Award winning Irish director Aisling Walsh (Song For a Raggy Boy, Trial & Retribution) is set to film a new BBC Drama ‘Loving Miss Hatto’ on location in Dublin, Ireland this coming April. The €2million production will be produced by Octagon Films (The Tudors, Raw, As if I’m Not There) and Left Bank Films for the BBC with financing from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board.
The announcement, made today by Minister Jimmy Deenihan, confirms Irish creative talent working on the major TV drama include recent IFTA winner Anna Rackard (Stella Days) as production designer and Costume Designer Alison Byrne (When Harvey Met Bob, The Take).
Casting is still underway for the series with Francesca Annis (The Libertine) and Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2) lined up to take the leads.
'Loving Miss Hatto' is the story of the greatest fraud that has been perpetrated in the classical music world and how a married couple in the 70s, sitting in their small bungalow in Royston, Hertfordshire, was able to pull it off.
The story of Joyce Hatto (Annis) - belatedly discovered as Britain’s greatest living pianist in her 70s when she was tragically suffering from inoperable cancer - is a seemingly romantic one. When Joyce Hatto died in June 2006 her obituaries were unanimous – here was one of the best British piano players that had ever lived, the breadth of her repertoire extraordinary.
Commenting, Octagon producer James Flynn said “We are delighted that a company of the calibre of Left Bank who have produced, amongst many other projects, ‘The Queen’ with Helen Mirren and ‘The Damned United’ with Michael Sheen, have decided to return to Ireland after their successful experience here with ‘Father and Son’ in 2009.”
This latest project brings the tally of BBC drama’s filming in Ireland this year to three with ‘Vexed’ and ‘Ripper Street’ unveiled last week - bringing UK TV drama spend in the Irish economy to €13 million for the first quarter.
Read a recent IFTN interview with Aisling Walsh here
