Love, Lies & Records writer Kay Mellor: I wanted to make sure my new show was anti-Brexit
Mellor’s new BBC drama centres around a registrar who deals with sham marriages and immigration. After the referendum result, the writer revisited the scripts to ensure they reflected her views as a remainer
Kay Mellor’s new BBC1 drama, Love, Lies & Records, revolves around the life of a registrar who deals with births, deaths and marriages every day.
Mellor came up with the idea not only because she thought “it would be wonderful to have all those big moments in life” in a series, but also because she wanted to look at “the state of play of the nation”.
It was important to Mellor that she was reflecting “the times we’re living through” after Britain voted to leave the European Union. In Love, Lies & Records, protagonist Kate (Ashley Jensen) has to confront the issue of sham marriages being used by immigrants as an illegal means to stay in the UK.
Mellor wrote the drama before the Brexit vote happened, but afterwards she made sure to “revisit the scripts and go through it all again” to make sure that was she was saying in the series was in line with her views as a remainer.
“I'd written it before Brexit and then I sat down after it happened and thought, ‘I have to be really careful what I’m saying here,’” Mellor said at a Q&A following a screening of Love, Lies & Records.
“I didn't want it to be pro-Brexit, to be honest with you. That's my own personal opinion, which I’m entitled to.
“I think immigration and people coming into our country is a wonderful thing. I think we wouldn't have a National Health Service without people from other countries. I’m all for it, really. I think it makes for a much better England, a much better United Kingdom.
“And so I am anti-Brexit. I wanted to make sure that what I was saying in the series wasn't going against what I felt as a writer.”
Love, Lies & Records begins on Thursday 16th November at 9pm on BBC1
