On relocating to Sri Lanka …
Setting the drama in the 1930s is a world away from gloomy Victorian London, but the show’s creator and writer Charlie Higson went one better and relocated the cast - for the beginning of the shoot - to Sri Lanka for a true Indiana Jones feel. “They said they wanted big, bold and exciting but I didn’t think we’d actually get to go out there. I thought we’d perhaps do a couple of days in Wales.”
Six months in 3 Mills Studios in the less idyllic east London followed, where six impressive permanent sets were built – “if it said stone floor, we had a proper stone floor” – and further exterior scenes were filmed in central London and Kent’s Chatham Dockyard (where BBC1’s Call The Midwife is filmed) and Rochester High Street.
On the perils of casting …
Casting an actor who has the foppish “Hugh Grant” manner of Jekyll but also the aggressive, physical presence of Hyde was the biggest hurdle Higson had to overcome. Even with the pick of Britain’s brightest young talents, the process only really confirmed one thing: “This country is very good at doing weedy types,” explains Higson. “They’re not the guys who punch people, they are the ones who make sarcastic remarks – which is why we supply those villains to Hollywood.
“In the 1960s we had the likes of Sean Connery and Michael Caine, but in the 1970s they disappeared as we went down the Ken Loach “Kitchen Sink” drama route. We haven’t developed any tough guy actors since. If you had to name five: Tom Hardy, Jason Statham … the Mitchell brothers?! Modern acting is very internalised, you can’t fake staring someone down – and our actors aren’t trained to do that.’
So how do you solve a problem like Jekyll and Hyde? “I’d much rather create a new star than take someone existing. Tom Bateman was doing Shakespeare in Love so he was commanding the stage and doing all this physical stuff. He came in, let rip, and terrorised us all in the audition. He’s got old school matinee idol looks but really enjoys the Hyde stuff.”
On supernatural transformations …
“The monsters were trickier to cast,” jokes series producer Foz Allan. “There aren’t many of them in (talent agency) Spotlight.” It’s amazing what you can do with a combination of physical theatre actors, costume and makeup, prosthetics and, of course, CGI special effects by Dneg (Double Negative, the team behind Man of Steel and Godzilla). “But mainly it was down to Charlie’s imagination. It’s all about the humour, for example, The Harbinger who has a man’s head and a dog’s body.”
With the exception of Bella (with her fabulous 1930s landlady ensembles), almost every character has a single costume and this was very deliberate. This is no Downton Abbey. “It’s like a cartoon; like when you see Peter Parker he has a t-shirt on, when you see Spiderman he’s in a red suit,” explains Allan.
The transformation from Jekyll to Hyde was more complicated, with five stages of makeup – from the veins that appear on his skin to the resulting wild-haired monster. “The secret is really Tom’s swagger,” adds Allan. “How do you make someone evil pre-7pm? We made him the most charismatic man in the world. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards rolled into one.”
On superhero stunts …
With a bit of help from Star Wars stunt co-ordinator Nick Gillard, of course. “I asked him why he wanted to do this when he does such big movies,” says Bateman. “He loved that the action isn’t gratuitous. The maverick side to Hyde is a huge story-telling devise, rather than a bit of action to titillate the audience.”
And they certainly got more than they bargained for, from their leading man. “When Tom was due to smash one mirror, he actually smashed three and we captured his natural performance,” recalls Allan. “Every so often that happens, and it’s a magical thing when it does.”
