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BritBox, the world’s premier streaming service for all things British, had a massive debut at NYCC 2024 with their original series PASSENGER. Amongst all the reception, the cast and writer sat down to chat with Off The Cuff Tom.
Discussing Passenger with Creator Andrew Buchan
NI: Passenger on Britbox, today’s the day it’s big, it’s out, and it’s everywhere. What does it feel like for you?
AB: It’s a real pinch myself moment, I would say. I in no way expected it, but I’m also kind of very giddy and excited.
NI: The way that the show is shot, there are some nice steady shots, there are some rocky shots is that like the tension. What is it like to be on set and try to make those choices?
AB: Well, we had two impeccable directors called Lee Hayden Jones and Nicole Charles. Lee directed the first three episodes. When I first sat down with him and his dop (Director of Photography), Scott Brian they said “This is the kind of look of the show that I think we should go okay.” I’m not sure you’re going to be able to achieve that with the budget that we have probably, but that’s quite out there and cinematic Then we did the read-through for the show, and then, after the read-through, we all went app to the 1st floor and myself and the execs and the director and the dop all sat down with the other powers that be and Brian did his demonstration of this is how I think the show should look with these filters and these tones and these colors and I’m surprised he’s still banging that drum, they’re never going to say yes, that and they all went, yeah, I mean that looked great. They asked if we could achieve lo and behold in week one, and we sat down and watched all the rushes spill. Through and I don’t know how he did it, but he did it. I’m utterly utterly blown away.
NI: Do you think that your background in acting informed your writing?
AB: Without question, without question, because I was acutely aware that I didn’t want to give any character anything too dimensional or too thin, too superficial, I wanted to give the meat on the bone and give them a proper journey to go on. I was acutely away.
NI: The Town itself is very dated, then you mix in, oh well, we’ve got smartphones, I absolutely love, it! Paying attention to the set and décor and getting a feel for it. You go into the Police station, and they have computers from 2000-IDK. So what was it like for you when you’re presenting them, as a writer, presenting the scene and the layout and then how it was portrayed From the set design was done?
AB: I’m pleased you asked! It’s stunning. So I mean, to see an entire floor of people an entire this vast office space of people, the art department all chiseling away on ideas or facets of ideas that have come from your imagination was the biggest thrill that I, you know that you know you could possibly I feel so indebted to, I’m like, what are you working I got to one table envelope. What are you working on a result, or I’m working on this particular part of the Police station and these bits, or I’m working on Ria’s car, or I’m working on the fracking, where balance signs, or what? This particular kind of spray paint we should have to see all that that something has come from your imagination, and this team so dedicated and invested is, you know, it’s very humbling. We feel that, in certain ways, we’re introducing America to a part of England that hasn’t been exposed to furniture. Maybe you know, because many shows are very London-centric, and what you have here is a very northern English community, which is where I grew up.
NI: Specifically?
AB: Specifically in a town called Bolton, about 20 minutes from Manchester, about 40 minutes from Liverpool, and in these communities that I grew up with, there’s a magic that people there’s a warmth to them was a shorthand to the way they act and speak, and no matter how dark or deep or desperate the struggle, they flatten it with wit anecdote to the antidote, and no matter how high no matter how high the stakes they answer it with humor that’s always the way so I want it to create A fictional, northern community and puncture it with something obscure and otherworldly, but the reason why I mention all that is that so in the north of England, you’d have these tiny, often coupled streets with rows of Terraced Houses. If you were put to sleep and you woke up there, you would be forgiven for thinking that on occasions, you’d woken up in the middle of the second World War because they feel very of that ear, and some of them have been very preserved from that area and yet, if you look in from the pavement, the sidewalk into any of their living, doing. Into any of their living rooms, they’ve got a brand new 60 inch plasma. It’s at the juxtaposition so when people go, “Hold on this seems like a show that’s set in time! Why’s shes got a brand new mobile?” The houses are extremely old set in time, but devices are Bang up-to-date.
NI: You’re showing really a socio-economic state of the of the town and peoples mindset.
NI: Where do you see Passenger going?
AB: So, it’s a limited series, but that isn’t to say that I don’t have an entire journey mapped out in my head.
NI: Were you also involved in the casting process? What was that like for you being an actor and now you’re on the other side of the table and its project is your baby?
AB: The only person I knew who I wanted to play, who was I knew that I wanted Wunmi as the lead. I knew that the for several years in advance. I went to drama school with Wunmi, and she’s the most wonderful, incredible actress. I don’t think she’d mind me telling you that I saw in certain roles theater roles where she was playing a bit part character. I remember coming downstairs to the lobby and thought she should be playing bigger roles than that, so I wanted to put up from the center and give us something very raw and challenging.
Is Barry Slone really a really bad guy?!
