‘“Mad” Frankie Fraser told me how to get someone to talk’: how we made The Shadow Line

‘There’s a joyful nastiness’ … Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Eccleston and Stephen Rea in the 2011 noir thriller. Photograph: John Wright/BBC/Company Pictures

Hugo Blick, writer, producer, director

I’d been making comedy for a decade and had a breakout success with Marion and Geoff. In 2010, I decided to swing my bat and write my first drama. I went from writing about one guy in a car to a noir thriller on an ambitious scale. It utterly transformed my career.