Behind the headlines
What really goes on behind the walls of a newsroom? What are the challenges and risks that journalists take when it comes to breaking stories? FRONTPAGE has the answers.
GETTING to the truth can be dangerous even life threatening, but for the newshounds of top daily newspaper The Voice, it’s all in a day’s work. This is part of the premise for the new local crime investigative TV drama FRONTPAGE which debuts on Sept 7 at 9.45pm on Ntv7.
Under the direction of uncompromising editor Andrea Ng (Bernie Chan), the paper’s team of journalists will stop at nothing to uncover violent murders, kidnappings, theft, corruption and all the juicy bits that make headline news.
(From left): Tony Eusoff plays no-nonsense journo Jack Lee. Bernie Chan is the savvy editor Andrea Ng of The Voice in the investigative TV drama FRONTPAGE. Jehan Miskin plays Dylan Pereira, the love interest of The Voice editor Andrea.
Besides work, the lives of these gutsy journos, be it their personal or professional relationships, will unfold over the 13-episode series.
The rest of the cast of FRONTPAGE are Tony Eusoff as the rebellious senior news reporter Jack Lee, Jehan Miskin as toe-the-line news journalist Dylan Pereira, Cheryl Samad as rookie reporter Nerina Rehman, Nell Ng as senior lifestyle journalist Lulu Chia and Nurakhtar Mohd Amin as the aloof writer Rebecca Anuar.
The series is the brainchild of the husband and wife team of Kabir Bhatia and Mira Mustaffa who are responsible for such films as Cinta and Sepi. Kabir served as the director while Mira took on script-writing duties for most of the series. The creators wanted the show to hit a chord with the audience and based the stories on actual headlines which have appeared in Malaysian newspapers.
(From left): Nurakhtar Mohd Amin is journalist Rebecca Anuar. Nell Ng plays Lulu Chia, the writer everybody loves to hate. Cheryl Samad is the cub reporter Nerina in the investigative TV drama FRONTPAGE.
The filmmakers used The Star headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, as its key location, serving as The Voice’s editorial office. The cast and crew of the series spent a little over two months shooting the series earlier this year. But before they finished filming, StarTwo had a chat with the cast about their experiences shooting this new TV series.
“I’ve never played such a serious character before,” confessed the stunning actress/model/host Chan who is The Voice’s no-nonsense editor Andrea. “My previous roles have been fun, happy characters so it’s quite a challenge playing someone so serious.”
Besides being the centre of attention in the office, Chan’s character is caught in a love triangle involving Jack and Dylan.
Three’s a crowd: It’s a complex relationship between Dylan (Jehan Miskin),
Andrea (Bernie Chan) and Jack (Tony Eusoff).
“Andrea is constantly fighting with Jack, a kind of rogue journalist who likes to do things his way, and she’s also dating Dylan. The thing is, Jack is her ex ... but the main thing for Andrea is she tries to keep her journalists on top of things,” said Chan.
Tony described his character as a hands-on journalist who detests sitting behind a desk. “Jack is the kind of guy who likes to get his hands dirty and comes across as a bit cocky,” said Tony.
Jack also carries some emotional baggage due to his past but is an ace reporter because of his years of experience. But as he is serious about his job, he does not let his past interfere too much.
“He is more senior than the rest of them (the team at The Voice) and is a bit bitter. But he doesn’t want a desk job, which is why he goes out to the street,” said Tony.
While Jack maintains a cool relationship with his boss Andrea, he does harbour some resentment towards Dylan.
Death threat: Nerina (Cheryl
Samad) fighting for her life.
“Despite the fact that they (Jack and Andrea) are not seeing each other anymore, he still works well with Andrea but there is tension between Jack and Dylan,” said Tony.
Dylan is just as effective a reporter as Jack but is more “organised and charming” according to Jehan. “Dylan does investigative reporting and goes undercover and stuff like that but his methods are more subtle (compared to Jack’s),” said Jehan.
Jehan’s character is in a slightly precarious situation because of his relationship with Andrea who wants to keep things a secret in the office.
“There’s conflict between Andrea and Dylan because she doesn’t want anyone to know that they are dating. She likes to keep it under wraps but Dylan’s cool about it so he doesn’t really understand the need for secrecy,” said Jehan.
The women reporters are also catty towards each other as is the case with Lulu and Nerina. “Lulu likes bullying Cheryl’s character Nerina who is the new reporter in the office,” said the ever-smiling Ng.
Lulu, described as the “gossip queen”, is, however, very good at what she does. “My character is very efficient, having all the right contacts. Other than the fact that she bullies Nerina, she is otherwise very sociable,” said Ng.
Cheryl describes her character Nerina as “a strange kind of girl.”
You better watch out: Jehan Miskin issues a
warning as investigative reporter Dylan.
“Nerina has just graduated from university so she’s a bit idealistic about her new job. But now that she is working as a reporter, she experiences a kind of rude awakening and she realises that it takes a lot of courage to be a journalist,” said Cheryl.
It is the first big TV role for Suria FM deejay Nurakthar, better known as Akhtar, who had previously only played very small guest roles in local TV dramas. Akhtar desperately wanted to be in FRONTPAGE after hearing about the hype through the grapevine.
“I’d heard so many good things about FRONTPAGE and I really, really wanted to be part of the show. And when I received the script, all the buzz I heard about this production was true because it was a very good script,” said the petite Akhtar.
Akhtar’s character Rebecca differs from Nerina as she is an experienced journalist who used to work for a rival newspaper. Rebecca is also not so sociable compared to the rest. “She (Rebecca) is the type of person you either love or hate. She doesn’t like guys because of what happened to her in the past but she gets along with Dylan. I found it quite hard to portray the character ... she doesn’t smile a lot,” said Akhtar.
Aside from the colourful characters, FRONTPAGE also boasts strong storylines.
The entire cast had only praise for the series and all of them concurred that it is a departure from the usual local TV fare.
“It’s a completely different take on locally-produced TV programmes. It’s very different, very gritty. Some of the scenes can be quite violent and very graphic. The show is multilingual too with English being the main language,” said Chan.
If shows like FRONTPAGE continue to push the boundaries of local TV programming, audiences can expect more ground-breaking work in local TV in the near future. In the meantime, make a date with the first edition of FRONTPAGE.
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