Un Bore Mercher Series 2 Airs on Sunday Nights at 9Pm on S4c
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UN BORE MERCHER SERIES 2 AIRS ON SUNDAY NIGHTS AT 9PM ON S4C The hotly-anticipated second series of Vox Pictures’ record-breaking drama Un Bore Mercher (6 x 60’) is currently airing on Sunday nights at 9pm on S4C before Keeping Faith has its BBC network outing in the summer. The first series was broadcast in Welsh as Un Bore Mercher and then in English in Wales on BBC One Wales and then nationally on BBC One as Keeping Faith. The series received outstanding ratings and went on to break BBC iPlayer records. Starring Eve Myles (Cold Feet, A Very English Scandal, Victoria, Broadchurch) the 8-part thriller tells the story of lawyer, wife and mother Faith Howells (Myles) as she fights to find the truth behind the sudden disappearance of her husband. Series two - written by Matthew Hall and Pip Broughton – joins her as she attempts to pick up the pieces of her life and marriage. Eve Myles says: “I’m thrilled that this brilliantly written drama found such a place in the audience’s heart and I’m so excited to be back in the beautiful west Wales landscape working with a terrifically creative and talented team - it’s a joy.” Adrian Bate, Executive Producer for Vox Pictures says: "After the phenomenal multi-platform success of the first season, Vox are delighted to be working again with the BBC, S4C and Nevision to bring Un Bore Mercher / Keeping Faith back for what promises to be another series full of emotional intrigue for Faith and her family.” Originally developed by S4C as Un Bore Mercher and as Keeping Faith for BBC Wales, the series is produced by Vox Pictures in association with APC / Nevision and with support from Welsh Business Finance. The directors are Pip Broughton and Judith Dine. The producers are Gwenllian Gravelle and Pip Broughton. S4C is available on all TV platforms in Wales and across the UK on Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media. The Welsh language channel is also, available across the UK on S4C Clic, s4c.cymru, BBC iPlayer, YouView, Amazon Fire, Samsung Smart TV and on mobile devices via the S4C App. English subtitles will be available on Un Bore Mercher on all platforms. For further information please contact: Kat Blair (Publicist for S4C) 07969 443090 [email protected] 2 EPISODE SYNOPSES EPISODE 1 Eve Myles returns as Faith Howells, a lawyer, wife and mother whose life was turned upside down by the unexplained disappearance of her husband, Evan (Bradley Freegard). Now, 18 months later, Faith is drawn into a new mystery as she takes on the case of Madlen Vaughan (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), a local farmer accused of murdering her husband in cold blood. Madlen’s murder trial, the prospect of Evan’s return, and her conflicted emotions towards former criminal Steve Baldini (Mark Lewis Jones) force her to take a stand. She puts her children, her business and her life on the line to search for the truth. EPISODE 2 When Madlen (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) fires her legal team, Faith (Eve Myles), backed by Cerys (Hannah Daniel), steps in to take on her murder case, sending them on a collision course with Tom (Aneirin Hughes). Evan (Bradley Freegard) receives a mysterious benefactor in prison, Steve (Mark Lewis Jones) wrestles with his feelings for Faith, while DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone) turns his attentions towards Faith’s troubling association with Gael Reardon (Anastasia Hille). EPISODE 3 As the trial reaches a climax, Faith (Eve Myles) battles to keep Madlen (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) out of the witness box. As the verdict draws near, Faith’s relationship with Cerys (Hannah Daniel) gets pushed to the limit. DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone), meanwhile, continues to probe Faith’s association with Gael Reardon (Anastasia Hille); Steve (Mark Lewis Jones) wrestles with his feelings for Faith; and Evan (Bradley Freegard) delivers a piece of news that will topple the family stability again. EPISODE 4 Torn between keeping her family together and her growing feelings for Steve (Mark Lewis Jones), Faith (Eve Myles) battles with conflicting emotions, as Evan’s (Bradley Freegard) release from prison draws closer. DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone) continues to up the pressure on Evan; and a call from PC Williams (Eiry Thomas) delivers an unwelcome new lead in Madlen’s case. 3 EPISODE 5 Amidst the fall-out of Evan’s return home, Faith (Eve Myles) uncovers new and disturbing truths, as she continues to probe into Madlen’s (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) case. Evan (Bradley Freegard) struggles to find his place at home; the Reardons threaten to detail the Corran Energy deal; and DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone) continues to dial up the pressure on both Faith and Evan as Steve (Mark Lewis Jones) plays a new deadly game of his own. EPISODE 6 As the clock ticks on the deal with Corran Energy, Faith (Eve Myles) races against time to find the woman who could overturn Madlen’s (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) conviction. DI Breeze (Rhashan Stone) gives Evan an ultimatum, while Steve (Mark Lewis Jones) schemes to rid himself and Faith of the Reardons for good. As Tom (Aneirin Hughes) and Lisa (Catherine Ayers) face difficult truths, Faith finally learns the truth behind Will’s murder. 