RTS West’s preview screening of new BBC comedy-drama Rain Dogs sold out the Watershed in Bristol last month. Having already aired on HBO in the US to great reviews, the Bristol-made series is due to air on BBC One in early April.
From the brilliant new voice of author Cash Carraway, Rain Dogs follows a dysfunctional family on the fringes of society attempting to go straight in a crooked world. Costello Jones (Daisy May Cooper) is a devoted mother who wants more for her young daughter, Iris (newcomer Fleur Tashjian).
As she hustles to survive, Costello leans on Selby (Jack Farthing), Iris’s pseudo father (and Costello’s pseudo soulmate) and Gloria (Ronke Adékoluejo), a loyal yet chaotic godmother and best friend.
In a Q&A that followed the screening with producer Ciara McIlvenny and cast members Farthing (Chloe) and Adékoluejo (Alex Rider), Mcllvenny praised Bristol as a “film-friendly place. It felt like the people wanted us to be here; we had a brilliant crew and it was really easy.”
On Carraway’s writing, she said: ‘It was such an original piece of writing, pulling stereotypes apart, and making it look and feel authentic was very important to all of us.”
Discussing her character, Adékoluejo described Gloria as “impulsive, chaotic with a very short attention span – I was pretty terrified at first to play her – but they are all amazing characters, who are complicated and layered”.
Farthing, who portrays a privileged gay man said: “Selby is a miracle of a character to play; it’s exciting as he is slowly revealed. Beneath it all, he’s bursting with love, but he can’t express it properly.”
Fleur Tashjian makes her TV debut as Costello’s 11-year-old daughter. She was “ferociously mature, wise and open-hearted” as an actor who “easily made the leap into this Rain Dogs world”, added Farthing.
Rain Dogs is made by award-winning production company Sid Gentle Films (Killing Eve) from its new development and production arm, Sid Wild, which is based in Bristol at The Bottle Yard Studios
It is the first title to come out of Sid Wild and was filmed at The Bottle Yard and on location across the city with assistance from Bristol Film Office.