EXCLUSIVE

MIGHT & MAGIC

RENEGADE NELL Sally Wainwright follows up Happy Valley with an earthy period fantasy…

I’m a really big fan of left-turns and unusual combinations,’ says Ben Taylor (Sex Education, Catastrophe), who directs the stage-setting opening episodes of Disney+ fantasy series Renegade Nell. ‘For me, this was the ultimate writer version: “Imagine Sally Wainwright doing a violent, period VFX romp.”’

Set in early 18th-century England, Renegade Nell’s eponymous outlaw (Louisa Harland, Derry Girls) turns to highway robbery after being framed for the murder of a local landowner. Nell also happens to be the strongest woman in the world, imbued with a Hulk-like left hook by a kindly demon sprite called Billy Blind (Nick Mohammed), and the only person who can stop a magical conspiracy targeting Queen Anne.

Describing Nell as a ‘new-feel, new-look Disney hero’, Taylor says, in less family-friendly terms, that, ‘When shit goes down, it’s all about how ready she is to handle herself,’ with physics-defying action a major component of the series. ‘We open with this pre-title scene where she gets into a massive fight,’ Taylor explains. ‘It was kung-fu fighting. It was wire work. A lot of character and comedy was put into the choreography.’

Written by celebrated TV scribe Sally Wainwright some 15 years ago, Renegade Nell is a ‘heady mix of folklore and fantasy’ according to Taylor. And though it ‘leans into horror as well’, with all manner of gnarly creatures conjured to hunt Nell, ‘the fun of it offsets the danger and the violence,’ Taylor claims.

Shot largely on location in the countryside around London, the dirt under the fingernails approach contrasts with the show’s biggest, strangest swing. ‘Billy Blind is the most magical of these creatures,’ Taylor details. ‘He flies; he disappears; he shrinks; he grows; he leaves a vapour tra