A murder mystery involving chocolate is unfolding on the streets of inner city Sydney.
Filming has begun in The Rocks on the Southern Star telemovie Dripping in Chocolate, which was commissioned by BBC Worldwide Australia for UKTV, starring David Wenham and British actress Louise Lombard.
Wenham plays Detective Bennett O’Mara, who finds a chocolate wrapper on a strangled girl, leading him to enigmatic chocolatier Julianna Lovece.
But in classic murder mystery style Bennett suspects Julianna may be at the centre of the growing murder count.
Co-producers Julie McGauran and Sarah Smith, who is also a co-writer of the telemovie, say it’s the first time that the director of television for BBC Worldwide Australia, Deirdre Brennan, has commissioned a local production.
And while it’s set in modern times, they felt the historic setting of The Rocks was the perfect place to film.
“We wanted to give it a contemporary feel but at the same time film noir in the sense that we have the world weary detective who has a frisson with the leading lady, who is at the centre of all the murders,” Smith says.
And McGauran says the colours of Sydney turned out to be perfect for what they were trying to achieve.
“When we first started we thought it would be a greyer, darker feel but it’s the contrasts that work,” she says.
“Sydney’s so beautiful but we’re not treating it in a postcard way.”
Smith says while Julianna wasn’t initially written as a British character it seemed like a logical choice.
“We didn’t think of it when we wrote the story and then we thought, could one of the characters be from the UK,” she says.
“We didn’t want to force it and then when we looked at Julianna the character has reinvented herself after her marriage so in the end we felt she needed to be from somewhere else.”
Wenham says he was keen to be involved in the project because it offered him a chance to act in something a bit lighter.
“The major reason I’m doing it is that I thought it would be a fun project,” he says.
“It’s enjoyable. I’m not going to have an emotional breakdown from the role.”
And he thinks that the telemovie will appeal to a wide range of age groups, from older viewers who may be fans of Agatha Christie to young crime genre enthusiasts.
“I think it will have a very, very wide appeal without a doubt,” Wenham says.
Lombard says so far she has particularly enjoyed the scenes in Julianna’s chocolate shop, which is filmed in a real chocolate shop in The Rocks.
“I have to make chocolate all day,” she says.
“It’s fantastic.”
