Now You See Her

Jessica (Amanda Holden) has a passion for the good things in life. Couture clothes, smart cars, exotic holidays. But they all come at a price. And she doesn't like to work for a living. Instead she'll do anything for cash - anything but tell the truth that is. She's a con artist, and the best there is.

Feature length drama transmitted on Sky One 19th September 2001 at 9pm

Starring
Amanda Holden, Joe Absolom, Steve John Shepherd, Paterson Joseph and Nicholas Gleaves

Written and Produced by
Matt Jones

Directed by
Lance Kneeshaw

Executive Producer
Nicola Shindler

Created for Sky One by Red Production Company

BEGINNINGS

From the creators of such ground-breaking shows as Queer as Folk, Love in the 21st Century and Clocking Off, Now You See Her is Red Production Company's first commission for Sky One. As far as commissioning editor Mark Freeland is concerned, the relationship between the two companies is a match made in heaven: "Red Production Company's output is perfect for Sky One - it's colourful and risque and all the things that the channel stand for. Red create outstanding talked-about drama, they see things differently, and their productions are fresh and full of energy."

For a channel whose output is aimed at the 16-34 age range - "aspirational people on the up" as Mark calls them - Red Production Company suit Sky One's demographic perfectly: "A lot of our programming is about holidays and dating," Mark explains, "our audience like to escape from the norm. Sky One should be eternal Summer without being anodyne and Now You See Her fits into that remit perfectly."

THE CONCEPT

Once Red discovered that Sky were keen to work with them, executive producer Nicola Shindler and writer/producer Matt Jones came up with a concept for a feature-length drama. In keeping with the channel's spirit of escapism, adventure and romance, Matt came up with the idea for a story about a con woman who falls in love with one of her victims. "I wanted to write about people who live outside of the everyday," he explains, "who don't live lives restricted by routine, by boring nine to five's. I was insipired by series like The Persuaders and wanted to create a female 'Man in a Suitcase' kind of adventurer for the 21st Century."

And so he came up with the character of Jessica - a woman who'll go to any lengths to get what she wants. "I like stories about strong women," Matt explains, "and I don't think there are enough of them on television." Strong and feminine she may be, but Jessica is also an unscrupulous schemer - a femme fatale who worms her way into the lives of wealthy men to get her hands on their cash. The challenge for Matt was to make her likeable:

"A lot of people hated Jessica when they first read the script, she has more in common with JR than with traditional heroines. What it is about her that interested me, however, is that she's a very respectable working-class girl from Manchester who refuses to conform to what's expected of her. She's a very pretty woman and men want her for her body, so she exploits that. She's got quite a lot of disdain for men and it's only by meeting a man who doesn't just want her for her body that her perceptions change and she's able to be vulnerable for the first time."

As well as making Jessica likeable, she also has to be believable, and to that end Matt spent time researching the lives of real con women. Executive producer Nicola Shindler talks about how vital this research process was to the production: "We had to make sure that everything that Jessica does is possible. If it didn't work that way people would switch off because they'd stop believing in her. So we worked out every single little stage of her cons thoroughly." Indeed, the Chilean jewellery scam that Jessica works in the opening scenes is a real confidence trick that Matt read about during his research.

Once he had his central character, Matt needed to create an accomplice for her, and what could be more 21st Century than giving her a pretty, young gay man as her side-kick? Matt conceived the character of Lewis as a way to bring out Jessica's softer side: "Her whole life is about manipulating men, about using sex to get what she wants. If you linger on that too long, the idea becomes rather unpleasant. Lewis is there to lighten the mood. She's very loyal to him and likes looking after him. At the end of the film when she learns that Lewis has been hurt, she goes to find him, to save him. You can love her for that. She does lots of bad things but she's really good to her friend."

Having created his partners-in-crime, Matt then needed to dream up a heist to form the heart of the plot. Inspiration struck one day on a visit to the newly opened Tate Modern: "I had been thinking about a big con for the film," he says, "and had come up with the idea of having Jessica steal a valuable painting to forge and sell on the black market. When I was looking round Tate Modern it occurred to me that anyone can copy a piece of modern art - it's all about ideas with very little real craft - so I tried to think of the most famous piece of modern art in the world for Jessica to steal."