“We’re making four movies”: How ‘Boiling Point’ went from feature to TV series | Features – Armessa Movie News

Less than two years after his second feature Boiling Point was released in cinemas, UK filmmaker Philip Barantini is preparing to launch the series adaptation of the same name.

The first of four one-hour Boiling Point episodes premieres at 9pm on BBC 1 on Sunday, October 1 – a primetime slot, with programmes at that time on the channel regularly pulling in several million viewers.

Like the film, the series depicts the stressful environment of a contemporary east London restaurant. This time it is Carly – Vinette Robinson, who won a Bifa for her performance in the film – previously a sous chef, who is in charge and trying to balance financial pressures, new staff and challenges from her own life. Former head chef Andy (Stephen Graham) is recovering physically and mentally from the heart attack which forced him to withdraw from the kitchen.

The film grossed £518,559 in January 2022 through Vertigo Releasing, and topped the Netflix film chart in the UK and Ireland for several weeks (the streamer does not release exact figures). Barantini was in early discussions about a series with producers Bart Ruspoli and Hester Ruoff, who were merging their companies to form one brand, Ascendant Fox.

They expected a lengthy development; before Barantini took a Zoom meeting in early 2022 with Mona Qureshi, then-BBC drama commissioner. Qureshi had previously commissioned BBC drama series The Responder, for which Barantini had directed an episode; and wanted to talk to the filmmaker about a Boiling Point series.

“I thought, ‘Have you been listening to my conversations?’” laughs Barantini, “because we had literally just been talking about it [he and his producers].”

Qureshi immediately commissioned Barantini and James Cummings, who had co-written the film, to write a pilot episode. They came back quickly with a first draft; which the BBC immediately greenlit to series, in February 2022 – with the film still in cinemas.

“The whole thing is unheard of, I’m told,” says Barantini of the speed with which the series came about. “Usually you’re in development for years.” 

The BBC funded the development and production of the show; with BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary formed in 2018, boarding the project to sell it worldwide. Discussions with US distributors are resuming having being put on hold during the writers’ strike.

Opportunity

Qureshi left the BBC for Netflix in March 2022; her replacement Rebecca Ferguson already knew Barantini, having been series producer on The Responder.

Amid a predominantly smooth development, a point of contention came over casting, with the BBC wanting “certain names”, especially for new characters including nervous trainee Johnny. Barantini and the producers were adamant about maintaining the integrity of the film by “giving new actors an opportunity.”

“We stuck to our guns and said no,” says Barantini. “With the film, nobody was a name apart from Stephen [Graham] and Jason Flemyng; but now they’re going into the show as ‘names’.” Stephen Odubola, whose credits included UK feature Blue Story, had auditioned for a smaller role; he “went through the mill” by being brought back several times before landing the part of Johnny.

Barantini is delighted with the collaboration with the BBC. “We had some back and forth with them, but they were so good, so open to the vision of it and what we wanted to do,” he says. This included being open to Barantini submitting a script with dialogue that was “most likely going to change on the day”, as per his style of workshopping dialogue with actors on set.

Boiling Point shot for 12 weeks from January 2023, with two-and-a-half weeks per episode; Barantini directed the first two episodes, with Costa Brava, Lebanon filmmaker Mounia Akl brought on to share the workload by directing the second two episodes. “I said it on a daily basis – we’re making four movies,” says Barantini. In order to capture “that same ethos” he brought back several key collaborators from the film, including Bifa-winning cinematographer Matthew Lewis and gaffer Max Hodgkinson.

Northern soul

Although the series is set in an east London restaurant [a different one to the film], filming took place on a set in Manchester. Liverpool native Barantini is conscious of providing industry opportunities outside of the capital. “That was really important for me, being Northern, and Stephen [Graham] and a lot of the team are Northern.”

The series is produced by Ruspoli and Ruoff for Ascendant Fox, Graham and Hannah Walters (who both star) for their Matriarch Productions, and Barantini with Samantha Beddoe for his new UK outfit It’s All Made Up Productions. As creator of the franchise, Barantini was working on the edit of all four episodes until the last few weeks.

Boiling Point is creatively inspired by BBC One series Clocking Off from 2000 and 1982 BBC Two series Boys From The Blackstuff – “real people doing real stuff,” says Barantini, “- it’s just life.” A model for the film-to-series format was Shane Meadows’ This Is England, also starring Graham and Walters. That has produced three series to date since the 2006 film; Barantini is hopeful that Boiling Point could have future outings if the first series is positively received.

In the meantime, he’s returning to his “number one passion” of film, with The Last Drop in the works – a feature about a functioning alcoholic who must go sober or lose everything. James McAvoy is attached, with Shawn Levy’s Stranger Things production company 21 Laps and Flora And Son producer Fifth Season producing the US film, work on which has been put on hold due to the strikes.

Barantini is keen to create as much as possible through It’s All Made Up, which he runs with Beddoe – and not just on his own films. “We haven’t set up the company to produce stuff for me,” he says. “We want to champion new writers, new directors, new actors.”