4 PRODUCTION NOTES Interview with Matthew Hall, Creator & Writer For anyone not familiar with the series please could you give us a summary of what to expect from the show. “Un Bore Mercher / Keeping Faith is an intimate, emotional thriller set in a beautiful part of West Wales. It tells the story of Faith, a mother of three whose life was turned upside down in series one with the disappearance of her husband, the last person in the world she would ever have cause to doubt. Faith made the choice to believe in him and over ten desperate days tried to find out what had become of him. This search turned into a journey of transformation for Faith who had to draw on resources she didn’t know she possessed and become a very different kind of woman.” The series is simultaneously shot in both Welsh & English for transmission in Welsh on S4C and then on the BBC in English. Tell us how that works… “The cast are bilingual. Each scene is shot in both English and in Welsh. Actors have to know their lines in both languages and be prepared to switch between them in different takes. This means that they are some of the most highly prepared actors I have seen at work. Because they are so well prepared, all the work on set is geared towards them inhabiting their characters deeply so that rather than performing, they are truly embodying. I try to write scripts with maximum room for the actors to express what is going on beneath the surface and Pip Broughton, the director, is expert in guiding them to the exact state of mind their characters are experiencing. So when it comes to the camera rolling the language becomes a very secondary thing – the words are just part of the means of expression.” Did the huge breakout success of the show take you all by surprise? “I knew that because of the way Pip [Broughton] and I had approached the project during four years of development and because we had known each other well for fifteen years that we would create a show that had a unique identity of its own that represented our vision. I had no idea how that would go down with viewers – you can never know! But when I saw the first rushes of Eve Myles inhabiting Faith I knew that she would connect with an audience. I had never seen anything quite like it – her warmth and genuineness – and it gave me confidence that the show would at least be noticed. The audience numbers were a really welcome surprise and a great reward for all the years of work.” 5 What do you feel the secret of the show’s success is down to? “Hard work, many years of experience and persistence rewarded with some luck. I have been writing for TV for over twenty years and novels for the last ten. Pip has had a long career in theatre and television. S4C commissioned all eight scripts for series one at once and the writing process took over two years. This is extremely rare in television. Usually a show is commissioned on the basis of one script and the rest are written in a great hurry. I had time to think and hone character and story and Pip was a brilliant editorial producer pushing me further. Even when 500 pages of script were assembled which had been through countless drafts, we still didn’t have any certainty of production – devoting so much time and effort to the writing was a huge act of faith in itself. We gave it everything. At times I felt I was wasting my time and being a fool for carrying on! We were rewarded with Eve Myles, who then agreed to spend six months learning Welsh in order to play Faith. This is unheard of. It was a monumental effort on her part. Then Amy Wadge, a friend of Eve’s, volunteered to write some songs for the show after Eve showed her some scripts. These added another dimension again, so it felt as if our hard work was paying off in ways we hadn’t expected.” There are no easy answers in Faith’s quest for the truth – let’s talk about that ending to series one and Evan’s reappearance. “Series two digs deeper into the reasons for Evan’s disappearance and carries him and Faith forwards… Any more would be a spoiler.” Without giving too much away do we see more of Evan in series two? “There is a lot more of Evan in series two.