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).
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