Platform 7 writer "thrilled" with Top Boy actress as lead
A big fan of Top Boy, Platform 7 author Louise Doughty reveals her reaction to the adaptation's casting.
New ITVX drama Platform 7 lands on the streaming service today with four episodes led by Jasmine Jobson as Lisa, a woman who witnesses a major event at a train station, and is led to uncovering aspects of her own life that she has no recollection of.
It's the first major role Jobson has had since the much-talked-about finale of Netflix's Top Boy, in which she starred as one of the main characters, Jaq, alongside Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson.
This new role sees Jobson take on a decidedly different character with supernatural elements, based on the novel of the same name by Louise Doughty.
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Well, it seems as though Doughty couldn't be happier with Jobson as the lead of the adaptation.
Speaking to ITV ahead of the series premiere, Doughty - who also penned Crossfire, which starred Keeley Hawes - confessed she is a major Top Boy fan.
She said: "I was completely thrilled to bits when we got Jasmine Jobson for the lead role of Lisa.
"I'm a big fan of Top Boy, I've watched it since the very first series, and I think what she brings to Platform 7 is something that's so necessary, which is that you feel that Lisa is an active participant in her own drama, even when she's a ghost.”
Doughty continued: "In the novel, the character of Lisa drifts around, thinking about things. In a work of prose fiction, you can get away with a character being relatively passive, because you have interior thought.
"But on the screen, she needed to be much more dynamic, more of an active participant in the investigation of her own death.
"Jasmine's performance really brings that dynamic quality to Lisa's character: we first meet her as a ghost - but when you see her in flashback as a living woman, you realise how vibrant and strong Lisa was, and that brings real poignancy to what has happened to her.
"Jasmine really shows her range here, and it's a joy to see."
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The new series combines "supernatural elements" with "contemporary realism", and follows Lisa (Jobson) as she tries to make sense of her whereabouts.
According to the synopsis: "After witnessing a cataclysmic event on Platform 7, Lisa is forced to confront the mystery of her death. Marooned in the train station where she died, Lisa has no memory of who she was."
As well as Jobson leading the cast of Platform 7, the rest of the line-up also includes Toby Regbo (A Discovery of Witches), Yaamin Chowdhury (The Lazarus Project) and Phil Davis (Trying), as well as Emily Carey (House of the Dragon), Reece Ritchie (The Outpost) and more.
Platform 7 is available to watch on ITVX from Thursday 7th December. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.
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Authors
Morgan Cormack is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering everything drama-related on TV and streaming. She previously worked at Stylist as an Entertainment Writer. Alongside her past work in content marketing and as a freelancer, she possesses a BA in English Literature.
