Missing You writer Victoria Asare-Archer on finale twists and championing "incredible" Black TV talent

For the past few years now, a new thriller based on one of Coben's bestselling novels has landed on the global streamer, nursing New Year's Day hangovers and setting social media alight with theories and meme-worthy reactions.

This time round, Missing You is five episodes long and has been brought to life for the screen by Asare-Archer, who also serves as an executive producer on the series.

"It was just such an interesting opportunity to take a Black actress and put her in a centre of a series where she is the centre of this series," Asare-Archer says as we sit down for a chat ahead of the release of Missing You.

Centring on Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar), we follow the detective as she stumbles across a dating app profile of her ex-fiancé Josh (Ashley Walters), which also sets into motion the search for answers around her father's death.

In typical Coben series fashion, there are plenty of twists, characters and lingering glances that'll leave viewers guessing till the show's very last moments, but Asare-Archer admits that some of the difficulty of bringing Missing You to life was focusing it on Kat.

"This was the first one that's about one person really ploughing through a story. That was just a really unique opportunity – to take a Black woman and look at every aspect of her life as well," Asare-Archer explains.

Slow Horses star Eleazar was "magic" right from the first audition, Asare-Archer says, with the actress instantly understanding how textured a character Kat was. "The magic of Kat is she is so fun, so entertaining, so strong, so interesting but she's also really vulnerable and messy and reckless. Allowing a character to be all of those things, particularly a Black character, is just really interesting and I think quite unusual."

Inspired by Shonda Rhimes, Asare-Archer admits that she learnt a lot from Rhimes's writing, which taught her that "actually, women are allowed to be crazy too".

"I have been accused in the past of writing 'perfect' Black women. When you are feeling like you must represent a voice, there's a feeling of responsibility and a feeling of creating characters that are inspirational and meaningful," Asare-Archer says.

We talk about Kerry Washington's memorable leading role as Olivia Pope in Scandal, a woman who certainly made some interesting choices, but we're still talking about the character 10 years later, Asare-Archer says.

"That's the whole point of my job, to write exceptional drama and if I want Black actresses to have roles that they can spend the next decade of their career talking about, that means writing women who are allowed to be messy and brilliant and interesting and as complicated as every other type of character."

At a screening of Missing You's first episode, Asare-Archer referred to the leading cast of the new series as a "roll call of Black excellence" – and Richard Armitage, we joke – and while it should very much be the norm to have an anticipated glossy Netflix thriller with a Black cast at its helm, the new show and its nods to Black culture will come as a welcome addition to Netflix watchlists.

But creating such a show and ensuring that Black actresses and actors were at the helm of it was never a point of discussion, Asare-Archer admits. "I don't even think there was a conversation. I think the assumption of me coming on was that it would be a Black actress automatically so I don't even remember having a 'This is what I would like to do' [conversation], it's just assumed."

She continues: "I've worked with Nicola [Shindler] and the team before so from the very first script, [Kat] was a Black woman. That's the magic of Quay Street specifically and I've worked with them a few times, the second you have a Black lead then well actually, her friends and family are going to be Black. You're building a whole world around this character just from that single choice of having a Black writer.

"So really, you know, that choice to put someone in place who's able to make automatic those creative decisions, just made the whole thing a lot easier. It was really smooth-sailing, it was never really a question."

The great thing about the international success of Coben's series is that many actors themselves have loved them, meaning that when the author sent out messages asking people to come in, it was usually met with an instant 'yes'. But that doesn't mean that you'll be seeing these familiar faces in roles you expect of them, oh no.

"I think the wonderful thing about the success of Harlan's shows is that there's a lot of trust of 'These roles are great', like these are interesting characters doing interesting things," Asare-Archer says. "So even when it's something quite different and unusual for you as an actor, actually it works with the story."

