Some Dogs Bite is a one-off ninety-minute drama due to air on BBC3 on Wednesday 10 November 2010 and looks at three half brothers coming to terms with their mother’s death. One of the brothers – 14-year old Casey (played by Thomas Brodie Sangster) – absconds from care with his baby brother Severino to try to find his father, believed to be in Scotland. The eldest brother, Halliday, known as H, is played by Aaron Taylor and is tricked by Casey into joining the quest.
Venetia (played by Michelle Asante) and her friend Seema (played by Mandeep Dhillon) join forces with the boys for part of the journey. Aymen Hamdouchi plays Lenny, Halliday’s friend who has just returned from service in Afghanistan
The Actors in Some Dogs Bite
Thomas Brodie Sangster will be known to television viewers for his portrayal of Tim Latimer in the 2007 Doctor Who episodes “The Family of Blood” and “Human Nature”. He will next star in Ian Fitzgibbon’s feature Death of a Superhero. The film sees Brodie-Sangster in the lead role of Vincent, playing opposite Andy Serkis. He also played Sam in the 2003 film Love Actually.
Aaron Taylor played Tom Rutland in the film Sweet Deal and starred in several short films; in Gently he played Dean Lee Marshall and in Souljah he played Stats.
Michelle Asante played Nicola McKenzie in two episodes of The Bill in 2009 and has been in Holby Blue and Harley Street. She played Susan Eno in the 2009 TV movie Sand Serpents.
Some Dogs Bite Interactive
An interactive version of Some Dogs Bite lets viewers become part of their world with a series of mini-dramas that start with the social services telling H that he can keep his family together, but he soon finds that being the responsible carer is not always easy. Social workers, attending parenting classes, caring for his younger brothers and facing the daily temptation of girls, petty crime and the need for more money, H is constantly facing new and tough decisions.
These tough dilemmas will be familiar to many young people. Users of the interactive drama are asked to make one pivotal decision for H in each episode and then see the consequences of their decision in action. Whereas in most interactive dramas before, the user has been asked to make a decision and then wait for that choice to take effect. Some Dogs Bite Interactive instantly incorporates the user’s decision and continues directly onto the next part of the story.
“Some Dogs Bite Interactive is the first real-time interactive drama produced by the BBC,” said interactive producer Matt Williams in a BBC press release. “This has been made possible by the rapid growth of broadband in homes and schools, and by using software specially developed by BBC Learning Innovations to create seamless and immersive video experiences designed to engage and motivate the audience in a new way.”
The Team Behind Some Dogs Bite
Some Dogs Bite is an independent British feature film directed by Marc Munden (The Devil’s Whore, The Mark of Cain, Vanity Fair) and produced by Bafta Award winner Sara Feilden (Who Needs Fathers?, Stopping Distance, Offside). It is a joint Kindle Entertainment and BBC production.
Emmy and Bafta Award winning producers Anne Brogan and Melanie Stokes (Dustbin Baby, The Illustrated Mum) are executive producers. Lin Coghlan (The City Speaks, Electric Frank, First Communion Day) wrote the original screenplay.
The film’s director of photography is Wojciech Szepel (Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Mrs Mandela). David Charap (Dive, In the Land of the Free, Mrs Mandela) is editor with production design by Helen Scott (Fish Tank, Red Road).
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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