A RELLIK FROM THE FUTURE
The stars of BBC1’s new murder mystery explain the significant challenges of filming a series that tells the story backwards
CREATED by the writers behind cult hit The Missing, it goes without saying that viewers tuning in to Rellik are in for a bumpy ride.
Penned and produced by Harry and Jack Williams, the BBC1 crime thriller’s title is the word “killer” spelled backwards – and that’s the same way the story is told.
Richard Dormer stars as DCI Gabriel Markham, who is on an obsessive hunt for a serial killer who left a mark on him both physically and mentally.
Yet forget the well-trodden format of a cop on a wild-goose chase to nab the offender, because Rellik turns the story on its head by starting at the end.
With a prime suspect caught, the six-part series gradually unravels the truth by moving backwards in time through the string of gruesome murders.
Dormer, whose disfigured character is joined by DI Elaine Shepard ( Jodi Balfour) in his pursuit for justice, said: “Just when you think you’ve got a hang on it, it’s like the ground comes out from under your feet and you find yourself going backwards. “It’s absolutely crazy. “It’s like a puzzle that comes together and I think some people will enjoy it more than others – those people who love thrillers, who love to pick holes.” Confused already? We find out how the crime-fighting duo kept up with the twist-a-minute gripper… LET’S REWIND While Dormer agreed that starting at the end and finding your way back to the beginning is a “completely original way of storytelling”, he is the first to declare the format comes with its own challenges.
The Game of Thrones actor, 47, said: “A lot of the time when you are filming you don’t shoot consecutively. You’re jumping backwards and forwards but largely you have a journey.
“Whereas with this we were constantly going, ‘Where have I been?’ ‘Where am I going?’ and trying to remember everything that was about to happen, rather than what happened.”
Shooting out of sequence wasn’t an easy experience.
Dormer said: “It’s so weird, it scrambled my head. So it was very difficult.
“It was exhausting and mentally tough to keep an eye on the ball.”
Balfour, 29, who makes up a stellar cast including Rosalind Eleazar, Paterson Joseph and Paul Rhys, added: “As actors, we had to play the truth of it, we had to play the reality of it, which is chronological.
“I didn’t think about suspense building or anything like that all that much, I tried to honour the moment.
“But that said, it was really fun to see some of the rewind inserts after filming them. They’re really visually evocative.” PLAYING THE PART The plot’s not the only ambiguous ingredient, however, as audiences will find out the complex characters have a lot to answer for too. The Crown star Balfour said: “With Rellik, everybody is faking – there’s secrets to be had with everybody.”
Her character embarks on a steamy affair with the protagonist.
But Balfour added: “Elaine is not a wear-everything-on-her-sleeve kind of gal. Not with anybody in her life.
“The thing that I really wanted to do, which I never get to do, is play someone who is quite tormented as a human being.
“And her whole life has been pretty dark and difficult, so that was really exciting.”
Dormer’s character has his own turmoil.
He said: “Gabriel is a pretty unpredictable, scary guy.
“He’s scary because of his absolute intense conviction that he will do
anything and break any rule to get this guy who has done this to him.”
He added that Gabriel is nothing like the officer he played in Sky Atlantic’s series Fortitude.
Dormer said: “He’s another damaged individual but he’s totally different, this guy.
“The weird thing about this person, I discovered, is that I am almost playing myself but in an alter-reality which is very interesting.” CLOSE TO HOME Exposing himself in that way was daunting in itself, said Dormer.
“The one thing I have done with every character I have ever played is I’ve crawled into somebody else,” explained the Northern Irish star. “I become this other thing, which is really liberating because then you have no fear of showing the ugliness or whatever, because you’re a different person. “But if you’re playing yourself, kind of yourself, it’s a lot rawer. “It can be very truthful and that’s pretty scary, but it’s all part of it.” So was he able to leave Gabriel at the door once filming wrapped? Dormer replied: “No, that’s the problem! You’re supposed to with these kinds of parts – you’ve got to debrief every night – but the closer the character is to you, the lines start to blur and that’s harder to do because you start forgetting – ‘Wait a minute, which part is not real?’” Dormer revealed he’d sit down to classical music with a large glass of red wine to unwind.
He added: “You do absorb it. Actually, that’s done something to your psyche. It’s invaded some part of you and shaken things up.” OUT OF CHARACTER South African-born Balfour, on the other hand, preferred to keep Elaine at arm’s length.
She said: “It’s difficult to get into the depths of the nature of the role, but I’m such a wuss when it comes to anything remotely scary.”
The actress, whose credits also include Bomb Girls and Quarry, admitted: “I don’t watch horror films, I barely watch thrillers and this character has been so dark and twisty that I have my real boundaries.
“I set boundaries for myself. The most boring and laughable of which is that I don’t really work at night on the script.
“Obviously we work at night, but when I was prepping or if I’m ever running lines I just don’t work at night, as anytime close to bed it has really been affecting my dreams and my sleep and all sorts of stuff.
“But no, I have a completely separate life to this character and I really work at maintaining that, because it wouldn’t be a fun way to spend five-and-a-half months.”
But Dormer confessed: “I think, probably, looking back it will have changed me.
“And also the responsibility of playing a lead in a big thing like this … What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” ● Rellik starts on BBC1 at 9pm tonight.
It’s so weird, it scrambled my head. It was mentally tough to keep an eye on the ball RICHARD DORMER