8:30pm Sunday, September 19 on TV One
Sunday Theatre returns to TV ONE, beginning with a dark psychological thriller exploring sexual obsession and betrayal, Bouquet Of Barbed Wire airs tonight at 8.30pm.
The drama is based on Andrea Newman’s 1969 novel which caused scandal at the time in its controversial portrayal of an obsessive relationship between a father and daughter. Newcomer Imogen Poots is cast in the role of the daughter, Prue. Responding to questions about why she would take on such a role, Poots tells The Radio Times, “what it comes down to is finding roles where your world is turned upside down, like Prue’s.”
Poots decided not to read the novel or see the original 1976 television adaptation, “I don’t want anything to influence my take on a character. Sometimes, it was a struggle to play Prue, whom I thought of as childlike, because my home life has been so much the antithesis of hers, and because she’s got so much to deal with.”
Poots knew that even in 2010 the plot would still be highly controversial. Did that worry her? “I wouldn’t say worried. If something makes you nervous, that’s a good sign. As long as it’s not going to be morally destructive. But Trevor [Eve] and I knew which story we wanted to tell, which wasn’t explicitly incestuous, more like a dysfunctional family. Peter’s fumbling his way through fatherhood and trying to work out what happened to his daughter.”
In Bouquet Of Barbed Wire the lives of Peter (Trevor Eve, Waking The Dead) and Cassie Manson (Hermione Norris, Spooks, Cold Feet) are turned upside down when their beloved daughter, Prue (Imogen Poots, Me and Orson Welles) reveals she is pregnant by her teacher, Gavin Sorenson (Tom Riley, Lost In Austen). She plans keep the baby, drop out of school and marry him. Besides Peter’s fears for his daughter, he is unnerved by the certainty that Gavin is on some sort of personal mission against him.
As Peter tries to deal with his fears for his daughter, his relationship with Cassie becomes increasingly distant. Is this just fatherly concern, or has Peter’s love for Prue become an obsession? With his life disintegrating around him, Peter embarks on an office affair.
Meanwhile, Prue is intrigued by Gavin’s past and wants to track down the mysterious ‘Paula’ whose name Gavin has tattooed on the underside of his wrist. As Cassie tries all she can to keep the family together, she too begins to fall under Gavin’s spell.
With his marriage at breaking point, and facing financial ruin at work, the net begins to close around Peter: everything appears to lead back to ‘Paula’ and a devastating secret that will blow his family apart.
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