Neil Cross, the creator and showrunner of Sky’s new Italian-set thriller, The Iris Affair, tells Jon Creamer how the show was conceived and delivered
Luther creator, Neil Cross’s latest centres on Iris Nixon (Niamh Algar), an enigmatic genius on the run from Tom Hollander’s shady entrepreneur, Cameron Beck. The pursuit comes after Iris absconds with the key to unlocking the secrets of an incredibly powerful and incredibly terrifying supercomputer.
The chase thriller, written, created and showrun by Cross, ranges across stunning Italian backdrops with Iris desperately trying to stay just one step ahead.
What was the genesis of the idea? I’m very rarely struck by inspiration. Usually, in any given period, I’ll have little ideas that sort of grow like mould on a slice of bread – little bits here and there that start sending connections out to each other.
I used to be a novelist primarily, and I still approach screenwriting in a slightly novelistic way. I think of the characters first. The character of Iris occurred to me first, in isolation, like a Boltzmann brain.
What was the inspiration for the Iris character? I thought there’s never really been, to my recollection, a female antihero. Not really. There are pseudo-antiheroes who turn out to be sympathetic, but an actual dyed-in-the-wool, somewhat amoral, possibly even occasionally malevolent antihero? It’s not something I could remember seeing, certainly not in the last generation or so.
So, I began to think – who would that be? Part of the process is algebraic: she would display qualities that are atypical from the way many women are portrayed on TV – she’s cerebral, unemotional. Her emotional intelligence is quite low, but her actual intelligence is off the scale. I liked the idea of someone who’s super clever but unengaged with the world or with people.
Where did the Iris character take you next? One of the attributes that Iris allowed me to develop in the show was having a character with a recognisably old-fashioned existential attitude – that human life doesn’t matter, that things are meaningless.
But the real opportunity with the character was putting her in a position where she had to put those positions to the test. Is she scared of dying? Is she reluctant to kill? If so, why? I was making her “walk it like she talks it.”
Jon Creamer
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