White Lines: Backstage catches up with stars Danny Mays and Laura Haddock

Beautiful beaches, packed nightclubs and impulsive behaviour may feel out of reach for most of us at the moment, but new show White Lines is offering all of the above – with a bit of drug dealing and a historic murder thrown in for good measure.

This is the new drama from Money Heist creator Alex Pina, and star Danny Mays tells Sky News’ Backstage podcast it’s not like anything he’s worked on before.

“It is a sort of impossible show to categorise and describe,” the Line Of Duty actor says.

“It’s a complete extravaganza of high-end drama, comedy, deep-rooted emotion.

“There’s two parallel storylines 20 years apart, so you’ve got two actors playing the same role. You’ve got different languages, different nationalities of actors – it’s a kind of eclectic mix and unlike anything I’ve ever been in before.”

Mays plays a nightclub DJ from Manchester, now living in Ibiza.

He admits it’s not often he gets to play at being David Guetta.

“The actual nightclub, which we filmed in Madrid, was Fabric, it holds like six and a half, seven thousand people,” he says. “I mean, we obviously didn’t have that amount of extras in there, but there was a fair few people there.

“And to be up there on that podium behind the DJ desk with a sea of extras was pretty unforgettable, actually.”

Mays admits he didn’t need to do too much research to get in to the role.

“The [producers] actually said to me, ‘Do you want to talk to a DJ for research of how to…’ and I was like, I’ve been to a fair few gigs,” Mays says.

“A lot of it for DJs is just standing around behind a desk, throwing your arms around, really. God, I’m gonna get loads of complaints now from DJs, aren’t I?!”

Guardians Of The Galaxy star Laura Haddock plays the lead role in the series – a woman who starts investigating her brother’s death after his body is discovered 20 years on from his disappearance in Ibiza.

Haddock says she’d been desperate to work with Pina after becoming a fan when she binge-watched the first series of Money Heist.

“I actually remember thinking if I ever got the opportunity to meet Alex Pina, work with Alex Pina, then that would be dreamy because he’s so brave in the way he tells stories and constructs characters,” she says.

“He’s not afraid of going to really dark places and then flipping that on its head and making you laugh. I think he’s a genius.”

Haddock says making the series was a new experience for her due to the language barriers.

“It was such an interesting process working with him and for him, and with his writing, because Alex doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish,” she says.

“So my relationship with him was really rooted in what was on the page.”

“I think my big challenge, if we were to – fingers crossed – ever get to go back and do this again, would be to really, really knuckle down and learn Spanish so I can talk to him and have just free conversation with him because his mind is just incredible.”

White Lines is out on Netflix from today – find out what our team thought of it in the latest episode of Backstage, Sky News’ entertainment podcast

(c) Sky News 2020: White Lines: Backstage catches up with stars Danny Mays and Laura Haddock