On location with Debbie Horsfield

In The Times, Daphne Lockyer goes behind the scenes on the new BBC TV drama True, Dare, Kiss, written by Debbie Horsfield.

True, Dare, Kiss centres on Phil (played by Dervla Kirwan, of Ballykissangel fame), who returns to Manchester for her father’s funeral and is reunited with her siblings – Nita (Pookie Quesnell), Beth (Lorraine Ashbourne), Alice (Esther Hall) and Dennis (Paul Hilton). After an absence of 20 years, she finds it unchanged from a fateful night in the 1970s when a cataclysmic event shattered the family’s life.

“It’s as though the house has been preserved in aspic,” says [producer, Marcus] Wilson, who also co-produced Life on Mars and has brought his expertise of all things 1970s to this set, too – the preponderance of Formica and swirling carpets here are just the tip of the iceberg. “We wanted to present the idea that whatever happened on that night caused the clock to stop.” The exact nature of the secret, which stalks the very heart of this dysfunctional family, will be revealed, eventually, in the six-part drama. “But unlike Cutting It, where an audience could dip in and out, True, Dare, Kiss requires them to stick with the ride throughout,” says Horsfield. “I hope they will want to.”