‘The River’ sweeps Saftas

After scooping 11 awards at the 13th SA Film and TV Awards last week, is without a doubt the best TV show in the country. spoke to co-creator, Gwydion Beynon about the success of the show

IT’S hard to believe that a show originally pitched as a historical telenovela set in 1992, by two of the country’s most celebrated writers, spent six long months in development before it finally became The River – the 1Magic telenovela that won 11 SA Film and TV Awards.

Executive producer of the show, Gwydion Beynon, who won the best achievement in script-writing with his business partner and fellow scriptwriter Phathutshedzo Makwarela, said that The River was never meant to be what it is now.

“Back in 2017, we pitched the idea for a new telenovela to Multichoice.

“We had developed a Romeo & Juliet story, set during the political turmoil of 1992. They liked it, but not the historical aspect of it, so we re-developed it in a contemporary setting. They loved what we came up with, but not the Romeo & Juliet part anymore! We pitched the show about a dozen times, refining it and improving it every time until we finally arrived at a story that both we and the channel loved,” he said.

Although redeveloping their original idea took six months, Beynon said it was well worth it.

“What we arrived at was a much better show than the one we began with. I give huge credit to Nkateko Mabaso, chief executive of M-net, for helping us find the heart of the story”. Some of the awards the show won included those by celebrated actress Moshidi Motshegwa for Best Actress in a telenovela which saw her beat fellow actress Sindi Dlathu who plays Lindiwe Dikana in the same show. Lawrence Maleka scooped the Best-supporting Actor award while Presley Chweneyagae took home the Best Actor award.

The show also won the Most Popular Soap/telenovela Award, while its directing team won the Best Achievement in Directing award.

Reflecting on how things developed, Beynon said, “Phathutshedzo and I had never produced a show before. We have written many shows, but production was something we never did, so we needed to rely on other people for help because this was uncharted territory for us. So we looked to Shona and Connie Ferguson, who have a production company and they successfully produced The Queen (which they write on), for guidance.

“We also wanted to employ the best in the business, so we gave people like our line director, Candice Tennant and our creative director Johnny Barbuzano, complete freedom to do what they wanted to.

“There was no way we were going to micromanage this project,” he said. When it came to the cast, The River stars established performers and a number of new faces, something Beynon is very proud of.

“This show was written for Sindi Dlathu. There was no other person we wanted to star as Lindiwe, so when she said yes, we were very happy. We also wanted to work with a number of established actors like Hlomla Dandala, and we really felt they would make a great on-screen couple. Some of the established cast members are also people we know personally and have worked with before,” he said.

Reflecting on the Saftas, Beynon said nothing made sense to him until he got home.

“I had never been to the Saftas before, so it was a little overwhelming being there.

When we started winning one award after the other, I honestly did not understand what was happening.

“I got very emotional the next morning because it’s so weird to actually have your dreams come true. But I am so happy, and I believe we achieved what we did because we work with a fantastic team of creatives,” he said.

The River airs weekdays on 1Magic at 8pm