Everything You Need to Know About Without Sin, the Upcoming ITV X Series Shot In Nottinghamshire

We’ll start with the most predictable question - where did the inspiration come from for this story? 
Vicky [McClure] was looking for a project to do back in Nottingham, and she’d watched a Channel 4 documentary about restorative justice and thought there was something really interesting in that. She wanted to dive into the question of what would happen if a mother went to meet the man she believed had killed her child, hoping for an apology, and then he flips the meeting on its head. So I met with Vicky about the idea, and once I left the room it was all I could think about. Johnny Harris and Vicky have been good mates since the This Is England days, and they wanted to work together again, so I teamed up with them to develop a story. 

How much of an influence did the pair have on the script? 
It was a really collaborative process. This was the first project Vicky made with her company [Build Your Own Films] and she was really hands-on and would help massively. We’d be in conversation a lot and she was so supportive on set. Johnny would come into the office and we’d sit down for really in-depth table reads, and forensically go through line-by-line, which was brilliant because it helped him to take control of his character. It was great to put the series together in the way they envisioned.

Yourself and Vicky aren’t the only locals that worked on Without Sin - it’s packed with Notts talent in front of and behind the camera. How important was that for you? 
Very important, and the same goes for Vicky. The Television Workshop was the first place we went to whenever we needed somebody, and the casting process was really exciting - the young actors absolutely blew us away. They’d come in, you’d give them one note and they'd give you so many different variations of their character and performance. They’re so confident in that way. We had a lot of problems with COVID, things were constantly being changed and the script would be re-written at the last minute, and they dealt with it all much better than some actors with twenty years’ experience would. 

Behind the camera, we had Adam Tomlinson and Gavin Lewis, Shane Meadows’ Art Directors from Dead Man’s Shoes, we had amazing location scouts who knew Nottingham so well - wherever we could, we’d add Notts people to the cast and crew. We’d like to think we’ve helped to set a precedent that Nottingham has the capacity to host big scenes and big series, and that was so important for us. 

The series is one of those that says a lot while saying a little. How do you go about writing a script where moments of silence are almost as important as lines of dialogue?
That’s a process of elimination, really. Your first draft is always going to be overwritten. As a scriptwriter you always want to bring in everything you think of, and then a fresh pair of eyes will tell you what you don’t need. I’m lucky to have a great team around me at Left Bank Pictures who will go through that process, and I love getting feedback and improving my work. Then when you get to set, the actors and director will have their input and say what they think is and isn’t important, and slowly the script is stripped back to be more impactful and effective. 

Speaking of the director, the series was overseen by Al Mackay, who’s worked on the likes of This Is England and Control. How was your relationship with him? 
I was really lucky because he’s such a generous, collaborative director. We’d have little chats and problem-solve together, and I think we generally worked more closely than a lot of writer-director teams. Al really helped to work through the script, he joined Johnny for the read-through sessions and he just knew what we were after. He gets Nottingham, he knows the area really well, and he brought a real authenticity to the series. 

People can check out the finished product on ITV X soon. How exciting was it to find out that Without Sin would be on national television? 
It was amazing. I went to film school ten years ago; it took me a decade to get my first series. It’s such a long slog. As soon as Vicky and Johnny came on board I knew there was a good chance that it would reach the mainstream - people love both of them, and you know any crime drama with Vicky is going to pick up momentum. But you ultimately never know. 

When ITV officially came on board, it was slightly surreal knowing that so many people are going to watch my work - that’s what this job is all about. Sure, when you first start out at film school you want to make niche, little projects, but once you get into the industry you realise you want lots of people to watch and enjoy what you do.

Without Sin launches on ITV X later this year

@francespoletti