These days, any drama with the U.K.’s Sheridan Smith raises expectations, especially if her role is written by Tony Schumacher, creator of “The Responder.”
Winner of a BAFTA TV Award for “Mrs Biggs” (2013) and TV Choice Award for “Cilla” (2015), Smith was also the star of last year’s “I Fought the Law.” “No one does this kind of drama better than Sheridan Smith. Ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances are what she does, and few do it better,” said The Guardian in a review.
Smith is also a master of mixed emotion reaction, such as resolution and vulnerability. She’s likely to show both in “The Cage,” which reteams Schumacher with Fremantle and unites him with Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe’s high-flying and creator-friendly Element Pictures, a Fremantle company.
Commissioned by Director of BBC drama Lindsay Salt for BBCiPlayer and BBC One with global sales handled by Fremantle, “The Cage” is shaping up as one the big unveils at Fremantle’s Feb. 27 showcase at the London TV Screenings.
Chosen by Variety as one of the Screenings’ Hot Picks, it also now has new images, shared in exclusivity with Variety.
Smith stars opposite Michael Socha (“The Gallows Pole,” “Showtrial”) another striking actor discovered and cast like “Adolescence” star Stephen Graham in “This is England” by Shane Meadows.
In “The Cage,” Smith and Socha play Leanne and Matty, a single mum and compulsive gambler who skim cash from the safe of their Liverpool Casino, soon with the mob and police closing down
Expect a taut crime drama – “high-stakes and high-energy,” says Fremantle – which will stand out from the pack by its nuanced performances, a story of “two unforgettable characters” as Fremantle puts it, and its heart, through it mix of crime thriller and family drama: Leanne, a single mother, turns to her amateur heists to avoid losing her family flat, Mattie to get some money to his daughter as child maintenance, despite his chronic gambling. “One final heist becomes their last chance for escape – because in ‘The Cage,’ everyone’s gambling,” the series’ synopsis ends.
Majority owned by Fremantle from 2022, Element Pictures is behind Yorgos Lanthimos’ four-time Oscar winner “Poor Things,” as well as multiple Lenny Abrahamson titles such as “Room,” a best actress Academy Award winner for Brie Larson and his major TV hit “Normal People.”
“The Cage” is directed by Al Mackay (“Kidnapped,” “Without Sin”) and shot in and around Liverpool and Merseyside in the U.K.
Hilary Martin serves as executive producer for Fremantle, with Aird, Guiney and Lowe for Element Pictures, alongside Schumacher and Smith. Lucy Richer is the executive producer for the BBC, with Clare Shepherd as producer.
In the build-up to Fremantle’s Friday showcase, Aird, Element Pictures head of TV, and Fremantle’s Rebecca Dundon, SVP, head of scripted content, talked to Variety about what marks “The Cage” apart in an age where buyers are looking for crime dramas more than any other program type but want series that bring something fresh to the table.
When “The Cage” was announced, you are quoted, Chris, as saying “Tony writes characters from the heart that break your heart.” Is that connected to what you add: That “The Cage” is “a crime show” but also “a show about family”?
Chris Aird: That’s exactly what Tony does. This show is hopefully an exciting crime story with the stakes of crime stories. People are breaking the law and cutting across other people’s interests. What marks Tony’s writing out, however, is that you really feel why these people are forced into doing what they do and their very real problems in their lives. Leanne is very worried that she’s going to lose the [family] flat; Mattie is a terrible addict and forever in hock to his moneylender.
Rebecca Dundon: Tony and Element have created amazing flawed underdog characters that are instantly likeable and charismatic. “The Cage” is a crime heist thriller with great characters who aren’t evil people, just trying to survive and make a better life. In the world today, people are often looking for their own escape, to get themselves out of these situations and you really are instantly with them. But this is all wrapped up in a propulsive, twisty-turny surprising show that really throws the crime genre on its head by giving you characters that you want to win, despite being on the other side of the law.
And this is what drew you to the story?
