Let’s talk about range. Few writers can jump from hilarious female-led comedy to dark conspiracy theory drama, and then move on to a glorious Roald Dahl musical. Dennis Kelly can. Now, the writer behind Utopia and Pulling is back with The Third Day, an unclassifiable drama/mystery/horror starring Jude Law. “I never really understand genre, it’s confusing”, Kelly says, which may go some way towards explaining his eclectic CV. He is interested more in telling a good story than in what form or genre that story takes.
The Third Day is an atmospheric, disorienting tale split into three distinct but interlinked parts. Summer, led by Law; Winter, led by Naomie Harris; and Autumn, a one-off as-live theatrical broadcast on Sky Arts (Saturday 3 October), masterminded by theatre icons Punchdrunk. As the show’s co-creator, Punchdrunk founder Felix Barrett had the ideal creative partner in Kelly. “He was the perfect match. Because he’s a theatre playwright as well, we have that common language,” says Barrett.
With the brilliant Utopia, Kelly proved he’s more than capable of pulling together a rich tapestry of character backstory, mystery and mythology. Viewers drove themselves mad with the repeated mantra of “where is Jessica Hyde?”, speculating over the villainous goals of The Network, while falling in love with morally dubious characters such as Arby and the brilliantly-named Wilson Wilson. The Third Day is set to inspire similar levels of speculation as Kelly and Barrett dig into what Kelly calls the “mythology and craziness” of the show’s island setting, and the characters’ unusual religious beliefs, inspired by the weird and wonderful Gnostic Gospels, which “say the world was created by the demiurge and the demiurge isn’t God, it’s something else, something slightly evil”, says Kelly.
The direction and visuals of The Third Day needed to reflect the tone of Kelly’s writing, so it’s no surprise that Kelly turned to Utopia director Marc Munden to direct the first of the three episodes. “With my writing you can read it one way, and become obsessed with the darker or more dangerous elements,” Kelly says. “But what I wanted someone to do was think of the other stuff – the more emotional stuff. Marc immediately responded to that.” For Munden’s part, he was in no doubt about collaborating with Kelly again. “I love working with him. His writing is so unique. His craft is so honed … He’s also been so prophetic. It’s typical that as we finish this series, we get hit by a virus that is straight out of our last series!”
Utopia fans associate Kelly with moments of shocking violence, and The Third Day will once again utilise Kelly’s ability to shock. “It was very interesting to work on how fear and suspense can be visually imagined and [it was] an adventure to peer into the weird mind of Dennis Kelly,” says director Philippa Lowthorpe, who directs Winter. “Dennis has an interesting take on violence – it’s always challenging the viewer – sometimes it’s bloody, sometimes chilling, at others times it’s casual, but it always feels real.”
Kelly is no shock-jock, though. He’s just as adept with comedy (albeit often dark) and children’s entertainment. Pulling, co-written by Sharon Horgan, dug into the messy, and often ugly, romantic lives of women, while he lent his pen to the multi-award-winning Matilda the Musical. He also wrote a stage adaptation of Pinocchio for the National Theatre. His fondness for comedy – even Utopia was hilarious in places – is what grounds his work, and stops the darkness from becoming too grim and painful to watch.
Kelly’s writing always sits right on the cutting edge, and often paves the way for similarly challenging work to follow. This has the unfortunate side effect of meaning that in the past Kelly has tended to be the canary in the mines, testing the waters with work that is a few years ahead of what many commissioners are comfortable with. Utopia was unjustly cancelled by Channel 4 after only two seasons, something that you can’t imagine happening in today’s era of dark, prestige TV populated with fascinating anti-heroes. Luckily, the TV landscape has finally caught up to his sensibilities.
Kelly’s reluctance to abide by the rules of “genre” presents TV commissioners and PR teams with a pickle: how to sell something that doesn’t fit neatly into a particular box? But that is also Kelly’s strength as a writer – viewers never know if he’s about to veer sharply into comedy, terror or tragedy. Recently the huge success of shows such as I May Destroy You and Years and Years have proved what Kelly has always known: that a show doesn’t need to adhere to a certain genre for viewers to latch on to it. Utopia is now finding a second life as a US remake, overseen by Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn, and The Third Day is fully embracing Kelly’s approach to genre, keeping viewers on their toes until the bitter end. Which is exactly where Kelly likes them.
The Third Day is available now on Sky
