27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
'From creating small pox to challenging weather conditions
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As you settle down in front of the telly, deciding whether to watch Baby Reindeer on Netflix or perhaps a historical series like Mary and George, or maybe even the latest series of Industry or One Day, remember that behind every show is a team of creatives working tirelessly to make it visually stunning.
In anticipation of the BAFTA Craft Awards this weekend, Reach had a chat with the creative minds behind some of this year's most gripping and thrilling shows.
Fake pox, tattoo bruises and wigs
Paul Gooch, who worked on Sky's hit series Mary and George, gave us an insight into what went into creating the intricate hairstyles and makeup for the historical drama.
"We needed to create a form of Pox for our lead actor," he revealed. "It could have been syphilis, a skin disease or a form of smallpox. In the script, it was non-specific.
"And for another character, a full-blown case of syphilis which ate away at the soft bone tissue of the face. To do these effects we used a combination of tattoo transfers and pro bondo sculpted prosthetics. It took five of us an hour to achieve, along with a red rash, as it had to cover the actor's whole body.
"Fun to do but very time-consuming and manpower heavy, for speed. Death, disease and ageing were a large part of this show's remit."
To assist with continuity, Paul explained that bruising would be created as tattoo transfers so they're "fast to apply and always identical".
Paul, from the hair and makeup team, highlighted the challenges of maintaining continuity in unpredictable weather: "Maintaining elaborate hair styles in these conditions is a major part of our work alongside continuity, making sure things stay the same, so we don't give problems to the editors.
"When using wigs and facial hair these require gluing to the skin. Damp weather will affect this too. Long working hours are also a factor. An average filming day for the makeup/hair department is around 16 to 18 hours long so maintaining these highly stylised looks is a long game. We use heavy duty hair products to help keep these sculptural styles."
'Electric' performances and 'tricky' scenes
(Image: BBC)
The writers behind the industry, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, discussed the intense portrayal of Sagar Radia's character Rishi Ramdani and his gambling struggles: "Because of its relentless pace and the fact the script turned the screws on the character at every available opportunity, married to Sagar's electric performance. Very hard to take your eyes off him. Very volatile. Very unpredictable."
Nicole Taylor, known for her work on Netflix's hit One Day, opened up about the difficulties she faced while penning the script, reports the Mirror.
"The greatest challenge was probably figuring out what the 'motor' of each episode would be," she explained. "In a story like this about people and a relationship over time, without any particular 'plot' as such, without traditional TV 'hooks', how could I lock viewers into this story? How could I make sure they never looked away?
(Image: Netflix)
"The hardest scenes to write were those in episode 14 and the opening scenes were tricky too. It was all quite tricky! Trickier than I expected – ha. With material that brilliant, one might have hoped it was a cut and paste job but alas no!"
Scenes viewers will never see
Editor Benjamin Gerstein divulged: "I think scenes that end up on the cutting room floor mostly end up there for a reason. Sometimes you have to lose moments you love in order for the whole episode or series to work best. Having said that, there was a bar-fight I really liked that we ended up losing.
"It was tragic and funny but didn't fit the overall thrust of the episode as we accelerated towards the end."
Reflecting on the challenges he faced when editing, Benjamin shared: "There were some pretty traumatic sequences in the show, and cutting them was challenging on an emotional as well as technical level.
"I found it meant making yourself both emotionally available and objectively distant at the same time so that you could feel what the audience might feel in watching and also have the capacity to make creative decisions that were more measured."
The BAFTA TV Craft Awards are on 27th April
