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Writer and Co-Director Alecky Blythe is famous for creating plays based on real interviews – mixing journalism with drama to create verbatim theatre. She uses a performance style called ‘recorded delivery’, requiring actors to wear earphones throughout performance. They don’t learn any lines, instead they listen to the recording and talk a few seconds behind, mimicking the tone and pace of delivery so that they capture the essence of the person and the intention of the words as they were first spoken.

The result is a very naturalistic and believable performance. Good actors, who listen attentively to the audio, seemingly recreate the subject before your eyes. It instantly makes the performances specific and detailed and the actors don’t have the time or headspace to be self-conscious.

This series was originally scheduled to be shown in July 2012, but was postponed after a judge overseeing a riot related trial in Birmingham issued a court order preventing it from being broadcast. The trial ended and the film was broadcast in August 2012.