Sarah Smart Fan

The Whistleblowers - S01E04 - Fit for Purpose - 18th October 2007

Sarah Smart ... Sarah Kendrick

IMDB Link

Alisha and Ben are approached by an immigration officer, Sarah Kendrick, who believes that something is amiss with the entry of Turkish nationals to the UK. Sarah sent and e-mail to her superior addressing her concerns but it was ignored. She believes that some immigration officers are on the take. As the lawyers look into the matter, they quickly conclude that there is a connection between Turkish mobsters and illegal migration and they suggest that Sarah go public. When she does so however, she finds herself suspended and before a disciplinary tribunal.

Credit: garykmcd

IT'S always a potentially tricky moment when an actress lands a big role and then discovers she is pregnant.

"I feel really privileged that it was incorporated into the story," smiles Indira Varma, star of The Whistleblowers (ITV1, tonight, 9pm).

"I had a very easy pregnancy, so we were very lucky. But I had to wear some dodgy costumes when we were trying to cover the bump up before the storyline came out in later scripts."

Indira, who plays leading lady Alisha Cole in the TV thriller, has since given birth to daughter Evelyn and is still adjusting to life as a new mum. "I can't remember my own name, so I really shouldn't be here," she laughs.

The series sees lawyers Alisha and Ben (Richard Coyle) helping `whistleblowers' who are faced with the moral dilemma of speaking out and exposing the truth.

"Richard and I get on really well and have a laugh together - we are both quite mischievous and we've tried to bring that into the characters. We really do function like a couple. We talk over each other and bicker and laugh at our own jokes.

"The whole point is that Ben and Alisha are amateurs in this. They are both lawyers who are far more likely to be winning a case for the money, rather than moral justice. We're not professionals - we are not cops or detectives.

"Every single episode has a jaw-dropping moment when you think `bloody hell'. What's even more interesting is that the stories don't just tie themselves up neatly - sometimes somebody, somewhere, will get away with it. One of the messengers will be shot. I think that is true to life."

Indira says she'd like to think she would do the right thing. "It's about having the confidence to say, `Don't do that.' In a much more everyday way, it's like intimidation from aggressive kids. Obviously this series is about the much bigger and complex picture, but little things like bullying in the street, that's the same deal.

"We know we have to stand up to stop behaviour like that happening, but who really has the confidence to challenge a thug, knowing the risks?

Bit cynical

"Filming this hasn't changed my views. I've always been a bit cynical. What do you believe? Who can you believe? But some of the stuff in the scripts is quite shocking."

At Home With the Braithwaites actress Sarah Smart guest stars tonight as namesake Sarah, a single mum in her twenties who works as an airport immigration officer.

She has noticed several Turkish passengers are passing through immigration unquestioned. No-one in her office will take her seriously, but then she discovers that one of the Turkish passengers has gone on to shoot two people.

Having found Ben and Alisha through the internet, Sarah realises to do the right thing, she will have to go public - risking the job she needs to help raise her young son.

"I like the fact that she has this massive predicament," explains Sarah, "And that I get to play the whole scenario of `what would I do in that situation?' I would have done what Sarah did because she seems quite sensible.

"The series really does show that whistleblowing is very much a grey area. Doing the right thing is obviously a good thing. But there's this moral dilemma about whether doing the right thing is right for you.

"It isn't all happy endings - it can get you into terrible trouble. Moral dilemmas are great to watch on television because they give you something to think about."

Indira adds: "Hopefully viewers will go away wanting to sniff out other injusticesIt might be the birth of lots of whistleblowers.

"We get so paranoid there is nothing we can do - that's why a lot of people don't vote anymore. So few people think it will make any difference. We have to try to prove some things can change if you get off your backside and take responsibility."
by Ian Wylie

Credit: Manchster Evening News

Just because you’re paranoid,the saying goes, doesn’t mean that someone’s not really out to get you. The thought might have occurred to the crew of the new six-part ITV drama Whistleblower, as each story reveals one aspect of a conspiracy or coverup revealed by two dogged heroes.

