(gentle music) - The first thing I always start with is what do I wanna say?
What do I wanna write about?
It's not just a crime show.
It holds up a mirror to an aspect of how we're living today.
Then I think about what sort of murder I want to explore.
What is the primary driver of it?
We've had revenge, we've had psychopathy, a number of different motivators for the crime.
And then at that point, I start thinking about the specifics.
I start thinking about characters and who would be most interesting to be circling that dead body.
And then I go back to the beginning, and I place Sunny and Cassie in the middle of it all and start threading them through their encounters with these antagonists.
- Why would someone keep a body for 30 years?
- I'm growing and learning what their lives are as I write them in a very organic way, which is how we live our lives.
And as I write each series and the characters have things happen to them, I realize that I have to take them in a different direction.
When they come back for Series 2 and then Series 3 and Series 4, they're different people each time.
I can't tell you what's gonna happen at any one moment to the next.
I'll find it when I write it.
- I couldn't really see what was happening at first.
He was already gone.
He was already dead.
- When a scene really lands, it's still an incredible puzzle.
I was watching a cut yesterday, and there's a beautifully shot scene and a beautifully acted scene.
I just watch it and I grin, because when it really sings, what you feel is just incredibly lucky that you're doing this job.
Because it's very unusual to be able to write something and then for all these people to come together and translate it into something that you hope will move people and affect them and touch.
That feels like a great privilege.
(gentle music)
