Saturday, November 19, 2022

Louise Doughty on Crossfire

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  We have a very special treat today, a visit from bestselling British author Louise DoughtyLouise is the author of nine novels, including the #1 bestseller Apple Tree Yard, which has been translated into thirty languages. Her most recent book is Platform Seven.  She has also written one work of non-fiction, five plays for radio and the BBC One three-part original drama Crossfire.

In the US, Crossfire premiered exclusively on Britbox this week!

A high-octane action thriller executive produced by and starring Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard); the first original series by bestselling novelist Louise Doughty (Apple Tree Yard, Black Water); and from the makers of The Salisbury Poisonings and The Responder, Crossfire is a high-stakes, thrilling drama about a vacation gone wrong when a group of revengeful gunmen take a hotel hostage and guests are forced to make monumental life or death decisions with enormous consequences. An intricately woven story of trauma and resilience, guilt and betrayal, Crossfire is an edge-of-your-seat, sophisticated thriller with an emotional, intimate and relatable core.

Here's a sneak peek.


This is an absolutely can't-look-away drama with fabulous performances, and thanks to Britbox I had a chance to chat with Louise about her journey from novelist to writer of a blockbuster television production.



DEBS: In writing my crime novels, I've said I like to explore what circumstances will drive an ordinary person to commit the extraordinary act of murder. But in your books--and certainly in Crossfire--you take this to the next level, putting all of your characters in extreme circumstances that test them to their limits. What draws you to these stories?

LOUISE: I completely agree with your approach: what is really interesting is taking an ordinary person and putting them under immense pressure, to see what happens, if they crack. I always put my characters through the mill but you're right, I really ramped it up with Crossfire.  In essence, I’m somewhat fatalistic. We never know what’s around the corner, what is coming at us, and we never know how we would behave in extreme circumstances, so really my novels are, in part, a way of exploring how I might behave if these things happened to me. 

DEBS: Are there particular writers or novels that influenced you?

LOUISE: It sounds odd when I don't write it myself, but as a child I was very inspired by science fiction and fantasy. I was a huge fan of Philip K Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula Le Guin. There is something about that genre shows you the possibilities of language, and how you can stretch your imagination in whatever direction takes you.  It was reading those books that taught me you really could do anything with an invented story.

In terms of current reading, I’ve just finished Kit de Waal's memoir, Without Warning & Only Sometimes, which is wonderful.  Malorie Blackman and Bernadine Evaristo have also recently published memoirs that are on my pile.  I’m looking forward to reading this year‘s Booker winner, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka as I'm a fan of Sri Lankan writing. I am, also, of course, a huge fan of Margaret Atwood and Anne Enright and Kate Atkinson and Chris Bohjalian.  Really, we could be here all day on this question.  One life isn't enough.

DEBSSome of your previous novels have been adapted for television (Apple Tree Yard with Emily Watson!) but Crossfire is the first story you've written directly for TV. How was the experience different?

LOUISE: Well, the most notable difference is the number of people who have their fingers in the pie. I enjoyed the development process, talking through the arc of the story with the executives. It made a nice change from sitting on my own in a room all day long. But when something is actually filmed, there are so many restrictions on what the cast and crew can do, it's important to manage your expectations: the budget, the filming schedule, the director's vision, the needs of the broadcasters who are funding it all... these things all necessarily become more important than what you were trying to say in the first place, but the compensation for that is that you reach a mass audience that you can never reach with novels. The idea that literally millions of people are sitting on their sofas, consuming a story you wrote is quite mind-blowing, in a challenging and not entirely comfortable way.  It's a great compensation for all the work you have to put in.

DEBSAnd of course, we all want to know what it was like to work with the brilliant Keeley Hawes? Her performance in Crossfire is absolutely brilliant.

LOUSIE: Keeley Hawes is extraordinary. Watching her work was one of the great pleasures of this production. It was a very challenging and stressful shoot for all of us, but particularly for her as she spent a lot of time running around corridors, carrying a heavy shotgun, in the heat, doing long hours - as well as having to act some very traumatic scenes. What was amazing was how she could be chatting with the crew one minute and then snap into character for an incredibly stressful scene the next. I’ve no idea how they train actors to be able to do that.  She was also an executive producer on the series and came on board at a very early stage, before it even been greenlit, so to have her input early on was a great help. All the actors were amazing - Keeley, and Josette Simon, Annieka Rose, Shalisha James-Davis, Alba Brunet - and that's just the lead women: there's so much performance talent around these days, as a writer it's a great gift.



DEBS: Yes, the men were terrific, too. What a performance from Lee Ingleby, who's long been a favorite of mine!

Louise hopes to have a chance to stop in to visit with readers today, but in the meantime, REDS and readers, have you ever  had a vacation go scarily wrong?

