Boat Story is a dark comedic thriller on BBC1 that sees Tchéky Karyo reunited with the writers of his popular series Baptiste, Harry and Jack Williams.
The story is set along the windswept coastline of Yorkshire, in northern England. Breeders star Daisy Haggard and Vigil actor Paterson Joseph play Janet and Samuel, who find a stash of illegal drugs on a shipwrecked boat. The pair agree to sell the drugs and split the cash, but find themselves pursued by Tchéky’s sharp-suited gangster, known as The Tailor. Can they get away with the crime and survive to tell the tale?
Here’s everything you need to know about Boat Story...
Boat Story release date
Boat Story is a six-part series will air on BBC1 from Sunday November 19 at 9pm, with the second episode on Monday November 20. Double episodes then run weekly on Sunday and Monday at the same time. All six episodes are available as box-set on BBCiPlayer in the UK during Autumn 2023. Boat Story will be shown in the US on Amazon Freevee.
Is there a trailer for Boat Story?
Yes a Boat Story trailer has been released by the BBC which you can give a watch below to see what an intense but in parts humorous drama this is going to be....
What is the plot of Boat Story?
In Boat Story, cash-strapped strangers Janet (Daisy Haggard) and Daniel (Paterson Joseph) unexpectedly discover a haul of cocaine on a shipwrecked boat. Janet was made unemployed after a gruesome accident at the factory she worked in, and Samuel (Paterson Joseph), an ex-lawyer from London with huge gambling debts
Unable to believe their luck, they agree to sell it and split the money but they soon find themselves fleeing not only the cops but also masked hitmen and a fearsome gangster known as The Tailor (Tchéky Karyo) and his henchman Guy (Craig Fairbrass). They will stop at nothing to recover the second of their cocaine shipments to go missing.
Can Janet and Daniel really trust each other and how far are they each prepared to go to keep the cash that will change their lives forever?
Boat Story cast — Daisy Haggard as Janet
Daisy Haggard plays the cash-strapped Janet. She’s known for her role as Ally in the Sky Comedy series Breeders. Daisy has also starred in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Back to Life, I Give it a Year, Episodes and Uncle. She voices Mum in the animation Hilda.
Paterson Joseph as Daniel
Paterson Joseph plays Daniel, who finds the drugs with Janet. He played Kamal in Noughts and Crosses and Mark Grace in Casualty and has also had roles in Vigil, The Sandman, That Dirty Black Bag, Green Wing, Survivors and Timeless.
Tchéky Karyo as The Tailor
Tchéky Karyo stars as a notorious gangster. He is best known for his role as Julian Baptiste in the series Baptiste, which originated in the series The Missing. He’s also been in Mary Magdalene, Women at War, Nikita, The Patriot and Kiss of the Dragon.
Who else is starring in Boat Story?
Boat Story has a stellar cast that includes former EastEnders star Craig Fairbrass as gangster Guy, plus Joanna Scanlan (The Larkins, Notes on a Scandal), and stage actor Jason Pennycooke (Hamilton). Former EastEnders and Quadrophenia star Phil Daniels is also appearing in the show.
Interviews: Paterson Joseph and Daisy Haggard on starring in Boat Story
How would you describe the premise of Boat Story?
Paterson Joseph says: "It is about two people who are desperate in their lives, for different reasons – Samuel through his own fault, Janet through no fault of her own. They find themselves with a dilemma: do you steal a boatload of illegal drugs and step over the two dead bodies that you find, or do you call the police? They both decide to take it and run!"
What can you tell us about your characters?
Daisy Haggard says: "At heart, Janet is a good person, but she's had a really tough time. As we start the show, she plummets to her lowest ebb, and she's placed in a situation where she makes a decision I don't think she would have made at another point in her life. She's at rock bottom!"
Paterson explains: "Everything seems fine with Samuel on the surface, but we see a lot of cracks developing right from the very early scenes. He becomes more and more broken, and he’s a great character to have been able to play!"
