Lorne BALFE (composer):
- loves to hear silence and listen to radio Absolute80s when needing for motivation.
- confirmed we can hear angels voices when Asriel opens the auroral window.
- stated his daemon would be a parrot.
- said Mrs Coulter's theme was the hardest theme to write, had many revisions and was a real challenge. His favorite to write.
- said he's a massive fan of the books and feels he started writing character's themes whilst reading the trilogy.
- didn't say if main theme will change for S2 but endorsed that it would make sense to amend it while keeping the melody.
- pointed out that the closing theme of each episode of S1 was slighlty different.
- reminded the Latine verses from the opening credits : "Susurros immortales audiunt haruspices incipite parvuli / Incipite parvuli procedant menses magni / Incipite, incipite".
- said that the main theme was initially thought to be a blend of three of the themes in the show before he presented a whole new idea to Dan McCulloch & Jane Tranter, which was adopted.
- pointed out the first episode as his favorite for Season 1.
- said Mrs Coulter entrance was his inspiration. He first watched it without music and she oozed power and grandeur; also said it's very difficult writing themes for villains as it can become pantomime-like so he tried to give her a musical heart beat.
Russell DODGSON (VFX Supervisor):
- took responsibility for scraping down Buckingham Palace and replacing it by the Magisterium HQ in S1.
- confirmed statues on roof of Jordan College are daemons and that these were an idea by Production Designer Joel Collins.
- said that the moment he walked into the set of Lyra's room, he really had his breath taken away as Joel Collins (Production Designer) had the brilliant idea to have a map of the north picked away out of the paint on the wall next to Lyra’s bed. "That man is a genius, such a characterful idea", he added.
- said that one of his favourite moments supervising the VFX were the early rehearsals with Dafne Keen: "she embraced the puppeteers and the character of Pan immediately and built a relationship with the puppets within hours of beginning rehearsals. Such a pro!".
- said he had an amazing time doing the helicopter shoot over Oxford for the aerial views of the show, allowing afterwards an amazing job by the concept team and the artists at Framestore.
Dafne KEEN (actress, Lyra):
- said her favorite blooper was everyone CONSTANTLY falling over but the winner among them being Lewin Lloyd falling before getting on Lee’s balloon in episode 6.
- said that, when not working, the cast went out for dinner, to the pool, bowling, bouldering, cinema, walks and meet up constantly.
- said she loves heights, and been doing aerials for most of her life so she adores harnesses and ropes...
- confirmed Pan as her favorite dæmon, obviously.
- said she would love to rework with part of the cast on other project, but not only cast as she loves the entire HDM family. If she ever get to film with any of them again it would be amazing.
- said she was blown away by the scale and detail Joel Collins (production designer) put into everything, felt like you crossed into a different world.
- said Oxford was definitely her fav filming location ("I LOVE OXFORD").
- said she met Philip Pullman a few times and that he is "the loveliest, most brilliant, intelligent person ever... " She admitted she was a little shy and under shock.
- said that on S1 she did most look forward to "getting to see how Framestore was going to bring all the creatures to life".
- named Lee, Mrs.Coulter and Will as her favorite characters of the trilogy when excepting Lyra.
- said the most difficult scene was probably the big dinner in episode 1 because "it was BOILING HOT", there were many extras and Clarke Peters "kept on throwing hot candle wax at [her]" (sic).
- said her fav scene with Ruth Wilson is in episode 6 in her room at bolvangar after being almost severed.
- remembered she "(accidentally) spat a ton of chamomile tea" in Ruth Wilson's face while filming episode 6 and that her make-up "was definitely not happy about that".
Jack THORNE (show-runner):
- said he's having the time of his life doing battle against The Amber Spyglass.
- said that Ma Costa is "Maggie" in the show, which is also his Mum's name and give credit to the brilliance of Anne-Marie Duff in her role
- said that the alethiometer is "the most amazing (and complicated) power ever given to any character" and that Marvel is "being taught lessons by the great Philip Pullman".
- said that he can mourn bits of his scripts not making it to the screen but that's he's more often bowled over by what occurs through development, shooting and edit.
- said he "would watch Ruth Wilson read a bus timetable, take notes on the weather, eat a grapefruit. She’s just everything. A brilliant actress, and possibly one of the bravest individuals he has worked with. It takes guts to go full monkey. And she did"
- revealed (and such a scoop it is!) that "the T in Russell T Davies stands for Terrifying, the K in J K Rowling stands for Klingon" and promises this is true, that "both of them used to like" him.
- Main advice to people eager to screen or playwrite: "Find a writing friend who's judgement you trust. Show them everything, reveal your soul. Let them judge you. Let them make you better. For me that person was the brilliant Laura Wade".
- said his possibly favorite piece of set in S1 is Lyra's room: "I just love what this said. This is the childhood ceiling I wish I had".
- said the class division between Roger & Lyra felt important to set up. In his college the canteen was described by the public school Boris’s as “trough” something that the chefs hated. He wanted to create the same divide here. The extra sausage feels important.
- said he loves the tenderness between the Master and the Librarian: "two men who have devoted their life to something and see in the other the same love" and added that the actors added a whole extra dimension to this.
