Current Productions

Unforgiven

Structurally influenced by such films as Crash and Short Cuts, Unforgiven starts off with four apparently unrelated stories, which slowly start to interweave and bounce off one another.

At its heart is Ruth Slater, a 32-year-old ‘lifer’, released from prison on license after serving fifteen years for murdering two policemen. Ruth’s overwhelming desire is to find her younger sister, Katie, with whom she lost contact when she was sent down.

John and Izzie Ingram are a happy, successful, professional couple with teenage sons, living in a converted 17^th century farmhouse on the West Yorkshire moors. Their perfect world is turned upside down when they realise they are sharing their home with a poltergeist. Soon Izzie discovers that fifteen years ago, their beautiful home was the scene of a grizzly double murder, perpetrated by 17-year-old Ruth Slater.

Michael and Rachel Thomas are dedicated parents who are proud of their two adopted daughters’ academic achievements, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when the eldest daughter, Lucy, a gifted pianist, attempts to commit suicide for reasons no-one seems able to fathom, least of all herself. Michael and Rachel flounder even more when they receive a letter from a lawyer representing Ruth Slater, requesting contact with vulnerable Lucy. Lucy has never been told that she was once Katie Slater, and that her real sister is a convicted killer.

Kieran Whelan is doing the dirty on his brother, Steve, by having an affair with Steve’s wife, Hannah. Although she is being unfaithful to Steve, Hannah is concerned about him. The reason she embarked upon the ill-fated affair is because he has been increasingly distant. The trouble is that the woman who shattered Steve and Kieran’s lives fifteen years ago when she murdered their father is due for release this week. Believing that life should mean life, the two brothers take the law into their own hands. But just how far are they capable of going? Can they really do to Ruth Slater what she did to their father?

After spending almost half her life in prison, Ruth Slater is a very different human being to the one that got sent down fifteen years ago. She leaves prison determined not only to find her sister, but determined to put her life back together. Part thriller, part family drama, part ghost story, Unforgiven is essentially a ripping good yarn, with twists and turns right up until the last moment. In many obvious ways it’s a dark piece, yet all the characters behave the way they do because of love. It has a good number of lighter moments too. It’s a complex, interwoven, satisfying and ultimately uplifting story, with strong, well-defined, very real, sympathetic characters who drive the plot along.

Sally Wainwright is the award winning writer of ‘At Home With The Braithwaites’ and was driven to write the story when she started working on the character of Ruth. “The starting point for me was imagining what it must be like to suddenly find yourself on the wrong side of the law – and spectacularly so – as 17-year-old Ruth did fifteen years ago; what it must be like to spend fifteen years of your life locked up for what was essentially (in Ruth’s case) a moment of panic and madness, and what it’s like to come out after all that time, with very little support. Also what it’s like to live with the knowledge that you’ve ended two people’s lives, and wrecked the lives of those around them. What it must be like to live with yourself, and how you negotiate living with others, when you have made yourself a social pariah. I was fascinated by the dramatic possibilities these thoughts offered”.

Sally first worked with Nicola Shindler at Red Production Company on the 2002 drama ‘Sparkhouse’ for BBC1, which was a modern version of the Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ story, tonally ‘Unforgiven’ is very similar. This time Sally didn’t need a book for inspiration, in fact she came up with the entire, complex story over night! “The story came to me very quickly; I worked the whole thing out overnight, and the next morning pitched it to Nicola, who I felt certain would get it straight away; I felt certain she would enjoy the complexity and darkness of it but would appreciate that such a piece can have its lighter, more human moments too.”

Although the idea came quickly, Sally did intensive research to make sure the drama felt authentic. “I visited HMP Askham Grange just outside York as part of my research for Unforgiven, and it was one of the most interesting things I have ever done. Askham Grange is an open prison for women, and it’s where someone like Ruth would be sent for the last two years of her sentence, in preparation for release. Here they teach women who’ve been incarcerated for years how to cope with living in society again. An officer there told me that after the initial euphoria of being given a release date, most women who’ve been inside so long go through a phase of being utterly terrified. The prison service is often portrayed negatively in television drama, but what I witnessed at Askham was in fact very uplifting, and I hope this is reflected in the drama when Ruth is released at the beginning of episode one.”

Casting the lead was also surprisingly straight forward “ Suranne’s fantastic at playing complicated people with difficult backgrounds. Complicated people aren’t always likeable, but they often make compelling screen characters. Ultimately, Ruthis a sympathetic character, but she is also a tough woman who has learned everything the hard way, and I wanted someone who was capable of getting that sympathy without playing the part in a manner that was in any way sentimental.”

Peter Davison is playing John Ingrams, the lawyer whose house is haunted, but who ultimately becomes Ruth’s biggest supporter and champion. Ever sinceAt Home With The Braithwaites Sally had wanted to write something else for Peter. With Jemma Redgrave (Cold Blood), Douglas Hodge (Spooks), Siobhan Finneran (Clocking Off, Benidorm), Matthew McNulty (The Mark of Cain), Will Mellor (Casualty) and George Costigan (See No Evil) making up the cast both Nicola and Sally are delighted with the actors who have been keen to work on the project.

Unforgiven is being filmed in the beautiful and dramatic hills of West Yorkshire, using the powerful landscape as another leading character and resulting in a stunningly visual as well as emotionally engaging drama.