Maxine Fleming on co-creating Burying Brian
Burying Brian was devised by Maxine Fleming
and
Gavin Strawhan
. Maxine Fleming
discusses the
Burying Brian writing
process:
It was actually a hens' night party conversation that first sparked
the idea for Burying Brian. There we were, a bunch of women
of various ages but mostly married, attached or about to become so
discussing the ups and downs of marital life.
Someone admitted that they had actually thought about how life
would actually be easier without their husband in some ways and had
fantasised about them dying, the funeral and so on.
Before long, it seemed, every married woman there admitted they had
similar thoughts at one stage or another - how the life insurance
would pay off the mortgage, how they'd be free and single again but
without having to go through the messy, painful business of divorce
and numerous other positives to having a deceased husband.
No one, as I recall, actually admitted to wanting to kill their husbands - as Jodie does in 'Burying Brian' - but I went home thinking 'What if, after such a conversation, one of these woman did go home and kill their husband and then involved the rest of their friends in covering up his death?'
That, in essence, was the genesis for 'Burying Brian', an idea I
had initially planned to develop into a play.
But when Robin (Scholes, Eyeworks Touchdown producer) approached me
looking for mini-series ideas this is one I mentioned to her and
things grew from there.
I then got together with co-creator
Gavin Strawhan
, who developed
teen drama 'Being Eve' with me, along with mini-series 'The Chosen,
and we developed the idea further. And so 'Burying Brian' was
born.
Brian's death during a drunken argument with Jodie - and the
resulting cover-up - is the main catalyst for the action in the
series.
But at its heart, the series is about womens' friendships and how
their relationships are tested by this extreme event.
It's a dark comedy - hopefully, the audience will find themselves
laughing when they know they shouldn't be. And crying too, as
Jodie deals with the fallout from Brian's death - her guilt, her
kids' confusion and grief...
And these are real Kiwi women - dealing with a pretty over the top
crisis, sure. But the dilemmas they face, we hope, are
grounded in truth and reality.
Find out more about Maxine's writing credits
here
