Interviews, articles and press releases

Hex is soon going to become one of the biggest shows on the small screen. Therefore, there will be many interviews and reports about the series. Here I will try to constantly update you all over the latest releases.


Wednesday 27th October

Q: Where did the idea come from, how did you find the writers?

Johnny:
We wanted to do a high-concept show. It’s more enjoyable to do programmes that have a bit more edge, are a bit more risky, and we thought this was the natural progression after AS IF.
We knew that American high concept shows seldom, if ever, played with history, so this became our starting point. We decided to set the show in a college, and instead of moving the stories geographically we would move them forwards and backwards in time. So we then started building up layers of a mythology. And the ideas just gradually evolved.

Julian:
The mythology we use was based partly on history but mainly from the ancient biblical texts. This is where our fascination with the Nephelim began.

Johnny:
If a teen show is to be listened to by its audience it can’t be morally black and white. It needs an ambiguity and that’s why the Nephelim appealed to us. Azazeal, their leader is the supposed villain but at the same time he has human flaws and weaknesses which make him a more complicated and likeable character. This allows you to have far more intriguing moral dilemmas which don’t preach but allow the audience to make up its own mind. I think this is essential ingredient for this type of sophisticated audience.

Julian:
We then wrote the entire history of Medenham Hall (the College) from the 18th century to now, as a single document. That may seem like a strange process, and a lot of it isn’t directly in the programme, but it’s a vital part of the process. If you look at the successful US series, they inherit a mythology – like Spiderman – and you have to find that bedrock, and once those foundations are firm you can build up the story. At this stage we brought in Julian Jones a writer we have a very strong relationship with and started to develop characters and story lines.

Q:
You talk about appealing to a sophisticated audience. In a way do you think this audience is actually rather under catered for in terms of home-grown product?

Julian:
Traditionally, home-grown product hasn’t been made that appeal to that younger audience. It’s quite a wide audience, from 12 to 30, but traditionally UK broadcasters have bought that product from America.

Johnny:
What’s interesting about making shows for this demographic is that it’s a very smart audience. They’ve been brought up on pop promos and cinema and as a result are not only smart at understanding film language but they also have an instinct for following complicated or non linear story telling. This makes them a far more difficult audience to please but once you have gained their attention and respect they are far more willing to suspend their disbelief.

Julian:
They are visually literate, and unlike the mass British audience which is used to shows with a lot of words, we can make something for them which is more filmic, and I think Hex bears that out.

Q: Would you say Hex is a mixture of horror and black comedy? That there’s an element of self-deprecation in the show?

Julian:
I think there has always been a connection between comedy and horror. There’s a strange link between the way humour works and the way you scare someone, and there’s a long, long tradition in films where this has been mixed. A film that influenced us a lot was Gingersnaps, a Canadian indie movie that was a brilliant mix of adolescent storytelling, comedy and scary bits. Hex isn’t a horror in a conventional sense, it’s a chiller. And it’s about unraveling a mystery.

Johnny:
You’ve got a very sophisticated audience here, and if you start taking the world you have created too seriously, your audience will switch off. As a result you have to be extremely careful with the tone and the pitch of the acting. In Britain we have this inherent acting style which is incredibly earnest, and you can’t really do a high-concept show and talk earnestly about fallen angels, it sounds ridiculous.

Q: Is Azazeal a composite of characters?

Julian:
No, he’s a real character. He occurs in apocryphal books of the Bible, as one of the Nephelim. In Hebrew the word Nephelim means ‘fallen ones’. He’s still part of the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, so when they traditionally find a scapegoat to atone for their sins, that character is called Azazeal. He’s part of that tradition.

Q: How important is it for you to work with relatively untried talent?

Johnny:
It’s more interesting for us, but it’s a huge risk as well. Cassie was shooting every day, and for a relative newcomer it’s a very demanding role. We got very lucky because Christina was incredibly professional.