Dundon: Definitely. From an international perspective, it’s so important that you have characters that surprise and stories that feel fresh in genres that work. Crime is going to continue be a bedrock for many platforms, many buyers. It’s what most people enjoy. But we never want to offer something that someone’s seen before. Tony’s writing and this show will surprise audiences and bring new audiences to the crime genre, because it’s got heart, levity and high stakes.
You have two of the finest performers in British TV. How was the casting process?
Dundon: They’re magnetic. That’s the best word for them. They pull and push against one another throughout the series and draw the audience in. What the team have done so well with casting here is that they’ve really made sure that the chemistry between those protagonists is paramount. You have to be able to have that banter between them, the ability to champion one another as well when they feel like they’ve lost everything.
Liverpool has a large presence in the series but I wonder if this isn’t only as a setting but in terms of actors having a confidence in the authenticity of their performance, of hitting the right beats because Tony, from Liverpool, would tell them if they didn’t. Could you comment?
Aird: That’s interesting and I think you’re right. Everyone who is involved in this show, from Tony downwards, were really invested in making a show partly about Liverpool and about that kind of slightly intangible thing, but you know it when you feel it. Both Sheridan and Michael also really keyed into it. It is about humanity. It’s about vulnerability. It’s about also warmth and humor in the face of adversity. It’s all these things. Interestingly, neither Sheridan nor Michael are actually from Liverpool, but Sheridan does a very, very good Scouse accent. They’re both from the north of England. And they both said they tap into that.
As actors, they are very good at small physical details….
Aird: Yes, what’s great about this show is we can keep it feeling real and authentic, because actually we don’t need huge, high concept things to happen because it is about that character response to the real. How would you really cope with being up against one of the city’s most dangerous gangsters? How would that actually feel? Rather than a pat kind of genre way of approaching it, you really understand the hot water that they get themselves into because they both feel so real.
Dundon: Touching on authenticity, Liverpool is authentic, real but with a really exciting colour palette that feels unusual and that we haven’t seen on screen. It just opens the whole world up, which we feel is going to make a real difference internationally, because it’s Liverpool like we haven’t seen before. Director Al Mackay has done an incredible job in creating that intimacy of performance, but with this beautiful kind of backdrop.
Aird: Al and Árni Filippusson, our DP, made a decision really early on that they wanted to light up this world and use a kind of directional light. And we shot this in Spring last year and it literally didn’t rain for four months: The whole show is suffused in bright, warm sunlight.
More people are talking about the value of authenticity than they used to. I wonder if that’s a reaction to the large amount of non-authenticity in the world….
Aird: That’s really interesting. I’d say that we’re crying out for human connection not mediated by little boxes on screens. And I think that a show like ‘The Cage’ is all about human connection. It’s about the people you work with, the people you live with, your family. I would hope that this is the kind of show that people might watch together as well. I think we are crying out for that at the moment: that authenticity of character as well as a cracking good story too.
How does the show fit into your production strategies?
Dundon: With regards to Fremantle’s distribution arm, we’re always looking for strong crime series, commercial dramas that are going to cut through, make noise, surprise us but be in a familiar genre that people enjoy, that they want to sit down with their partners, that can speak to a number of different platforms and buyers, whether that’s the public broadcasters whom we absolutely adore or the streamers. “The Cage” is that in spades.
Working with great, great creatives is also part of both your strategies…
Dundon: For us, it’s absolutely a bonus for us that it’s an Element show and have Tony come back after the success of “The Responder,” a huge international hit for us. Buyers are actively following what he’s going to do next because they love his tone of voice, and the fact that he’s bringing it to life in a surprising way and in a very different way to what we’ve seen him do before is a real honor for us.
Aird: You’re absolutely right. “The Cage” fits into Element’s strategy which is to support the very best creative voices in the business, whether they’re filmmakers or screenwriters. We’re always trying to do that. On the film side, we work with the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos and Lenny Abrahamson and Joanna Hogg. Now on the TV side as well, we’re hoping to expand on that.
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