BBC drama River was chance to explore mental health issues, says writer

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/06/bbc-drama-river-abi-morgan-explore-mental-health-issues

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The writer of acclaimed TV dramas The Hour and Sex Traffic has told how she used her new BBC1 detective series River to explore mental health issues and her own state of mind.

Abi Morgan said people in all walks of life deal with “emotional situations that fracture their minds”, prompting her to write the six-part series starring Stellan Skarsgard, the Swedish actor best known for his roles in films by Lars von Trier.

Morgan, who has written adaptations of Brick Lane and Birdsong, said she often talked out loud to herself – like the lead character John River, played by Skarsgard – and said “from anyone else’s perspective, I must look mad”.

“I felt that writing this was a way to explore my own mental health. I talk to myself all the time – it’s something my children have observed in the car. I’ll often have the argument with the person that I really want to say to their face,” she told the new issue of Radio Times.

“Occasionally, I’ve been on the tube and I’ve been thinking about something, and I’ll see someone looking at me, and I’ll think, ‘God! I’m talking out loud.’ And I realise that from anyone else’s perspective, I must look mad.

“I wanted to say, ‘In police departments, in hospitals, in newsrooms, in the banking industry, we have people who are dealing with emotional situations that fracture their minds’ and so that’s what made me start to write this.”

The story of a London detective who suffers a massive psychotic event when he loses his partner, River co-stars Eddie Marsan (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) as the manifestation of Thomas Cream, the long-dead Lambeth Poisoner and a real life 19th century killer.

River is one of the flagship dramas of BBC1’s autumn season and launches at a critical time for the corporation with its future size and funding under scrutiny as part of the government’s review of its royal charter.

BBC1 controller Charlotte Moore said the drama pushed the cop show genre “in surprising ways” and promised last month that every new commission on the channel would look to “break the mould”.

Morgan said: “The actual mechanics of a cop show are incredibly hard … and so to invigorate that was incredibly difficult. The whole piece is about acts of violence and how acts of violence can shatter you, and I wanted to look at a true psychotic character.”

The drama comes at a time when celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Ruby Wax have spoken of the need for society to address mental wellbeing in the same way as physical health.

Nicola Walker (Last Tango in Halifax, Spooks) who plays River’s partner, Jackie “Stevie” Stevenson, said mental health issues were not directly referenced in the drama.

“I don’t think Stevie thinks he [River] has a mental health issue; he is who he is, and she only sees great advantages to the way he navigates the world,” she said ahead of the series launch next Tuesday.

Related: Abi Morgan: 'I don't look back. I am totally now'

One of the industry’s most acclaimed and versatile writers – her latest film, Suffragette, starring Carey Mulligan, is released this month – Morgan said she missed BBC2’s The Hour, the Dominic West drama that was axed after two series, and regretted removing a riot from her film adaptation of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane.

“I took it out because I felt it didn’t happen – forgetting, of course, that it’s a work of fiction and dramatically it’s much needed,” she said.

Morgan, whose parents divorced when she was a teenager, is now researching a series about divorce.

“I’m writing about divorce lawyers and it’s fascinating. My parents’ divorce was very difficult. Divorce is essentially incredibly painful, but it’s also an essential part of life.”