BTS: The Hairdresser Mysteries from Mill Bay

BBC Daytime new six-part drama The Hairdresser Mysteries is created by playwright and screenwriter Jim Cartwright (Road, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice) and produced by Mill Bay Media.

Set in the ’70s, the nostalgic crime drama stars Sally Phillips as hairdresser Lily Petal who opts out of the competitive city scene to buy a small village hairdressing salon at the top of a cobbled street.

Will Trotter (Father Brown, Sister Boniface Mysteries), Oliver Kent (Sanditon, The Burning Girls) and Alex Coffey act as executive producers for Mill Bay Media, with Herbert L. Kloiber (The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Fallen) and James Copp (Catch Me A Killer, This Time Next Year) for Night Train Media. Jermain Julien directed episodes one and three.

Trotter, Kent and Julien spoke to the BBC about the making of he show.

Will Trotter and Oliver Kent (Executive Producers)
Tell us about how The Hairdresser Mysteries originated – how did the project develop from early discussions?

Will: 20 years ago, I was making TV films for the BBC, one of which was Johnny Shakespeare by Jim Cartwright. We got on famously; I’m Northern, he’s Northern. I’ve worked in cosy crime for a while with Father Brown and The Sister Boniface Mysteries, and I wanted to break the mould to create a new style of cosy crime. I immediately thought Jim’s unique voice and his colourful characters would be a rich world for a new style of cosy crime.

I had spoken to him a decade prior about a TV project and he declined, which I understood because he’s a playwright by nature. But I got back in touch with him around two years ago, both of us discussing how we’d love to work together. I spoke to him about the success Father Brown and The Sister Boniface Mysteries were receiving and asked him to have a think about what world he might want to create – that revealed itself to be a hairdresser.

What were your first impressions of the world and characters Jim had created?

Ollie: Jim’s real specialty is writing character, and he writes character better than any writer I’ve ever met. He could write two old farts sitting on a bench talking for half an hour and it would be beautiful. What’s been interesting has been seeing Jim suture together the intricately fine plotting with his fully realized characters in that distinctive voice. We have that play-along element for the audience at home while still having those beautiful character moments. Tonally, it’s like no other show I think I’ve ever seen in the best way.

Tell us about the casting process – what made Sally Phillips the perfect Lily Petal?

Ollie: Sally is perfect for Lily because she has incredible comic timing. She radiates niceness and warmth. She has such enormous respect for the writing process and Jim in particular. Marrying her with his voice through this unexpectedly brilliant Yorkshire accent that she pulled out of her hat is extraordinary.

What do the rest of the cast, Charlotte Jordan, Ben Castle-Gibb, Sunetra Sarker, bring to their characters?

Will: When we walked on the hairdresser salon set, you feel transported to this other world. Jim’s writing creates this heightened world, combined with the nostalgia of the 70s aesthetic and its music, all encased in crime stories. It’s the furthest thing from an Agatha Christie – The Hairdresser Mysteries makes you feel warm, nostalgic and excited. It makes you feel more alive!

What is it about the world of The Hairdresser Mysteries and the characters of the village you think will appeal to audiences most?

Ollie: I think that’s one of the interesting elements for the character – we’ve all had to remind ourselves at points that Lily is a hairdresser, not a detective. For us it was crucial that she always felt true to that world. That means she will make decisions that a detective wouldn’t do. So, there are some completely mad moments where Lily puts herself in incredible danger. She’s nearly always right, but she will run into a burning building when she shouldn’t because of that inherent hairdresser spidey sense.

Will: It’s that innate knowledge of people that hairdressers have, an almost unseen skill. People go into a hairdresser and tell them all about their love lives and affairs, then the next person who sits in the chair is the person they’re having an affair with!

Ollie: The audience will also be surprised by the lovely Sunetra Sarker who plays town gossip Wincey Evans. People will know her from Casualty, Ackley Bridge, but I think this is the first role she’s played where she’s been allowed to be so incredibly funny. We called her Ocean’s Eleven because she stole every scene she was in.

Ollie: One of the things that the audience can look forward to is lots of singing and dancing in every episode. They can also play along with each episode’s crime and work out the logic of that. If they can work it out faster than their best friends, better. If they get it wrong, even better. Ultimately, it’s a show for everyone, which makes the BBC the perfect place to play it.

Jermain Julien (Director Episode 1 and 3)
Tell us about The Hairdresser Mysteries and what drew you to the project.

I was keen to work with Ollie Kent, our executive producer, again after Holby City and Casualty. When he mentioned there might be an opportunity for us to work together, I jumped at it. When he mentioned it was a Jim Cartwright project, I knew it was going to be something special.

What were your first impressions of the world Jim had created in the scripts?

Jim’s writing is unique in tone through the way his language flows. Respecting that text and understanding how he wanted it to be delivered whilst putting my fingerprint on it at the same time was key. Before we started, I had a long conversation with Jim about his vision for the show and communicated how I saw the world, and also the energy I was looking to imbue into the scripts.

Lily and Clary have quite a strong Sherlock-and-Watson dynamic, how did you work with Sally and Charlotte to bring that to life?

The joy of working with Sally and Charlie is that at our first read-through, they sat together and we could just see the energy sparking off of them immediately. They have a mutual strong sense of trust in one another, playing on this master-and-pupil dynamic but that’s elevated by this shared knowledge. We never play it as though one is smarter than the other – they both have their areas of expertise.

How did you go about balancing the fun, uplifting spirit of the characters alongside the, at times, quite dark murder cases Lily and her team are attempting to solve?

There’s an interesting tonal dance at the heart of this show. We’re dealing with murders, but through the lens of hairdressers who are known for their gentler energy. That allowed me to go darker in certain beats, knowing we had that levity to pull us back out again. After all, we’re not trying to give anyone nightmares!

How is The Hairdresser Mysteries different from other crime shows?

The hairdresser at the heart of it all. I’m blessed with having grown up in hair salons. My mum was a hairdresser; my auntie was a hairdresser – she actually did Boney M’s hair. That allowed me to understand how important a good haircut means to someone. My conversations with Sally to communicate with Sally is the energy of knowing that you have that skill set, that you can change someone’s life, you can change someone’s weekend, you can change someone’s energy by giving them a really good haircut. Once you’ve made that connection, then who knows what they might tell you. They might even confess to something you wouldn’t expect.