| Pair Of Aces | Risky Business |
MIGHT & MAGIC
RENEGADE NELL Sally Wainwright follows up Happy Valley with an earthy period fantasy…
I’m a really big fan of left-turns and unusual combinations,’ says Ben Taylor (Sex Education, Catastrophe), who directs the stage-setting opening episodes of Disney+ fantasy series Renegade Nell. ‘For me, this was the ultimate writer version: “Imagine Sally Wainwright doing a violent, period VFX romp.”’
Set in early 18th-century England, Renegade Nell’s eponymous outlaw (Louisa Harland, Derry Girls) turns to highway robbery after being framed for the murder of a local landowner. Nell also happens to be the strongest woman in the world, imbued with a Hulk-like left hook by a kindly demon sprite called Billy Blind (Nick Mohammed), and the only person who can stop a magical conspiracy targeting Queen Anne.
Describing Nell as a ‘new-feel, new-look Disney hero’, Taylor says, in less family-friendly terms, that, ‘When shit goes down, it’s all about how ready she is to handle herself,’ with physics-defying action a major component of the series. ‘We open with this pre-title scene where she gets into a massive fight,’ Taylor explains. ‘It was kung-fu fighting. It was wire work. A lot of character and comedy was put into the choreography.’
Written by celebrated TV scribe Sally Wainwright some 15 years ago, Renegade Nell is a ‘heady mix of folklore and fantasy’ according to Taylor. And though it ‘leans into horror as well’, with all manner of gnarly creatures conjured to hunt Nell, ‘the fun of it offsets the danger and the violence,’ Taylor claims.
Shot largely on location in the countryside around London, the dirt under the fingernails approach contrasts with the show’s biggest, strangest swing. ‘Billy Blind is the most magical of these creatures,’ Taylor details. ‘He flies; he disappears; he shrinks; he grows; he leaves a vapour trail of sparks and energy behind him. But we were very keen that he didn’t descend into Tinkerbell, mad, Disney stuff.’ It’s a, kind of, magic.
RENEGADE NELL STREAMS ON DISNEY+ FROM 29 MARCH.
Louisa Harland
Were you looking for a left-turn after Derry Girls?
I worried that I would be seen as that character for the rest of my career. So I was definitely looking to do something different. And Nell’s different.
Was fight training new to you?
I’ve never been into a gym in my life! I had three months’ training, and it was really intense. I would have around four hours in the morning of boxing and fight training. Then I would go off to Milton Keynes to learn how to ride a horse for the rest of the afternoon and, my god, I needed it.
Were you surprised this came from Sally Wainwright’s desk?
The combination of Sally Wainwright and Disney is brilliant. It’s still very textbook Sally. It’s centred around class. It’s centred around gender dynamics. It does actually feel quite ‘Sally’ when you know.
How did you perfect your cockney accent?
I actually lived in Limehouse during lockdown. I had to move in with my partner and his aunty and uncle, who are proper cockneys. Given that one of the most slated accents is
Dick Van Dyke’s cockney accent [in Mary Poppins], I knew I had to really find truth in it. [laughs]