Used to seeing Ashley Walters in Top Boy or Lenny Henry cracking out the jokes? Well, not in Missing You. "We were very lucky that so many of the cast were willing to step outside their comfort zone to take on roles that probably are going to be quite surprising for the audience, and are going to be a little unexpected," Asare-Archer admits.

"As a Black writer, for me, that's pretty amazing to be able to give a Black cast interesting roles where they're not having to do one kind of role in one kind of way. Actually, this is seeing them in completely different facets and completely different voices. Seeing sides of those actors that you kind of think 'Why on earth hasn't Ashley Walters been in a romantic series?' – that's the goal.

"I think that's what's amazing about it, when you have so much Black talent working in the industry, we're able to kind of go, 'Cool, let's take that actor we know and we love and let's do something different' and give them a complete different type of role and allow them to kind of have the greater freedom other actors have."

Being at the helm of Missing You meant that Asare-Archer got to include moments in the script like Henry and Walters doing the Candy dance routine, and some of the show's most warming scenes amongst Kat's mother Odette (Brigid Zengeni) and her friends.

"A lot of people have picked up on those moments and on the one hand, I totally get why people are surprised by them because we don't usually see them. On the other hand, they're just so ordinary to me," Asare-Archer says.

"Obviously, we never specify the ethnicity of any of our characters – an amalgamation of Caribbean, West African heritage within the family – but it's just those tiny moments that are quite ordinary if you're Black, the music you play and the things you do. They just felt like something that I automatically related to, just an automatic part of my storytelling.

"I think that's the thing, when you have Black creatives – or creatives of any kind of marginalised community – in a project, it's a specificity that they bring to a project that is really ordinary for me. But you just realise that you don't automatically see it if you don't have people of different communities writing things."

As a London-born writer of Ghanaian heritage, Asare-Archer describes the process of working on Missing You as "amazing", explaining that there were never any awkward conversations about hiring "a certain kind of person" but rather, just assuming the team working on the Netflix series would be as racially diverse as possible. "I was backed the whole way and that was really really exciting. I think that's the thing if you're not the only person in the room, things are a million times easier," she says.

Rightfully so these days, more of the spotlight on conversations around TV are centred on who gets to tell their stories for those primetime slots. Asare-Archer says that having Black or marginalised writers isn't just important to ensure authentic storytelling, but also to allow for racial diversity to trickle through an entire production.

"For me I'm completely biased but I do think most of that comes from having Black or marginalised writers because I think the difficult thing is, when you have a series and you've got a Black lead but it's then hard to translate that across the rest of crew and the full off-screen story.

"When you've got a Black writer or someone who's got a specific point of view in place at that key decision-making point, I think that affects everything for the next four years going forward.

"So I think it's investing in writers as much as possible. And if you can invest in writers, I think that affects every single other aspect of production in a way that's quite meaningful."

Not being on set for Henry and Walters's Candy dance and not explicitly naming it as such in the script could've been a recipe for hilarious disaster. Instead, Asare-Archer admits she knew that because of the crew and cast, everyone would know what was going on.

"I think it's really about volume and hiring as many people across as many different roles takes the pressure off and makes it easier for conversations to be so much more natural, so much easier and so much more relevant to the actual community."

For Asare-Archer, the experience of having underrepresented talent within a crew and cast is always going to happen once those heads of department are also from those marginalised communities.

"When you have a Black actress, the make up of the cast looks different. When you have a Black or a brown director, the make up of the crew looks different. It's really understanding what those key parts are. A complete testament to Quay Street for being willing to make those choices and knowing that if they get a Black writer, I'm going to change the make up of this whole show.

"A lot of that is having production companies with power who are able to reassure broadcasters, which shouldn't have to happen, and really standing up for something in a way. When Nicola Shindler says that this person is the right person for a role, there isn't a question. It just means that broadcasters can get behind it in a way that feels quite ordinary and it should happen more, really."

It's something that you hope would be the norm within any TV production but looking to the future, how does Asare-Archer feel about representation within the industry?