Why do they decide to take the drugs they find on the beach?
Paterson says: "Samuel, who has gambling debts, wants to save his life and his family's existence, and he needs to get this money. He convinces Janet to think about the possibility of taking it and running. ‘If we take it, we could both succeed and, if we don't, we'll always regret it.’ That's the moral quandary he presents her with!"
Daisy says: "Janet makes a bad decision that is chaotic and catastrophic, but I don't think she's a bad person, and people can make mistakes, right? Fundamentally, she's a good egg, and there's no way she would have made that decision if Samuel was not there. She would have called the police immediately, cried and then walked away!"
Have you ever made such a wild, life-changing decision?
Paterson says: "I think in life you should make at least one wild decision! The wildest one I have ever made was to live in Dublin for over a year. This was in the mid-90s, and it was a wonderful, crazy thing to do, but I have never regretted it!"
Daisy says: "I haven't! I once stole a penny sweet when I was little. I put it in my mouth and then returned it. That was probably worse than if I'd eaten it! That's the wildest thing I've ever done, and I’m definitely not cut out for a life of crime. As a child, I used to confess things I’d done at home to policemen when I was walking down the street!"
This series is a highly original and unusual mix of different elements! What should our readers expect?
Daisy says: "You should expect the unexpected from this show, and that's what excites me about it! It doesn't feel like anything else I've seen, it feels truly original. Boat Story takes you on a crazy ride, and you're never going to be able to guess where you're going!"
Interview: Harry and John Williams on what inspred them to write Boat Story
Two of British television’s hottest writers, brothers Harry and John Williams started out in comedy, but have made a name for themselves as the kings of British crime drama thanks to shows including The Missing, Baptiste, One of Us and The Tourist. Here, they talk about the inspiration for and making of their latest creation, the darkly comic Boat Story…
Where did the idea for Boat Story come from?
Harry Williams says: "From reading articles about similar things involving large amounts of drugs washing up on shores somewhere! Most of the shows we come up with derive from a series of conversations we have with each other. This one was: ‘What would we do if we stumbled across a boatload of washed-up drugs?!"
Jack Williams says: "Boat Story is a contemporary morality tale, and the challenge we wanted to set ourselves was how to tell this story in a way that was going to feel fresh, original, and different."
How do you balance the violence, domestic drama and humour in the story?
Harry says: "We're trying to blend all these different genres into the same show, which is not something we do in the UK. It's more common in the US, and it's always a balancing act. Our last series, The Tourist, had a similar thing where there was humour, violence, and emotion. In Boat Story, we wanted to push it even more, and make the jokes sillier, the violence harder, the darkness darker and the light lighter!"
Jack says: "We've talked about Boat Story being a [Quentin] Tarantino [film] in the north! Quentin has tones in his work that are wildly all over the shop, and can be violent, dangerous, emotional, and then very funny. That, for us, always feels interesting."
You’ve worked with some of your cast before, haven't you?
Harry says: "We have worked with Daisy Haggard for a long time, and know her well. The show is humorous as well as very dark, and we wanted somebody who could pull off those things. Paterson Joseph was in another show of ours called Rellik, and we did The Missing and Baptiste with Tchéky Karo. He had been the hero in both of those, so we thought it would be great to have him as the villain in this series!"
Behind the scenes and more on Boat Story
Boat Story is a Two Brothers Pictures (an All3Media company) production for the BBC, with the series written by Harry and Jack Williams (The Missing, Baptiste, The Tourist), who alongside Christopher Aird (Baptiste, Liar, The Tourist), Sarah Hammond (Back to Life, Fleabag) and Daniel Walker (The Tourist) serve as executive producers for Two Brothers Pictures, with Tommy Bulfin and Nawfal Faizullah as executive producers for the BBC.
Matthew Bird (Isolation Stories, Strangers) is the producer, and Harry and Jack Williams directed block one. Alice Troughton directed block two and Daniel Nettheim directed block three. International sales are handled by All3Media International.