NI: What was it like for you to get this role? What how long was the process of auditioning for the show
BS: Sometimes the universe just lined these things out, so I was doing a play in the West End called Jerusalem, which was about a small community, and I played this kind of rough, rugged tattooed outsider, who was quite violent and then the producers from the show were in to see it. And I met them afterward, and they were like this, you were f****** great that there’s a show coming up that has some of the similar themes. There’s nowhere near the same story a very by the by conversation. Then I was in LA, missing the north of England and I received. This script from my wonderful team and instantly I was like taken back home. I was like, wow, okay. I know these people I know this place, I know the story and all this land and just jumped out of me states away so I was like, yeah, I need to be involved in this. Let’s just get a conversation going. Please send me some stuff over the conversation put myself on tape. They liked it, they offered it and I was off and was running.
NI: Now, being from North, and wanting to be back home. What was it like for you stepping into the town and seeing when and where it’s at like. I feel as if it’s its own character and lends so much to the whole idea of what’s going on? What was it that like for you to get in there? Was it comforting, or was it disconcerting??
BS: The whole place you know, feels heavy. There’s this beautiful for Bolden. As you see in the shell cliff like the face right behind, it’s an old mine in town, you know, it would have been thriving back in the day, but now it’s kind of broken down, beat it, just it, just you’re in the shadow. It never gets light quite, you know, like there’s not enough Sun. It’s just it’s always in perpetual kind of twilight, which is a weird spot, you know, and you add snow to that and the weather that comes in the winds and it’s got its own energy, so it was great to film around there. And you know what I liked about it was the version of the north that we’re selling in this, although it’s a foreboding and cruel place times Chadder Vale. I think it looks gorgeous on screen! We get to see this side of it, rather than some of the depictions of the north on TV are not quite as complementary, shall we say, because they’re not written by a Northener usually.
NI: So your character had just gotten out of jail. What was that like for you as an actor? Where did you go to be able to get there by the time your character came out? Because that’s heavy stuff to deal with, especially knowing your character wasn’t really sure about what happened.
BS: Yeah, and absolutely. I mean, look you look into, you know, I’ve alarmed myself with health charities for a long time and the effect of that has with guilt and shame and trauma. I was acutely aware of what this guy might have gone through, not being able to understand why. He’d been accused of or claiming, really wasn’t aware of what he’d gone through. I’d spoke with people who’d been incarcerated and tried to get their life back afterwards in the world, not allowing those doors so open, even if you’d be rehabilitated, to whatever level, sometimes put that because you refuse or are able to follow a structure of society and then you come out and then you’re told you can’t be part of a society didn’t want to be part of in the first place. It’s such an interesting juxtaposition, whether you find yourself in, but for me to simplify it. I was starting day one on release with a clear goal to make that family work that I could play that I understood as a father of two, so I attacked there from there and I wanted him to feel like when I spoke with the producers and they had a makeup department for the costume to feel like a version of a bad guy or a ne’erdowell from anytime that you’ve ever seen shows, so I wanted to feel like he could be in the 50s right through to now. Yeah, so I wanted to feel like we know this guy.
NI: There was one particular scene at the Carvery where you snort! Please tell me that was Ad Libbed?
BS: Yeah, great actor reacts brilliantly and Wunmi’s reaction to that sold it. I was going through it the night before. I told the director i’d be blocked in my head for a couple of weeks, and I asked my wife, should I do this?
NI: There’s a lot on your shoulders when you’re acting. What do you do when you get out of character? What is your breakdown when you get out of the world?
BS: It’s very important, and I’ve been blessed to do a lot of theater in my career and I was told by actors much finer than said, “The character requires none of you, and you require none of the character. So you wipe your feet on the way in. You wipe your feet on the way out.” So if you do your homework, you practice conduct that you prepare the vessel so that you can be taken on a journey by whatever happens in the scene. I don’t have to put myself as I’m gonna torture and turmoil and kill myself. Theater can be a bit tougher on that because the demons are a lot closer for a lot longer and you have to replay the scene again and again and again, but for this, you just need to be open and honest and truthful and let people see your soul. I was prepared to do that.
NI: What was it like working with the younger cast in that whole family dynamic? You know, because the girls seem absolutely lovely but your demeanor and their tenseness, what was that like since your a dad too?
BS: It was really hard. So Natalie, Rowan, and Matilda filmed for about two and a half weeks prior to me turning up, so they’d already been in the house set. They’d filmed together. They had a rapport and I basically just rolled up that day. The 1st day, when I was sitting at the kitchen table, I had lined up my cigarettes, my wallet, everything we had all a house regimented. I was like sat there, waiting for f****** family to come in to. I asked not to meet the girls to get a natural reaction out of it. I was going into their space and taking it by my big guy and taking up a lot of it, you know, purposely, and it was great—younger actors like that are fearless, brave, and excited, and having them uncertain reminds you . I’m in my 40s, now you do a lot of jobs and since I said, okay, great, I’m doing another job, but they keep you honest and they keep you like the joy of everything today, yeah, they’re great at their powerhouses and Natalie as well, who plays my wife who’s f****** fantastic. They’re just so f****** real, you know, strong woman.
The Complex Lead Reiya, played by Wunmi Mosaku
NI: So Passenger its intense, really intense. What was that like for you?