P.S. A real life drama-- our bank, right down the street from our house, was robbed yesterday! How terrifying for the bank staff and the customers, and certainly not what anyone was expecting on an ordinary Friday morning!

31 comments:

  1. Wow . . . “Crossfire” sounds amazing! Congratulations, Louise . . . .

    I cannot say that I’ve ever had a vacation go scarily wrong [thank goodness!] but I certainly can see how easily that “wrong place, wrong time” situation could occur [kind of like the folks in your bank, Debs . . . I hope no one was hurt] . . . .

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    1. I haven't heard any details, Joan. Rick says these things happen a lot more often than we are aware.

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  2. What an amazing experience to write this show, Louise. Thank you for describing the process. Our author friend Ellen Byron used to write comedy for a show in Hollywood. I'll make sure she pops by today.

    I nearly had a vacation go terribly wrong in Cote d'Ivoire about twenty years ago, when I hadn't brought my passport for a day trip into the city. Armed guards boarded the bus and made me get off when I didn't have ID. Scary, especially because I had my kids with me, but my husband at the time had lived extensively in West Africa and was able to talk down the guards. We took a taxi the rest of the way into the city!

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  3. Wow, it is mind boggling to think of all the pieces that have to come together in order for an idea to become a TV show. Congratulations, Louise!

    I have never had a vacation go wrong in any extreme. Unfortunately, it is not unheard of for vacations or celebrations to turn deadly. We read about them with horror and then try to forget that extremists of any ilk can create havoc in the most serene setting.

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  4. LOUISE: Congratulations and thanks for sharing the process for writing CROSSFIRE for TV.
    Fortunately, I haven't had a vacation go wrong in a really bad way. Sure, a few glitches and inconveniences, but I usually managed to enjoy the time away from home with some weird memories.

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  5. Louise, Crossfire sounds amazing, congrats! I never had a vacation go disastrously wrong, but I immediately thought of my friend Hjalmer. On his first trip to Nicaragua (to volunteer with a wonderful clean water organization, El Porvenir), he arrived a few days early to spend some touristy time. He was on a bus and met a very friendly woman. They chatted and when they arrived at their destination, two men approached, who seemed to know the woman. They offered my friend a ride, which he accepted. Of course they took him out to a deserted area where they beat and robbed him. He ended up in the hospital and was lucky to escape with his life. Despite this experience, he returned to Nicaragua several more times with church groups. I went in 2016 and had a marvelous time. Unfortunately, El Porvenir can no longer send US-ers due to the oppressive Ortega regime, but they are still doing good work there.

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  6. How exciting, congrats Louise! So very different from writing at home alone. My worst vacation disaster was losing my passport in India...I can't get the link to paste here, but you read it by searching for the title "how not to travel to India..."

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    1. That trip sounded amazing, though, Roberta. Jim Ziskin will be here tomorrow to talk about his new book set in India--it sounds fascinating.

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    2. I pre-ordered Jim's book. How can I keep up with all the authors I already follow when you keep introducing new ones that I can't resist?

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    3. I can't wait to read Jim's book!!

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  7. What a thrill! Luckily I have not had a disastrous vacation experience. Not yet anyway. There have been some close calls. When I was just a little kid my family was camping with another family. The kids slept in the covered truck bed and the adults were in a tent in sleeping bags on air mattresses. My father woke up, very uncomfortable on hard ground because his mattress had deflated. The next morning he found out why. In the night a bear had stepped on that corner of the tent and his claws pierced through everything, but fortunately missing my father's head by less than an inch.

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  8. What a great glimpse behind the scenes. Off to check out BritBox.

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    1. Britbox is great, Kait. So many good shows! A couple of other shows I really like that are streaming on Britbox at the moment are Karen Pirie, about a Scottish female detective in St. Andrews, written by Val McDermid. And The Responder, starring Martin Freeman as a Liverpool patrol cop. It's very gritty, but so good.

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  9. I'm fascinated both by the idea of converting books to film or television, and by writing for television, so I loved the chance to chat with Louise about the process. I also found it really interesting that Louise was so grounded in classic sci-fi, as I was, and I think Julia, too. I love learning what has influenced other writers.

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  10. I’m glad I have Brit Box!
    Although I’ve sometimes experienced inconveniences on vacation, I’ve never had anything disastrous happen. Driving home from one vacation, we encountered flash flooding, which was frightening, and added several hours to our trip. Later, we heard that the flooding somehow caused a fatal, underground gas explosion in one of the towns we drove through.

