DIRECTIONS: Television Drama 2

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National Treasure is a four-part British television drama by Channel 4 in 2016. It was written by Jack Thorne and directed by Marc Munden. It is about a well-known TV personality who was accused of raping a 15 year-old girl years ago. His wife and daughter stand with him the whole way through the court case to the very end, only for the audience to find out that he did abuse the girl all those years ago. 

Episode 1 is when we are introduced to TV personality Paul Finchley and he is arrested on suspicion of abusing Rebecca Thornton in 1993. This was difficult for the rest of his family and Paul's life goes downhill. This accusation also badly impacts his job and reputation in the media. Later, more women come forward and state that he has also abused them around the same year. In episode 2, Paul's daughter, Dee, wondered if her father had abused her as a child if there's a chance he did it to these other women. Her old babysitter, Christina, was one of the women to come forward about Paul so Dee tries to confront her but after she decides that her father is innocent. Episode 3 shows Paul being advised by his barrister to say he had a consensual relationship with Rebecca. In the finale, in episode 4, Paul is cleared of historic rape and sexual assault charges. However, the audience later find out that Paul was actually guilty through a flashback. (2)

While researching into New Moon at the beginning of the project, I thought it would be best to look into the different themes within the film, this way I could explore other films and TV programmes with the same themes to see the different way the directors wanted their films come across to the audience and the choices they made (1). One of the themes I looked into was lies and deceit. This is because in the scenes which I have chosen Bella lies to her father and persuades him she's fine when she clearly isn't. He suggests that she moves back to live with her mother but Bella just tries to get him off her back by saying she has plenty of friends and people here and that she is going shopping with one of her friends, Charlie doesn't believe this but just for arguments sake he agrees. 

The lies that the Finchley family go through are bond-breaking because even the audience start to believe Paul and his lies about not abusing the girl. These lies are hiding the truth and how Paul really feels about the situation which also affects the people closest to him, his family. We see a lot of pain from his wife and daughter and how hard the accusation is on them. This helped me see how Bella's dad, Charlie, should be feeling and how he doesn't quite accept that Bella is OK but he tries to so they just get along. I told my actor to think about the lies he knows his daughter is telling him to get the best reaction towards her and I think his tone and facial expressions really show this off well.

(1) Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008). New Moon Themes. Available: http://www.shmoop.com/new-moon/themes.html. Last accessed 18th Feb 2017.

(2) All 4. (2016). National Treasure. Available: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/national-treasure. Last accessed 27th Feb 2017.

(3) http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/an-interview-with-jack-thorne-national-treasure