WM: It was fun like I really feel like filming in the north is such a special experience like we are a really lovely bunch of folks and I, coming instead, every day was joyful. The dialogue it was so juicy, had ever really felt witty and simple and then it also felt really, r ch, if I’m kind of Lewis and then it felt really like ordinary all-in-one all in one sentence and it felt like you know the way we speak up more is it, whether it’s your own poppet or like, you know, like I love, I love that. But yeah, and so you know, all that walking onto a set that’s like feels like you’re walking into narnia, and it’s like just feels so everything felt radiant is heightened. I don’t know how to despite just items, but also just down-to-earth too.
NI: What was an average day on set for you like.
WM: And on the average day, I mean, you know, I was on a lot, so it was pretty
Yeah, I mean we with the commute form Manchester was quite long and I feel like we had some bad weather where like in the north now and like there was sometimes like the motorway was closed. Okay, we’ve got to take the country Roads. It felt very like communal and between the cast and the crew it felt like a really healthy environment really northern calm environment.
NI: Sepeaking with Andy that the town itself is its own character. Was that like stepping back in time for you, you know, it did it put you in a particular mindset?
WM: 100% with the tea cakes, and the carvery, a 100% in my Reiya’s house with every set was so wonderfully designed that and felt like who oh I know these people. I know these people like it felt very specific and yeah, yeah.
NI: Your character goes down some really heavy heavy stuff, you know, we definitely see flashbacks of something significant that happened. What is that like for you, as an actor? Where’s your mindset going into the scene and what is it for you to actually come back out of it? I know a lot of folks can kind of get stuck in a moment.
WM: For me, it’s about reconnecting to the things that I love and the people. So after a heavy day for me, I would my first port of call is alone time. second, but what a call is call my husband then my mom, it’s about regrounding and we, you know, some people do they have really cool things which I didn’t, I didn’t know I kind of learned this before like a couple of jobs ago where they would you know, like pick the color green and anything in the room that’s great and then got a like kind of ground themselves, like that as a grounding, and then, after a scene, kind of like, do that again found that really interesting. My version of it is like talking to spending time on my own and then spending time with the family.
NI: Did you know this part was made for you?
WM: Yeah, but he said to me he was writing something and we were just talking and then he was like, actually, maybe the thing I’m writing might be actually so he kind of wrote continued and regrounding with me and mine, which was really quite flattering.
NI: What was something that you didn’t realize that was going to come out of your character until you started?
WM: Opening up to love that was not something that I was expecting and it wasn’t something I found it quite difficult to kind of get out of her defensively mode, because I was like, I don’t think so I don’t think she would, I don’t think that. She would, yes, he is, and how are you going to make that leap? And it was really about being vulnerable. I need to kind of for the growth of the character, explore her vulnerabilities more.
NI: Has there been anything that you’ve picked up from previous roles that you brought to this, or do you try and do everything as its own separate thing? Is there any habits off screen that you’ve done once you’re trying? You know, do you have your little ritual
WM: Um, for me, the thing that I really wanted to make sure that happened on which was now my set, which was I had never been number one uncle on a TV show. I wanted to make sure that everyone felt like it was that I was a safe person. They could talk to, if they needed an advocate I wanted to make sure that it was a joyful set. That there was no place any kind of bad energy. I just wanted to make sure there was forany kind of negative bad energy and that, especially because we had so many young newbies on the set and that they knew that they had an advocate someone that they could always call on if they had any questions or like any concerns and so that was a part to me and I’ve learned that from, you know, I’ve been on, I’ve been very lucky to have been on really lovely sets, so that was really important to me, to make sure that even if I was having a bad day that it felt like a good, it’s still.
I’m Chuffed!!
Honestly folks if you don’t have BritBox you are missing out! Go and subscribe, enjoy all the wonderful shows on the streaming service! But best of all the Passenger! It fit perfectly into the cool dark nights for October.
You can Check out the trailer below:
Written by debut screenwriter Andrew Buchan, who is best known for his acting roles on Broadchurch, The Honourable Woman and Better, Passenger explores a close-knit community who are unwilling to face their fears of change, of outsiders and of the unknown. Set in the fictional small Northern town of Chadder Vale, Former Met Police Detective Riya Ajunwa (Wunmi Mosaku) investigates a series of strange and inexplicable crimes that have the townsfolk spinning on an axis. Riya arrived in decaying Chadder Vale five years ago and has since been searching for that ‘one big crime’, the challenge that will make her feel alive again. Then one night local girl Katie Wells (Rowan Robinson) mysteriously disappears. The town barely has time to register her absence before she reappears the next day, apparently safe and sound. The townsfolk ask few questions and normal life resumes. But for Riya, a relative outsider to the Chadder Vale way of life, none of this sits right. As a series of strange happenings and increasingly shocking crimes start unfolding within the town, the residents resort to short-sighted theories and blame outside influences such as the fracking site and its manager Jim Bracknell (David Threlfall). As things become stranger, the people push back on Riya’s absurd notion that something is not right with this town. But what are they so afraid of?
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