Victoria Asare-Archer, lead writer and executive producer on the forthcoming Netflix adaptation of Harlan Coben’s Missing You, has been talking to the streamer about the North West locations used for Quay Street Productions latest Coben adaptation.
Asare-Archer, a 2020 entrant to the Radio Times 100 Most Important Voices in Television list who has previously written for Death in paradise, Dr Who, and Quay Street’s previous Netflix Coben smash Fool Me Once, said: “I live in the countryside, so the rural landscapes were very important to us. There is a version of the countryside that is wonderfully pretty and beautiful and full of gorgeous rolling fields.
“The cliché is: urban- bad, country- good, but we wanted to subvert that by exploring the darkness of the countryside in Titus’ world. That is not a pretty farm. It is a dark, messy, muddy place where
horrible things happen. It rained horrifically on the day of filming one of the biggest farm scenes and it felt perfect. Very British.”
The new show, which like Fool Me Once translants the action of the novel from the US to North West England, shot in locations including Le Mans Crescent and Victoria Square in Bolton, Manchester City Centre and Parkgate on The Wirral.
The cast includes Rosalind Eleazar in a lead role alongside Richard Armitage, Lenny Henry, Samantha Spiro, Steve Pemberton, Lisa Faulkner, Ashley Walters and Paul Kaye and the 5 x 60’ series tells the story of Detective Kat Donovan (Eleazar), whose life is rocked when her fiancé Josh (Walters), who disappeared eleven years ago, suddenly resurfaces in strange circumstances.
Executive producers alongside Asare-Archer include Coben himself, Nicola Shindler, Richard Fee and Danny Brocklehurst. The show is slated to drop on Netflix on January 1, 2025.
