there’s stuff of real scope and ambition being made that just weren’t 5 or 10 years ago. » Golden age, indeed!
Breathless (6 x 60′) was brought to MIPCOM by ITV Studios Global Entertainment, and was co-created and written by Paul Unwin (Casualty, Shameless).
More from MIPCOM: full conference videos here
