INTERVIEWS

“I want to entrance and surprise.” Stephen Poliakoff on Close to the Enemy

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Stephen Poliakoff is an acclaimed British playwright, screenwriter, and director. He has won BAFTAs and an EMMY, and in 2007 he was awarded the CBE

In his latest mini-series, Close to the Enemy, Jim Sturgess stars as Callum Ferguson, a British intelligence officer in post-World War II London, who has to ensure that a German scientist will help the British develop an aircraft that could potential win the next war.

Creative Screenwriting spoke with Stephen Poliakoff about the root of his desire to tell stories, handling multiple characters, seeing what your protagonist sees, and avoiding the distancing effect of period dramas.

Jim Sturgess as Callum Ferguson in Close to the Enemy

Jim Sturgess as Callum Ferguson in Close to the Enemy

Can you tell us about your background, and what led you to become a storyteller?

Stephen Poliakoff. Image by Debs

Stephen Poliakoff. Image by Debs

I started to tell stories at my boarding school. I would tell other boys ghost stories in the dormitory, and I realized that I could hold their attention.

I started writing plays, and I did a lot of stage plays in England. Then I started to direct my own work both in the theater and in television, but I also made movies.

The impulse to create long-form television is similar to storytelling. You’ve got a chance to tell a long story with multiple characters where people can change their views or opinions and that’s quite difficult to portray in a two-hour movie.

There is a straight line from my desire to be a storyteller to my dorm mates as a boy, to long-form television. I want to entrance and surprise. I want to tell stories the audience hasn’t seen before.

Where did the idea for Close to the Enemy originate, and what made you want to tell this story?

I was very interested in how so many Nazis, and people that were guilty of war crimes, got away after the war. After all, they didn’t all just go to South America or have plastic surgery.

The British let an enormous amount of captives go. But we kept several people that were useful to us who had done terrible things in the war, but were useful because of what they knew about the Russians. It was only two years after World War II, and they just grabbed who they wanted and tried to persuade them…through various tactics.

The Americans were a good option for war criminals, because they offered citizens a new life. Many fled to America after the war’s devastation. I was very interested in that.

In this story, the lead character Callum Ferguson, played by Jim Sturgess, tries to turn a German engineer (Dieter Koehler, played by August Diehl), who can help develop a jet aircraft. That was the Holy Grail—breaking the sound barrier.

It was thought that whoever found this solution the fastest would win the next war. So it was very important to turn the German, but on the other side, pitted against these actions, Kathy (played Phoebe Fox) is hunting war criminals. The Armed Forces and Secret Service were very unhelpful, and that’s still very true today. How quickly our enemy becomes our friend.

There are moral questions, still unanswered, about how quickly World War II became the Cold War, and brushed humanity under the rug. There are various people on different sides, and also people just trying to rebuild their lives whilst another problem arises.

August Diehl as Dieter Koehler in Close to the Enemy

August Diehl as Dieter Koehler in Close to the Enemy

The characters are very cryptic. How do you develop dialogue when everyone is speaking in hidden meanings?

After the war, everybody was recovering from seeing things they never imagined they would have to see, such as combat and people being killed horrifically right in front of them.

Even if they were in the cities, they never expected to be bombed from the air or have missiles being dropped upon them, like the B-2 bombs on London. My parents were there, and it was absolutely terrifying as the attacks came without warning.

People had done things and seen things they never expected to do or see. But people didn’t talk about the things that they saw. They kept those things underneath, they would try and switch off the adrenaline they had for years, to get back to an even keel. It was an interesting moment for that generation..

The series begins with Callum, (Jim Strugess) trying to win over an aeronautical engineer (August Diehl). How did you first begin conducting research on this idea?

The story itself is fictional, but everything is inspired by truth. There was the American situation known as Operation Paperclip, where scientists were given new identities and fake occupations to hide their German or Nazi pasts. This was developed because President Truman wouldn’t allow Nazis to enter the country.

In Britain, we were doing it in a slightly less organized way, but equally forcefully.

