How was Netflix's Bodies filmed over four time periods?
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Want something to binge watch on Netflix this weekend? Then look no further than new crime and sci-fi drama, Bodies.
The genre-bending series follows four detectives from different time periods – 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053 – who all discover the exact same body. Then, they begin to unravel a conspiracy spanning decades and have to try to work together to solve the murder.
Cosmopolitan UK chatted with the series' writer, Paul Tomalin, all about the creation of Bodies, its important themes and what it's really like working with Stephen Graham.
How was the series filmed over the four, different time periods? Was everything filmed simultaneously or separately?
When you write a show, it's normally filmed in blocks of episodes. But, the complexities of this were so profound that we knew we had to film each time period in one. This meant we had to know the ending so we could shoot everything.
It also meant a hell of a lot of getting it wrong before we got it right, and in the end, we realised that the most important thing was to bring the characters to a really satisfying, heartfelt conclusion as opposed to a Stephen Hawking-like explanation of the science. I think I failed all of my science GCSEs, so I focused on the characters, instead.
What parts of Si Spencer's graphic novel did you feel were important to keep in the series, and which parts were left out?
The concept of Si's novel is what sold everyone, it's brilliant. I didn't know him well, but he knew it was brilliant, too. There was never any thought to change the characters because they were so well thought out, so we really broke our backs to make sure we kept that.
There was some stuff that we couldn't do, but we tried so hard to stick to the themes and even it was truly mad, we did our best to figure out how to work it in. We'd often go back to the graphic novel as our road map when we got lost in filming, too.
What were the most difficult parts of creating and filming Bodies?
The absolute lobotomy of figuring out how it was all going to weave together. There was nothing we could do apart from hold hands with our team, jump off the cliff together and hope we didn't land 'splat'. It was a process of keeping the faith and knowing when it worked and when it didn't.
What were your favourite parts of creating the show?
I really enjoyed being able to play with the genres; it touched on so many different elements. For 1980, we had the Jack the Ripper-style story with fog and backalleys. But, it's actually a love story. Then, in 1941, I knew it was going to be a film noir-style which was so fun to write.
My favourite, unifying thing to write about was love and the absence of it for the characters.
Bodies is also very diverse in its representation. Why was that important and how did you incorporate that into each characters story?
It was important to Si and baked into the novel. There's not one character that doesn't have something that makes them an outsider. We did the research, looked for cast that preferably had lived experiences, while making sure we had the best actors. Each thing that made the characters different could be a whole show, so we highlighted it then developed it alongside the main story.
Generally, the feeling of being an outsider can make you feel that you're not loved and as an audience, you have a birds eye view of each of these characters and how alone they feel. So often, when someone is suffering – my personal experience, it was depression and anxiety – people feel alone, so we went to town on that feeling.
Stephen Graham is an acting legend. How did he help inform Bodies?
He was on our 'yeah, right' pile. We had this bonkers story where he's in the future and I didn't think he would go for it, but he did. The reason, I think, was because he saw the relatability of the character and appreciated the madness. He made us feel like we knew what we were doing.
When you're writing for an actor of Stephen's calibre, you feel perilously exposed but it was fascinating watching him pull things back. We'd have long, red lines in huge bits of dialogue because his silence, eyes, performance and gesture carries a story.
What might viewers be surprised to learn about the creation of Bodies?
It was written during the pandemic and I'm a type 1 diabetic, so through the media and panic, I was feeling so isolated and scared.
After feeling so profoundly alone for so long, it meant a lot to see everybody give their all to realise such an ambitious show. We had all experienced isolation, panic and so little love. So, seeing everybody come together to make the show is what surprised me.
What do you hope viewers take away from watching Bodies?
I hope they feel like they're coming down from a trip or out of a trance. The next morning, I want them full of gratitude and regret for staying up so late to watch it. I don't want them to savour it, I want them to start it at 10pm, then be bleary-eyed and suffering the next day, telling everyone how great it is.
Bodies is streaming on Netflix now.
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