{"id":14652,"date":"2021-03-22T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2021-03-31T14:07:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T18:07:35","slug":"making-bulletproof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/making-bulletproof\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Bulletproof"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Bulletproof <\/em>was an immediate hit for Sky when it premiered in 2018 and has continued to build throughout its run; season three was up 40 percent on season two, and a fourth season is already in the works. But as star and producer Noel Clarke tells TV Drama<\/em>, the show almost didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

Long in the works, Bulletproof<\/em> was conceived by Clarke and Top Boy<\/em> star Ashley Walters at a coffee shop in London after a chance encounter at an awards show. \u201cWe just felt like we had been doing so well individually in our careers, we hadn\u2019t crossed paths enough when it came to doing projects together,\u201d Walters tells TV Drama<\/em>. Clarke, who has his own production company, Unstoppable Film and Television, with fellow British actor and producer Jason Maza, began pitching the show far and wide. In the tradition of American movies like Bad Boys<\/em>, a favorite of Clarke and Walters, it was to star the duo as detectives and best friends working to take down an assortment of dangerous criminals. \u201cI was pounding the pavement,\u201d Clarke says. \u201cI sat in meetings where people would say to me, We\u2019ll make it if it\u2019s you and this person, and mention white actors. I would be like, No, this show is going to be Ashley and me, or it\u2019s never going to get made. The kind of person I am, it had to be that way, or it\u2019s no way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarke did finally find a receptive partner in Vertigo Films. The British indie had been well known for its signature film work, including The Football Factory<\/em>, Pusher<\/em> and The Sweeney<\/em>. \u201cWe were making a big move into TV and various broadcasters were courting us,\u201d Allan Niblo, co-founder, tells TV Drama<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllan called and said, \u2018Remember that idea for you and Ashley? Do you still have it?\u2019\u201d Clarke recalls. \u201cI was like, \u2018Yeah I still have it because no one will make it!\u2019 He said, \u2018If you guys come in with us, we can get this over the line.\u2019 I spoke to Ashley, he said, let\u2019s try them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vertigo set out pitching the show to U.K. broadcasters and \u201cSky came back most enthusiastically,\u201d Niblo says. \u201cWe had a deal within weeks and were off to the races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Season three recently wrapped its run on Sky in the U.K. and last week premiered on The CW in the U.S., with NBCUniversal Global Distribution having notched up deals for the show in several other markets. While seasons one and two encompassed eight episodes each, the third season had a limited run of three episodes\u2014and sees the show take the action to South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were plotting season three, but both of us had filming commitments,\u201d Clarke says. \u201cIt was either wait for [Ashley\u2019s show] to finish or squeeze in another shorter version. Thank god we didn\u2019t decide to wait because corona hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair knew they wanted the shortened season to film outside the U.K. \u201cAshley and I originally chose Hong Kong or Japan because we wanted a real fish-out-of-water thing, and then logistics didn\u2019t make that happen. We went through the list of places, as you do. And South Africa came up. Everyone [agreed]\u2014not me, I was outvoted!\u2014and we ended up in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience was enriching, personally and creatively, Walters says. \u201cIt was just a beautiful place, and we quickly realized it would become another character for this season. Production-wise, everywhere you look is good enough to shoot. We had to come up with some good stories and put some effort into acting, but a lot of the work was done by just being there. We learned a lot from that experience as well; about each other, about not taking the good things that happen in your life for granted. There is a lot of poverty over there, a lot of hardship, racism and segregation between the rich and the poor. And no matter what, you saw smiles on people\u2019s faces. That taught me a lot, my family a lot, my kids a lot. I think Noel got the same thing from it as well. We were enlightened together; it was amazing. And it did wonders for the show. We used our environment to tell a really good story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Production wrapped \u201cthe day before lockdown started,\u201d Niblo says, and the Vertigo team quickly moved to set up a remote postproduction process. \u201cMy instinct from the start was, of course, we can do it! Whether it\u2019s shipping monitors around to check the grade or getting special headphones and sets that allow you to check mixes online. There was a lot less sitting around the edit suite talking about various cuts\u2014that was all passed around digitally as well. It wasn\u2019t that hard, to be honest. Some people miss the traditional method, but you can make it work. Ultimately, I don\u2019t think the quality was affected at all by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what makes the show work, the dynamic between Clarke\u2019s Aaron Bishop and Walters\u2019 Ronnie Pike Jr. is critical. Whereas their characters have been friends for years, Clarke and Walters were only casual acquaintances before the show started production. \u201cThe first time we ever spent more than two days together, more than a full day together, was the first day of the shoot or maybe a rehearsal day,\u201d Clarke says. \u201cWe never were in each other\u2019s proximity. The time we spent in the coffee shop creating the show was the most time we had ever spent together. It was interesting to get to know each other and realize that we had a lot in common, contrary to even our popular beliefs. We had the same sort of humor, the same mentality and attitude toward certain things. I learn a lot from Ashley about how considered he is when he thinks about things. I think Ashley has learned from me when sometimes I\u2019m more instinctual. Those elements are also in the characters. We barely row. In the three years we\u2019ve been doing the show, we may have had two disagreements that lasted half a day and then after that it\u2019s, \u2018Bruv, you annoyed me.\u2019 \u2018You annoyed me!\u2019 And then it\u2019s done. We have this relationship where we can, like the characters, talk to each other. I can call him and say, I love you, you know? As Black men, you\u2019re conditioned to side-eye each other; you\u2019re conditioned to battle. It\u2019s crabs in a barrel. It\u2019s like Highlander<\/em>\u2014\u2018there can be only one.\u2019 And actually, with a lot of the stuff that we\u2019ve done and the doors we\u2019ve opened, we\u2019ve broken that down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walters adds, \u201cIf we weren\u2019t able to have that closeness off-camera, I don\u2019t think the show would be as good as it is. As much as we have a brilliant team around us helping create the show, a lot of the magic you see on the screen\u2014a lot of the words, the lines, the feeling\u2014comes from us. It comes from a lot of the stuff that we work on off-camera. That\u2019s what resonates. As Noel said, you don\u2019t see the so-called \u2018bromance\u2019 or whatever you want to call it between two men too much on the screen, especially in the U.K. The ability to share, to be humble, to practice humility without feeling humiliated. That\u2019s what Bishop and Pike do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for how much the U.K. industry has progressed since Clarke\u2019s early struggles to get a show with two Black leads picked up, Walters says: \u201cIt\u2019s happening, but probably not fast enough.\u201d And the Bulletproof <\/em>team is actively working toward the progress, ensuring that it gives opportunities to BAME talent behind and in front of the camera.<\/p>\n

