‘Amber’ - the internationally acclaimed Irish drama about a missing 14-year-old girl from IFTA-winning Dublin director Thaddeus O’Sullivan – has been acquired by BBC4 and Netflix UK, following its RTÉ premiere coming this Autumn.
The four-part Screenworks series was shot in Dublin back in 2011 and, although it arrives late to Irish screens, has already garnered an international fanbase in territories including North America, South America, Canada and Australia.
Paul Duane, who co-created ‘Amber’ with Rob Cawley, spoke to IFTN this week about why the series has connected so strongly with audiences around the world.
Mr Duane, how does it feel to know that ‘Amber’ will finally reach both Irish and UK audiences, with the news that it’s been bought by BBC4 and Netflix UK? ‘We’re thrilled that 'Amber' is going to be shown on the channel that brought us ‘The Killing’ and ‘Borgen’. It fits into that mould very well and I think that’s why they’ve latched onto it. They see it as a successor to the Scandinavian noir.’
How do you think the themes in the series resonate with audiences? ‘I think it’s specifically the story of a family who loses their daughter but also in a much broader sense it’s a story about grief and loss and damage. And I think within Ireland over the last five or six years, as a country we’ve suffered a great deal of loss and damage. My feeling is that the show taps into something in the national psyche about our traumatic last decade and it will be interesting to see how it plays for a UK audience. Thaddeus O’Sullivan directed it and obviously his work has been broadcast all over the world and we wanted to universalise it and not for it only to speak to Ireland. Although an Irish audience was the one we had in mind most of all, so I’m dying to see how they react to it when it gets its Irish premiere.’
What do you make of the international reception ‘Amber’ has received? ‘There has been a fantastic reaction from Australia, South America, North America and Canada, and we get messages everyday from people in every part of the world asking if there’s going to be a second series and expressing how much they like the show. So it speaks to people all over the world which was our aim. It was intended as a show that would travel, although it’s set in a very specific part of Dublin. In order to be international, you’re best off making the details of ordinary life ring true, because they’re the same everywhere.’
Thanks very much for your time, Mr Duane.
‘Amber’ stars Eva Birthistle (‘Waking the Dead’) and David Murray (‘Raw’) as the parents of 14-year-old Amber Bailey whose disappearance leads them on an emotional two year search - with each episode playing with the chronology and focusing on different characters’ perspectives.
Other cast members include Lauryn Canny, Levi O’Sullivan and Justine Mitchell.
The script was co-written by Gary Duggan and Rob Cawley, who produced with Mr Duane (writer of 'Secret Diary of a Call Girl’) for Dublin-based Screenworks.
Director Thaddeus O’Sullivan won the IFTA award for Best TV Director in 2010 for HBO’s ‘Into the Storm’, starring Brendan Gleeson as Winston Churchill, for which he was also nominated for an Emmy.
Mr O’Sullivan was also nominated for the IFTA for Best Film Director in 2012 for ‘Stella Days’.
‘Amber’ will screen on RTÉ as part of its Autumn line-up, and the trailer can be viewed below:
