• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SEENIT

TV, Film, Broadband, Pay-TV, Games, Computing and Tech | News, Comment & Reviews

  • NEWS
  • FEATURES
  • ADVERTISE
  • Twitter

Jess Brittain on BBC Three’s new teen drama, Clique

The online-only channel’s latest original commission takes a look at the pressures faced by a group of university students.

February 16, 2017 - Staff@seenituk

Picture Shows: Holly (SYNNOVE KARLSEN), Georgia (AISLING FRANCIOSI), Rachel (RACHEL HURD-WOOD), Phoebe (ELLA-RAE SMITH), Louise (SOPHIA BROWN), Fay (EMMA APPLETON). Image: BBC/Balloon Entertainment/Phil Fisk
Former Skins writer Jess Brittain discusses Clique, her six-part BBC Three drama which sees best friends and university new girls Holly (Synnove Karlsen) and Georgia (Aisling Franciosi) drawn into an elite clique of alpha girls led by lecturer Jude McDermid (Louise Brealey).

Can you describe Clique for us?
Clique is about a best friendship in crisis, framed by the wider insecurity of being a young woman starting university in a pressurised and uncertain time. It is about an alluring group of women and their charismatic leader, who all seem to have worked out what they’re doing and the ways in which our protagonists respond differently to that group. Clique takes an issue that’s pretty ubiquitous to young women and places it in a thriller setting. The stakes are high and it goes to some pretty dark places.

What was your inspiration for the series?
It started with having a slightly weird and discombobulated time at University myself. We’re repeatedly told as teens that Uni will be the best years of our lives. So when you find yourself lost and wrong-footed it’s almost shameful. You are supposed to find “your people” at Uni. The attraction of those who seem to have it all tied down and the feelings that then throws up, is something that has hung around in my head since I graduated.

In the six years since I graduated the pressure seems to have become even worse. There’s no space to drift, make mistakes and learn things about yourself. You are expected to immediately operate with an adult sensibility. I was interested in what that might mean for women who perhaps weren’t quite ready for the stakes they were expected to deal with.

I’m also just endlessly fascinated by female friendship and the centrality it has in a young woman’s life. It means everything and can go so wrong so quickly. The opportunity to write something with an almost entirely female cast was also very appealing.

Tell us about the characters?
Lots of the characters started out as versions of me, my friends and our experiences. Holly and Georgia take parts from most of my closest female friendships and I think everyone has an inner Elizabeth. Jude was partly inspired by a Secondary School English teacher of mine who I simultaneously hated and was desperate to please. But the characters quickly took on lives of their own once I was writing and then developed again once they were cast.

How long was it from concept to filming?
It took some time. The concept and pilot script happened quite quickly. Then there was a wait to see if we could get it off the ground. I think in some ways it was a slightly risky commission. The show is for young people but is quite explicit and dark. And it was my first sole-authored show. We were lucky that BBC Three was committed to backing what we wanted to do and were willing to take the risk.

What do you hope the audience will take away from the show?
Mostly I just hope it is fun to watch. Writing for young people is liberating because they are an audience who will come with you if you try something a bit different – as long as it’s good! I’d hope that even if this particular Uni experience doesn’t quite reflect your own, the challenges and themes will resonate with young people generally and young women in particular.

How did you start your journey to become a writer?
I studied English Lit at University for no better reason than I liked reading. I realised after a Creative Writing module that writing was probably what I wanted to do but, again, was slightly directionless in that aim. I come from a family of screenwriters who were writing Skins at the time and my Dad put my Uni creative writing piece in with the samples being considered for a Skins tie-in novel.

Whilst researching the novel in the Skins Writers Room I failed to sit quietly and listen and the producer Neil Duncan noticed some potential.

It was probably just about the only Writers Room at the time where clueless, green writers had a safe space to learn how to write a screenplay with close but non-prescriptive support. I was very, very lucky to have been part of it.

You wrote for Skins. Did that whet your appetite for writing – for TV in particular?
Definitely. I think a lot of us look back on that Writers Room now and realise how lucky we were.

Skins was a show completely dedicated to its young writers. They trusted us to tell our stories and encouraged us to write from our own lives (the problems, the things that pissed us off and the things which made us excited). That’s a lesson I definitely took with me.

Do you have any advice for writers making their way and wanting to write for TV?
Don’t try to be perfect in your writing. Don’t plan a script to death. If you’re writing about something that fires you up, it’ll show – regardless of whether your structure is perfect or your action sequence makes total sense.

And don’t be afraid to give yourself time to think and let ideas swirl around without writing. Sometimes you do your best work walking to the shop or hanging out your washing.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Blu-ray and Gaming Top Buys

John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold to make UK Blu-ray debut

Eureka Classics to release Tsui Hark’s Time And Tide

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is coming to Blu-ray

RECENT

Watch Michael B. Jordan in trailer for Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse

Jeremy Piven stars in trailer for Last Call

Channel 4 confirms Taskmaster’s return date

The Secret Garden retains Number 1 spot in this week’s film chart

Popular

Disney+ confirms air dates for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Loki and Turner & Hooch

Apple TV+ is coming to Google TV

New Django series is coming to Sky and CANAL+

BBC, ITV and Channel 4 announce plans to merge Digital UK and Freesat

Featured

Ofcom calls for greater social and geographic diversity in TV and radio

BT Sport app now available on Now TV devices

StarzPlay is now available from Rakuten TV

Britbox – What does the new UK-centric streaming service offer?

ADVERTISE ON SEENIT

We’re pleased to offer a number of advertising opportunities to high quality brands including sponsored content, competitions and advertising placements.

Please contact us for details.

MORE FROM US

Copyright © 2021 · All Rights Reserved · Contact Us · Copyright · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy