Most fans may recognize British actor Lennie James from his role as Morgan Jones on AMC's flagship post-apocalyptic series' 'The Walking Dead' and 'Fear the Walking Dead. Those that have followed the 52-year-old's career a little more closely will recall his roles in the 2000 crime comedy 'Snatch' and more recently, critically-acclaimed neo-noir science fiction film 'Blade Runner 2049'. But forget the past. Set in the backdrop of working-class, inner-city London, the series follows Nelly, a man who is incredibly charismatic and yet a prisoner to his vices, namely alcohol. A serial womanizer, life trudges along for Nelly at the same pedestrian pace it does for everyone else. However, one day, he finds that a child he had fathered 13 years ago and had all but forgotten, Jody, has gone missing. As the initial suspicion around him being the kidnapper lifts, Nelly finds himself in a complex territory: one where he's forced to acknowledge all the feelings he's tried to suppress in the last decade, but with the added caveat that his daughter's life could very well be on the line. Revealing the plot further would be depriving you of six hours of a well-paced, well-directed series that captures a thematic, gritty darkness like few others, and leaves you yearning for more. Most will recognize Lennie from his roles in 'The Walking Dead' and 'Fear the Walking Dead' Source: Getty Images And while Lennie stars in the intriguing series, it also happens to be the brainchild of his prodigious imagination. The actor not only penned the script for 'Save Me,' but also served as producer, so when we got the opportunity to pick his brain on his ideation process and how he explores themes like kidnapping, trafficking, and abuse, it was not one to miss. Lennie, however, insists the show evolved from his base desire to create a thriller, and that everything else came later. I had a phone call asking me whether or not I had an idea for a television series and this one kind of just popped into my head. It was very much a desire to write a thriller and, as with most of the themes I write, I wanted to pen a story of redemption. It was more of wanting to write a thriller and I wanted to set it in a real place with real themes and a realistic lead character with all of his flaws, who goes on a real journey to find things about himself that he didn't know when he started off. To him, the city is home, so it's not surprising to see him set 'Save Me' within its boundaries. But to satisfy our curiosity, we ask whether it was something he had in mind while writing the series and he replies in the affirmative. He also believes that the setting is paramount to the story. Our main location is three miles square of Southeast London and I found, very strangely, that you can tell a universal story by being very specific about the location. That area of Southeast London in the housing estate and those people in the pub are as important to the story as any of the characters or what happens to them. He and his brother had spent eight years in foster care after the death of their mother when he was 10-years-old, and back in 2000, he wrote an autobiographical television film called 'Storm Damage' based on some of his experiences with the system. It depicts a teacher who tries to go back to the foster home he left and help the teenagers there, as James did himself and was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series. He also wrote a play, 'The Sons of Charlie Paora,' which opened at London's prestigious Royal Court Theatre in 2004. Lennie created 'Save Me' and plays the leading role Source: How did these past experiences shape his thoughts when working on 'Save Me'? So, I suppose it helped that way. But 'Storm Damage' was a one-off 92-minute film for the BBC and 'Save Me' is six hours of television, so it's a very different writing experience. I know some of the experiences from 'Storm Damage' must have rubbed off when I was writing 'Save Me,' but I couldn't tell you at this particular point, no. Then in 2007, I relocated to America and got busy establishing myself as an actor over there and taking on that challenge. That was my main reason, really. And then, the change in circumstances as well. It was entirely possible that taking on multiple responsibilities could have proven a chaotic and tumultuous experience, but the actor credits director Nick Murphy for the smooth sailing and how 'Save Me' eventually turned out. So, the good thing about it is that in most situations when you're going to have all those hats on, you have to know at any point which hat you're wearing and not try to do too many things at the same time. If any of the actors, when we were shooting had questions, I would direct them to ask the questions to Nick. We would try to present a united front, and if there was an issue that needed me to take my actor hat off for a minute and put my writer hat on, we would go to a corner and figure it out. It was then Nick's responsibility to implement it. We wanted to keep the lines clean and not blur them. The likes of Suranne Jones, Barry Ward, Susan Lynch, and Kerry Godliman all play significant roles, but its names like Stephen Graham and Jason Flemyng that catch the eye. Because Lennie worked alongside the pair in 'Snatch,' we wonder aloud what how envisioned them for the roles of Melon and Tam while writing the script. When I was first writing them, they were figments of imagination and in all honesty, I didn't think we would get either of those actors. When their names were suggested, I said I would love them to do it and that they would be absolutely fantastic for it, but I wasn't sure if they would take the roles. They did and they absolutely jumped on it and we got very, very lucky with them. As you are introduced to Nelly and the other characters, the music manages to seep into every crack and crevice, blending and complementing the storytelling. It elicits pangs of love and of compassion without becoming too intrusive, and Lennie says that's yet another aspect one can thank director Nick Murphy for. But O'Halloran loved the script, understood it, and wanted to be a part of it. His music didn't sound like it was written for TV music. It wasn't there by coincidence and it wasn't telling you what to feel. It was giving you that little bit of room to understand the different layers of the story and it was utterly brilliant. When I heard his music, I was completely and utterly onboard. Following its success, a second season has already been commisioned and is expected to enter production in 2019. To hear it from Lennie, it will be even more thrilling than the first. It's quite a time jump when we meet back up with them and now that time has passed, there aren't many people who are still cognizant of Jody's absence. Most have gone back to their lives and the only real people still aware of her absence are Claire and Barry on one side, and Nelly on the other.
