Mum's death gave Kay Mellor idea for new Leeds TV series

YORKSHIRE writer Kay Mellor has revealed she got the idea for her latest TV series when went to Leeds Town Hall to register her mother's death.
Kay MellorKay Mellor
Kay Mellor

Love, Lies and Records, a six-part drama for BBC One, is centred around a fictional registrar, who must juggle her personal dramas with the lives of those she encounters.

The Leeds-born writer of The Syndicate and In the Club, said her Town Hall hall visit was closely followed by a friend’s wedding in the same building.

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She said: “I remembered registering the birth of both of my daughters there too, and I realised that the Register Office and registrars really are at the very heart of life. It’s a place of laughter, tears and great drama.”

Miss Mellor’s daughters are former Coronation Street actress Gaynor Faye and television producer Yvonne Francas.

In the new series, which will be filmed in Leeds, registrar Kate Dickinson discovers her daughter is hiding suspicious messages on her mobile, her son hates her because she has bought him the wrong trainers, and her stepson has turned up to stay, unannounced.

Miss Mellor, who made her name with Band of Gold and also write the hit series Fat Friends on ITV, added: “I’d love to do another series of In The Club and The Syndicate, but they are on hold for now.

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“It’s lovely to be working on a fresh idea and I’ve got all the support from the BBC. They seem to trust me to just get on with it and then will dive in with a brilliant note or thought.”

Charlotte Moore, director of BBC Content, said: “The genius that is Kay Mellor puts one woman at the centre of her new BBC One series, and brilliantly captures contemporary British life as she juggles a complex personal life with a world of births, marriages and deaths.”

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