New BBC drama Mint stars a combination of up and coming actors like Emma Laird and Lewis Gribben, alongside established stars like Laura Fraser and Lindsay Duncan.
The series, which comes from Scrapper filmmaker Charlotte Regan, also notably features Benjamin Coyle-Larner, AKA hip hop star Loyle Carner, in the major role of Arran, as he makes his screen debut.
The series follows Laird’s Shannon, the daughter of her area’s dominant crime family, as she falls hard for Coyle-Larner’s Arran, a member of a rival family who has newly arrived in town.
Speaking exclusively with Radio Times alongside Regan, Coyle-Larner explained how he came to be a part of the series, saying: “I bumped into Charlie on Broadway market, and I said that I was such a big fan of her film Scrapper.
“And she was at first quite surprised that I knew who she was, and she was like, ‘Why do you know what I look like?’ I was like, ‘Because I’ve been following you for a long time.’ And then I read it and just thought it was so beautiful.”
He continued: “She told me she was working on this thing called Mint, and I read it, and I just was moved by the character of Arran. I thought he was different to the things I had read before and the things I’d seen on TV. It felt kind of essential for people to get to understand that there’s a vulnerability to everyone, no matter how they are portrayed or the façade that they present.”
Coyle-Larner also spoke about what we can expect from the character of Arran, saying: “He comes up to Scotland, up to Glasgow, from London, to spend some time with his brother, and is roped into doing some things that are not legal or are out of his comfort zone. But he’s desperate, I guess, and wants to provide for his family, but also he doesn’t fit there.”
“I think that was the magic of the character, is that he is positioned at a place that maybe you see someone young who looks like me all the time, but the difference in this is that he doesn’t feel comfortable, and is itching to get away from the negativity that he’s living in,” he added.
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While Mint delves into Shannon and Arran’s forbidden romance, it also sees Shannon’s family imploding, as her father decides to step down as the head of the family for mysterious reasons, and Sam, his second in command, steps up.
In spite of the show’s nominal place within the crime genre, Regan told Radio Times why we shouldn’t expect to see the workings of the business, as it focuses more on the interpersonal relationships and internal lives of the characters.
When asked about why the series doesn’t include any details or portray any of what the crime family actually does, Regan explained: “I think it’s just knowing that so many shows do that and do it really well, and you probably don’t need me to throw my project into that as well.”
“There’s probably a lot of them doing it on a bigger budget as well – our shootouts would have been looking cheap if we did gang scenes,” she added, laughing.
“But no, I guess I’m interested in what people are speaking about and the emotional relationships between people. So I think it also comes from, it’s not what I want to see.
“I want to know what Arran is struggling with emotionally, or I want to know about Shannon’s relationship with her dad. I don’t want to see all the men sat in rooms planning big gangland bits.”
Mint will begin airing on BBC One at 9pm on Monday 20 April, with all episodes available on BBC iPlayer that day at 6am.
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