{"id":15054,"date":"2021-06-08T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T13:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2021-06-09T09:04:23","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T13:04:23","slug":"whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitstable Pearl\u2019s Potent Mix of Black Comedy & Murder Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Caffrey, the lead director on <\/em>Whitstable Pearl, talks to <\/em>TV Drama about the Acorn TV detective drama, produced by Buccaneer Media and distributed internationally by Cineflix Rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

Whitstable Pearl <\/em>is both the title of the series and the name of the restaurant owned by its intrepid local celebrity protagonist, Pearl Nolan (Kerry Godliman), in Whitstable, where a suspected murder exposes the seaside town\u2019s darker undercurrents. When Pearl, who\u2019s recently formed her own detective agency, discovers the body of close family friend Vinny, she launches herself into the investigation. At first butting heads with new Kent police chief DCI Mike McGuire (Howard Charles), Pearl finds common ground with the detective as a second murder all but confirms their belief that Vinny was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a bit of a hard-nosed cop from London and the small town thing doesn\u2019t really suit him very much,\u201d says David Caffrey, the lead director on Whitstable Pearl<\/em>. \u201cAnd with that, we end up with a little bit of conflict and that\u2019s how our dynamic duo of detective Mike and investigator Pearl cross paths.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Buccaneer Media-produced detective drama, which recently bowed on Acorn TV in many international territories, including North America, New Zealand, Australia and the U.K., mixes comedy in with its darker themes through its focus on the goings-on of the inhabitants of the small fishing village that novelist Julie Wassmer set The Whitstable Pearl Mystery<\/em> and Disappearance at Oare<\/em> books that the series is based on. \u201cIt\u2019s really about small-town politics,\u201d says Caffrey. \u201cIt\u2019s about the attitude of locals to people who are referred to as \u2018blow-ins\u2019 coming through from London. Julie\u2019s got a lot of good comedic ways of addressing those particular issues that she would have known from living in Whitstable for a long time\u2014about people who’ve moved from London down to the coast and the attitude the locals have to those types of people. And she brings a nice, fun, black comedy to that particular element of Whitstable<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was \u00d8ystein Karlsen, the creator of the show, who wrote the first few scripts for the series, adapting Wassmer\u2019s stories and characters for the screen. \u201cHe wanted to work with Julie\u2019s novels and then bring in a sort of Scandi noir quality,\u201d says Caffrey. \u201cHe certainly did it with Marcella<\/em> and now he\u2019s done it with this. It\u2019s a lot more lighthearted, [but] it\u2019s not as lighthearted as some other shows. It\u2019s a little bit darker than that. [Karlsen] worked very closely for the last few years developing that with Tony Wood and Anna Burns at Buccaneer Media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karlsen was also set to direct the first episode of Whitstable Pearl<\/em>, but the global pandemic and a scheduling conflict prevented him from being able to, which paved the way for Caffrey\u2019s involvement in the series. Karlsen \u201cwas working on a show in his native Norway and he couldn\u2019t get over because of the Covid-19 restrictions,\u201d Caffrey explains. \u201cI had worked with the show\u2019s producer, Guy Hescott, on a previous series. He asked me if I was available and I said yes I was, and that\u2019s how I got to meet the whole team at Buccaneer Media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Distributed internationally by Cineflix Rights, Whitstable Pearl<\/em> has quite a few ingredients that give it its global appeal\u2014perhaps most notably its mix of Scandi noir themes and comedic notes. \u201cIt\u2019s not as dark as Scandi noir and it\u2019s not as light as sort of a cozy crime story-of-the-week thing,\u201d explains Caffrey. \u201cIt has a nice little dark edge to it. The two lead actors, Kerry Godliman and Howard Charles, are both very likable characters in the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Godliman, who has a background as a stand-up comedian and stars alongside Ricky Gervais in Netflix\u2019s After Life<\/em>, has \u201ca Frances McDormand quality to her,\u201d says Caffrey. \u201cI think she\u2019s a sublime actress and has a really lovely comical edge to her as well. She and Howard, along with \u00d8ystein\u2019s writing, and hopefully my direction and that of Jon Jones, hopefully all of that together makes for a fun show to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Caffrey, the lead director on Whitstable Pearl, talks about the Acorn TV detective drama, produced by Buccaneer Media and distributed internationally by Cineflix Rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1033,"featured_media":15055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,70],"tags":[179,873,3462,4494,4364],"class_list":["post-15054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-acorn-tv","tag-buccaneer-media","tag-cineflix-rights","tag-david-caffrey","tag-whitstable-pearl","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nWhitstable Pearl\u2019s Potent Mix of Black Comedy & Murder Mystery - 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\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whitstable Pearl\u2019s Potent Mix of Black Comedy & Murder Mystery - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Caffrey, the lead director on Whitstable Pearl, talks about the Acorn TV detective drama, produced by Buccaneer Media and distributed internationally by Cineflix Rights.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-08T13:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-09T13:04:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2017\/07\/Whitstable-Pearl-Cineflix-rights-0421.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chelsea Regan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chelsea Regan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/\",\"name\":\"Whitstable Pearl\u2019s Potent Mix of Black Comedy & Murder Mystery - TVDRAMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-08T13:00:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-09T13:04:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Whitstable Pearl\u2019s Potent Mix of Black Comedy & Murder Mystery\"}]},{\"@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\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a\",\"name\":\"Chelsea Regan\",\"description\":\"Chelsea Regan is the managing editor of World Screen. She can be reached at cregan@worldscreen.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/author\/chelsearegan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Whitstable Pearl\u2019s Potent Mix of Black Comedy & Murder Mystery - TVDRAMA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Whitstable Pearl\u2019s Potent Mix of Black Comedy & Murder Mystery - TVDRAMA","og_description":"David Caffrey, the lead director on Whitstable Pearl, talks about the Acorn TV detective drama, produced by Buccaneer Media and distributed internationally by Cineflix Rights.","og_url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/","og_site_name":"TVDRAMA","article_published_time":"2021-06-08T13:00:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-06-09T13:04:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2017\/07\/Whitstable-Pearl-Cineflix-rights-0421.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chelsea Regan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chelsea Regan","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/","name":"Whitstable Pearl\u2019s Potent Mix of Black Comedy & Murder Mystery - TVDRAMA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-06-08T13:00:06+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-09T13:04:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/whitstable-pearls-potent-mix-of-black-comedy-murder-mystery\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Whitstable Pearl\u2019s Potent Mix of Black Comedy & Murder Mystery"}]},{"@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\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a","name":"Chelsea Regan","description":"Chelsea Regan is the managing editor of World Screen. She can be reached at cregan@worldscreen.com.","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/author\/chelsearegan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}