- I had a couple of meetings where I had been asked to kind of explore what it means you
know the trauma of being a Muslim woman and I was sort of asked to a couple of times write
dramas and all my specs are comedy, so I'm like why am I being asked to do this?
And like I had a couple honor killing meetings?
Or like ‘oh, could you do this thing’ I was like it's not really my experience.
I've got these comedies, you know, and I remember being OK this is this is sort of annoying
and there was like a frustration from that which made me come up with We Are Lady Parts.
- Comedians, how does it work?
How does it work working with comedians?
How much space do you need to leave for improvisation?
What's the perfect alchemy?
How does, how does it work – Adjani?
- For this it’s weird, and now that I've acted in other stuff, I've realized the difference
but for our show, we write our jokes because I don't--I'm not funny.
So we make sure just come in, say a line.
- Pretty scripted.
- We vetted it.
It's fine, don't get too excited.
- You are not here to improvise!
- Yeah yeah, so yeah, but obviously we--and especially because the type of comedy is as
well I guess a lot of our like our jokes are vetted as well as to like the type of joke.
So, like what word you're allowed to say, so we really like for us we don't have much
room.
- Pretty tight, interesting.
OK, Nida, how about you?
- Yeah, I mean, I'm probably maybe a little looser, but again, quite, you know when you
write your comedy, it's written.
But I do enjoy sort of when I'm working with actors finding people who can do drama and
comedy and with our show We are Lady Parts there was a music element so there was--it
was comedy plus all this other stuff and I think I suppose where I think there was some
kind of interesting improv I would kind of rewrite when I saw how actors would say the
words and try and tailor it a bit more to their voice.
But I suppose I don't know, I wouldn't say I was a comedian, I'm a kind of comedy writer,
so it was a kind of introverted at my desk rewriting jokes rather than a stand up.
- Yeah, a different thing, yeah.
- It feels like a different thing, but ultimately I think you know you, you're trying to make
people laugh and then open them up enough to engage in a more meaningful way.
- Yeah, but also challenge them in making them laugh as well.
- Yeah, exactly.
- It's, you know, I think all of your shows kind of force us to think about ourselves
and our reactions to things.
Nathan, how does the process work for you?
- Uhm, I I'm lucky enough to work with the incredible Samson Kayo and he is fucking hilarious,
so it’s this thing of yeah, I might spend, yeah--
- You sit back, let him do it!
- I mean, I might spend you know half a year writing the scripts and it goes in front of
him and if he's got a funny line, I'm like ‘say it, my name is on the credits, boom!’
So I'm happy for any funny actor to improvise whatever.
- If somebody’s agent is in the audience.
- It says ‘written by Nathan Bryon’ and I'm like thank you very much I did not write
that.
No, but in our show we really, we open it and we've got so many comedy legends who have
been in this game for a billion years, a billion years longer than me.
I want them to bring everything and make it as funny as possible really.
- Excellent, OK, so different processes.
So let's hone in on the on the programmes now.
So first of all we have Adjani’s Dreaming Whilst Black.
Kwabs is stuck in a soulless job in recruitment and dreams of becoming
a filmmaker.
The series started on YouTube, is that right?
- Yeah no no.
And then she was like, ‘oh, this is a much better shape.’
Clearly not.
But yeah, it was just again this polishing those jokes and they were really onto us.
Even that thing there they were like ‘look how do you describe a black woman without
saying she's a black woman without putting a stereotype on her?’
Because that was also what we were trying to navigate as well and it was like cool she
changed her hairstyle a lot.
Alright cool, she likes spicy food, but it's like who is that?
And it was only randomly, I think it was when we were prepping for the shoot, our hair designer
Cynthia was like look man, look the hair thing is like, no.
She's like try--she's like you’re Jamaican like if he says something in patois that would
work and I said oh OK, cool them kind of things.
So and so I guess yeah, so that's how it works so everybody kind of contributes to like…
I guess it's not like everybody in the production kind of contributes to make sure that the
jokes are like on the line.
- The authenticity, the real, really.
OK, well that's I'm impressed.
- On to Nida.
We Are Lady Parts is a look at the highs and lows of the band members that make up a Muslim
female punk band, Lady Parts, as seen through the eyes of Amina Hussein, a geeky PhD student
who is recruited to be their unlikely lead guitarist.
Nida, do you feel, did you feel in making this, in writing, that you were pushing boundaries?
Or actually do not see it as pushing boundaries?
Do you just see it as trying to kind of wake people up to the reality of what being a Muslim
in Britain really looks like?
- Oh God, uhm, I think yes and no.
I mean the pushing boundaries feeling just felt that it was happening because I wasn't
seeing anything that explored the nuances and the different ways of being a Muslim woman.
So although I don't feel like I'm saying anything that isn't truthful, it felt like, you know,
there wasn't a lot of things that I could look to for inspiration.
Although you know there is great voices out there, but especially in television.
So in that respect, it felt like you know it was pushing something, but then you know
the story is so universal.
It's so true to myself, so as long as, you know when I was kind of staying kind of grounded
in my own truth, I felt that it would speak in in a universal way.
- Yeah, for everyone, yeah.
- So I think those were the two things and you know I kind of had so much encouragement,
encouragement from my team around me, my script editors, my producers who were really just
encouraging me to kind of go more in to my voice and just speaking to my friends and
my family and it’s a weird thing, when you draw from personal life and that kind of and
putting it into your work and then the kind of bleed between yourself and the story.