- said the relationship with Asriel and Lyra is "more emotional than the book. We wanted to chart a yearning within him for another life. He’s still just as determined and ruthless, but there’s hints of a glacier melt". Being in the rehearsal room for the room scene was "very special".
- said if stuck in quarantine, Asriel would be in a lab and Mrs C, in contrast, would be on SAGE advising the scientists on behalf of the Magisterium.
- said they had MANY discussions with BBC legal department over the poppy heads ritual in the retiring room from the book but that it wasn’t responsible to suggest that fellows of Jordan all used it to "clarify" their minds.
- said Clarke Peters came up in a brilliant ‘what if’ casting session; said he studied (and hated) Cambridge where it was desperately white and he remembers the breath of fresh air that came in because of Amartya Sen being appointed as Master of Trinity. Clarke "killed the role". Continuing on this topic, he added that he felt a shudder initially writing Jordan but did find a true love for the place writing about it.
- said he still mourns absence of Alice Lonsdale on screen : "she was in early drafts, but as the Librarian's part grew, so she had less and less to do. We just couldn't do justice to her. I think she's still there, still doing her work, just not on screen."
- approved the comparison to P. Pullman being like a lifeline: "(50/50, phone a friend, ask the audience or contact PP). He was always there, always reading, always available to give advice. He was generous and brilliant with me".
- reminded that Episode One "was originally called Roger. In the book Lyra spends a lot of time thinking back to Roger. We couldn’t do that so one of our challenges was to set up the relationship as swiftly as possible. Thankfully we had the killer weapons of Dafne and Lewin".
- About the opening scene taken from La Belle Sauvage, reacted to a comment by executive producer Jane Tranter by sharing that such a scene "added perfectly to everything we wanted to do with the show and beautifully set up three relationships (i) Asriel/The Master (ii) Lyra/The Master - just look how Clarke holds her (iii) Them all to that most magisterial of things - the Alethiometer."
Jane TRANTER (executive producer):
- about S3: said they are about to start developing scripts, that the Mulefas "are an essential part of The Amber Spyglass" and that she "wouldn't have it any other way".
- said they "wouldn't have had a show" without Dafne Keen.
- said they haven't started working on her favourite HDM book yet.
- said they changed the way Lyra learns about her parents as they wanted to pace out the reveal & ensure that Lyra was given the space to angst, process & come to terms with it.
- stated that Marisa Coulter is one of the most complex and wonderful characters in fiction - they couldn't help but want to expand her story.
- said they wanted to align Will & Lyra’s timelines because they wanted to show where Will had come from and present his story.
- confirmed that Brian Fisher (who's behing the Golden Monkey's movements and noises) "knows how much fandom loves him" and that he's "delighted about it".
- ensured that despite lockdown, post-production is continuing with characteristic intensity and energy, but now filtered down over BlueJeans, but ensures that season 2 is coming and will be on air before the end of the year!
- confirmed that Joel Collins is a genius.
- loved "everything about filming in Wales, but without a doubt the people, the crews & greater community, the best in the world".
- said the hardest thing to create HDM was "trying to capture the fantasy of His Dark Materials in a grounded way without ruining the magic… or breaking the budget".
- picked Episode 8 as her favorite for S1.
- said merchandising has to come from BBC Studios and HBO.
- said the Retiring Room scene was part of the way she pitched her adaptation of HDM to P. Pullman.
- said they knew nothing about The Secret Commonwealth at the time of adapting s1 and only read it during filming of s2. She adds it's one of the best books she ever read.
- asked what we can learn from HDM and live with, said "Listen to the young without shouting over them. Goodness over greatness".
- adviced: "Be yourself, but do your research. If you want to work in television, watch it and think about it. Don't let anyone tell you "it's not what you know, it's who you know" - that is utter bollocks. Be ready to learn, and never stop".
- joked on the fact they cut a full episode of "nothing but Dafne (Keen) running and jumping".
- saidshe'd be "forever in awe with the opening credit sequence".
- said that read-throughs are always incredibly nerve-wracking, but James McAvoy gave the most astounding performance for the first one of S1 and put everyone at their ease, and that, obviously, Dafne Keen & Lewin Lloyd were total stars.
- joked also on the fact that perhaps Lyra’s journey to the North "would have gone a lot smoother if she’d realised she could’ve just walked to the set next door"...
- said that Jack Thorne's empathy & characterisation of Roger is one of his great contributions to his adaptation of His Dark Materials.
- said she'll be forever impressed with the professionalism of Dafne Keen and Lewin Lloyd... They filmed the roof sequence on one of the hottest days of the year on a baking roof, but they didn’t even break a sweat.
- said that when stepping for the first time onto the set, she "had a little cry. But it was nothing" compared to the producer Dan Mcculloch, who "had a big, ugly blub".
- about the opening scene: said "We had already started work on S1 when P. Pullman sent us the pages pre-release of Asriel delivering Lyra to Jordan. It was such a moving portrayal of Asriel’s both tender & brutal relationship with Lyra - we knew it had to be in the show."
- shared that showing the sets to Philip Pullman was simultaneously petrifying and one of the highlights of her career. She's forever in his debt for the chance to adapt these brilliant books.
Newly revealed documents:
Preparatory sketches: sets, costumes, golden props...
Sets
Filming S1
Dusty people (not to be seen on screen)...
A few more Lantern Slides...
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