Charlie Brooker - Inside Black Mirror

Charlie Brooker:We spent a lot of time working out the story and tone, but as soon as we tried to go bigger than the world of one couple’s life, we were in trouble. You either have to go full Blade Runner and the logical ramifications go through the roof, or you keep it very contained within a domestic bubble.

Annabel Jones:What really felt rich from the very beginning was the ability to crucify yourself with your own footage. The ability to replay every faux pas you’ve made. Every poor job interview. Every insensitive thing ever said…

Charlie Brooker: …which would take Annabel a long time.

Annabel Jones:Oh yes, I remember that joke. Every time! Any technology that we have in the films has to be something that people would embrace, and want and welcome in their lives. Because if they don’t, it feels like you are forcing something on someone that they won’t want to engage with, or that we won’t believe.

Charlie Brooker:“Why am I walking around with this testicle-punching machine?”

Annabel Jones:Yes, but maybe even more satisfying than that would be the ability to record your child’s birthday party, to be in the moment, without holding up a camera between you and them.

Dead Man’s Shoes star Toby Kebbell was cast as Liam, while future Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker became Ffion.

Jodie Whittaker (actor): Black Mirror is its own genre. When someone gets sent a Black Mirror script now, they already know Black Mirror ’s amazing, but back then The Entire History of You was unlike anything I’d ever read before. I knew it was extraordinary. We’d seen those kind of POV shots on Peep Show , but when it’s your own memory being used against you, that’s so dark and fascinating.

Barney Reisz (producer):After Jodie auditioned and left the room, Brian Welsh and I chased her downstairs, saying, “Will you do it?”

Jodie Whittaker:That never, ever happens! You usually have to wait. I remember getting my raincoat on as I headed for the tube, when they caught up with me!

Shaheen Baig (casting director):I’m a big Toby fan. He’s got a huge emotional landscape as an actor, funny and very sympathetic. He and Jodie are very similar actors, in a way: very emotionally open and easy to read, but subtle and complex. They could be the couple living next door.

Barney Reisz:Brian Welsh had been at film school and then done an amazing film called In Our Name . I was very keen to get him on board. He was so inexperienced, that instead of saying “Cut!” at the end of a take, he would say, “Okay, stop now!”

Brian Welsh:I didn’t even know what a jib or a dolly were! I’d been a massive fan of Nathan Barley , and suddenly I was working with Charlie Brooker. You could say I was overwhelmed. But in many ways, I think my naivety helped, because I became very focused on Toby’s brilliance, and his capacity for tapping into something very real and pure.

I could identify with the exploration of jealousy within the story, because it was really universal. So I knew I could push the right buttons and go somewhere quite dark and painful, coupled with Jesse’s comedy. I made the set a real play-space. I remember the chaos being a little too much for Charlie at times, as we tried different intonations, or even improvisations.

Jodie Whittaker:The dinner party scene was epic. That whole scene had to set up and explain the time we were living in and the opinions of that time. It had so many key cast members around the table, with added elements like the eye contact between different characters that Liam would later try to pick up on. That was also a tough scene because we were eating the whole way through, and I made a terrible food choice – a quesadilla or something!

Brian was the perfect director for that piece. My favourite scene to shoot was when Liam and Ffion got back from the dinner party and we were looking at the nanny-cam footage. That’s when the kernel of mistrust really grew. Before one take, Brian told me, “Liam is a grenade that could go off at any point. Treat him with care,” and then on the next take he’d go, “Just don’t give a fuck. You can’t be arsed, you’re tired.” So that was really fun. I loved that Toby and I didn’t know which note we were being privately given! It made it really interesting to not know how the other person was going to play it.

Between takes, Toby often tended to concentrate and stay focused, whereas I’m someone who has to get up, walk around and have a chat! Every actor brings a different approach, which is completely normal – and in this case I think it added to the sense of separation and mistrust between our characters, which is great.

Brian Welsh:Toby and Jodie are very, very funny people, and I think that comes across, especially early on in the film when Liam and Ffion are enjoying each other. Toby smashed one of the fake sugar-glass vodka bottles over my head, which kind of sums up his personality! Particularly as he did it towards the end of the day when everybody was really fucking stressed. I think I was talking to Barney about whether we were gonna complete that day or not.

I’m embarrassed that we went ridiculously far with the footage we shot of the Grain-memory sex scene between Liam and Ffion. In order to make Jodie comfortable, I had to play her part for a bit, because it was all shot as POV. None of it really made the cut, but somewhere in among the rushes, there’s probably me being fucked by the cameraman.

Jodie Whittaker:Ha, yeah. That’s probably a moment where they’d lined all the shots up, then I came on set and said, “Nah, I’m not doing that!” Poor Brian!

Charlie Brooker:Originally in the script, all the memories were played back on TV screens. So for instance, when Liam and Ffion have sex, they were scripted to be simultaneously watching footage of one of their earlier sexual encounters on their bedroom TV, like a couple watching porn. But it became apparent during pre-production that compositing all the POV footage onto screens would be a logistical nightmare – we’d either have to shoot it all in advance and play it in live, or paint it all in in post at great cost. So at some point I said, “Hang on, if they’re recording this footage with their pupils, can’t they play it back in their pupils too?” It made it far easier, because we could just intercut full-frame footage of the memories with shots of the actors with their pupils ‘milked out’. But most importantly, it made everything feel much more intimate and invasive and eerie. The sex scene is a great example – because now rather than both watching a screen, they’re both watching something in their heads. It made a scene that might’ve been amusing and a bit sad into something downright haunting.

The jump from screens to ‘in-eye’ tech also meant we had to focus a lot on the interface and the little remote control device they use – we called it the ‘pebble’. It had a circular pad on it, which corresponded to the in-eye display. Joel’s idea of making the interface reminiscent of the wood-grain of a tree, a physical embodiment of passing time, was a nice thematic touch. It was such an intuitive-looking device. In fact, we really ought to patent and market them. And make billions. And use the money to construct a death-ray inside a dormant volcano full of uniformed henchmen. That’s my dream.