It can sometimes be just, you know, feels like you're pushing back boundaries personally
in just saying things that feel, you know, that you're delving into your own issues a
bit in in that in that sense.
But yeah, I don't know how else, sorry I’m just rambling.
- Are you a musician?
- Yeah I am.
Yeah, and I suppose like the music thing came because I really wanted, you know I had been,
I had a couple of meetings where I had been asked to kind of explore what it means you
know the trauma of being a Muslim woman and I was sort of asked to a couple of times write
dramas and all my specs are comedy, so I'm like why am I being asked to do this?
And like I had a couple honor killing meetings?
Or like ‘oh, could you do this thing’ I was like it's not really my experience.
I've got these comedies, you know, and I remember being OK this is this is sort of annoying
and there was like a frustration from that which made me come up with We Are Lady Parts
which I was like I'm gonna put music in it 'cause I play guitar, I'm basically Amina,
I’m geeky about--Paul Simon’s my guy, but I couldn't get him to clear—
- Not Don McLean.
- Don McLean’s alright but like Paul Simon, but anyway.
Uh, but you know, so I was like, ‘oh, I'm gonna write something I can just like put
all my favorite shit’ and get my siblings to write the music with me 'cause they're
all like actual musicians, so it was a real kind of just leaning into the things I think
I do best and what I'm passionate about.
- Brilliant, thank you and off camera, can I just ask you quickly about off camera.
How important was it for you to hire women of color so that it brought the story to life
from all angles?
Was that, did that feel like a kind of big part of it for you?
- Yeah, I suppose so.
You know I have had such great collaborators, P.C.
Williams who did the costume design.
You know I was just, yeah, P.C.
who won a BAFTA on Sunday, but you know, I was so just in all of her work and I knew
I wanted--she just has such an incredible way of working with costume in terms of like
it's heightened, but it's grounded in truth and it's like, aesthetically, I mean she's
the coolest person I know.
So I was like, please do my show.
And so I was really lucky.
And then Aisha Bywaters, my casting director again, a woman of color, incredible casting
director.
I'd worked with her on basically every comedy I directed up to We Are Lady Parts so I just
had this trust and she always brought interesting shorthand.
Yeah, she just really brought, you know would cost from Instagram, she'd she just, you know,
would look outside the usual channels and would just do amazing work.
And so yeah, it kind of and especially you know you're writing a show about women and
to have kind of women behind the camera.
We had like yeah, mostly women HODs and that just, it just created a vibe which was cool.
But you know, I'd say I don't go looking and you know I have male HODs too.
- But it's about putting that team together.
- Yeah men are cool too.
I employ men as well.
But you know it's the right people.
- Yeah, it's the right people absolutely.
Thank you.
OK and finally we've got Bloods, comedy series centered around paramedics in South London.
What was the hook?
What was the key to developing that main character?
Where did he come from?
- I mean, Samson and I, the way the show was made was amazing.
Sky came to Samson said ‘we want to make a 10 minute Sky Arts short’ and Samson sat
down with me 'cause he's obviously the busiest man in showbiz and he sat down he said, I'm
really interested in his character, I had this point in my life I was either going to
be a getaway driver or a paramedic, and I was like ‘that's our character!’
And that's kind of what we built Maleek around, that sort of juxtaposition.
But one thing we made sure in the show is that he is a competent, brilliant paramedic
because you don't get-- - And that’s what underpins it.
- Yeah he is brilliant and he cares and he loves what he does.
You know so that's kind of the heart of the show.
- Brilliant.
And what was it like, how important was it as a new talent having like someone like Raw
and Roughcut behind you?
- Oh, I mean like when I pulled up into Roughcut like day one, I'd never written a half hour
hour TV script so they really helped me through the process.
It was huge.
It was like a life change and there were days that were horrific where I'm like I shouldn't
be here this is too difficult.
But then you know, you get your script down.
Draft forty-five, forty-six.
- And then you know, there's a guy out there who's still only on draft thirty.
- Exactly I mean, I can still do this.
So Roughcut with Ash and Seb Barlow one of my producers like they keep you on track,
they inspire you, they keep you pushing and going.
And now you know we're about to, you know, we’re developing Series Three and I've learned
crazy amounts kind of getting there.
Thank you.
- Rumor has it you've also been working on your first feature, yeah?
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- I think you’ve just wrapped?
- Yeah, no.
So we wrapped the--is it the mix?
The mix.
So the films is wrapped wrapped.
- Final mix.
- Yeah yeah, the final mix is done so it'll be out hopefully—Yeah it’s done, it'll
be out this year or next.
It’s a beautiful black love story, it's a romcom, it's set in South London and it's
like it's just like a love letter.
It was just joyous, and that's what I want my work to be.
I want it to be about— - Title?
- It's called Rye Lane like in Peckham and it's fun.
And you're going to be safe watching it, there's gonna be no trauma just run up on you.
You know when you're just watching something and then suddenly some trauma happens.
You're safe, spoiler alert, you're safe.
No, no, hopefully it'll be good, and I wrote it with Tom Melia, who's an incredible writer
and Raine Allen Miller directed it and I'm so proud of it.
It's going to be fun.
- Brilliant, congratulations.
- Thank you.