Caymanian author Sara Collins has joined the exclusive club of authors seeing their characters come to life with the television premiere of her first novel, ‘The Confessions of Frannie Langton’.
Collins, via email to the Cayman Compass, expressed excitement ahead of the premiere episode, being broadcast on UK channel ITV Thursday.
“I’m feeling nervous but pleased that it’s had such a nice reception so far from the UK press,” Collins said.
The four-episode series, featuring actress Karla-Simone Spence in the lead role, was announced by ITV last year.
The period drama, filmed in Wakefield, Yorkshire, was adapted for TV by Collins herself.
She said it feels “pretty surreal” to finally see Frannie Langton come to life and she was pleased to have had creative control.
“A lot of hard work went into it and part my job has been figuring out when and how to let go. A writer is not the only (or even the most important) part of getting a story onscreen. I think the real kudos should go to Karla-Simone Spence. She plays Frannie. It could not be a more demanding role, the whole thing stands or falls on her shoulders. I think she’s exceptional and the character now truly belongs to her,” Collins said.
The official ITV synopsis of the series says “The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a dark and gripping forbidden love story. When Jamaican maid, Frannie Langton is found in bed with her murdered white mistress she must prove to the world that she did not kill the woman she loved.”
The series, Collins said, will stay true to the story, but there will be some surprises.
“There have to be surprises. If there’s nothing new to be gained in retelling the story in a different form, then why do it? I wanted to surprise myself, as much as anyone else, or I’d have been very bored writing the same thing again. However, the secret is to preserve the core of the story while making it new. And I hope I’ve done that,” she said.
Spence, in an ITV interview on the series, described Frannie Langton as an incredible story.
“I was really intrigued by Frannie’s journey. She’s an incredibly witty, resilient woman. As soon as I read the scripts I was like, ‘I have to play her.’ I really wanted this role. I poured everything into my final round of auditions. When my agent called to say they were offering me the role, I screamed and had to mute myself because I just went crazy. I was really happy. I had waited for this moment for a really long time and it was worth the wait,” Spence said in the ITV interview.
The series is directed by Andrea Harkin and produced by Drama Republic, an independent television production company.
Harkin, also in an ITV interview on the series, said she believed it is crucial that these stories are told.
“That the viewpoint of these women, and a black woman, is represented. Sara Collins is a black woman who has researched that history, feels it very deeply and expressed it so authentically. A revision of the history you read in the history books and why Frannie is so important. We all connected to Frannie so deeply because she was written by Sara
with such intelligent passion and empathy,” she said in the interview.
Harkin added that she was “very proud” of ‘The Confessions of Frannie Langton’.
“Before I did this, I was looking for something contemporary, because the last thing I’d done was in the sixties, but once I read The Confessions of Frannie Langton I couldn’t let it go, I couldn’t forget about it. It was so vivid and real. It also spoke to my politics about wanting to make a piece that mattered, said something and represented a character we had never seen before. Also to support young new talent like Karla-Simone. Finding a bigger audience for actors like that. It was very exciting,” she added.
Author to screenwriter
Collins, an award-winning author, said, though this has been a while in the making, it still feels unreal.
“I didn’t even get my hopes up for publication of the novel as it is a very difficult and uncertain process. So for the book to have been published as well as it was, to have been critically acclaimed, and to have been commissioned by ITV has – at each stage – come as a pleasant surprise,” she said.
The process getting the show going and tailoring the novel into a script, she said, was long and difficult and “I wanted to give up many times”.
However, she said, “It’s an important story with a complicated subject matter so it required a certain degree of nerve to see it through. I was stunned when I visited the set. The number of people involved, working so hard and so passionately, blew me away.”
She explained that writing a novel is very solitary work and getting a TV series made is the exact opposite.
“It’s an exercise in compromise and collaboration,” she said.
She said the job of screenwriter was offered to her by the producers who optioned the novel and she was happy to oblige.
“They could have gotten someone else to adapt it! But I emphasize that a TV production is not the work of one person. That’s the number one lesson I learned,” she said.
A first, but not the last
As a writer from the Caribbean and, especially from the Cayman Islands, earning the place she has not only in the literary world but also in television has been rewarding for Collins, who was born in Jamaica and grew up in Grand Cayman.
She said she hopes this will not be the end for herself or others like her.
“I hope it means many more will follow! There are many talented young Caymanian writers destined for great things – Jazz Pitcairn, for example, who is only just getting started,” she said.
Pitcairn is a writer for HBO’s ‘A Black Lady Sketch Show’.
Collins said her advice was simple to young Caymanians who may want to pursue a career in writing.
“Do it! And arm yourself with discipline and self belief. And read,” she said.
As for what’s next for her and Frannie Langton, Collins said, “I hope I am done with her.”
She did share, however, that she is working on other TV adaptations with other production companies.
“New stories, new characters and I am writing my second novel but taking my sweet time about it,” she added.
The Frannie Langton series will only be available in the UK for the time being.
However, she said, “It’s coming to North America next year. When I am at liberty to say more, I will.”
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