    DebRo

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  11. Rhys here( Google hates me). How lovely to have Louise here today!
    I’m a huge fan of Britbox and going to watch Crossfire this weekend if I can pluck up the courage! I’ve had vacations go wrong— the only road washed out on the way to Ladakh, a train strike in France that led to a $300 taxi ride, two hurricanes during one cruise but never a situation where I was in mortal danger, thank God

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    1. We experienced a hurricane on a cruise ship, too. It began right after afternoon tea where Irwin had not resisted the tiny cream filled goodies. Ah yes, some disasters become funny stories, some remain disasters

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  12. I love Britbox. Just watched Crossfire. My plan was to string it out by watching one episode a week. That didn’t work.
    I’ve never had a really bad trip, the worst was a convention in New Orleans when the hotel had serious issues and I tripped and fell on my face and spent the night in ER. 2 weeks later Hurricane Katrina hit. So glad to have missed that.

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  13. Adding Crossfire to my list of must-see shows!

    Scary times, Debs. Thirty-eight years ago someone was murdered in his home, right down the street. Turned out to be his nurse and her boyfriend, but at the time I was home alone, heavily pregnant, and an old friend of Steve's--an AP stringer, called to ask us how we felt about having a murder so nearby. Steve was out of town, and I was near hysterical.

    Twice my flight home from Paris has been canceled at the last minute because of pilot strikes. It ended up not being horrible, but the uncertainty of being in a foreign country with no immediate way home, and traveling alone, was a bit traumatic.

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  14. WOW!!! I can't wait to watch this - it looks amazing. I love BritBox! What a brilliant concept - I am so impressed. Thankfully, I have never had a vacation go awry - other than a bout of food poisoning - l hope I never do!

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  15. The sounds SO GREAT! Hurray. I adore BritBox, and we are getting a new TV literally any minute now (seriously, Debs, this is all because of your post and now the installer guy is on the way) . SO we will make this the inaugural show! I cannot imagine how it must feel to see your story come to life. Massive congratulations. And thank you so much for the perfect interview.

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    1. Thank you, Hank! You are the queen of interviewers, so I'm very flattered that you enjoyed it!

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  16. Yeesh. That sounds scary! Back in the 90s we were on a driving vacation in Costa Rica, a lovely country with no military. We approached a small bridge and there was an armed band of men. They informed us we would have to pay a toll to use the bridge and proceed. No arguments here! We paid the toll and wondered what the heck that was all about.

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  17. Wow! This post seems in line with the movie, high action and lots happening. How great! Debs, thanks for bringing Louise here today, and thanks, Louise, for being here. I feel I've gotten insight into writing a screenplay first that explains it in a concise package. I hadn't thought about all the other people and things you have to think about while writing for a movie instead of a novel. Of course, each has their challenges and advantages. I wouldn't presume one was harder or easier than the other. I just never thought about the writing process of a writer when writing a screenplay. Of course, it's crime and mystery novelists I review and interview, and their writing process inevitably comes up. Now, I've gained knowledge about another area of writing.

    Louise, a huge congratulations on all your writing success. And, thank you for your wonderful answers to Debs' wonderful questions. I especially enjoyed the question about other writers that have influenced you. Ursula Le Guin is a favorite of mine, and it's a set of her children's books, Catwings, which I treasure most on my shelves. Her range of writing is the stuff of genius. Philip K. Dick's book The Man in the High Castle is evidence of another genius writer. I'm a fan of alternative history, especially where the Allies have lost WWII. Talk about horror scenarios. C.J. Carey's Widow Land, out this year, is an excellent book to add to that category of reading. Back to Philip K. Dick, I came across a fantastic article on him, "The Essential Philip K. Dick," in which I learned his middle name was Kindred and so much more, including a guide for those who are just starting to read him. I think what more he could have given us had he not died at age 53. Kate Atkinson is a favorite of mine. Another area I enjoy is time travel, or playing with time, and in her Life After Life she certainly writes about that. She's such a writer of varied topics, and I enjoy them all, having started out with her Jackson Brodie books. Chris Bohjalian is an author I just started reading this year (yes, I'm kicking myself for that late start) with his book The Lioness. It is the absolute gobsmacking book of the year for me. It took me by complete surprise in its amazing story and flawless writing.

    So, I am one happy camper today, reading this great post and interview, and now I have a show on Britbox I can't wait to watch. I fear that my Thanksgiving house cleaning is doomed. I just hope my family doesn't open any closets. They will be stuffed.

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    1. Kathy, I'd love to revisit Phillip K. Dick. But too many books, not enough time, the perpetual readers' lament. I'm a big Kate Atkinson fan, too, and am now, thanks to you and Louise, looking up Chris Bohjalian!

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    2. Debs, I loved The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian. I hope you take a look at that one.

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  18. Oh, here's the link to that great article about Philip K. Dick. from the New York Times, posted in October of this year. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/books/best-philip-k-dick-novels.html

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  19. Crossfire sounds right up my alley - Thanks! And congratulations, Louise. You're in such a swell spot as a writer.

    Misfired vacations? a few smelly motel rooms... a stay in a B&B where the owners were drinkers who loudly disagreed with each other... Nothing really to write home about.

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