"I feel like you can have two truths about an issue. I feel like the industry at the moment, things are difficult and all the stats show that things are really dire for marginalised communities.

"Having said that, I do feel really confident at the moment that the bench has never been deeper when it comes to Black talent. We've got the most incredible Black writers, directors and actresses working in a way that I don't think we necessarily have seen before [due] to the sheer volume of cast and crew physically available with credits on their score sheet who have doing this now for a decade and working in this industry for years – we're here."

She adds: "It's really about, are broadcasters specifically going to be the ones to back the people who are already here? I've got more concerns about the people coming in, it's really difficult at the moment for people trying to break into the industry. But for the people that are here and working, actually, I think times are really positive, or have the potential to be really positive."

We speak of releases over the past couple of years from Dreaming Whilst Black, Mood, Black Ops to this year's Boarders, Queenie and Mr Loverman. All telling uniquely different stories and reflecting the multifaceted nature of being Black. "Are production companies investing in the full range of talent?," Asare-Archer poses, adding that she can't imagine how many other series all of the writers of the aforementioned shows developed in the meantime of actually being commissioned.

Even so, TV has taken a lot of risks recently, Asare-Archer explains, saying that it's something that needs to continue.

"I think as the industry gets tougher, things are entrenching and people are turning to more and more familiar names and familiar patterns of shows. I think it's more about will the risk-taking continue of having people who haven't necessarily written 10 shows in the past couple of years, having different names."

Although Eleazar is known for starring in Apple TV+'s Slow Horses, Asare-Archer does admit that she hopes her leading role in Missing You continues to propel her career to new heights.

"I really hope this is a really important moment for Rosalind. I think she is an actress who should be on every 9 o'clock series. Obviously she's had an amazing career up till now but I hope this is a step for her to take on those roles that she should absolutely be killing right now.

"The bench is deep at the moment, the talent is there and the talent are proving how exceptional they are. So really, it's up to broadcasters and commissioners to back that talent that exists because we know right now, the Roz's of this world are there."

Missing You is a series that very much sees Kat going through it, I tell Asare-Archer, with a fitting Coben-esque finale that packs the twists but also, some surprising emotional moments too.

We discuss one of the quieter – yet emotion-packed – scenes in the finale where Kat meets Parker (Cyril Nri), a scene that makes Asare-Archer cry every time she watches it, she admits.

As well as not being able to believe that Nri hasn't had his own series over the course of his stellar acting career, Asare-Archer says that the scene drives home the point that Missing You is all "about emotion and those tiny moments". "You leave that scene and there are no heroes and villains, no one's the one who won or lost or said the right thing. It's heartbreaking," she says.

At its core, it's a series very much about parents and their children, Asare-Archer says. "As a child, no matter how old you are, you still hold your parents in a certain esteem and actually, accepting their humanity and their flaws is really hard to do."

While the Missing You finale is certainly a rollercoaster, it actually ended up being one of the quickest and easiest episodes to write for Asare-Archer because of the "pure and clear" emotions within it.

The final "heartbreaking" scene between Kat and Josh sticks true to Coben's original novel and was something the author was also "really passionate about preserving", Asare-Archer explains. Things aren't neatly tied up at the end and while the lead writer has her own (secret) thoughts about what would happen after the cameras stopped rolling, she admits that finishing the series on that note was important.

"Leaving it at that moment of uncertainty just felt really important in a sense of, there is no right answer about what happens next or the decisions they make so we leave them at that point where it's unclear which just felt really interesting."

Like any good thriller, the ending will get people talking, not least because of the performances of all the main cast. But irregardless of how it's received by viewers, Asare-Archer admits she's just really proud of what the team has made.

"It's got an incredible cast, incredible things and I'm really proud of our behind-the-scenes, the crew that we had. I'm really proud of a show of this scale featuring Black voices coming out on New Year's Day – it's really exciting. Hopefully the audience relate to it and watch it."

Missing You will stream on Netflix on 1st January 2025. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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