Niblo, Walters and Clarke are all also riding the wave of the streaming revolution. For Vertigo Films, in particular, the SVOD operators provide a range of opportunities to tell stories that U.K. broadcasters haven\u2019t been willing to take a risk on. \u201cWe were making a lot of movies and were approached by all the broadcasters, saying, \u2018You\u2019re reaching an audience we can\u2019t reach, a young male audience, we want you to make TV series.\u2019 We started submitting ideas we liked that were similar to our movies, and it always came back: This is too genre, too action-packed, too violent. The SVODs came along and said, We want to do genre, we want to do action, we want to deal with difficult subject matter in a provocative way. It\u2019s a radically different environment, where you can be as bold and cinematic and challenging as you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrival of well-funded streamers is also pushing broadcasters to partner more, Clarke adds. \u201cTV is becoming a lot like film now in terms of people being more willing to do co-productions. So you\u2019ll get stuff like Industry<\/em>, which is HBO and BBC. Why did it take HBO to come up with a show like that, and BBC then says, We\u2019ll partner on it? It\u2019s young and vibrant and sexy. We could have done that! Everyone was safe in their bubble, but as Allan said, once the SVODs got involved, it\u2019s put up or shut up. You need to step up, or you\u2019ll be out of the game. Everyone is being forced to step up, which I love. Netflix was the first; it\u2019s the best thing that happened to television. If they didn\u2019t change the game the way they did, we would still be struggling for work.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a proliferation of platforms hungry for scripted content, Vertigo is continuing to expand its television slate. \u201cWe\u2019re shooting four shows this year, two to be announced, and making a movie as well,\u201d Niblo says. \u201cWe have a slate of top projects that have been carefully curated and developed. We\u2019re in early negotiations with all the players. It\u2019s a really exciting time. We\u2019ve always made our films based on what audiences want, not what\u2019s going to get a red carpet award. It\u2019s all about understanding audiences. Our very first films, Human Traffic <\/em>and The Football Factory<\/em>, had very distinct audiences. We\u2019re trying to find those audiences in TV as well because they\u2019re underserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to his on-screen work, Clarke continues to develop projects at Unstoppable, which since 2018 has been a part of All3Media. Recent hits include The Drowning<\/em> on Channel 5, and there\u2019s much more in the works. \u201cWe\u2019re planning to work with Vertigo and with Ashley. I\u2019m about to send Ashley five potential projects that we can work on with his company. We just got a greenlight on something else. There are four other things picked up in development. I\u2019m just trying to create content that can benefit as many people as possible and entertain people like Ashley and I like to be entertained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walters\u2019 current schedule includes season four of the iconic Top Boy<\/em>, details about which he can\u2019t reveal, other than, \u201cWe\u2019re nearly finished! That\u2019s as much as I can give you. And I haven\u2019t got a clue when it\u2019s coming out. We\u2019re pushing forward with our next season of Bulletproof<\/em>, and we\u2019re just happy we had the reception to the specials that we did. I\u2019m constantly pinching myself every day that it started with this little idea that Noel and I had and we\u2019re sitting here now talking to you about it, looking to go into season four. It\u2019s amazing for me. I just hope everyone enjoys it. It\u2019s one of those shows you can watch over and over again. My 4-year-old son the other day said he wants to be Pike. He doesn\u2019t want to be me; he wants to be Pike. For me, that\u2019s job done!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stars and co-creators Noel Clarke and Ashley Walters and Vertigo Films\u2019 Allan Niblo tell World Screen Newsflash about season three of Bulletproof, currently airing on The CW, and the ongoing battle to see the U.K. television industry step up to ensure on- and off-screen diversity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":14653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,70],"tags":[4379,4380,2073,4381,4382,4383],"class_list":["post-14652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-allan-niblo","tag-ashley-walters","tag-bulletproof","tag-noel-clarke","tag-unstoppable-film-and-tv","tag-vertigo-films","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nMaking Bulletproof - TVDRAMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/making-bulletproof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Bulletproof - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stars and co-creators Noel Clarke and Ashley Walters and Vertigo Films\u2019 Allan Niblo tell World Screen Newsflash about season three of Bulletproof, currently airing on The CW, and the ongoing battle to see the U.K. television industry step up to ensure on- and off-screen diversity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/making-bulletproof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-22T12:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-31T18:07:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2017\/07\/BulletproofS3-321.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"319\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/making-bulletproof\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/making-bulletproof\/\",\"name\":\"Making Bulletproof - TVDRAMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-22T12:00:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-31T18:07:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/making-bulletproof\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/making-bulletproof\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/making-bulletproof\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Making Bulletproof\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\",\"name\":\"TVDRAMA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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