Alfred Molina as Harold Lindsay Jones and Jim Sturgess as Callum Ferguson in Close to the Enemy

Alfred Molina as Harold Lindsay Jones and Jim Sturgess as Callum Ferguson in Close to the Enemy

The cabbage and onions scene in the pilot is very powerful. How did that come about?

That comes form a famous scene in Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson. That was a very powerful film for me. Also, the food in England was notoriously horrible! Everything was disgusting and consisted of soupy vegetables. There was also terrible rationing because the country was broke

Angela Bassett’s character, Eva, was an American in London who had access to the US Air Force Base. She had access to oranges and juices, which were like precious jewels. And so she was able to bribe an entire audience because oranges were so scarce.

We also see an incredible snobbery in British culture of that era. Sweet corn was grown and could have been eaten all year, but they didn’t eat it because they felt that corn was merely for cattle. So you get both the conservative culture towards food, but also snobbery.

Angela Bassett as Eva in Close to the Enemy

Angela Bassett as Eva in Close to the Enemy

There are difficult moral stories within each character. How much backstory is involved when you are shaping a character?

I want all of my characters to be multidimensional. They are actually all very developed.

The wonderful thing about long-form drama is that characters can change. For example, Jim is very fragile after the war, and the D-Day landing, where they were fighting over every bit of territory to get further into occupied Nazi territory. But gradually, his more feminist side is coming out as he wants to write musicals and develop his sensitive side.

His love story is with Charlotte Riley (who plays Rachel Lombard), who is also married to his best friend. They seem to have been pushed together by the husband, and you don’t know why until you realize the incredible shame for the husband who had to sit out the war. It was a huge thing that he missed the blitz and the bombing. You were ostracized for missing the war even through being in the government.

I also imagine the characters from the very beginning. I know quite a bit about them and the background seeps out during the story. For example, Charlotte was married to an older husband who died and she was desperately in love with him.

I knew all of those things before I started writing, but they need to come out bit by bit as they do in life. When you meet people, it takes until the tenth or eleventh meeting before you get a stronger connection. But I do know them quite well before I start writing.

There is also a lot of historical research. Then I have to let it go, and let the characters bubble up through it, until why they are the way they are makes senses to me.

Another thing to consider is how you enter the past when writing historical fiction. And how you tell the stories with multiple characters.

My approach is often to start with a story like this one with multiple characters, but just using two viewpoints. In this case, Jim and the little girl are the two viewpoints. We enter with the little girl, and show how Jim can stop her screaming, which is the only way he can get anywhere with persuading her dad to work for the British.

Limit the viewpoints early on to find your focus. You meet all of the other characters as he meets them. You meet them and you become the protagonist. The viewer sees what he sees. We meet them as he does.

Then you decide who he is and whether or not you will trust him. I find this first person perspective best within a period piece. You’re meeting new people and that can broaden out from these new interactions.

My approach on my last two projects were both very similar. My first approach to storytelling and introducing characters is to make it in the present tense, to make sure there is not a distancing effect when watching a period drama.

Phoebe Fox as Kathy and Jim Sturgess as Callum Ferguson in Close to the Enemy

Phoebe Fox as Kathy and Jim Sturgess as Callum Ferguson in Close to the Enemy

What are your plans for the future?

I’m in the middle of another long-form series, but that’s way off from being complete. I may be returning to theatre for a bit, but I’m  very happy with screenwriting. We’re living in an age of long-form television as the most dominant art form. It’s a very exciting time.

Close to the Enemy is showing on Acorn TV beginning Monday, November 14, 2016.  It will also be available on DVD and Blu-ray on December 27th.

Featured image: Jim Sturgess as Callum Ferguson in Close to the Enemy

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Brock Swinson

Contributing Writer

Freelance writer and author Brock Swinson hosts the podcast and YouTube series, Creative Principles, which features audio interviews from screenwriters, actors, and directors. Swinson has curated the combined advice from 200+ interviews for his debut non-fiction book 'Ink by the Barrel' which provides advice for those seeking a career as a prolific writer.

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