Award-winning writer Darrel Bristow-Bovey is not paying Cape Town a compliment by choosing it as the setting for his new psychological thriller television series, White Lies.
Bristow-Bovey, 52, who is best known for his illuminating and luminous newspaper columns and his recent best-selling book, Finding Endurance, is no fan of the Mother City.
The reason he chose it as a backdrop for the whodunnit series which stars Game of Thrones actor Natalie Dormer is simple, if unexpected: he does not like the way Capetonians relate to one another and wanted to explore this narrative.
“I have lived in Cape Town on and off for 20 years and I studied at UCT and I don’t much like it.
“I don’t like the way they take credit for how beautiful the environment is.
“And I don’t like how they connect to one another or even with their friends.
“It’s a little like Instagram — very pretty, but something’s not right.”
Part of the “not right” stems from Bristow-Bovey’s childhood when he and his family were snubbed by his wealthy grandmother.
This relates to another element he wanted to explore in White Lies — how affluence shapes people.
White Lies is set predominantly in the ultra-privileged suburbs of Bishopscourt and Constantia because this is where his granny once lived in a mansion from which he was excluded.
“I’m quite fascinated with this neck of the woods because my grandmother lived here with high white walls and rose bushes down to the end of the lawn.
“She was from old Cape Town money and she didn’t work a day in her life.
“When my mom wanted to marry my dad she forbade it because he was a high school dropout and when she married him anyway she cut my mom off and disinherited her.
“When I was young my mom tried to mend fences, but my gran would not let us through her front door.
“We did not belong in her world.
“And so all my life I have been interested in the psychology of wealth and in people who build walls and live lives separately from society, neighbours and community and from people who might love them.
“We all build walls for protection but what does it do to our hearts?”
Writers often berate their own work and poke holes in it so it is refreshing to hear this one say he is proud of this work.
“In the second half of the series the [plot] reveals itself and that is when the walls start coming down and I hope everyone enjoys it.”
Bristow-Bovey, who is also co-executor of the eight-part series along with Natalie Dormer, is building a home in Greece with second wife Jo Simon.
“I’m building a house in Greece but live nowhere.
“I am in Cape Town for two or three months and I move to different place like Buenos Aires and Georgia.”
He mapped out the entire White Lies plot in two days in Istanbul.
“Then I wrote some of it in Athens, some in Buenos Aires and some in lockdown in a borrowed flat in Tamboerskloof.”
When Game of Thrones actor Natalie Dormer was cast as the lead, Bristow-Bovey was astounded by how well they worked together.
“She is fantastic. She is a big star and she did the best job.”
Dormer, who has also starred in Hunger Games and Picnic at Hanging Rock, plays investigative journalist Edie Hansen who tries to solve the murder of her wealthy estranged brother while at the same time dealing with the unwanted news that she is pregnant.
“She took such a big risk taking on this role by making herself so unlikeable.
“In the first half of the series, her [character’s] job was to be abrasive when the whole job of a movie star is to be likable.”
Bristow-Bovey spent 30 hours discussing the Edie Hansen character with Dormer.
“She brought a great life to it. She had just had a child in real life and so was very engaged about the character having the child or not.
“A lot of the question of maternity and being a mom vibrated from her.”
Bristow-Bovey says many of his writing projects involve prominent female characters.
“I find women more interesting. I’m more interested in people who have to be tougher than they are.
He says working with the British actor was a revelation.
“She is the most prepared person I have ever worked with. No-one knows the script better than me but she came close.
“In some instances she argued about something in the script and she was always right!
“I didn’t have to explain things to her. To a large extent she’s me. She’s the most like me.
“She identified very strongly with Edie and I even did a light rewrite.
“It can be a problem if an actor over-identifies with a role and sometimes the actor will say ‘I wouldn’t do that’ and then I say ‘you don’t have to, it’s the character’.”
Bristow-Bovey, who says his next script is a “cosy murder mystery”, says he even collaborated with the star about how the series ends.
“We had one bone of contention and that was the ending. We compromised. She’s happier than I am, but no … I’m happy.”
White Lies started last night and is on M-Net every Thursday at 8pm.