Conceived by Tony Marchant and produced by Carnival, the stories follow corporate lawyers Ben (Richard Coyle)and Alisha (Indira Varma) as they first follow their own consciences and then encourage others to do the same.

“We’re going into Whistleblower with two heroes who are the Everyman,” producer Sanne
Wohlenberg explains. “They are you and me on the street. They have to wrestle with the rights and wrongs and all the moral dilemmas that comes with each case that’s brought to them. They have to get to the bottom of it, but they’re not a bunch of detectives or superheroes, they don’t always know what to do, but the moral issues are what drive them forward.”

“There’s a very fine line between how the public perceive somebody who ‘blows the whistle’,” says director Paul Gay, who directs two out of the block of six. “They could be called a ‘grass’, even. It’s very interesting subject matter, and I think the question that’s always being raised is ‘would you do this? Would you become a whistleblower’. It is a very tricky thing, because there’s always a risk I suppose.”

The paranoid conspiracy genre has had a long history in movies, from All The President’s Men to The Insider, and does allow for a certain visual style that keeps alive that creeping feeling of unease within the audience.

“The visual language is very conscious,” adds Gay, “you can really help to create the effect of a conspiracy thriller by using long lenses. It’s not
always possible, because sometimes you’re in small offices, but even then we managed to shoot through glass and partitions and things like that. It does create a feeling of observing meetings and situations from a distance, rather than being immediately in the room with the actors.”

“We shot it in a style which is very observed,” confirms DP Lukas Strebel. “Very often we shoot into things or through things like windows, or for exteriors we shoot out from the inside of a house. Blowing the whistle is all about observing and telling people what you know, and it’s about little secrets as well.”

Strebel, fresh from his Royal Television Society award and the BAFTA nomination for See No Evil – The Moors Murders, is lighting all six episodes. Along with Paul Gay the other two directors are John McKay and Richard Clark, with the episodes written by Marchant, Tony Saint, Steve Thompson and Paul Logue.

“I’ve hopefully developed a certain style for this show,” adds Strebel, “but I don’t want to press it on the directors. I’m always curious to share a vision, to work together and enter someone else’s world and participate with them.

“When I can do that and play with the director it’s great. It was great with Paul and I feel it will be with Richard. We just met, we did hardly any ‘prep’, and now I’m going to shoot with him. He’s seen a lot of stuff that we’ve shot so far and he’s very confident and excited by it.”

Shooting on a combination of Fujifilm stocks, Strebel is, in some ways, the artistic conscience of the show, the man who ensures a visual consistency throughout. He came to project having worked in the past with producer Wohlenberg, and she is clear that he was the ideal man for this particular job.

“The minute I got involved with this project we began discussing our references,” she adds, “what inspired this series and what we wanted to get from it.

“It’s so important that you set all these stories within a world that we are living in, without over stylising it. We needed visually to be able to tell these stories within that reality, and I think Lukas as a DP has done amazing work, which is very subtle.

“He has a huge understanding of what a story requires with regard to lighting, without ever going for an over-stylised approach to things. He has a sensitivity to storytelling, to finding ways subtly of lighting and shooting things that feel incredibly real.

“He always seemed like the natural choice of DP, certainly to me, and when we all talked about it and looked at our reference material, he was somebody we all were mutually drawn to.”

Creating a series with the potential to inspire a few debates, Wohlenberg believes Whistleblower is a timely production for the era we live in. So much so that she and her crew could be forgiven for looking a little apprehensively over their shoulders as the production wore on.

“Ever since we’ve been involved in this drama we begin to see the world in a different way,” she affirms. “It makes everybody quite alert, you read the papers with a different eye, and I think all the crew feel the same because these are stories that we all have a relationship with, and an opinion about. We are all affected by them in some way.”

Credit:Fuji Films

10/19/2007 • Sarah Smart, Sarah Smart News Articles, Sarah Smart The Whistleblowers • 0 comments